Commission

Through promoting my art through social media, specifically Instagram, I was contacting by someone that I used to be friends with in secondary school and hadn't spoken to for ages. He was saying that he was enjoying what I have been posting and he asked if I could produce an image for him for his social media page that he offered to pay me for. This was so fab and exciting that someone I didn't know was into my work had contacting me and liked what I do enough to ask for my work to be used. 

We spoke briefly about the kind of thing he wanted me to produce but he said it was completely up to me and that it could be as life like or as abstract as I wanted. On one aspect this was good as I was able to produce anything that I wanted and go use any creative means to do so but, I didn't know the client personally enough to know all his likes and dislikes. This made it difficult as I didn't want to let the client down and he not be happy with the work I have produced. He didn't ask for a specific time frame for this to be completed so it gave me some room to fit this in and around my studies so that I could make some proper time for it. 

Figure 1 - From clients Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theodoregiles/

I looked on his Instagram to see what he liked etc and I looked at some of his photographs so I decided to work with one of these. Prior to this I did ask permission to use the photograph and he said that the person who took the photo said it was okay, and that he was okay with it to. I wanted to double check this before to make sure I didn't breach any copyrights through usage of images and that everyone was happy for me to use the image.

The Instagram page was quite individual, quirky and unique so I wanted to channel an 'alternative' feel to the work I was producing for him to compliment him, his style and the aesthetics of his Instagram. This thing for me anyway so I wanted to create a fresh style to experiment with. I thought about using block shapes and colours with the image as facial expressions and features is something that I'm not too confident with. I used this layer in photoshop and added shapes and colour over the top to create the image. I was drawn to the slogan on the t-shirt and wanted to use this as well. I'd though about creating block colours with the background but I decided to eliminate that completing and lay down a completely different colour all together. 

For the finished piece I added a dark, duck egg green as I feel its a very gender neutral colour and is a colour that it very popular at the moment in exterior design, door colours. The soft green also compliments then pinks, whites, creams and browns all in there to bring the whole image together. 

This commission was a lot of fun to do. I enjoyed having complete creative freedom. The clients feedback was really positive and he was thrilled with the image and put it straight up onto social media. This piece of work also helped me discover a style in which I would like to work again. I have gained so many digital skills that I now feel confident to execute this style consistently in other areas of my work. 

For this small commission I had, again, set myself high expectations because when someone is paying you to do some work for them you want it to be as good as possible. The client left the commission style and content completely up to me so I really wanted to try something that I would be impressed with as well as the client. Some how the idea for the commission just came to me and I started working on the flat colours and shapes and it really worked. The outcome exceeded my expectations as I didn't think I was capable of producing something of such a high standard and to such a high quality. I met a certain time frame as was able to produce a high quality image in a shorter space of time, showing that my skills are improving. 

After the client contacted me, he said he had enjoyed looking through my Instagram and that he loved everything I had been doing. I'm not too sure what expectations he had for me as he didn't give me any input as to what he wanted done. I hope he had high expectations and that I did meet them. It was hard to tell during the process of the making but the real results will come from the clients feedback sheet. But, when I submitted the work to him and everything was signed off he said he was really happy with the results and that it would be straight up on his Instagram within the next couple of days. 

One of the things I could have improved on was the quality of the image itself. In Photoshop the image was slightly smaller than I would've liked and felt like it was a very high dpi. After the job had been signed off I had this problem with another image for a separate project so I looked up how to resolve this. Turns out it was a simple step to make the dpi higher on the image within the software. I wish I hadn't have ignored this when I was completing the commission as it would've helped push the image that one step further and would've given me that peace of mind with making sure I only give clients the best. This has helped me learn to not ignore the small details and problems like this and fix it when you can. This will just help make sure the image is the best it can be and the most professional it can be for a client. This project has been very successful for me because I discovered a new part of my visual language. This sort of just came to me and I was thrilled with the results and how cool and quirky it looked. It will be a style that I will keep near the front of my mind when considering more commission work and within my personal work. 

Its given positive expectations for the future as I have resolved a way of working in my mind that I am happy with and will continue to use again. It makes me feel good that my work that I have been posting on Instagram has been recognised and that someone has felt confident enough to contact me directly and ask for me to produce work for them. When I have established my visual language and hopefully some sort of company, all sorts of people will be contacting me to carry out work for them. 

Employer's Report Form, feedback:

This is my feedback form from the client. They have selected 5 for all of the feedback criteria and given me really positive feedback. I am pleased that they selected this as I felt that did perform in each area with an excellent professional standard so it's nice to see this reflected back in the eyes of the client. I feel that this is good for me as in the eyes of some else I am reliable and enthusiastic because these are skills that I pride myself upon. Next time I could ask for a more in-depth feedback as there isn't much for me to work with here or self reflect on but to know I'm doing well in my professional practice is something that I am very proud of.