uswemiliadiddams-blog

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#12 Vader!

At some point in between jobs while I was staying at my mothers in Wrocław, I was roaming the old town square with a friend when I noticed a street magician doing a show. Being an amateur magician myself, naturally, I was intrigued. After the performance, I overheard the magician’s roadie speaking to someone in English with a British accent. So, I decided to put my foot in it and go and talk to them. We went for a beer, and the magician and I bonded over magic. He told me that apparently, I do all my tricks left handed which is both weird, and useful, as it means it confuses magicians as well (must get that from my fully ambidextrous mom)! His roadie, Zoe, turned out to actually be a professional roadie who goes on tours and works with well-known metal bands in Poland and internationally. She mentioned that she was going to be going on a UK tour October/November with Vader, and after some quick googlage we discovered that she was going to be in Cardiff on the 2nd November! The day before my birthday!

Skipping ahead to the day. I received an “I’ve arrived!” text and jumped on the train on my way to the Globe. I met Zoe at the door and she took me up into the venue. Everyone was still setting up, so there were cases all over the place, the lights needed setting up, sound checks, banners, the merchandise table. It’s incredible to see how much gear these bands need to carry around with them! For the first part I mainly just sat behind the lighting booth watching Zoe set up for the show, but when she was done it was time to introduce me to the band! Vader is a well-known Polish metal band, so being Polish myself instantly meant we were all friends. We went for some drinks before the show, and this is where I saw my opportunity!

I knew I was coming to this concert but didn’t really know the band. So, I wanted to do some research into them and listen to some of their music. I noticed the common theme to their merchandise and decided to do some doodling of my own. I created a design that could potentially be a t-shirt design.

While we were talking, and I was explaining what it is that I do and want to do with my art in the future, I tactically mentioned the design I’d created. It was met with significant approval!

Unfortunately, I’d thought of the idea too late, as I wanted to get some mock up t-shirts made for the day, however they really liked the design I showed on my phone. I gained some valuable contacts, including the lead guitarist of Hellavista, a supporting band that played on the night. If I could redo that evening, I would make sure I had a fully updated portfolio online, and business cards on hand. I only took myself and the pack of cards I always have on me, using these as a platform on which to write my details after performing magic tricks. This made me think of the PERFECT idea for business cards! I could get my details printed on playing cards and incorporate them into tricks. It would be memorable, because of the trick, and sentimental people hold on to mementos such as a card from a trick (my brother carries every card a street performer has ever given him in his wallet. Some of which are over a decade old)!

I’m still in contact with Zoe, so we are still thinking of going ahead with the design idea. I look forward to possibly doing more band related art in the near future!

I learned a lot this summer, and everything that I did was focused towards my future. Deciding what I like doing and what it is I want to do. Although I did not significantly expand my portfolio, the lessons I learned and the people I met were far more valuable than any singular piece I could’ve created as: I now have a better idea of how to communicate with clients and people in general at a much more professional level, my digital skills have dramatically improved, I gathered a surplus of varying contacts – Managers of companies, museum art curators, Legendary barbers, iconic illustrators, amazing magicians, famous musicians and less famous musicians. I have a much better understanding of children and how much the world has changed since I was their age. This will definitely allow me to be able to write much more relatable stories and illustrate relevant characters in my future endeavour of creating children’s books. Even though I may not 100% agree or like the way that things have changed, I am much more aware of it now and have to adapt myself in order to progress. Drawing from the experience I had with the kids and the significant changed from my upbringing, I think it would be valid to not make assumptions. If I’m going to write a book, I need to engage with the target audience demographic in order to create something that they would appreciate.

From writing this blog, I have understood better the process of journaling and recording. The necessity for reflection and determining a more logical structure to adequately express my journey. In one of my tutorials, when I asked about how to structure the distribution of pictures throughout this blog, I was advised to put all of the pictures first in a gallery and then have the text. However once everything was done and dusted and I had all of my galleries in place, I realised that the way the pictures are, it completely disrupts the flow of my writing. I really didn’t like how it looked, however left it because that’s what I was told to do. The day before submission however, I decided that it looked too cluttered and that I didn’t like it. So, I restructured my entire blog in order to give it more context and depth. I much prefer the way I have structured it now, and hope that this realisation will aid in my assignment, even though I went against the advice I was given.  

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#11 Meeting a Legend

After the camp, we took a bus back to Warsaw, and as I had nothing planned for a few days, I decided to camp out on Sandra’s couch and meet some old friends. One of the other trainers from the camp was staying in Warsaw for a while too for an internship. He was going to be staying in a flat that his grandfather owned. Now we all knew who his grandfather is, so we tried our hardest to be respectful and not push for a meeting. However, when he said he needed a lift to pick up the keys, Martin and I jumped at the occasion! His grandfather is Henryk Chmielewski, otherwise known as Papcio Chmiel. A Polish illustration legend.

We turned up to the house, and I was introduced as an illustration student friend. At this Chmiel’s eyes seemed to light up. He instantly took me by the hand and walked me into his studio. He started pulling out original artworks to look through and explaining his process. He was so excited to share his work. He showed us a piece that he had just finished, and told us that we were the first people to ever see it as he was going to be sending it off to print the next morning, in time for the 100 year Polish independence celebration. The man is 95 years old and I’ve never seen anyone more capable. Perfect speech, perfect memory, perfect navigation. This man truly inspired me. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to meet one of my idols, and not only that, but he would not let me leave without my own autographed drawing. I was in shock and awe as he was drawing, and that I get to keep it!? He made me laugh by saying “here you go, you can sell it on eBay!” AS IF! That’s going in a frame on my wall!

After all of that excitement I went back to Prague and frequented my favourite place of employment: ‘The Drunken Monkey’. The Monkey is more of a second home than a job and has been so for over 7 years now. I am often asked for help in a variety of different capacities, such as design, commissioned work in the bar, redesign of a logo, help with translation and multi-cultural communications. I guess I’m a monkey freelancer more than anything. I have a strong connection and level of trust with the owners, and have been told in the past that if I ever have an idea or a project that I would like to carry out that they would do their best to support or sponsor me provided there was a mutually beneficial contract! This is a great thing to be able to have in my back pocket. I have so many business ideas, however priority number 1 at the moment is graduating. So far I have gathered dozens of business cards and sown the seeds of my future career.

Another opportunity then arose. My boss asked, if they were to expand to Poland, whether I would be in the capacity to be regional manager. This strays away from art a little bit, however, what artist works full time anyway when they start out? I had just spent 3 months on minimal sleep and maximum energy – and felt GREAT! So bring it on. I’m not going to let any opportunities pass me by. Even while waiting for my plane back to the UK, I met a business man in the business lounge. I was wearing my Drunken Monkey t-shirt which he commented on. This started our conversation. He was the owner of Euorpe Hotels. As a joke I asked if he had the use for a polyglot, to which he responded “actually yes, we are looking to expand in the future and need a European manager. Send me an email after you graduate!”

I love talking to people! I love travelling! I love showing off without the necessity to brag! I’ve received invitations to the US and been awarded the opportunities to meet famous and influential people, purely by interpersonal networking. This I believe is one of my strengths. I am an interesting, intellectual and talented person (modest too of course). I have a lot to offer. So all I need to do now is graduate and start fulfilling my potential!

I believe that this is one of the main reasons why I haven’t been able to generate an adequate online profile yet. I want to know exactly how to structure my online presence and know who I am as an artist. Start with a clean slate. I have a feeling, that at some point this year, I will finally debut online.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#10 Multi-tasking

My co-worker, Sandra, was very busy during the camp. She had her camp duties, same as me, but at the same time was developing and starting up her own company. Her and her business partner were opening up a swimming school for children and parents in Warsaw. She had a lot of paper work to do as well as establishing a brand – with name, logo and advertising. For the duration of the camp, she was working away and trying to come up with a logo, so I decided, that as I was there anyway and had recently developed some new skills in digital design specifically surrounding the creation of logos, that I would help her out with some creative ideas. She knew the name of the company – 4 Elements, so we had something to work with. We scribbled down many variations over the upcoming days.

Funny story! On one of the days that we were painting t-shirts, we had our logo doodles on sheets of paper next to us to work on while the kids painted. We were both busy most of the time, walking around and helping the kids touch up some lines or do some pencil sketches ready for them to paint. Suddenly a 10 year old boy pops up from behind us holding his finished t-shirt, smiling proudly that he had finished first and asking where he can put it to dry. I instantly burst out laughing, and Sandra’s face was priceless. He had copied one of her logo designs off the paper onto his t-shirt.

“Great, now people might think I plagiarised from a kid!”

In order to set up a company, it doesn’t actually require that much. You register your name, explain a bit what it is you are going to be doing and pay some insurances every month. This was good to know, as I’m hoping to start my own company after uni. As I mentioned before, I’m interested in writing and illustrating children’s books, however I also love doing commissions and live briefs. I like the interaction with the client, and having my work being used for the world to see. I recently redesigned the logo for the bar that is my second home, the Drunken Monkey, for their side business - the Drunken Monkey Beer Bikes - and get a kick out of seeing my design on merchandise. Therefore, my company would most likely be freelance artist based.

Much of my summer’s hands on art projects had been surrounding logos and I learned a few valuable things if I were to pursue doing logo commissions, or even when creating my own. Simplicity is key. Singular colour pallet is more universal. When creating the design digitally, never send the full file to the client, as anyone with knowledge of digital media will be able to replicate it and avoid paying you. There are ways to hide your name in the code of the files to protect yourself. A logo is the most memorable – first contact association.

Back to Sandra’s logo, in the end she decided on none of the ideas we had. Time was of the essence to start getting people to sign up for classes, and she had to get a move on with online marketing. She created a pamphlet for Facebook, and again asked me for advice. At first glance it looked wrong. She had funky colours, pictures from google, illegible font and the logo was lost in the background. I instantly picked up on all these things from a design aspect for the first time. Usually when I see an ad on Facebook, I don’t scrutinise every line spacing and colouristic choice, however I’d also never been asked my opinion. We worked through the changes and as soon as she changed just a few things she could see what I was saying. The logo needs to be visible – so people associate it with the product. The font has to be readable over fancy, and the colours need to complement each other. I also suggested that she use her own photography in her adverts to avoid any chance of copyright infringement. Even though my logo ideas weren’t used in the end, I still think that I managed to successfully help her from an aesthetic perspective, and I know she has taken my advice on board, as her Facebook ads now look great!

It also happened to be her name day (celebrated similarly to birthdays in Poland) while we were at the camp. Her husband was one of the tennis trainers, and I knew them both well after effectively cohabiting together for 2 months. Last year, he forgot until the last minute, and asked me to teach him how to make a crepe paper flower, I told him then, that I’d just make it for him, but he adamantly refused and said he had to do it himself. He confided in me before the camp asking what I think he should get her, so I cheekily suggested a commissioned painting by me. I didn’t want to charge him for it though, for two reasons. The first being: I’m terrible at pricing my own work, and also, I wanted the gift to be from me as well. I asked him for a picture, and painted it a few weeks before the camp and asked my partner to send it by post to the hotel, so that she wouldn’t see it (we shared a room). Unfortunately, this is where the postal service let me down, not only was my parcel ONLY just in time (it arrived on Saturday evening, her name day being on the Sunday), but the parcel was incredibly battered and upon opening it my fears were justified. It had a big rip in the canvas. Panic struck, and I had to come up with a plan with the other trainers to get me out of an activity so that I had time to try and fix it somehow. As was the trend, it was raining the next day, which was lucky for me! Sandra and her husband are both lifeguards, so they would have to go to the swimming pool with the kids! This meant I could stay in the hotel on my own and had 2 hours to salvage the painting. Therefore, I pushed this option strongly, and they agreed! I was on my own. The hotel is predominantly overrun by children, however, being a hotel, it also caters to family guests, or even adult tennis camps. So when I say alone, I mean without my band of kids. The hotel was still fairly busy. The only tools I had with which to repair the broken canvas, were: poster paint, t-shirt iron-on paints, very thick (and old) paintbrushes, some super glue and ear buds. I sat down in the foyer and started my operation. I hadn’t intended to draw any attention, however many of the guests stopped and asked me what I was doing and praising me on my work. I exchanged information with multiple people (to date I’ve done 2 commissions already. From the kitchen lady,and the gardener). 

I somewhat managed to fix the painting – best I could do, and that evening we had a celebration for Sandra where Martin (her husband) presented her with the painting and a bouquet of flowers. There were a lot of guests in the foyer enjoying an evening drink that night, and Sandra showed my painting off to a number of people. One of the men, (one of our kid’s dads) instantly saw the crude fix, and went on to tell me how he is an art curator in a gallery in Warsaw, and for a reasonable (ehheeeeem) price, I could get it restored to the point you couldn’t even tell! We laughed about this and I said that it would be cheaper to just repaint it. None the less, I now had a contact in a gallery in Warsaw in case I ever need a masterpiece restored (or want to learn how to do it)!

I realised, if I was going to be doing international commissions there are a few important factors to consider. Definitely need to re-enforce packaging, possibly with cardboard and thick bubble wrap, make sure the canvas doesn’t rip, even if the postal service decides to play hot potato with it. This unfortunately brings up the shipping cost. Then there is the problem of currency, and completely different incomes. It’s all so confusing, and I hate talking price with people. I think it would benefit me in my future artistic career to employ a manager to handle contracts and negotiations. I’m good at the initial point of contact, and for the final product. The money makes me nervous. It was pretty much at this point that I decided, that maybe my brother and I could create a company together. He is also a very talented artist, however he went down the more academic route and mainly draws for fun. Not only that, but he’s not exactly a people person. He prefers the practical aspects of commissions, such as the value and the actual work. This means that we could perfectly complement each other! An endeavour we may seek to explore after I graduate.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#8 ‘The important thing is to create’ – Oscar Wilde

The camp was strongly focused on physical activity and the kids spent at least 3 hours a day engaged in something demanding. Now, even though I am physically capable, I don’t spend a lot of my time doing sports. The most exercise I get recently is waving a pencil/paintbrush in my hands. This meant that I didn’t have nearly as much to offer the kids in this respect as the trainers did. So, I decided to spend my lessons doing creative things. Initially I was expecting mainly little girls to come to my classes. The ones that spent their time drawing in their rooms, and becoming close friends. Based on this I decided to do a few tutorials in: making friendship bracelets, making crepe paper flowers, painting t-shirts and making some polish traditional dumplings for us to eat at supper. I was pleasantly surprised, when the older boys seemed more engaged in this. They tried harder, and even though it wasn’t going 100% right, they were prouder of their outcomes, whereas some of the younger girls were distressed that it wasn’t working right the first time and that mine looked better, so wanted me to ‘fix’ it for them. This made me feel a bit bad, because the main reason for mine turning out better was because I wasn’t 8! NOT because they were doing it ‘wrong’ or ‘badly’! I learned how to do these things on camps when I was their age, and I’m sure my first attempts were unsuccessful. It was difficult to keep up their spirits and get them to keep trying instead of just leaving it, giving up and wandering off. I tried my best to help out each kid individually, however this meant I was rushing around, doing multiple things, getting more and more stressed as the constant “miss!’s” which started getting overwhelming. I ended up making most of the bracelets and flowers myself as a result of this, meaning that a lot of the kids probably won’t remember how to make them themselves in the future. But they were happy and had a souvenir from me.

I realised that it was very difficult to teach someone something when you have so little time with them. It takes repetition and practise to hone in certain skills, which I just did not have time for in the short time we had together. This of course wasn’t the case with all of the kids! 1 little girl kept messing up but trying again, making a bracelet (not exactly how I had shown her) her way, and the outcome was really good! She enjoyed making it so much that she asked me to get her more strings, so she could make bracelets for her friends and family, spending much of her free time doing so. She kind of reminded me of me at her age. Her roommate also got inspired and started making bracelets. She couldn’t quite get the hang of it at the start, but the girls then started helping each other. She gave me the first bracelet she made (and I’m still wearing it now!). This made it all worth it! Not only that, but I also received several drawings that the kids had made for me.

Quite a few hours were spent on painting a camp t-shirt. The kids loved this because it was something that they could keep, get their friends to sign and remember the camp by (I still have all my old signed camp shirts in a draw somewhere).

 At this point, most of the kids knew that I was an illustration student, thereby probably good at art, so I was the designated advice zone. The kids drew their designs on in pencil first, and then painted over their sketches with specialised iron-on paints. I mainly helped out with suggestions, and the occasional sketch (also afterwards to touch up some accidents and avoid tears). Every kid was engaged with this activity. It made them feel part of something, and seeing them all trying hard and decorating their t-shirts was inspiring. The weird designs they come up with, who they idolise and what they like. It’s quite fascinating. A lot of the kids drew Nike designs, or copied their favourite footballer’s jersey. Others drew their favourite animals.

On another rainy day (it rained a lot in Poland this summer! I can’t believe I missed the UK heat wave. At this point I was regretting not packing enough warm clothing!), we decided it might be nice to teach the kid’s how to make traditional Polish dumplings - Pierogi. We didn’t make the dough, that was courtesy of the kitchen ladies, as it would’ve taken way too much time otherwise, but all the rolling, cutting, stuffing and twisting. My grandmother taught me how to make pierogi from scratch, and it is one of Poland’s staple foods. Again, at this point I was expecting girls, and was pleasantly surprised by the number of older boys. When I asked them why they came, they said it was because they wanted to understand how the dumplings were made. They had obviously eaten them, but probably in a restaurant, out of a packet or at grandmas, as it is a time-consuming dish to prepare. It was nice to see that these boys were interested in their culture and in cooking!

It is difficult to appease a group of children of different age ranges and skill sets. I feel as if I have a lot of knowledge and experience to offer, however it is near impossible to impart in such a short time period. I am happy if just a single one of my 40 kids remembers any of the skills I taught them and can utilise it in the future. I made a fundamental flaw in education, by over assisting in certain tasks, however for the purposes of a paid experience that they are supposed to enjoy, I think I successfully managed to make a mark. Inspiring them to do something for themselves, is much more beneficial than doing it for them and expecting them to remember. I know I fell short on certain counts here, making this something I will have to work on in the future. This experience has also made me more open to maybe becoming a teacher. The reward of seeing someone accomplish something with your help, is priceless. I believe that this experience, has dramatically improved my patience overall, not just with kids, but in my artwork as well. I noticed this when I created my piece for the exhibition a couple of months later. A detailed collage that took me countless hours with a positive outcome. This further inspired me for an idea for my final major project which will require a lot of hard work and patience. Attributes I think I have nurtured over this summer.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#7 English Lessons!

As I mentioned before, the camp is a paradise away from personal communication devices. The kids would often opt out of activities to go find Pokémon’s on their phones, which made me laugh! “Go find me some signal first!”. Yeh, I don’t mean that we didn’t have phones, just good luck trying to get them to work! This unfortunately, meant that I couldn’t keep a daily blog (also my assignment specifies that I need 9 posts about my work experience). Therefore, I decided, instead of blogging every day (which I did NOT have time for, not if I wanted it to be any good that is), to keep a rough written and visual diary which I can refer back to when actually writing my blog (I have 2069 photographs!). I also decided that, rather than blogging about each individual day, I would split up the following posts into the activities we did together over the duration of the camp. This way I can miss out anything irrelevant like … tennis … and better evaluate what I learned.

Teaching English was definitely an eye opener. I didn’t realise how difficult English can be for foreigners. So many words can mean completely different things depending on context! Take the word ‘break’ for example. How would you translate that word? That depends on what it means. Is it a pause? Is something broken? Or does it refer to the breaks in your car? Each one of those words is completely different in Polish – przerwa, złamane, hamulec. So, when learning vocabulary, which one do you mean? I hadn’t considered this before, but it’s a very valid point. This made me re-evaluate the lesson plan I had structured. I had prepared for English classes, I created worksheets, scanned word searches and crosswords, printed out pictures and simple texts to translate. Mainly teaching grammar and vocabulary (even incorporating some of my art from year 2), but I soon realised that this just wasn’t going to work. First of all, the kids had different fluencies in English, so it was difficult to universalise the tasks. Second, this is supposed to be fun for them! Who wants to go to class during summer holidays? 

I saw them bored and struggling, so I quickly changed my approach and drew from my experience in the theatre. I started playing improv games in English with the kids. We kept up with some vocabulary, playing a variation of ‘Head’s Up!’ the phone app (by using pieces of paper and just writing on them in order to give them more time to guess). We also played charades and Pictionary. They responded very positively to this, especially the younger kids! Occasionally, there was a day when I was stumped on what to do (I had just thrown my entire lesson plan out of the window). On these days, I decided to do other activities with the kids, such as a magic show, poker tutorial or simple board games, but only speak English for the entire hour. To this, the older kids responded (especially with the incentive of some sweets to the persons that doesn’t use Polish for the entire hour). They started policing each other, which made my job even easier! I had to make exceptions to the rule for questions, but that seemed only fair. I saw what was and wasn’t working every day, and improved upon my lessons accordingly. At this point I realised that I had learned a valuable skill. I had changed the plan and come up with activities that were engaging and educational – the kids actually wanted to participate and eagerly attended. I realised that it is important to engage with your audience and see what works for them rather than following a strict plan that just makes everyone unhappy.

Occasionally, even during summer, the weather can let you down. On days when it was raining, it wasn’t possible to have tennis training. This meant that instead of tennis and animations, the entire camp was together. On these rainy days we organised indoor activities and competitions, however some days the kids just wanted to watch a movie. So, we compromised and would watch a movie in English with Polish subtitles.

I found that the easiest way I could get these kids to speak English was just by talking to them. We would take it in turns to tell each other about our lives. Our likes and dislikes, aspirations, why we are here at camp? 2 little girls, took to me especially. They attended every class and asked me a million questions. About half way through the camp, after they had fully interrogated me on my course and my pending assignments, they started acting a little strange (normal little girl strange, whispering and giggling – generally doing a terrible job at hiding that they were up to something!). That evening after supper, they came up to me with a letter that they had hand written and addressed to my tutor. That melted my heart a little bit, it’s amazing how quickly these little humans form strong bonds and want to help in whatever little way they can.

I think the most important thing I learned throughout the experience, was flexibility and readiness to adapt. Listening to what the kids were saying and not boring them to death with a rigid plan. Making learning fun as opposed to a chore. I also learned that kids retain a lot more information visually, especially in the context of learning a new language. Visuals and illustrations are fundamental in building a vocabulary and associating word to object, surpassing necessity for context. This re-enforces the value of illustration in communication – a topic which fascinates me, and I then went on to research and write about in my dissertation.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#6 A Bit of Book-Keeping

Starting my placement. Parents dropped off their kids to a parking lot where we (the councillors) and the bus was waiting. Bit of a meet and greet with the parents, a briefing on allergies or anything to look out for and off we go. 4 hours on the bus until arriving at our beautiful riverfront hotel resort, ready for a jam packed 2 weeks together. Every day, we had a structured plan of activities. Sandra and I would get together in the evenings and figure out what we were going to do with all these kids all day. The camp was primarily a sports camp focussing on tennis, therefore the kids had 2 hours a day allocated to training. Other than that, it was either meal times or up to us to keep them entertained.

The general structure of the day looks like this:

08:00 – 10:00     Breakfast

09:00 – 10:00     Group A, B tennis             Group C, D animation with Emilia or Sandra

10:00 – 11:00     Group C, D tennis             Group A, B animation with Emilia or Sandra

12:00 – 13:00     Group A, B English          

13:00 – 14:00     Dinner (3 course meal)

15:00 – 16:00     Group C, D tennis             Group A, B animation with Emilia or Sandra

16:00 – 17:00     Group A, B tennis             Group C, D animation with Emilia or Sandra

17:00 – 18:00     Group C, D English

18:00 – 19:00     Supper

20:00 – 22:00     Group activity (everyone)

22:00 – 08:00     Sleep time

A brief description of the hotel:

“Hotel Kozioł is located in a picturesque area on the shores of Pisa River and the border of Pisz Forest, at the corner of a small village of Kozioł, in an environmental protection quiet area.” The hotel itself is comprised of two buildings. The main hotel Kozioł and a secondary building called Leśna (meaning foresty – as it backs onto the forest). The grounds encompass 4 tennis courts, a beach volleyball court, basketball hoops, a mini golf course, badminton nets, a stable with 2 horses, a zip-line and a playground with swings and a sand pit for the younger kids. 2 of the tennis courts are on an island, separated from the mainland by the river – where there is an abundance of kayaks – accessible via a rustic bridge. These are but some of the activities available to the kids on site.

The area is secluded and has a 24/7 groundskeeper, so, honestly there isn’t really anywhere to go. Occasionally we did some activities in the forest, or went on a trip by bus, but most of the time we were based at the hotel. Maybe the local village shop about half a mile away for some snacks? But the hotel had a fully stocked tuck shop running from the bar. Personally, I think I only had about 2 ice creams and a packet of biscuits throughout the camp, the ladies in the kitchen kept us very well fed! Most of them still remembered me from 11 years ago when I was one of the little people at camp! So, when they heard I wasn’t at 100% health, they went out of their way to make village medicine in the form of chicken soup ready for me in the kitchen every day for whenever I wanted some.

The structure of the day, especially with English, meant that I had very little free time. It also meant that I had a lot of time with the kids. I tried to make every lesson educational for both them and myself. Especially when doing some of the more artistic or creative activities. An investigation into their little minds. We wanted to create a fun, yet competitive atmosphere to entice the kids into participating as much as possible. On the last day of camp, we hold an award ceremony and give out medals and diplomas for all of the activities we did throughout the camp.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#5 Summer camp!

Why choose summer camp as my placement?

Bit of backstory … Summer camps played an integral part in my upbringing. I would spend my whole summer, every summer from when I was 6-18 years old at various camps in Poland. Usually it would be: a sports camp, an art camp, a military camp and a riding camp. They taught me a lot about independence, other cultures, fitness, art and routine. Probably a driving factor of what made me want to join the army in the first place. The first degree I tackled was criminology and I had a clear focus and career path. I joined the UK army and embarked on that adventure. Then, what always happens happened. I ended up in hospital. LONG story short, I was medically discharged and found myself in a degree that I’m not enjoying with no defined end goal. I decided to do a complete 180° and pursue my passion for art. During my first year at university, I realised that there was something fundamentally missing from my life. I was limited in doing certain things due to my health, and the course I was now on, illustration, isn’t exactly physically strenuous. I was missing being active. So, I found a course in Wrocław that would accredit me the qualification of a camp councillor. I’m way too old to go back on any of the camps, however the perfect age to work there! I passed the course and turned to my Facebook friends for help (as many of them I would’ve met at one camp or the other). Almost instantly I had a reply from the director of one of the camps I used to attend, Kozioł, telling me to call him as soon as possible as he has a job for me that summer! I was coming back 10 years later as staff!

Now… being the youngest member in my entire family, and living in a predominantly student filled town, the most experience I have of kids, is being one – and now I’m suddenly in charge of approximately 40 of them aged 7-17. I had minimal to no experience with little humans up to this point and that was terrifying. Everything was a learning curve and thank god for my co-worker Sandra. She was much more experienced, making it look so easy, and gave me loads of really good advice. The environment and the kids (and especially the food!) were everything I needed, an amazing experience.

An aspiration of mine is to write and illustrate books for children, which I assume is easier to do, when you actually know something about them. Their: interests, dislikes, values, culture and usage of technology. So, when I was given the placement brief and saw the example of working in a school, I instantly thought that the camp would be perfect! In many ways, the camp is better than a school placement! In schools there are teaching times and interactions are more difficult; there are lesson plans, timetables and at the end of the day, the kids go home, whereas at camp they are stuck with me as their surrogate teacher, entertainer, carer and mom. I have access to 40 test subjects to interrogate and learn from. To properly understand how kids: think, what they read, what they watch or play. Just spending time with them gives you a completely different perspective. Keeping them happy, fed and entertained from 08:00 – 22:00, and then spending most of the rest of the night making sure they actually go to sleep! To be woken up again at 06:00 because they want to ask me if they can take the dog for a walk. My point is, when you have complete responsibility for these kids for 2 whole weeks, you get to know them pretty well.

By focusing my time with the kids this year, in the specific aim of learning from them, I hoped to develop an understanding and empathy towards how kids think and what is most important to them. Who do kids look up to nowadays? Who are their role models? How can I make illustrations that are relevant to today’s generation? A few problems I may have, is that the kids are a range of different ages, this could make it hard to make generalisations. Also, it’s a summer camp, so kids act differently at camp to what they do at home with their parents. But on the whole, I think it is the perfect place to do some covert espionage into the psyche of children.

This year I was also asked to teach English a few times a day to focus-groups of kids (separated by their ability, rather than age). This was daunting, but also a great opportunity to assess the overall level of English as a foreign language. As I am multi-lingual myself, I would almost definitely translate my own materials and books. Therefore, through these lessons, I could ascertain how successful a bilingual book could be.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#4 Professional Commission!

After some ‘wibbly wobbly timey wimey’, stuff we are back in May.

On the day I was briefed about the work experience, I received a Facebook message from an ex associate of my dad’s, asking me whether I would like to design a logo for his new company. I had just heard an entire lecture about all the different projects I could undertake and thought: PERFECT! I had an official company commission me to create the most memorable branding device – a logo, before I had even started looking! I figured I had plenty of time but was keen to start the research process straight away. I created a rough PowerPoint presentation with my initial ideas and started an email correspondence (thought this would be a bit more professional than Facebook!) with my new ‘client’. Communication was a bit slow, however, what do you expect from a busy business man? This was a blessing for me too, as I was only expected to start thinking about my possibilities at this point, not a: full blown, mutually profitable, industry approved project (and I still had to finish the academic year with looming deadlines!! YIKES!)

… Several weeks later, I was free! To a point. Summer holidays started. If holidays are defined by a lack of need to do anything, then what I had is furthest away from a holiday. However, if they are defined by the level of joy and fulfilment you feel afterwards, then yes – I had a GREAT ‘holiday’ planned! 7 countries, 5 sets of house keys, 4 currencies, 2 weddings, 2 summer camp jobs secured, 2 live briefs, my standing job at the Monkey, and family obligations. Planes, buses, trains and horseback. 1 suitcase containing: 14 pairs of nicks and nocks (pants and socks), 10 t-shirts, spare pair of trousers, sweats and plenty of shorts. Don’t forget the swimsuit! I would’ve packed more hoodies, but pft! Summer in Europe is warm… (like, you wouldn’t catch me in a jacket in July in Prague! More like heat-stroke o’clock with 98% humidity!). Other than that, all I needed was: laptop, hard-drive, graphics tablet, sketchbook, pencil case and … brain? All in a 10kg cabin bag. I had packed 3 months of my life into a small red bag and bum-bag – efficient!

Ok, So now that the lists are out of the way, as could possibly be imagined, I was a bit stressed. My health had been a bit 50/50, and I was worried that it could affect my ability to work, however, as soon as I got on that plane in Bristol heading home to Prague to be a bride’s maid in my best friend’s wedding, I knew I had this (I mean if he can start adulting, I should be able to too!). I had my whole summer planned out, and I was excited, motivated and determined. After the wedding, I took a train to Poland, ready to start my summer camp job.

Now I’ve strayed off-point here, which is the unfortunate consequence of writing a blog in post. My future posts will go into specific details about the ins and outs of summer camp life. The PG nitty and gritty inward goings on (from a councillor’s perspective). However, for now, I want to circle back to my logo commission. The summer camp I was to be working at has no reception, no 3G, no WIFI, no signal ... A utopia away from technology. Unfortunately, this also meant I had no way of sending my latest designs off to the company that had originally commissioned me. I had to wait until after the camp to be able to send my designs to the client … Hiding behind this is also a lie. I realised while trying to come up with a logo that can be used in industry, I have to embrace digital art – which I SUCK at. I could see the logo I wanted to create, and I knew exactly how the final product should look, however I had no idea how to make it into a viable digital representation.

I decided at this point to make an executive decision. I am not skilled enough to be in charge of this design. I don’t know how to use photoshop or illustrator properly. The ideas I’d suggested were drawn by hand and difficult to manipulate. Therefore, I decided to forfeit creating a mediocre brand for an up and coming company, and instead take on and intensive 45 hour training course with a qualification at the end in order to learn from my mistakes and be able to fulfill projects as such in the future (also, will probably look quite good on my CV!).

The company missed a deadline due to many factors, one of which I’m sure was because of my delays, however we ended correspondence positively and they ensured me that they would keep me in mind for future projects. I am proud of myself for acknowledging my short comings, and instead of just accepting that I can’t do something, going out and doing something about it! In the future I will be able to provide the professional product expected from a professional commission. Although this project fell through, I still consider the experience a success. I couldn’t adequately fulfill the brief at the time, but instead acquired skills that will aid me in my future artistic career. I learned many lessons in: formal communication, time management, digital skills (photoshop and illustrator) and life experience which are all invaluable.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#3 L’exposition!

The day of the exhibition. First of all, I was a bit stressed. As my piece was going to be exhibited in its original form, I had not yet mounted it on a mounting board. One of my fellow course mates was bringing me a board and some adhesive spray, so I shouldn’t have been too worried, but I don’t like leaving things to the last minute. Once at the venue, I spent the first 5 minutes mounting my piece and then that was done. I could get on with helping the others clean. We had to sweep all the floors and dust the whole place. It seemed to be an unused empty apartment above the arcades in Duke street. We had to rearrange furniture and get rid of any random bits and bobs that were lying around – like a lamp, an old jacket, a guitar? We needed to get some tables transported in from the university building, so to ensure the nearest parking space, I went downstairs and stood in it for the 15 minutes it took for the car to arrive (can’t say people were too happy with me). After that we needed to get some things from town. We needed some bedsheets to hide an unflattering area in the venue, so off to Primark I go. By the time I returned, more of the team had showed up and the place was starting to look really good! Now it was time to go booze shopping! I enlisted a friend as ‘chauffeur’ and first stop was Lidl. I had confirmed how much the wines cost over the phone with Discount Supermarket, so we knew our budget for prosecco and snacks. 7 Bottles of Prosecco and a trolley full of fairy cakes, brownies, sweeties, lollipops and chocolate coins. Next stop – wine! Seeing as we had a car, all of this went pretty smoothly, and we hastily returned to the venue. Now just to decorate. Set up the confectionary table, set up the shop stall, hang up the doodle wall paper, hang up the fairy lights oh and of course, hang up the art. The curation team decided on the layout and where what piece should hang, and it started looking quite impressive. At this point, of course something had to go wrong. 2 of our 3 bands cancelled on us. But not to panic! We still had the 1 (and they were loud enough to get us some friendly verbal complaints anyway).

Now to the actual event! It was a great success! The venue was full for the entire duration of the private view. Wine was flowing aplenty (and of course we didn’t forget about the non-drinkers, we also had soft drinks). A reporter from Cardiff TV attended the event and featured it on a broadcast. I was quite happy to see that a picture of my piece was used. I’d also, coincidentally picked the perfect t-shirt for the occasion (the I AM BANKSY t-shirt) I had meant to change, but then ran out of time with all of the running around. But it was a happy accident. The amount of people who asked me why I shredded my art piece at auction was incredible! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, the doodle wall was a success and a class mate had also brought in a variation of selfie props for visitors to engage with and encourage them to take photographs!

At one point, when we had a bit of a dip in attendance, I called upon my promoting days for the Drunken Monkey (the bar I work for in Prague). I stood outside the venue with a friend promoting to foot traffic. I got bored and cold quite quickly, however quite a few people did go up! I even saw someone that I had enticed to come in leaving with a print bought off one of my classmates. The reason why it worked was because of instant gratification. People didn’t have to commit to anything in the future, they could just wonder in at their leisure, look at some art and leave with that extra bit to tell their partners about their day. I know for a fact that street promotion works (it’s how the Monkey has so many customers every night). Unfortunately, I had not thought about it before and wasn’t adequately prepared. Possibly something to consider for future shows.

Even though the exhibition was a success, there are many aspects which we could have done better. Getting in touch with contacts and sponsors, inviting VIP’s and creating a guest list, needs to be done as early as possible. People need time to think and consider, also, they can be very busy, its better not to give them a short deadline as an excuse. Once we have our branding ready, advertise! Get as many people as possible talking about the event, and when talking about the event such as on a radio or TV broadcast, make sure to be completely prepared. Pre-empt questions and have an answer. Working in a team is always difficult as there are many different personalities. Being able to be submissive in certain aspects is a vital skill - trust in the team. The glasses at the exhibition were a good idea. It made the guests feel more appreciate and trusted when given glassware rather than plastic cups, and we got through the night with only minor casualties. For future exhibitions however, we would need to either have more glasses or have a system in place to wash them. We were left with barely any cakes and no wine!

So, after all that, all that was required was a clean-up and babysitting rota for the rest of the week. Other members of the team had planned an after party for after the event, however I didn’t go. It had been a long day and evening transport isn’t that easy. The rest of the week flew by uneventfully. A few strays wondering in off the street, some friends or friends of friends, and then it was over. Pack up, give back the keys and call it an overall success. A few days after the exhibition, we got together in our groups and discussed what we did, what was successful and what could’ve been done better. I’m sure that all of us will learn and benefit from this experience and put on a fantastic end of year show! We know we have both the skills to create work for an exhibition and to put it on.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#2 Prep Time!

Before I could properly get into the swing of my role I had to wait on a few things such as: the name of the exhibition, our branding and the venue. I couldn’t exactly contact any sponsors or organise any media coverage if I didn’t know when or where the exhibition was going to be. In our smaller, events group, we decided on a few things that we could do at the private view. Alcohol received a unanimous yes – we agreed that wine and prosecco would be adequately classy. I went on a researching mission trying to figure out where we could get the best deals. Everyone in the team had given £15 towards the exhibition for location and expenses, so our total budget was £330. £150 of which went to the venue, some needed to go on mounting costs (but I wasn’t involved in that). As events we had approximately £120 to play with. I called majestic wines and was offered £5 per bottle, including 72 normal glasses for every 12 bottles. This was a pretty good deal, and it gave us the glassware too, however one of my course mates had already managed to borrow glassware from their parents, so it wasn’t necessary. This meant we could go cheaper! I kept looking. The best deal I could find was 18 bottles for £54 at Discount Supermarkets. Now that was more like it (of course I find this out in my final year of Uni)! We knew where to go on the day! 

So what else could we decide on? Entertainment. A member of my team knows a few local bands personally and asked whether they would play at the event. He had great response and managed to book 3 bands for the opening night! This meant we could have a constant ambience for the duration of the exhibition. Coincidentally, all 3 of us on the events team were on the same foundation course together. During our end of year show, we saw how successful one piece was. It was an interactive piece, where onlookers could draw onto an exhibited roll of paper. We thought that a variation of this could make a good addition to the exhibition, especially within the context of stories. We had large rolls of paper available to us on campus, so it wouldn’t even cost us anything to set up. All we needed were some pins and markers. Set it up and invite people to doodle.

Now that some time had passed, we had a name – “Untold”! we had a location – Duke’s Arcade! We had a flier and social media! We were on track. Now it was time to let people know what was going on! 

I thought it might be nice to have story books at the exhibition that people could buy for a charitable donation. In this goal, I went to the RSPCA in Cardiff and the British Heart Foundation in Caerphilly with a proposition for them. Maybe it would be possible for them to give us books to put up during the exhibition, and we could then bring back any unsold books and the donations to the stores. The ladies in the shops seemed very enthused about the idea but obviously, its up to the boss. I approached the charities a week before the exhibition, which ideally was not enough notice. The RSPCA manager was away on holiday and not responding to correspondents until too late, and the lady from the British Heart Foundation left me an apologetic voicemail saying that there just isn’t enough time to organise anything. I can fully respect that, and now I know that people are willing to help, however you have to appreciate time constraints. Plenty of notice and a solid proposal is key – worst they can say is no right? On that same note, we decided to get in touch with a few radio stations. My class mate found the right contacts and turned to me for help in drafting a professional sounding email. This was very successful, and we were given a time-slot the day before the exhibition and promised a shout out on the day of. I volunteered to go on the interview, however was outvoted by other members of the group (which was fair enough, I have stage fright anyway, but I think next time I’ll try to be a bit more assertive and brave). 

After all that it was just: finish my piece and wait for the day!

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#1 Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire

The start of term. Usually not much happens at the very beginning of term, so I wasn’t too worried when I knew I’d miss a few days because of a wedding in scorching Cyprus. What I didn’t know, was that we were going to be given an assignment to put on our own exhibition in Cardiff to showcase for a week in 3 weeks time! Not only did we have to organize the logistical aspects, but also create a piece worth showing. As I said, I missed the first few days, and so missed out on choosing within my team which elements I would like to oversee. Luckily for me, I have a class mate who knows my strengths, and put me forward for ‘events’ – mainly to do with the entertainment and publicity for the evening of the private viewing. After my course mates had successfully distributed the roles, we started a Facebook group and chat to start planning.

We had a poll to vote on the theme and title of the exhibition, concluding with the theme ‘Stories’. We discussed whether we should have a common colour pallet? Possibly a continuous story line? Even though we all had separate jobs, we made core decisions together as a group over the chat. Working in groups like this was something that was new to me. I’m used to working with people in a group, sharing each responsibility, however I’m not used to relying on other people to get their jobs done without any of my input. This was scary at first, as I myself would’ve done many things differently, however it wasn’t possible with the time constraints to worry about someone else’s job. This required a significant amount of trust and communication. With what was in my job description, I found myself waiting on other teams to finish their tasks before I could start mine. This was annoying however, I had to relax and trust that they were doing their jobs. This allowed me to spend some time working on my piece to exhibit.

As the theme was stories, I thought of all of my favourite: books, fables, myths, legends, fairy tales, old wives’ tales and even jokes. I didn’t want to do something generic or known, so I decided on jokes. A particular favourite of mine, and an inside joke to anyone who knows me and has been unfortunate enough to have heard me tell it – The Story of the Red and White Knight on the Black and White Horse. A joke that takes anything from 15 - 30 minutes (depending on how cruel I’m feeling) to tell, with an ungratifying punchline! I drew a few rough designs until I came up with a knight that I was happy with.

At this point, I decided, that my horse roughs were terrible, and looked through my photographs to find a decent picture of a horse for inspiration. As I was doing so, I came across a picture of Caerphilly castle that my partner had taken. I could envisage the colours and a composition of the knight on the horse riding away from the castle, his head down in sadness – I could see it, but i couldn’t quite get what I wanted down in pencil. This is where my idea for collage came in! I wanted to know if I could create a decent and a detailed collage using magazines for colour sampling. I knew that this would be stylistically different to any of my course mates, however we had all decided that the only commonality we will have for the exhibition is the theme. The piece is meant to illustrate the punchline of the joke. It was also one of the only two pieces exhibited that was an original rather than a print. For me this was a stylistic choice, as scanning in my collage and printing it took away from the texture and full collage effect.

(My working station, and an exasperated look after hours of work)

As time was getting on a bit, and the exhibition date was approaching, I started to think about things that we could do on the day of the private viewing. I had a few suggestions: story stones, large paper for doodling, thematic bake sale (toffee apples, gingerbread house), book swap/buy, caricature artist, t-shirts, promotional video on social media? A lot of these suggestions weren’t approved by the group. The stones and t-shirts were out of our budget and would take too long to make, toffee apples - sticky fingers + artwork? – maybe not a good idea... no one wanted to be a caricature artist, and that is not one of my strengths and so I was slightly stumped. This was another learning curve for me. I can have a million ideas, but they are all useless if they aren’t practical, approved by the group or within budget. So, we had to think of something that was feasible and fun.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

Presenting “Sylvan Spirit”

Since my Kiehl’s planning was so successful, I decided to use the same idea to get the positioning right for all the components of my piece. I scaled them first (by eye) so I could then print and cut them out and see what looked the best on a piece of paper. I knew I had to keep the same feel and general aesthetic as the original design for it to be effective. Once I had done that and chosen the best composition, I could start drawing. I used watercolour pencils to colour in the final drawn piece and then scanned it into my computer to edit and create the necessary digital aspects of the overall design. Once all that was done. I wondered what my design would look like on the product, so once again I went to Savers and bought an Imperial Leather Bath Care Product. I took a picture of me holding the bottle and pasted on my own design. I then showed this to a few of my friends without mentioning that I designed it and asked whether they could work out which was my image. I guess that means it fits in with the brand pretty well.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

Creativity Block Lifted

Seeing as I spent weeks agonising on a brand and making countless pointless mood boards, I decided it was time to just pick something and get on with it. In a desperate attempt to find some inspiration I went to savers. I took pictures of any illustrations I could find on the packaging of the products (and had to explain to the tiller that I was an art student doing a project). I finally found something I quite liked. Imperial Leather.

Imperial Leather illustrations are quite simple but very appealing. I’m very influenced by art-nouveau and I like drawing flowers, fruits and vines. I looked into some of Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt Edwin Landseer and Charles Macintosh’s art work for an initial inspirational vibe which then allowed me to go on a Pinterest mission to find some relevant images for my product design mood board.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

Now you Have an Idea, Now you Don’t

Google – I figured google was a platform which provides a service, that’s kind of what a product is supposed to do. I really like the google doodles and thought it might be fun to design my own. Now the first thing I had to do was pick a date. I didn’t want to do just anything, so I thought about things that I like and that interest me and came up with Magic. I googled when Magic Day was and found out it was on Halloween, 31st October, (not very surprising but interesting to know) so I thought that was quite a happy coincidence. So, I started designing and drawing, using previous google doodles as my mood board and I created something I really liked. Luckily, before I continued on too far with this idea, my tutor mentioned it wasn’t really a product therefore not relevant to the brief. – oops.

Hasbro Kids games?

Wine?

And the agonising search for a brand continues …

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

No, Nope, Sigh, #frustrated

Some of the ideas I had were:

Tampons – tampons usually feature an illustration of a woman doing sport and tend to be quite feminine. There’s loads of jokes about boyfriends or husbands buying tampons for their partners, its used in comedy and seen as a bit of a taboo subject in social situations. Also, women in the military have a use for them and they are a vital component of a medics first aid kit. So, my idea was to make the design more unisex. Still depicting an empowered woman doing something heroic but using a darker colour palette. I also thought the inside protective plastic sleeves could be designed to look like bullets. But, this idea would have been risky as it doesn’t incorporate what the brand is already doing, and it would have to be a very strong image to work.

So, then I thought:

Shampoo – Like on the adverts, the swaying shiny hair, the fruit, the flowers. So, I thought to do images before and after using the hair product. I made a mood board that shows what kind of thing I had in mind, however, most shampoo illustrations now are photographs or very simple. I couldn’t focus on a singular brand and I seemed to have a creative block. So, I scrapped that Idea too.

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

Discouraged

I was so optimistic at the start of this brief! I thought it would be easy cause all I have to do is choose a brand, research into the illustrations they use in their product designs, and come up with my own image. Exactly, all I have to do. I didn’t think that picking a brand would be so difficult. I had loads of ideas to begin with and I realised that none of them were really relevant or something that I wanted to do. On the positive side, I’ve now finished my Kiehl’s brief. Presenting my gift box design:

[uswemiliadiddams-blog]

#sticky #prittstick

I’ve been doing a lot of collages recently (even in my spare time… for fun?) so I thought it might be useful for my rough positioning planning if instead of drawing the same image over and over in a different place, if I print out the images, cut them out and arrange them on a square piece of paper until I come up with the design I like the most. Then I can continue digitally in order to make a visually pleasing design for a Kiehl’s gift box.