First Story, Live Brief

First Story was something that took my interest last year so I was happy that we were given this opportunity to participate again. In a controlled environment, the process is very similar of how a brief like this would be communicated to someone in the industry who was paying for your work. We got the brief on a sheet of paper which communicated the title for each anthology cover, the idea and inspiration for the titles along with the technical elements like the size of the artwork and the text that would be displayed on the front of the book. After revising all of the titles I selected 'Once Upon A Time' and 'The Glass in the Wall' as the covers I would explore and produce artwork for. 

Once the designs had been drawn up and colour added with some finalisations added, we would then present the covers to the children that will actually contributed to the written elements for the book. In effect they are the clients and we are directly presenting to them. 

'Once Upon A Place'

On the brief sheet it mentioned that the Gloucestershire Hospital Education Service had taken inspiration from the places they had visited as groups. They visited Sudeley and Manor by the Lake as places of inspiration. Trying to thumbnail ideas was hard as there was no communication directly with the students prior to designing, not knowing what the 'client' specifically wanted left the title up for broad interpretation. My main idea was the main focus on the discovery of places and how their writing has been discovered from the places that they have visited.  With this in mind I sketched out a few items that would typically be associated with explorers and them exploring. Camera, a map, tea, a compass, magnifying glass and glasses were some of the main ideas I had. I personally felt these were all stereotypical items that would be associating with exploring an area and I decided to add lined paper and a pen to like to the idea of the discovery of the writing. 

I enjoy using water colour but haven't produced much artwork with it recently so I took the opportunity to use this media for this project. I decided to keep everything simple colours that all fit well together with the items looking like they are being laid out on the table and being looked at from a birds eye view. I drew each element separately and not varying scales so that I could scan them all in and alter and adapt them digitally. The font was drawn digitally straight into Photoshop on a separate document which was then moved over and around on both of the designs. This is the first time I had worked straight into a software digitally with text so I was super happy with the result. 

Once the work was scanned in and altered I came up with a few design arrangements for the title. I had an idea of a 'messy' jumbled look to how the items were arranged on the table which looked more like a creative mind in progress. The elements work well and I was happy with the layout. I did the glass lens to the magnifying glass separately so that I could alter the transparency of the actual glass and overlay it onto elements and make it look as realistic as possible. This worked particularly well for the layout I went for as the map could be seen through the glass and almost as if it was in use as well. 

My second layout design was using the same elements just in a more tidy and professional look. A lot of book covers I looked at for inspiration had a title and the top and the focus of the image in a shape or specific area on the book cover. On Photoshop I made a box shape on the cover design and arranged all the individual elements in that space and it worked really well together. A strong title above all the images in a uniform way looked really nice and professional. The strong, plain white background helped make the cover look clean cut and the images and title stand out and sit well as an overall design. This was the final design idea that I chose to take on to present to the clients as I felt it was the stronger design out of the two. 

Presentation Feedback:

For this title, due to the small number of children and the large amount of students that took up the title, we were split into groups of 6 - 8 and rotated round the 3 tables with the clients and an adult assistant. The feedback for my cover design was all very positive, with almost no constructive criticism. 

• Strong colours
• Liked the idea and inspiration for the main idea for the design
• The text was interesting, strong, and they were impressed that it was hand drawn 
• The composition they said was very professional and was very complete
• They wanted to know how the text would fit in to the title and if it would spoil the cover if it was added 

Due to the cover being designed digitally, it would be very easy to manipulate the composition, adding text and colour. If the image got short listed then I would find a way to make it work on the page. 

I was also separately told that for this presentation, by a member of assistant staff, that I carried myself in the presentation very well. She said I set the tone for the whole group and was clear with my ideas and reasons for what I had done and that it was very professional. Thinking of myself as not a confident speaker in a group or to a 'client' this feedback was very uplifting and encouraging. It highlighted the progress that I had made in my ability to speak to others and showed that I can successfully carry my idea and present it. 

'The Glass in the Wall'

This brief came from Gloucester Academy who love writing. The inspiration came from the way in which writing reflects the way their creativity is being allowed to shine through. The idea of 'glass' and shining through, instantly made me think of windows and how they let light into a dark space. From this I thought about how everyone's inspiration and creativity is different and how it would work if I used a range of windows which would indicate each individual. The light shining through the window then inspired my idea of having all of the windows dark with just one window that was lit up to show that initial spark of inspiration starting and how everyones spark will come eventually.

From thinking about the ease of digitally arranging things I thought I would digitally colour this design. I sketched out in pencil some quirky and different windows and then lined them with black fine liner and scanned them in to decide a colour scheme and how they would look. 

Once scanned in I played around with colours to see what would work well. The muted grey and blue colour scheme worked well on the windows and made they yellow from the window stand out and sit better on the page which is what I wanted. However, the colours looked really flat and the pen marks looked really uninteresting. The addition that would top off the composition would be added texture. With this in mind I went back and redrew a new set of windows. Taking inspiration from the original ones and looking at how to develop new ones, I began using pencil to create the windows to add texture once scanned in and colours added. 

                     

These sketches were better and more expressive. I also added a window with doors that could be opened and closed and then was going to make this the window that had the light in. All with windows worked well together. For this I focused on the image and then adding the title and text afterwards. By doing this I wasn't worried too much about how it would all fit together and because I was doing it digitally anyway, it was something I didn't need to worry about as it could all be altered and adjusted anyway. 

I went for a hand drawn text again but I wrote it out first as instead of going straight in digitally. 

This was the draft I presented to the clients which overall I was very happy with. The colour scheme I changed to a more of a navy look. I used different tones of navy and dark purples to enhance and colour the windows. This, I felt, gave me a more diverse colour range and enabled me to use more tone. The dark navy would also contrast the bright yellow I was going for in the light window. The background I used a half tone pattern to try and add more texture so that the background wasn't flat. By using pencil to for the initial drawing, when adding colour, the texture works really well and just lifts the work a bit more. Even though the windows are all different, the colour scheme creates a uniform look in a messy hand drawn style which adds character instead of being in plain flat shapes. The text surprisingly fit really easily onto the composition. The colour choice was easy as white was the most obvious colour to stand out from the background but wouldn't over power the yellow coming from the light up window. 

Presentation Feedback:

• Students really liked the idea for my personal inspiration 
• Liked the colour scheme and how it was dark with the light aspects throughout
• Really liked the window
• Positive comments on the text and its arrangement on the page
• One student commented on the position of the light window and how it might look better in a different window. 
• Some questioned how the additional text would fit on the cover - but as digital it wasn't a problem.

I felt the actual presentation of the work was successful. For this cover we were in a pair and moving around about 7 - 8 tables. Being more on my own I felt more comfortable due to the positive feedback from the other cover session. It made me feel more confident and believe more in my idea which meant I felt more confident in 'selling' the idea. 

My design was lucky enough to have been short listed as one of the final designs to be taken away back to rest of the school, along with other candidate's work, to see which will be chosen for the final anthology cover.

My final feedback points for ammendments were 

• A more natural background 
• Maybe a glow of light around the window that is lit up
• Add the required text

These amendments were concise and were easy to rectify. I went back into the original document and changed the background from the lighter half tone dots, to a dark texture which is a texture I have previously made from a board of wood. This adds depth to the piece and really brings all the textural elements together nicely with them being obtrusive of each other. The glow around the window was a simple amendment but really added to the overall piece and was a really strong piece of advice from the students. The text was easy to add. I selected a white font in bold and placed it across the bottom section of the page. It slightly overlays onto three of the windows but overall doesn't feel like it ruins the windows that it is covering. 

This work experience has been really helpful for me. I have learnt a lot about myself and my practice. The situation set up was a realistic live brief which could happen at any point in my illustration career. I felt I correctly and efficiently responded to the brief to a high quality and was proud of myself for the way I presented my idea. I was even more confident in selling my ideas and I'm hoping that this was a contributing factor to the shortlist selection of me cover design. The process of having a bird and client is set up a realistic scenario but in the controlled environment of University. The skills I have gained have built on from last year and I have learnt a lot about myself as an illustrator this year. 

In my first year of University, first story approached us previously and this type of brief was set last year. Last year the book cover titles were different but the principles of the process were the same. Because this had already happened on before I felt I had a better understand of what I could produce and how it would work. This year I set myself high expectations. My skills since last year have come a long way, I have a better understanding of how to approach the tasks and how to conduct myself in the group presentation process. I wanted to make sure that my ideas were fitting to the titles, but out of the box and were clever and subtle. I strongly felt I achieved that this year as my shortlisted title 'The Glass in the Wall', I felt was a very clever interpretation and felt that it was worth something as it had been shortlisted. The book covers I produced this year were a much noticeable as a higher standard than last year as I took my time to put more thought into the design and the way I wanted the title to look. Because I was more confident in my ideas, I feel I presented them better because I was more sure and aware of my outcome. The fact that the way in which I conducted myself was picked up on really made me feel good about the standard I had set myself and how I can use that as a bench mark to aim higher as I am more than capable of doing. 

As well as meeting my expectations, I feel I did meet the clients expectations. This was shown through the fact that my cover 'The Glass in the Wall' was shortlisted. Because it was shortlisted I feel it met the purpose, aesthetics and meaning that the client was looking for and the way in which I presented my idea helped that as well. This gave me confidence in my working practices and my ability as it showed me I was doing the right thing and my work has been seen as a certain standard that would potentially be selected as a final book cover design. While it didn't make it any further than being short listed with amendments  I still take great pride in this achievement and has made me feel more confident about my practice and the way I compose myself in front of a client.

Considering I have made a massive improvement from last years First Story live briefs, I don't feel there was much that I could've improved. Producing work that was shortlisted was very exciting and I feel that I fully applied myself to each tasks and made it as good as I possible could. I did appropriate research from the briefs into ideas that would be clever and insightful and produce an image that would respond well with supported research. Even though my ideas weren't chosen, I still feel as though I fulfilled the brief as fully as I could. Maybe I could've explored more varied ways to interpret the bride but I stuck to what I was passionate about with my interpretation and in a way it paid off. I also learnt from last year how to conduct myself better within the presentation stages of the live briefs. Like I had said previously, because I was confident in my work, I was confident in my presentation.

It has given me a insight into more client work but I feel the task reflects more of competition work. By being given a brief that is up for complete interpretation producing a book cover a as response and then having a 'reward' (cover on a real book) at the end made it feel like it was competition based. I understand from this that there are a lot more opportunities out there than you might think. Its not limited and people want creative minds to create these things that they themselves cant do. It gives me a better out look going forward knowing that there are other opportunities out there to get my work out there and to make it known.