Brooklyn Pottery visit...

Today I made a trip to the lovely and quaint Brooklyn Pottery in Shaw Heath, a cafe, gallery and a place to create pottery! I loved the quirky style inside with a subway map on the wall and New York skyline on the stairs!
I spoke with Vic (who I met at the The Teenage Market) about my cards and if she would like to sell them in her shop and she was very happy to. She said they were a very good price and maybe to slightly up the price a bit, am finding it hard to price my work as I'm new to selling and really don't know my works value! Vic suggested designing Father's Day cards as this is an event fast approaching. Vic found my cards different and liked the stencilled font and colours.
I left my cards with Vic and she would sell them for me and keep in contact with how it's going, she also suggested making a little display of business cards and a bit of information about my cards and how I create them.
 It was great to pop in and visit a new up and coming gallery, cafe and pottery rolled into one! Especially to get positive feedback and good suggestions on my cards. A lovely place and they make good lattes too!
http://www.brooklynpottery.co.uk/

The Teenage Market stall....

Just got back from The Teenage Market today and had quite a successful day! Sold half of my greetings cards and a couple of fashion illustrations which was brilliant as I thought I was going to come home with a huge surplus of stock! I have never had a market stall before so this was very new to me, I felt a little self conscious doing a stall on my own but found it easy talking to people who asked about my cards. I also enjoyed having my own stall as I was able to present my cards and signs however I liked, more importantly I had to layout my cards to appeal to the public and keep re arranging them when people bought things or picked them up.
It was a lovely day packed with a variety of stalls including second hand clothing, jewellery, photography, printed t shirts and some tasty looking cup cakes! It was nice having people looking at my work and getting it out there, people were very nice and someone suggested that I should make more of my good luck cat card! It also helped seeing what sold well or did not sell in order to have enough stock for next time. The cards which sold well were the watercolour florals of sweet peas and tulips (so in future stalls will produce a lot more of this particular design), I was quite surprised that my biro drawings of florals didn't sell to well as I thought the textures and shades were quite striking. the greetings cards with the drips of paints falling down the page sold fairly well to but I think I could develop those into a more busier card as they are quite simple against the blank background.
For future stalls I think I would maybe produce watercolour paintings of my flowers and possibly bigger fashion illustrations as they could work well as paintings, this would also mean I could charge more for paintings due to the larger scale of the work. It would have been nice to suspend my cards against the back wall so people would be able to see my work from a distance (attract more buyers).
Taking part in The Teenage Market has given me more confidence to take part in future fairs and to be able to talk about my work more openly, it was also reassuring to know that people would buy my work and speaking to people helped me find out their dislikes and likes with designs. This has given me a head start to think about how I will present my space at the degree show soon and what to include such as, layout, business cards, illustrations etc.
I really enjoyed the experience and a great way to publicise your work, now I need to start making more and find another craft fair!

Portfolio Visit - Jane Bews

For my second portfolio visit I spoke to Jane Bews B' Ed Hons Design & Technology. Jane is a local freelance designer and works full time as a teacher at an independent primary school. I wanted to speak to Jane who is from a different design background having studied Design and Technology, so I could see from a different designers perspective.
I collated a couple of sketchbooks together from my negotiated brief as I thought some of the pages were a Graphic design style which might interest Jane. Also in my portfolio, (as well as current sheets from Final Major Project) were a few design development sheets with portfolio bedding designs, which Jane commented on saying, "I really liked the bedding designs and would happily buy it should it go into production!" Which was very flattering feed back!
Jane thought my sketchbook from the Negotiated Brief was especially interesting and full of experimental media and colour ranges, which is important to explore when going through the design thought process. Jane also said, "A lot of time, thought and effort has gone into this portfolio so far." Improvements however, Jane thought maybe investing in a larger A1 portfolio and dividing different design sheets from each other to make my portfolio more professional and better presented. Another suggestion from Jane was to look into fashion prints as she thought my designs had a colourful and playful style. This I will hope to push forward with my Final Major Project, although I intend to look at scarf designs I will look into the possibility of fabric prints for fashion garment i.e dresses.

Portfolio Visit - Krishta Fitzsimmons

I met with an Art teacher, Kirshta Fitzsimmons who teaches art to primary school pupils at an independent school in Cheadle. Kirshta provided very helpful feedback and advice on my portfolio. I decided to select a few sketchbooks and design sheets from previous projects as well as current ones, to show Kirshta the progression of my work. Also if there were pieces from previous projects that could be developed and incorporated into my Final Major Project brief.
After showing Kirshta my Midsummer Night's Dream sketchbook and my photographs of flowers she commented, "the sketchbooks are so tactile and fragrant. Pages are inviting and the size of the book works in complete harmony with its contents. " Kirshta also said, "Ink Illustrations show real progression. Love the monochrome theme. Designs are beautifully executed. Ideas are modern and fresh. Excellent use of media, very varied and professional, sensitive use of colour."
Kirshta also suggested to add a bit of character and texture to my sketchbooks in future and to have a go at trapping flowers inside empty tea bags and possibly cover in hot wax.
It was lovely to hear such positive feedback and also to get feedback from someone who is in another area of design, which I found invaluable.

Portfolio Feedback - Shelia Heritage

Watercolour from sketchbook

Silk screen print

Design development board, heat press and silk prints

Mood board

For my second portfolio feedback visit I spoke to Shelia Heritage, a freelance wallpaper designer. Shelia keeps her work traditional, designing all of her wallpapers by hand using pencils and paints. I thought it would be very useful to get feedback from Shelia as I would really like to go freelance with my work.
We spoke firstly about my fabric prints, ranging from screen prints, discharge, silk screen printing and heat press; which she thought due to the bright colours that my style would be very much suited prints in fashion.  Also the subjects I used, florals, are always going to come in and out of fashion and interiors and that I had a good eye for selecting these.
Secondly we moved on to my presentation and how Shelia thought it looked. Shelia thought I had a good eye for composition and thought my mood boards and development boards were neatly presented; also that the way I had overlapped papers and drawings gave more depth and texture. However this could be improved by taking care of the papers and cards used to mount work, as some of them were a little creased and bent.
In terms of developing my work to a more professional standard Shelia recommended that I continue to keep up to date with current and future trends, as it is always important to be a bit ahead of what is going on in the design world.  Also to look more at the placement of a design and how it would fit in with the garment or interior, some of my designs are randomly scattered as opposed to sticking to an appropriate placement like half drop repeat or a border design.  Shelia mentioned that if I wanted to go freelance it is tricky and to bear in mind the client you are designing for, to keep designing and not to stick to the same style too much.

Portfolio feedback - Nicky Sharp

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

 

Recently I spoke to Nicky Sharp, a freelance designer (who I also met a few months back) about improving my portfolio and what kind of styles and themes my work is suited to.
I found her comments and advice extremely useful especially from a designer who has worked in the industry as well as freelance work. Below is a snippet of Nicky's comments about three pieces of my work (which I have posted above)

Image 2 - It is a bit stiff but I like the watery quality of the petals. Perhaps create more images and create an allover. I have attached a jpeg (idea 4 for image 2). I like the splashy flowers at the top and bottom of the image and like the way flowers overlap and flow into each other. Put new images on to separate transparent layers in Photoshop and try over lapping them see if it works.
Image 3 - "I like this and it has a lot of potential. It would be nice as a vertical trail repeating. See jpeg (layout 1). The simplicity is nice but it could also be developed further by building up the trails with the addition of leaves and maybe some outline imagery. Put new selected images on separate transparent layers to see how you could work them together."
Image 4 - "Could be nice developed as in jpeg (layout 3 for outline design). Could add background and texture for extra dimension and depth."
Image 5 - "This is nice. I found an image that is similar that you could use for a layout, jpeg (layout 2). It could also be developed as a vertical trail."
Nicky also emailed me a few images (below) as inspiration and ideas to help me form certain styles, also to visualize how patterns/motifs can be applied in garments or interiors.

Idea 4

Layout 3

Idea 2

Layout 2