Professional Practice Evaluation

At the start of the module I set myself some goals that I would like to have achieved by the end. Setting aims and intentions helped keep me focus on what I wanted to achieve out of the module and helped direct me in the right way in relation to work experience. 

1. Produced an up to date CV with the support from guest lecturers within the University.

ACHIEVED

At the start of the module I was made aware that we would be receiving lectures that would help us in applying for work placements and getting ready for the professional environment. One of the areas were covered were CVs, getting it up to date and what to put on there in order to present yourself and your skills effectively to an employer. What I was unaware of before these lectures was that in the creative industry you can create a creative CV. Create CVs can include different texts, images, colours, graphs and can even be 3D. This was knowledge to me so I wanted to make a creative CV that I could use beyond this module when getting work else where. 

I started by getting together a regular CV which had all of the relevant and appropriate information on it that I could then transfer and convert into a creative CV. Having the guidance and where to look for inspiration I had a pretty clear idea of how to layout and present my CV. I chose a colour theme, images and used a visual graph to reinforce my skills. I didn't use a downloadable template as being the creative industry I feel this is something that you should be able to produce yourself without needing to download a template. The overall outcome was successful. It was a strong creative CV which I would feel comfortable with giving an employer to promote myself and my practice. It has my creative flare and all of the relevant skills and information on it. 

Completing the skills audit was really useful in the construction of my CV as it helped me put in skills and think about ideas in my creative practice that were very strong and worth including. I have come out of this module with a strong CV which is something I didn't even know was a thing until this module. 

2. 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.

PARLTY ACHIEVED

A lot of my work experience was freelance work and commission based which was really good as this is the area that I was most interested in at the start of the module. Working for real life clients without having that safety blanket of University on, really switched me on to understanding how the creative fields work in the area that I was interested in. I understood a lot about myself, my style and now after working on a different range of tasks, I have a clear vision as to how I can adapt my practice to becoming a freelance illustrator.

I need to take some time to work on my style and my visual language. I need to research more into the type of illustrator I want to be and spend months developing and progressing my style into something that I am happy with and I feel can be applied to freelance area within the illustration field. 

While I do have a better understand of freelance creative field I didn't explore further enough into other areas to see if anything else was of interest. I feel like I pushed myself as far as I could in terms of my own work in being a freelance illustrator but by doing this, I limited myself in other creative areas. There may be other careers out there that do have relevance to my creative skill set and I didn't give myself the opportunity to think about taking my work in other directions. This is something that I will have to spend my own time working on to ensure that it is where I want it to be and of areas of interest. 

3. 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. 

PARTLY ACHIEVED

This outcome was met through understanding but not entire application. A lot of my work was freelance work so I knew how to contact employers and present myself but not in a way that would make me stand out above other applicants because there was no competition. On one hand I could say that my work was standing out because the clients I worked with were contacting me instead of other illustrators but I don't feel like this meant I was chosen over other people. 

Even though I didn't put this into proper practice, the lectures we had really supported the way in which we should present ourselves to stand out from other candidates in the same position. I have a strong understanding of the techniques that should be used and where, relevant, I will use to get the job and stand out.

4. 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.

ACHIEVED

I took the time to make a few new contacts, networking to people who I feel would use me and my work again. My ARTea Room placement is the best example of this as over the summer of 2016 when I completed the mural for him, the menu commission was a follow off from that. Because he knows my work ethic as well from working in the tearoom as a part time member of staff, he knows how I work, my traits and this is why he came back to me and asked me to do some more work for him. As well as this he granted me a space in the tearoom to sell my own work which if he didn't have much trust in me I think he would've declined. ARTea Room, and the boss is my strongest connection as I have completed the most amount of tasks for him. 

Another person that I have networked with was for my other commission piece which was reached out to me via Instagram. In my employer feedback form I got a high ranking and he was very happy with the outcome. For anything else that he may want done art related I feel confident that he would come to me or that I could always reach out to him to ask if he wanted anything else done. He taught me that if you don't ask you don't get - he enquired with me and he got an illustration. 

I also made the effort to reach out to a few companies and one I was in a lot of contact with, The Happy Little Cake Company, I feel that when we spoke I left a good impression and that she may contact me in the future and that I feel comfortable to reach out to her.

Whilst I don't have a many contacts the few that I have collected over this period I feel are strong contacts. I am in my 'first year' of completing freelance type work so I feel a strong network of people is something that you build up over a long period of time. My aim from this going forward is to create a data base spread sheet of all of the people that I have been in contact with and I feel are strong contacts and see if I could go back to them or they could come back to me.

5. 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. 

ON GOING

This is something that I have achieved but I feel is an on going process and can never be 'finished'. I didn't really have a full understanding of what skills I had but within the module I had completed a skills audit. This just showed me the type of skills I had, basic or advanced, and what my expertise was and what my weaker areas were. Upon completing the skills audit I was able to identify my skills and apply them to my creative CV. By having my strongest skills on the CV I am now able to promote myself within the industry and highlight my expertise on a document. 

At the end of the audit I was able to see the areas in which I was weaker in and could improve on. I need to condense these results down to skills that I am actually interested in improving. Once I have established these I can formulate a list and then work on these over the long summer period to ensure that I am bettering myself. By working on the skills, I may have a new expertise by the end of the summer. 

6. To develop a clearer more defined style that I can consistently reproduced to help create a strong portfolio which I can show to employers.

ON GOING

I am still a young illustrator in that I am still trying to find my visual language. I was hoping during this module I would've discovered a strong visual language but I feel I haven't achieved this. However, through my space at ARTea Room I feel my skills are stronger which has had a positive impact on my practice. In addition, my portrait commission resolved a new idea and style for me which since I have been experimenting with. By working for more people and a different range of clients you have these happy accidents which help shape your visual language. The way in which I can keep refining my practice I feel is to try and collect as much commission work as possible but also to set myself my own targets and topics to work towards. By doing this I might discover more happy accidents which will begin to shape my visual language.

Because I haven't found this 'style', I don't feel like I can work towards a strong portfolio yet as I don't yet know what I want to do as an illustrator or the type of work I want to produce. Over the summer period, I will review my skills audit and set myself goals to achieve to help me apply my skills to an clear and identifiable visual language. 

Overall...

This module has helped me a lot more than I expected it too. I originally thought I had a clear and good understanding of what I wanted to do and how the creative industries operate. I thought composing yourself to employers was easily achievable and that finding work isn't as hard as I thought it would be. 

From going into the module with limited knowledge I feel like I have come out the other end with a strong understanding of the workings of the creative industries and what they have to offer for me, my next steps and how I am going to achieve them. Without the lectures from Pauline Ashcroft I would never have known about a creative CV. I now feel I know enough about about to structure and create a regular CV but also how to produce a creative CV that is going to help get my creative personality translated to the employer through my skills. And the fact that it can be a 3D CV is something that really excites me. I have come out of the module with a strong CV and a strong creative CV but also have the knowledge to know how to modify and change these to meet my client and to ensure that I keep this up to date. When applying for jobs I know how to professionally present myself and how to successfully follow up applications to ensure that I get my desired job. 

Following on from the lectures with Pauline I have found myself researching jobs in the industry and some jobs that I thought I would never look at. You have one idea about what you want to do but the more you research the more things surface. The things I thought I wanted to do at the start of the module are now completely different due to the fact I have taken my time and researched all these areas. I still don't know what to do but I am more aware of the best search sites to look for jobs and I understand the importance of taking your time to look rather than just assuming you know. There is so much out there for the creative industries more than I could have ever imagined there was.

Receiving lectures from guests in the industry really gave an extra insight into life beyond university. Having Papio Press in was the most inspirational for me as I found it was the most relatable lecture to me about working as a freelancer in the industry. While I have look at broader jobs, I feel being a self-publisher/free lance illustrator is something that is a achievable as a part-time job. To make it full time I understand that a lot of time and effort goes into it but isn't something I am going to rule out completely. 

Coming out of the module I have a better understanding of the ethics behind copy right and plagiarism and about how to better price your items appropriately to fit your job. Understanding the technicalities is important and I have also discovered new ways to protect your own work to ensure that it is free from copyright. At the end of this I decided to order - The Illustrators Guide to Law and Business practice, A01, 2008 - Simon Stern, so that I could read up properly the technicalities behind being an illustrator to research more into if it really is going to be right for me. Something that I found easy as the module went on was pricing for my own work but also for commissions. Being given a basic break down checklist really helped me analyse my work and what I could realistically charge for it and not being shy about asking for what you think the work deserves. I have learnt that at the end of the day, the client is paying for YOU to do something that they CAN'T, just like any other service. I have been using this to keep me grounded and in perspective to pricing/asking for money for illustration commissions. 

My work experience overall I have learn't that I need to push myself I bit further. I focused a lot on the idea of freelance illustration but didn't really push myself beyond that. If I'd taken the time to understand the importance of researching then I maybe could've found an area of interest and I didn't know I had and then apply for a placement within that area instead of just focusing on one career venture. I have learnt a lot about my practice, I have improved skills both physically and digitally, my networking has increased since the start of the module and I have better connects. My confidence in my ability to put myself out there and speak about my work, but also to not be scared of the word no. For example with The Happy Little Cake Company, I was told 'no', but instead of being disheartened about it I turned it into a positive and I feel good overall about the steps I took to do so. My presentation skills have improved because I am more confident in my work and I can talk about it with purpose. 

I have made more of an effort to start promoting myself regularly and actively on social media as I now understand the importance of it. The more work you produce and the more you push yourself will only help your self-promotion, not hinder it. Social media now is so important and is a free platform in which to successfully promote work so I would be SILLY not to make sure I make more of an effort with it. Setting up my Facebook page covered the last platform for me and I can use each of my other platforms to promote the others. Making business cards will have the links to all my social media sites and these are the physical handing out of them I can create even more connections mouth to mouth instead of click to click. I NEED to push and promote my work to get myself out there which is something I have been making more of an effort to do. 

I have learnt a lot but I still feel it is important to set more goals to achieve more. From the goals at the start of module some of these will carry on throughout my practice.

My next goals for my professional practice will be to:

• Research into different areas of illustration, out of my comfort zone, to resolve my issue of not knowing the next step after my illustration career.
• Over summer 2017 work on me, my style, the illustrator I want to be, and practice until I find a strong visual language.
• Contact more companies to create more networks and continue the process of getting placements and commissions beyond the module. 
• From reviewing my skills audit, compile a list of skills that you want to improve and how you are going to improve them.
• Experiment more with your creative CV, push it further.

I feel if I spend time working on these goals to help with my personal practice and my professional practice I can begin to successfully prepare myself for my career after university and be confident about doing so. This module has helped resolve some questions about my practice and the illustrator I want to be but there are still many questions that need answering which I will have to independently achieve beyond the module.