tabithadaviesillustration-blog

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Character designs for storybook - The Lighthouse Crew

My second client Sarah Houncel has created a children’s story book for kids with additional learning needs. The book is about a Lighthouse where a group of little characters live. Each character has characteristics that resemble an additional learning need that a child with the same can relate to. 

I met with Sarah and we discussed the style of illustrations she personally liked. She said she trusted my judgement. I showed her passed work I had done and she told me what appealed to her - this gave me an idea of how to execute the designs! 

Sarah provided me with a manuscript of the book. I decided to draw the characters first, as Sarah was keen to have a page at the beginning of the book, which would introduce the characters to the reader before the main body of text.

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Rosehip Bakes - (Horrible!!) Cake Illustrations 

In late January with the deadline fast approaching, I started to worry that I did not have enough illustrative content for the module. Zoe contacted me to ask if I wanted to pick up where we left off before the Christmas break to which I was very keen! However, she didn't reply to my message for a week and I didn't want to pester her as I knew she was busy baking for a big Wedding. I decided to carry on with the list of jobs she had given me, one of which being cake illustrations to accompany her Facebook posts on her business page that advertise the different cakes her business can provide. 

I wanted to have a break from digital software and looked online for some inspiration. A few illustrations stood out to me that used fine-liner and watercolour drawings. I liked the delicate nature and decided to try it out for myself. I have to say - these are my least favourite outcomes of the brief! I am a little embarrassed to show them to be honest! I think they look extremely child-like and un-professional. The adult birthday cake I like more than the fairy cake, as the limited colour scheme gives it a more sophisticated appearance, however I am not going to show either of them to the client as I wouldn't want her to feel guilty about saying she dint like them! 

I have released I need to bush up on my traditional painting skills, rather than always relying on programmes such as illustrator and photoshop!

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Rosehip Bakes - Van design

I was a little intimidated at the prospect of designing the side of the Bakery van! I have never done anything like it before. I spoke with my housemates who are textile design students at Cardiff Metropolitan and they explained to me how they often have to super-impose their designs onto products. They kindly showed me the process. They use a software that specialises in textile design, but seeing as this was only a small section of the brief, I didn't want to take too long learning how to use it so they showed me in Photoshop instead which I am much more familiar with. 

Surprisingly the process didn't take too long! I was very enjoyable and a refreshing change from working on generic dimensional paper! It was exciting to see my designs on a product and inspired me to not underestimate myself.

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Rosehip bakes - Business Cards

The next task for Rosehip bakes was to design business cards that would be a true representation of the business and clearly show the vital contact information. I worked from the labels I had already created as I wanted the branding to be consistent. 

Zoe stressed again that she did not want an image of a cake on the cards. I personally would have like to include a little cake line drawing of some sort on the card just to clearly show to customers what the business provided. My housemate said that the designs looked too much like they were for a florist! But I wanted to please the client so did as she asked.

My personal favourite is the top-right card pictured. I like the simplicity and the limited colour pattern. As business cards as so small, I think they should not be too complex or over-crowded. 

Zoe‘s favourite was the bottom-right!

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Rosehip Bakes - The Christmas stall

Rosehip bakes had a stall at a Christmas fayre in the Gower in early December. Zoe asked me to provide a couple of poster designs for the stall. Although the posters did not include much illustration, it gave me an opportunity to practise my advertisement skills! I surprisingly really enjoyed this task as it was a welcomed break from having a pen or paintbrush in my hand! There is also something oddly satisfying about aligning text and images! Zoe was thrilled with the outcome and if I could make the posters for any future stalls she would have.

It was a bit stressful getting the posters to Zoe as both of us were very busy in the days leading up to the fayre. (It took place on the same week as my dissertation hand in!) I ended up leaving the job of printing the posters to the night before! My printer ran out of ink and all stores were closed! I ran to Tesco first thing the next morning and got to the fayre just in time! I am actually quite glad I got to attend the fayre as it was lovely to see my designed on display. 

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Rosehip Bakes - Labels

The first job on the agenda was to create labels for Rosehip Bakes cakes. They had to be labels which were plain for Zoe to write down the names of each cakes on. She requested they be laminated so that she could use a whiteboard marker to easily write and then wipe off rather than having to constantly re-print new labels. My mum very kindly purchased a laminator for me so I could produce them for her! It was a clever investment as it can be used in future briefs I complete if needed. 

In a crazy coincidence I found out the the logo designer Elliot is actually my friends husband! I messaged him to make sure he didn't mind me taking he logos into Photoshop to colour pick from the colour scheme he had created. I wanted to make sure the whole branding tied in together and nothing looked odd or out of place. He was happy for me to do so. 

Zoe had decided she wanted a floral theme. She didn't want to go down the obvious route of sticking drawings of cakes on everything, she just wanted it to be ‘classy and purely decorative.’ 

I started off by hand drawing some floral/leafy designs, then scanning them into photoshop and using layering techniques to achieve the final outcomes. I provided Zoe with a few different options for her to choose from. She then asked me to create some graphic geometric designs - this concerned me as I was worried it would be to distant from Illustration and would not benefit my portfolio! But I provided her with some options anyway, as pleasing the client is obviously the main goal! After sending Zoe the geometric designs she said it helped her to realise just how much she loved the original leafy designs claiming they were ‘softer’ and more ‘sophisticated’. I think the leafy designs complement Elliots logo designs better. 

After much deliberaton, Zoe decided on the designs labelled ‘Stall sign version 1′.

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Live Brief 1 - Rosehip Bakes

I found it a daunting task sourcing a placement. I get shy in new situations and I was dreading having to work with a big group of new people outside of uni! I had visions of having to draw on the spot with people looking over my shoulder expecting something incredible and then being disappointed with my result! 

A lady called Zoe Main, owner of ‘Rosehip Bakes’ a homemade bakery business in South Wales approached me with the opportunity of a live branding brief. I was very enthusiastic to take this opportunity on as branding and packaging is also a route I would possibly like to go down after uni. 

Another opportunity also then presented itself. Sarah Hounsel is a children’s book author based in Gower. She is currently writing a story book aimed at supporting children with additional needs, and asked if I would like to design some possible illustrations for the book! I couldn't decide between the two opportunities as both suited my style of work and gave me the chance to add to my portfolio. I chatted to our placement advisor via email to check these would be suitable and she encouraged me to take on both of the live briefs if I had time! 

I met with bakery owner Zoe and she gave me a list of what she wanted designed for her business. We created a Pinterest board together which both of us could add pins to, sharing inspiration and ideas. She provided me with logos which she had already had designed for her by London based graphic designer Elliot Hawking. She wanted the designs I created to match tie in with the colour scheme and aesthetics of Elliot’s designs. 

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Pop up Exhibition - Final outcome and after thoughts

For my final piece that would be exhibited at our exhibition, it took me a while to think of what to draw. I tried not to overthink it too much and came up with the idea of something camping related. When I was a child. me and my mum would often go camping to the Gower which I have fond memories of. Rather than depict myself and my mother in the illustration, I decided to go for a more indirect approach. As children’s illustration is a field I would like to go into after graduating, I thought this would be a good opportunity to show my children’s book style, just incase any employers attended the event. 

I created my illustration in photoshop, using layers of traditionally drawn illustrations - almost like a digital collage. I was happy with the result but I do wish we had more time to complete. I would have liked to have made the image less 2-dimentional and given it more depth. I would have also like to create two more illustrations that would match the first and be displayed in a row of three frames. 

The exhibition was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I made stronger bonds with classmates in the process and had a taste of what post-uni life could be like! I was also fascinated at how easy and very possible organising your own event/exhibition can be! I always assumed you need the help of professionals in the event organising field. It has inspired me to just get out there and advertise myself, rather than waiting for an opportunity to come along...create your own!

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Organising live music for the exhibition

As part of being in the event organising team, I was given the role of organising music for the after party at Tiny rebel. I was keen to be given this role as my boyfriend is a working musician on the Cardiff music scene and I thought maybe this could provide me with contacts to ask. Before reaching out to musicians outside of uni, I wanted to see if we could source musicians from within USW. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to collaborate with another course, making new contacts and also advertise the vast variety of talent USW has to offer. I went to the advise desk in the library to ask for the room number of the head lecturer of the contemporary music performance course. There I met head lecturer Simon Kingsman. I explained the event to him and told him we were looking for an acoustic band to play at our after party. He seemed very enthusiastic, saying there was a band he had in mind and would ask the 2nd year class when he saw them that afternoon - it all looked very promising!  I sent an email to him shortly after our meeting, giving him all the information and logistics so he could let the class know what would be involved. Unfortunately he never got back to me! At this point I was very stressed as we only had 2 days to source someone else! I sent a message to my friend Sharon who studies on the popular and commercial music course and to my delight she put me in contact with a musician called Moc Isaac. He is a singer song writer who plays acoustic guitar - perfect for our event, as the room was only small so we didn't want anything too heavy or over powering! We arranged via facebook messenger and all went smoothly! Everyone enjoyed his beautiful performance. There were only one hiccup. This was mainly due to my lack of knowledge in live music performance. I asked Moc is he was ok to play completely unaccompanied as Tiny Rebel could not provide us with a sound system of any kind. When I asked Moc this, he thought I was asking if he was ok to play without an accompanying band! This misunderstanding caused a little panic on the night when Moc realised he couldn't be plugged in to an amp, but team mate Emma Kolano successfully diverted the crisis by requesting that the room stay quiet whilst Moc plays to that we could hear his un-amplified guitar.  I payed Moc £30 from my own pocket as I wanted to show him just how appreciative we were to him, especially for handling the difficult situation so well.

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Pop up Exhibition - Deciding on a theme

To kick start our Client studies module, we were given the brief of putting up our own pop-up exhibition! The task ahead was quite daunting as none of us had experience of organising such an event before! Although our first meeting together was a little stressful (due to the impending deadline!) we all managed to organise the different roles in which everyone would be responsible for without a hitch. 

Our location - Castle Emporium was ideal for our exhibit. It is a well-know location in Cardiff for young artists, craftsmen and creatives to sell and showcase their work, therefore attracting the target audience we were aiming for. The only downside to the location was the available time slot they gave us was in only a couple weeks time! We made the decision to focus more on the actual organising of the event and then stress about the piece we would be exhibiting, seen as it was the event in itself we were being marked on. 

The first week consisted of deciding on a name, logo general aesthetic for the exhibition. The members of the design and branding team came up with a few different visuals which they presented to us - we then voted for our favourite. 

Although we got on well overall as a group, there was some tension when it came to deciding on the theme! Everyone wanted to make sure the theme would suit their personal style of work (creatives have to be selfish sometimes!) but we soon realised we were not going to progress as a team if we didn't work together. Someone put forward the idea of ‘Nostalgia’. Everyone agreed this was a good theme as there were no visual restrictions eg. a strict colour scheme or illustrative style. The broad nature of the brief gave everyone the opportunity to indulge in their own personal style, creating an eclectic collection of artwork.

-Logo created by Asia Elliott

-Poster created by Rachel Ford

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Kheil’s Brief 3

This is my chosen design for the top of the Kheil’s box. I chose this design because I liked how intricate it was. I found it to be quite original as I haven't seen anything similar before. It’s not too masculine or feminine and would appeal to most people.

I am really happy with the overall outcome of my design. I decided to leave a blank box around the text so that it was easily distinguishable. 

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Kheil’s Brief 2

Today I have been working on some pattern designs for my final outcome.

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Kheil’s Brief 1

I am really looking forward to the Kheil’s live brief. I have a few initial ideas, which I think would work well.

Idea one - A city scape of New York going around the edges of the box.

Idea two - A timeline of the creation of Kheils running around the edges of the box. 

Idea three - Old pharmacy bottles running along the edge.

Idea four - Decorative design on top.

Idea five - Botanical flowers all over and inside.

This is a screenshot of my Pinterest board for my ‘botanical flowers’ idea. I would paint the flowers in gouache, so they would be matt and bold.

This is a screenshot of my pinterest board for the ‘decorative design top’ idea. I want to use black pen with a touch of silver for my final outcome. 

I often think to much about having a ‘meaning’ or a ‘concept’ behind my illustrations, when there doesn't always need to be. I have decided to go fully decorative with this brief, with no strong link to the company’s pre established aesthetics.

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Product Brief 9

Here are my three finalised tin designs for the brand ‘Lily’s Kitchen’

Overall I am really happy with the final outcome.

Things I believe work well:

-The limited colour pallet of each tin works well not only on its own, but when put together as a set, they compliment each other.

I think the use of different characters, makes it unique and more exciting than just having a different colour for different flavours.

-I think the designs integrate well into the brands pre existing image. If used as a special addition range, I don't think the brand would be unrecognisable.

Things I could have done differently:

I think If I had managed my time better I could have done four characters instead of three, and introduced a green colour scheme into the collection.

-I think it would have been good to produce a 3D visualisation of the tin, however as I only planned to design the top of the tin, I put all my time into focussing on that.

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Product Brief 8

This week I have been working on the design of the tins. There are two different layouts, both have positives and negatives. 

This is the first design. I’m happy with the overall composition of the design, however, I am afraid it is too sparse. My instinct is to fill the gaps with little decorative illustrations, but then I don't want the design to look ‘cluttered’.

This is the second design. I am much happier with the appearance of this design. After simply moving the ring pull, everything seemed to fall into place. I think the flavour text having its own little box, made the overall appearance look more professional. The logo being separated from the rest of the tin, makes it easier to pick out, so that consumers can instantly recognise the brand.

DEVELOPMENT OF TIN DESIGNS:

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Product Brief 7

I have taken my line art into illustrator and, after a few bad attempts, am very happy with how the illustrations turned out.

This is my final illustration for mermaid cat. I changed the colour scheme slightly from my previous try out, but adding more pink. I did this because my other two characters had a lot of blue and them, and wanted to balance it out a bit. I was planning on going over my simplistic drawing of the tail in more detail, with highly patterned scales. However, I felt a more youthful and naive approach would suit the overall aesthetics of the collection.

This is my final illustration for the fisherman cat character. It took me a while to get the colour scheme correct, as I found it hard to find a blue that complimented the yellow of the coat.

This is my final illustration for the pirate cat character. I found this one the trickiest to put together as I struggled designing the wheel in illustrator. (Sound silly but I couldn't figure out how to do the cut out spaces of the wheel!!) At first I thought that the colour scheme of the cat was too dark, but after putting the characters along side eachother, I realised it balanced out the overall appearance of the collection.