I am a BA Hons Illustration student studying at the university of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham. Normally the way in which I work is more observational drawings, my strongest media being pencil but like anything I and will to expand into different areas within illustration and try new things. This module will face me with a new way of working to what I'm different too. For starters, working into a blog is something new to me so I will enjoy learning the ways in which a blog works with will help me with setting up things like blogs and websites in the future. 

Work Experience

002: 60%

A period of work experience/placement

Arrange a 5-day period of work experience within the creative industries. This can consist of several smaller placements to make up 5 days. Identify contacts and potential placements. Contact relevant employers and maintain a progress report. For Freelance commissions, a daily reflective log is required.

Evaluation

A summary of your work placement and introduction to professional practice. Evaluation of your initial expectations and experiences, conclusions reached and future potential explorations.

Blog should contain - 

• record of lecture notes and reflection 
• enquiry and research into the illustration industry 
• thoughts and idea
• identification of personal strengths 
• professional development
• ideas and aspirations 
• evidence of contact

Aims and Intentions

My aims and intentions for this module is to start to explore life after university in terms of being a professional illustrator. To make myself more aware of what there is out there and how I can fit into the industry with my practice. Out of the upcoming months I hope to have a refined practice so I am able to move that into an area that is most appropriate for what I want to do. 

I am looking forward to the various guest lectures that will be happening as it will be a taste of life after university and see what you can achieve. From previous people coming in and speaking to us about what they do, I have definitely been inspired more so I hope they will drive me in the right direction. 

By the end I hope to have;

• Produced an up to day CV and a creative CV with the support from guest lecturers within the University
• Have a better understanding of the creative fields within the industry that have some relevance to me and my skills and could give me something to work towards. 
• How to contact employers and present myself in a way that is going to help me stand out from other individuals applying for the same position. 
• But to also have a few contacts/clients that I have collected and built up over time that I feel comfortable enough to use again and get in contact with again to sell myself and my work. 
• To have refined down a strong skill set that I can use to promote myself within the industry but to also develop a list of weaker skills so that I can improve over the summer period. 
• To develop a clearer more defined style that I can consistently reproduced to help create a strong portfolio which I can show to employers.

Over the summer period of 2016 I was offered my first ever commission in my place of part-time employment. This was both exciting as I had creative control and was a mural in a small vintage tearoom. I learnt a lot about myself as an artist but also about how being a freelance illustrator would work in the real world. I hope to get some more work experience in this field of being a freelance illustrator as it is something that I am very interested in. The mural commission I had total creative control, I had strong communication with the client, and I grasped a better understanding of pricing within this type of industry which is important.  

My main interest at this current moment is freelance commissions and self-publishing. I want to increase my overall knowledge in this field and learn as much as I can about how it operates. I also want to produce work for other people that they are satisfied with and start networking with other people who would be interested in my work. With this refining my techniques within this field would be beneficial and help push my practice that little but further. 

To do this I am going to put myself out there more and promote my work a lot more the try and get some commissions. I will keep hot on top of my Instagram page trying to post regularly to increase my follower count and promote my artistic page on my personal accounts. Creating a Facebook page for just my illustrations will also help promote myself and my work on another social media platform. By reaching out to businesses and try and create contacts with this hopefully get some work that I can do for them, will be putting myself out there more and out of my comfort zone. You need to cross barriers in order to get yourself out there which I am prepared to do. 

Introduction to module

An introduction to module and discussing the outcomes. We are expecting to undertake 5 days work experience and blog all of our progress and then reflect upon in. I hope to have a lot of work experience that is related to commissions and freelance illustration as this is an area I am particularly interested in. 

We will have various guest lecturers coming in and speaking to us about the industry but also having career advice and support on how to contact clients, how to present yourself, CVs, a cover letter and many other important areas to help your work and yourself stand out from other people in the same position as you. 

This hand held helped created a visual mind map of all of the opportunities out there for an illustrator. My main interests were with advertising illustration, factual illustration and designer maker. These as fields are very broad but the filtering these areas down the areas I have interest in are:

• Food and drink illustration
• Educational illustartion
• Working in a team of illustrators for one of these tasks or subject areas
• Ecology
• Public information
• Museum displays
• Product packaging
• Branding 
• Small press

These areas that I am very interested in and want to maybe explore further and potentially get some work experience in that area to decide if it is something that I want to do. 

Assessment Criteria

1. Demonstrate a knowledge and critical understanding of the current opportunities and demands of employment (or self-employment) within a specialist area of the creative industries.

2. Demonstrate knowledge and a critical understanding of the legal, ethical and regulatory responsibilities incumbent on a practitioner in the creative industries.

3. Demonstrate knowledge of entrepreneurial skills to support creative practice and enhance employability. 

4. Effectively communicate information and analyse evidence, arguments and assumptions to comply a structured report reflecting on employment opportunities and challenges within a specialist professional area. 

5. Critically review their Personal Development Planning to develop effective strategies towards identifying and achieving personal, academic and career goals; have a greater appreciation of the relationship between study and skills, the acquisition of personal transferable skills and future employability. 


Plan, design and structure self-promotional material, including the continuing development of their CV.