#mdx3001pp

[marianaillustrationpp-blog]

Taxes, Invoicing, and Money

This lesson’s discussion was on taxes, invoices, and money, it was a very helpful discussion as I’ve never been exposed to taxing before. Some important points which were mentioned were that it is crucial to let the HRMC know that you are working as a freelancer or self-employed and that as a freelancer you don’t have to pay taxes for freelancer income unless the profit is over £11,500. For keeping things organized, it is good to have a separate bank account for Illustration profits as well as to keep accurate all financial and business records. 

[stephanieresearchblog-blog]

Tax, Invoices and Money

As soon as you start working you need a tax code. A freelancer is registered as a “Sole Trader”. If you earn enough then you will be registered as a “Limited Company”

The difference between a sole trader and a limited company is that a limited company is taxed as a separate legal entity. Sole traders are taxed as one single entity. 

The tax year is from April 5th to April 6th the next year.

Register for self employment here: https://www.gov.uk/log-in-file-self-assessment-tax-return/register-if-youre-self-employed

Keeping detailed records of you expenses really helps in the long run. This helps keep track of money and keeping records in a safe and organised place. There are ways to do this online. You can write off expenses classed as art materials used for your business.

helpful sites to remember:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/nov/19/freelance-self-employed-how-survive

https://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/knowledge/articles/2017/03/how-to-become-a-freelancer-in-the-uk/

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/tax-and-national-insurance-when-youre-self-employed

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jan/27/tax-return-form

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/your-personal-tax-account/your-personal-tax-account

https://www.gov.uk/topic/personal-tax/self-assessment

[bekasblogworld-blog]

A discussion on digital and craft about the advantages and disadvantages

[tyler-proffprac-contextstudies]

Taxes, expenses and creating Invoices.

These topics are definitely something I need to increase my knowledge about, as I may be self employed in the future.

I hadnt seen many invoices written before, so I was glad to see a comprehensive and thorough example.

We also had a task of creating our own hypothetical invoice in small groups, discussing these sorts of things in groups is always helpful as you can bounce ideas off of eachother, as we did for the invoice.

After this lesson I have a much better understanding of invoices, expensives and taxes!!

Pricing (week 2)

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[joanacarvalhoy3]

Self Promotion

For my self promotion I plan to do three book marks and packaging to go with. 

[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

My Website

Link:

I have put my portfolio online onto a website in order to gave it portable and handy at all times.

The website was created via portfoliobox.net and I bought my domain name in order to have an easy to remember link that is also more professional.

Overall this website has treated me well, while applying for in-studio jobs a porfolio link is as important as your CV. I’ve made sure the website loads quickly by limiting the number of pieces on the main page. all of the pieces on the main page are visible by scrolling. I wanted to minimize the number of clicks a user had to do in order to view the artwork.

I wanted the work to speak for itself, as such I did away with all text except in the about section, which I kept short and sweet. There contains my email address to be able for recruiters or clients to be able to contact me.

One feature that was really important for me was to make sure my website worked on mobile, this was because I wanted it to be portable and anyone anywhere could access it if they needed to.

During my interviews for the internship; this feature came in very handy. In my interviews I was able to discuss my previous work with the interviewers using my iPad. They seemed to really appreciate that you could easily see all my work on there by scrolling up and down. One even commented that it was really handy of me to have come prepared with my digital porfolio.

Right now, I dont have as much focus in my work as I would like, so I have a bit of a variety of the types of work i’ve done. As I create more pieces I think my website will become more curated with the types of work I want to do more of.

[marianaillustrationpp-blog]

Week 13, Self Promotion

In this week, a very important part of being a freelance illustrator was discussed, self promotions. In order to work with a certain company or person it is essential to be remembered by them. This is why not only is self/promotion important but also it is important that this piece is not just thrown away and forgotten. 

To make something memorable which incorporates and represents your style and the type of work you want to do is essential. This does not mean ,however, that if a good self promotion is sent, the artist will be contacted straight away. The receiver of the self promotion will contact the artist when they have a particular job which will fit the style and this might take a while. This is why it is important to continuously send self promotion pieces to the same and different people. This gives you an opportunity to make series or issues and be creative! 

[csprofstudy]

Professional Practice Blog Week 18

REVIEW OF SELF-PROMOTION

I showed Louise the folder of dummy cards that I sent off for, and which I am hoping to use as a template for submitting my own designs to Professor Cleaver for my self-promotion piece. The aim is to reproduce some of my best pieces on different sized business cards.

Louise liked the general idea and the folder, and suggested that I might design and make something similar myself using the laser cutter. I could then mould the design to fit my exact requirements and really show my work off. Perhaps screen -printing something onto the cards? Nancy also thought I could get advice from the 3D room to help me with the design. I definitely agree that this would be a great way forward and it was helpful to be able to talk things through and Louise’s questions made think more critically about what I am doing. I showed them both the rough sketches (photographed at the end of this post) which they thought would work effectively. This was a relief as it is a new departure for me to consider presentation in so much depth; a bit of a learning curve.

Louise and I looked at some of my art work with a view to selecting pieces for the promotion. I couldn’t find my Lear linos initially – a lesson to me to organise my work more efficiently -  but eventually we found them on my website. Luckily, she liked them, so I am on the right track! We discussed the metaphorical aspect of my owl, which could be seen as a ‘journeying’ print and how it could be used to strengthen my submission and make it stand out. Louise felt it was strong enough to form an outside cover to the folder and we looked at how this might work in practice, i.e. where we might fold it and which space to use for Professor Cleaver’s address etc.

Then we looked at the flying bird icon and how we could isolate and integrate this into the final promotion as a container for my name, website and email. Finding the right font and size was a bit of a tricky process, but after some fiddling we got a final logo in place, which I can use to create a kind of identity. It was exciting to watch this come to life and watching Louise tinker with the basic images to make them ‘work’ was valuable and informative.

It made me think of how I can use individual characters and images, like the ladder, to deliver a message, and use the computer to my advantage. I enjoy working digitally, however, it is a technique that is still quite new to me, so I must try not to be deterred by that.

We saved the pieces under ‘Logo’ and then looked at the Midsummer Night’s Dream linos. Images to be used for the business card front. Louis enjoyed the humour of the pieces. I need to get digital files sorted though for easy access. We also looked at the cake pieces which she thought would make a good contrast.

On the practical side, Louise explained that costs of printing really vary depending on timing and that good organisation saves money…. Costs also depend on the product chosen, so e.g. with Moo, the site I am using, quality of paper effects price and rounded corners are more expensive. All these things have to be weighed up. I have 3 weeks to get sorted! It doesn’t seem long.

[naimaeliza]

Final self-promotion piece - a pack of three different zines showcasing my favourite areas and topics within Illustration (music, sculpture and nature). I included a small, illustrated business card as well as a hand-illustrated envelope. 

[dissertationblog-blog1]

Week 14 - What do clients want?

This week we wrote a introductory email including three images that will be sent out on a large emailer campaign. We wrote a secondary email that was a response to the interest of a client who has asked to see more work in relation to a possible commission. 

Email 1. 

Email 2:

[joanacarvalhoy3]

Week 8

This week we had Alex talk about Collectives. [Alex Moore is an Illustration graduate from Middlesex University.] 

Often after graduating, people go separate ways and often becomes hard to produce personal work as the professional takes over. Collectives are an amazing way for a group of artist to come together and do work that they actually want. Alex Moor and her piers started their collective, A Drawn Chorus,  after graduating.

They had a successful first exhibition and then one continue to work together, they published a book and zine and even more exhibitions. They motivate each other to keep working. It can be tricky to manage different people with different styles and thats why is very important to pick the right people, is not about it the styles look goo  together, but if the people work well together.

I am interested in starting my own collective as I believe will keep me from deviating away from illustration as I know is not all ways possible to do what we like professionally after graduation.

https://drawnchoruscollective.co.uk

Other collectives:

https://www.puckcollective.com

[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

Self Promotion Piece & Review

This week we reviewed the self promotional pieces we had created with Phil Cleaver. It was great to see the different ones other students created.

My piece was a colourful illustrated envelope with a handwritten note, my contact information, QR code link to my website, as well as some business cards pictured below.

The feedback from Phil Cleaver was to make the envelope smaller in order to showcase the business cards better. This was a good learning experience as I was not used to physically creating a piece that was tactile, I think in the future I will think about creating more interactive promotional pieces with digital elements.

[cynthiapella-blog]

Self Promotion

My idea of self-promotion was to create a little book that represents my interest in children’s book design and to show my personality and style.

I wanted to do something small and charming that will catch the eye of whoever receives it. I also made sure to add my contact information on it so they will be able to get back to me or look me up trough my website to see more of my works.

[csprofstudy]

Professional Practice Blog Week 16

MAs

Martin gave us a talk today about MAs, which I was really looking forward to. I know I have come a long way since IFad, but I still have a lot to learn and I have been thinking about this option for a while.

I feel very happy and comfortable at Middlesex, I don’t have to worry about food and accommodation like some of my friends do, the tutors are really helpful and the facilities are great, so it would be the obvious choice if I qualify. I am working hard to get a 2:1 and I feel like I am becoming much more professional in the way I approach briefs.

There are lots of different options on offer, Children Book Illustration and Graphic Novels (Martin’s area)/Print Making/Animation/Graphic Design and Martin suggested we should look carefully at them all. How to choose? I know I will really need advice on this nearer the time. I do really like the sound of the part-time option though over two years as I think this would be less pressured and give me a chance to develop my website, as well as my skills and confidence.

During the talk, Martin, with the help of Freddie, Alex and Louise, outlined all the advantages of studying for an MA, such as good industry links and excellent contributions from well-known professionals, giving us more time to work with specialist people who you wouldn’t normally meet on a degree course, good for the CV and development as a practitioner….as well as a 20% discount for Middlesex students! All sounds very good!

Louise advised us that we would need self-belief, energy, enthusiasm and focus to get the most out of an MA and I think I have all of these.  Well the self-belief bit is growing and I would definitely gain a lot from continued support, practically and personally….

Louise is going to put up a list of dos and don’ts with links, which I will look up when it is up.

Overall, I am excited by the thought of a part-time MA and later next term I’ll arrange a meeting to talk it through further with Martin or Nancy.

[naimaeliza]

Example of a mock invoice, completed in groups of three. 

[dissertationblog-blog1]

Week 13 - Self Promotion piece Review

This week I finished my self promotion piece and posted it ready to be seen by Phil Cleaver. The piece i created was a Ikea style Cv Manual about myself. It includes small assembly like images to explain aspects of my personality. I included a cover letter and some information about myself. The entire piece is pink, down to the postal tube that i sent it in. I also included a print inside of a toy vending machine, the entire thing is Riso printed. I believe it reflects me and my work. 

Here are examples of my promotion piece: