PORTFOLIO VISIT No3.

On the final day of my placement with LordWhitey, they organised a small gathering of Leeds based designers to visit their newly decorated studio. It was a great way of meeting a group of industry related people that I wouldn't of had the chance to other wise.

The line up consisted of: James & Laura (DukeStudios) It was a great chance to meet the people behind the making of my promotional packs, Seb & Vic (Rising Digital) A business that supports emerging and discovered artist/musicians/athletes by working with industry professionals to help set up a link between the two, mainly through social media (I think), Tim & Mark (RabbitHole) A branding and digital communication studio that combines typography/illustration/photography together that specialise in design for web, packaging, literature, exhibitions and branding. There were quite a few more people there but I didn't get chance to speak to everyone.

I managed to give out the remaining promo packs that I had left, which seemed to go down a storm. I was dead pleased with people's reactions and everyone seemed to favor the hand made approach to my printing and business cards. It was interesting to hear what different pathways i.e graphic designers, animators and furniture designers, thought about my work as I'm usually showing it to other illustrators or clients.

Vic and Seb (Rising Digital) spent some time talking to me about the EP work for SingRamonaSing, as they seemed to like it. We spoke about what direction of work I intend on take once graduated and if CD design and packaging was a choice. They've worked with some huge artists and more recently DeadMau5 and Calvin Harris so it was a real privilege to show them my stuff . They mentioned that like particularly liked the hand drawn element of my illustrations, as most of the imagery they use tends to be either photography or more 'graphicy' pieces. They thought it was my strongest piece and recommended that I progressed in this field of illustration as well as the "style" of working. Vic then spoke to me about how she loved the fact that I included a pack of my process drawings in the back of my portfolio. She suggested that I hand bind them into some sort of hardback book and make them a main feature during a portfolio showing. We spoke about possibly using window mounts so that many images are visible on top of each other but I'm not sure if they might just clash. Since we had a tutorial on book binding, I'm tempted to try and make my own book for my final exhibition that I can also take with me on visits. Seb, on the other hand, wasn't keen on these pieces as there were too many images of birds and he was scared of birds. He liked them, but struggled to look at them as the dear was overpowering. Sorry Seb.

Laura from Duke, had nothing but kind words to say about my pieces. She again particularly liked the tracing paper process work as she said they were full of character and show the delicate nature of each illustration. She agreed with making them a predominant feature along side the finished piece. We discussed how I could present them for my degree show and spoke about somehow mounting light boxes onto walls in order to layer up my illustrations.

I left my work on the table for people to look at in their leisure afterwards, as when I spoke to everyone as a group about each piece, it was hard to make sure everyone had seen it all. I was also dead nervous as LordWhitney threw me in at the deep end and gathered everyone around me and asked me to show my stuff. Over all, I got some really positive feedback and a big confidence boost with my work which was absolutely great. All my packs got taken, so I'm taking that as a big positive and you never know, I might even get some work out of it. I can always hope anyway. I was invited over to each teams studios, so I intend on taking them up on the offers at some point after graduation once I've finished some new pieces. It was a daunting time, but definitely worth the nerves.