Hopes Fears and opportunities

Hopes

 Part of our brief for this semester was to collate our thought and feelings about our hopes, fears and opportunities. This is to respond to how we feel now, for the coming year and the period after we graduate.  My first response is that I hope to be a confident and competent practitioner of illustration by the end of the third year.  At the very least I hope to work completely independently and to know how to approach work in a professional manner. I hope to have put in place a business strategy that will help promote myself and work through a well designed website and promotional material and portfolio. Professionally I am hoping that my work will have become more sophisticated with a defined approach to my working method. I am trying to strengthen my knowledge of illustrative application and design methods that I have previously missed out on and marry them with my surface design knowledge and technique. I hope to gain a strong understanding of the requirements needed to be a successful illustrator/designer and I wish to push boundaries with my work and make the most of this experience of my further education. When visiting Charles Hively of 3x3 magazine in Brooklyn N.Y, his words of wisdom on becoming a practitioner of illustration have stayed with me. He advised us to have a good website with only a few carefully selected images.  He believes a [.com] address is more professional and a need to be more prolific in the promotion of my work and myself. He believes a good way to do this is by entering competitions and contacting industry regularly.

Fears

This leads me to my fears. I know the ingredients of what needs to be done but I am feeling overwhelmed by the workload at present. I understand that it’s important to get these factors put in place but I am finding it hard to know where to start and to produce a level of decent work.  An impressive portfolio also keeps me awake at night as I fear that my work wont be professional enough in six months time. The competition of other designers and illustrators is so vast I feel I will be swallowed up. I have a desire to work in production design for film and media but would also like to establish myself as a freelance designer. I am still finding an anchorage in the practice of illustration and would really like another year to discover my abilities and find myself as a designer. I know I have the support of a great teaching team but still feel a little lost with the whole process.

Opportunities

So far since returning in September I have made progress regarding opportunities in T.V and Media. I have been to three portfolio visits including one with a production designer and two with art directors. These visits with industry have lead to more contacts and I have established a strong contact list so far. I have been maintaining a contact with them through Email, text and just letting them know what I am up to and offering my free services for any work experience they can offer. I have also made myself known to a Manchester based graphic designer company and offered to help out at their offices [even making tea] and they said they would like to meet and look over my portfolio [catch22 re: fears]. My current project of re-designing a book cover has given me a chance to be more experimental with mixed mediums and I hope this opportunity will help to elevate some of my fears and give me a better understanding of my own personal practice and the designer that I strive to become.