OUIL505- Runswick Bay- Initial Ideas

For my initial ideas for the Runswick Bay poster, I wanted to try and illustrate the view mentioned in the previous way, but in a much more simplified way. I I thought about illustrating the building as 2 simple shapes, one in heavy shadow and one in medium shadow, this on top of a white background of the cliffs I think should create a really interesting look. I wanted the sky to be left quite open in this image, so that I could reflect the colour of the sea in the sky and make it feel quite vast.

I'm not only really happy with the images that I've made whilst roughing for this poster,  but I'm also really pleased with how I've actually roughrded them.  My roughing is usually really shit, and I think with these ones I have really explored my capabilities with roughing and I'm really happy with how it's turned out. Hopefully I will be able to keep this up wit the rest of my practice.

OUIL503- Collaborative Practice- Submission

Today was the deadline for the submission, after there was a delay on D&ADs end for some reason. We didn't really take advantage of the extra week we had on the brief, as we were pretty satisfied with what we'd done anyway, so we decided to use the extra time to focus on other comitments.

We had no real hiccups in the submission, aside from a 100 word summary of the project which I only had about 15 minutes to produce before the deadline!

Overall I think the brief went really well. I'm pretty happy with the products we made and the group worked really well together as a team. I think the thing we did well was plan out eachother's roles thoroughly enough that we were all 100% aware of what we had to do at all times.

I think at some points communication dropped off a bit too much. I was definitely partly to blame as I was away from uni quite a bit and that really limited how much we could communicate face to face. However, I don't think this really impacted the brief too much as it ran really smoothly otherwise.

OUIL505- Viaducts- Initial Ideas

My initial ideas for the viaducts are all quite similar, which i guess is good and bad. The good side is that I seem to be pretty consistent with the images I'm making, however the bad side is that I don't think I've explored as many ideas as I potentially should have. I am really pleased with the roughs however, and im exited to get started developing them, where I expect the image could change quite a lot. But we'll see.

I wanted to add in some small elements to the image, so I thought about using a hot air balloon or Palme in the background to add in some small detail, as I feared the image would be too simple otherwise.

I really like the idea of having a really deep blach arch in the foreground of the image, as I think it would look really bold and exciting. So I will look to try and implement this during the development stage.

OUIL505- Modern Yorkshire

For my final image for the series I wanted to include a more modern side of Yorkshire, I thought about illustrating modern activities such as a certain sport event, however I then decided the best was to illustrate this modern side would be to use a really modern building as these are generally considered to really modern aspects of today's landscapes. Plus we have so many modern and award winning building here in Yorkshire so I have plenty to choose from.

Having researched a few different building in the area, I decided that I the one I wanted to focus on was broadcasting tower in Leeds. The building is really modern and a really interesting design and it also has the connotations of being a really creative and culturally influential building, which is perfect to be used for advertising.

OUIL503- Collaborative Practice- Submission Presentation

Here is the presentation slideshow for the brief submission.

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OUIL503- Collaborative Practice- Posters in Context

I wanted to see what the posters would look like in their intended context, so I made a couple of mock-ups to get an idea. I think the posters look really professional and stand out; the image is the first thing your eye is drawn to and that's exactly what we wanted, with the text following and then you read down to the logo.

OUIL503- Collaborative Practice- Final Posters

Below are the final posters for submission for the MUBI brief. I really like the posters, I think the concept behind the 'Less is More' campaign really works well for the brief and I think we've executed them really well as well. In the end, we decided to create a tonne of posters for the campaign, some in portrait and some in landscape, as we felt having that diversity would allow them to be more readily available to be transferred to other applications (social media, billboards etc) rather then being specified to limited specs for a poster. We still made sure the dimensions we used were within the guidelines set my MUBI in the brief package.

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OUIL505- Colour Schemes

I have been playing around with a few colour schemes to see which would work better. I tried going quite bright with some of them and they just looked a bit tacky, maybe its just hat it doesnt suit my aesthetic? I want to use more subtle colours, however I feel they can still be quite impactful when it comes to creating an eye catching image. See below.

OUIL505- Use of Character

One of the biggest things I got out of the peer review today was the idea of using character in my illustrations. I usually absolutely hate using character in my images, as I'm really bad at drawing character, however having discussed it with one of my peers in the feedback session, they brought up the idea of just using silhouettes and a more vague image of character to avoid having to actually draw characters.

I really liked this idea, and I think the use of silhouettes would work really well for me especially in this brief where the shape are really simple and bold.

OUIL503- Collaborative Practice- Final Advert

Here is the final outcome of the advert for the MUBI brief. We wanted to open with a question, as most of the time YouTube ads can be skipped after 5 seconds so we wanted to make the video as immediately engaging as possible. We wanted to show off the great selection of films that MUBI has, so we chose to use films that everyone would know, and have them react to statements which came up on the screen, we felt that would bring a bit of humour to the ad, which I think it does really well.

Although I had no actual physical input of the final ad, I'm really proud of what the guys achieved with it and I think they really nailed it.

less is more advert from Matthew Mercer on Vimeo.

OUIL505- Sheffield Winter Gardens- Initial Ideas

For the initial roughs for The Sheffield winter gardens illustration, I decided to focus on the contrast between the modern design of the building the natural fluid interior. I wanted to create an interesting image and thought about how I could best contrast the two elements of the building.

My initial roughs were focussed on the square windows on the front of the building, with plants growing in front of them, however I then decided that I wanted to focus on the large curved beams that run across the roof of the building. I thought this would better reflect the modern design of the structure.



I wanted to play with the composition within all of my images, and have each of the. Composed slightly dffferently whilst still working as a set of illustrations. Because of this I have decided to produce the roughs one at a time, so that I could reflect on each of the images individually and respond to each one also it's own element.

OUIL505- Location- Yorkshire Moors

This location is another quite ambiguous one. But after visiting the moors over the weekend it got me really excited to make an image based on them. I want to focus on the vastness of them, however I don't want to make them seem boring and just open plains.

I openness of the moors presents al] lot of opportunity for play within the images, and I think they could be used to play around with the other content in the image. Onto the roughs.

OUIL505- Location- Runswick Bay

The next location I wanted to use was Runswick Bay. It's a really cool seaside town which I've visited a lot, and I think it reflects the 'typical' view of Yorkshire that people have, however it's at the coast. I think this could create a really interesting contrast with the viewpoints people have with Yorkshire, as people generally don't think of the coast when they think of Yorkshire.

There is a really particular view that I remember from being a child and visiting Runswick Bay and I'd really like to use that, or something similar, the below image pretty much perfectly illustrates the view.

OUIL503- Collaborative Practice- Photo Shoot

So today was the day of the Photoshoot. We met at uni with the equipment and props we needed and got a taxi over to Connell's house. Everything went smoothly apart from we forgot about bread and cake mix, so Isaac just picked some up on his way over. We worked out the costings for the props and it worked out that we'd all paid pretty much the same for our individual props so we just decided to call it even at that, with the original plan of keeping the receipts and splitting the amount after.

We went though all of the images 1 by 1, and 3 hours in were already half way done with the shoots. It was going really well and I felt we were really well prepared and were set up really well so we shot through the first few really easily.

It was genuinely a really fun day, everyone got along as we were all on the same page and knew exactly what we were doing with the shoots. We tweaked some of the answers on the day and even came up with a couple of better ideas for the posters.

Once we had completed the shoot, we sifted through the photos uploaded them to OneDrive. We then went away and agreed to look through all of the images and pick our favourite images from each shoot. Weirdly a lot of the pictures we all picked were the same so we didn't really have any issues in choosing which ones to use. Connell then volunteered to put the images behind the text on the posters, then they were done!

OUIL503- Collaborative Practice- Meeting 5

The fifth meeting was a quick one, we just talked about the actual logistics of loaning out the photography equipment from Uni, and where we could actually do the shoot as well.

We settled on Connell's house, he had everything we needed there so it made sense to go there. Connell agreed to be in charge of loaning out the equipment we needed and we agreed on a date and time to meet up at uni and go from there.

We need to now go and buy some props for the shoot, dog leads, bubble bath, cake mix etc. So me and Connell have split up the items and hopefully should have them by tomorrow.

OUIL505- Location- Saltburn Pier

My next location I have decided to use is Saltburn Pier, which is a huge Pier and it's really impressive to look at. I think this helps to tie in with the coastal idea that I wanted to include in this project and I think using a secondary coastal location will really help enforce it. I really like the look of Saltburn Pier, and I think it adds another side of the coastal aspect of Yorkshire than Runswick bay as its a much more lively town. Hopefully I'll be able to bring a lot of that side of it into the illustration.

OUIL503- Collaborative Practice- Meeting 4

The next meeting wasn't in person, it was just over Facebook Messenger, not the most professional interaction ever but it worked really well. We all had other commitments at the time so it was just convenient.

We first talked about Connell's poster layout, which was perfect, it was really bold and simple and left enough room for us to get some decent content in the images as well.



We then went through some of my ideas for the 'Less is More'. Talking about the best ones to implement in photograph, and we discussed other ideas we could also use.



We then went on to look at the clips Isaac had collected, which we all had a good laugh looking through. They were great, we just needed to figure out what they could be reacting to, Isaac already had some great ideas about what could go into the final clip, which should make things loads easier.



We settled on 8 final ideas for the posters, I'm now tasked with roughing up some compositions for the posters (actually using my illustration skills), see below.

OUIL505- Location- Viaducts

The next location I have chosen to illustrate is a bit of a vague one compared to some of the more specific locations used. I wanted to focus on the more industrial side of Yorkshire, so I was trying to think of certain locations that reflect this. The locations I was thinking of were just general buildings, without anything really specific about them to illustrate, so I wanted to chose more of a symbol industrialisation in Yorkshire, and my mind turned to the many viaducts we have. 

I think the viaducts will be a great one to choose, huge structures are really impressive to look at and I think they could be really interesting to illustrate. Luckily I have one down the road from my house to go and look at. Happy days.

I want to focus on the large shaped arches in the viaducts, as I think I could v=get some really interesting, bold images out of them. Onto the roughs.

OUIL503- Collaborative Practice- Meeting 3

The third meeting was basically us talking about ideas we had for the campaign again. This time it felt a lot more productive, maybe because we were starting to get pushed for time with other commitments.

The idea we finally set on for the posters was 'Sometimes less is more', as we wanted to focus on the fact that MUBI has a much more condensed range of films than say Netflix, but that there's sometimes a need for that refined, quality choice.

We also talked about what we wanted to be in the YouTube ad. We all decided that we wanted spliced movie clips inbetween text, so that made the process really easy. We agreed that we should think about gathering a bunch of clips to be used and work around them, as it would be easier to have to choose statements for the clips to react to than having to find clips to react to pre chosen questions (that makes sense?).

Once this was ironed out, we decided than the graphic designer in the group should work on the layout of the text on the poster, whilst I think of examples of when 'Less is More', and the other illustrator in the group collected movie clips for the YouTube ad. 

OUIL505- Revised Proposal

Here is my revised, and hopefully final, proposal for my brief. I based the changes on the feedback i recieved from Teresa and Ben, and although not much has changed, I feel the proposal is now much more refined.

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OUIL505- Location- Sheffield Winter Gardens

My first choice when thinking about Yorkshire and what I think Yorkshire is, was the Sheffield Winter Gardens. Not only is t an award winning building for its design credits, and a huge tourist attraction, I think it completely encompasses what Yorkshire is and what Yorkshire means to me.

The gardens are full of greenery and plants all housed in a modern, forward-thinking building; a great mix of the green image that people have of Yorkshire, coupled with a well developed and refined design. I think it sums up Yorkshire perfectly.

OUIL505- Examples

Through just researching on the web I have found a number of illustrators who have illustrated locations in some way or another...

Malika Favre- Fuerteventura
Malika was tasked with illustrating the island of Fuerteventura for a project cal 'On The Draw' which was to be used to advertise the location, so it makes sense that I use this as an example.


I think this is a great example of how capturing the mood and essence of a place can really direct the outcome of your work and I love the colour palette used throughout. Malika also used photography as a means of research.

Thomas Danthony- LA


Thomas produced a series of prints based around LA, which I really love. Again, the colour pallette is integral in the success of these prints and I think it helps really capture the mood of the place. Also used photography as research.

OUIL505- Initial Ideas

The first, and potentially most important part of this project will be the research stage. I feel this stage is integral to influencing how the project will progress and how the images will look eventually.

Since I absolutely hate drawing on location I have decided to use photography as my main source of research. Making sure that when I am on location that I gather as much information about the places as possible to be able to direct the best possible visual developments.

I want the prints I make to be cohesive as a set but also individual in aesthetic. So I will look to choose contrasting locations which will set the prints from eachother. The main way I will look to tie the prints in together will probably be the colourcheme; I would like to really play with colour in this project and really want to try and understand how to use it properly.

OUIL505- Proposal

What do you intend to do and why?
- Produce a series of images to be used in an advertising campaign with the intention of increasing the visit rate in Yorkshire.
- Create a set of 5 images which can be further developed into advertisement assets to be used within printed and digital media, but also have the capacity to be created and utilised as illustrated, limited-edition prints for collections and display.
- A collaboration with 'Yorkshire.com' who created the award winning 'Visit Yorkshire' campaign. I intend to utilise the campaign's slogans, logo, and advertising strategy to enforce the message behind the prints.
- Help to improve the visit rate of Yorkshire as a whole. Working harmoniously with the already established stereotypes of the area whilst also casting light on the more 'modern' side of Yorkshire.
I want to produce work that draws on my love of the area, and hopefully projects that appreciation onto the audience. Using the prints as a starting point for the audience to explore the content behind the concept within the images.
THEMES / SUBJECTS
GENERAL THEMES: Marketing & Advertising Research will influence the outcome of this brief enormously. Researching and advertising the right locations and themes will be fundamental to this projects success in advertising Yorkshire properly. Tourism & Exploration I want to create a series of images that primarily advertise the area, but that also invoke a theme of exploration and discovery; drawing on location specific imagery rather than an idea or concept. Diversity I want to explore the diversity within Yorkshire's landscaped and locations, ranging from more traditional views of the area (sheep and hills) moving to more 'hidden' areas (modern, culturally diverse cities, sprawling coastlines etc) Locality Investigate and explore specific aspects of Yorkshire which can be used to push this brief. Look at specific colourschemes, fonts etc to influence the aesthetic of the adverts.


PRACTICAL & CONCEPTUAL APPLICATION
Look at other campaigns and see how they could have been improved with an illustrated aspect/ how other illustrated campaigns have succeeded and why. - Investigate how images can be transformed from advertising tool and moves towards a more tactile and physical form


AUDIENCE/CONTEXTS:
- People looking to visit Yorkshire/ who have never visited the area and are looking to explore. - People buying Gifts (Printed Images) - Advertising agencies - People who are passionate about Yorkshire

OUIL503- Illustration Friday (UP)

With this weeks Illustration Friday, the topic was 'UP'. I wanted to play with perspective this week, and focus on the viewers point of view of the image, so this week's topic is a perfect one to do.

The process for the illustration was the same as all the others again, rough in a sketchbook or iPad and develop digitally. However the unusual viewpoint in this image has forced me to have to take a bit more care in terms of composition. I thought about using an isometric guide to create the angular look in the image, which I think worked really successfully and I hope to use this technique more in my practice moving forward.


In terms of successes of the final illustration, I think the image works really well. I wanted to make a more 'decorative' illustration; something that could be hung on a wall as an attractive image to look at, and I think I have achieved that (see mock-up below). I think the colour palette works really well, sticking to basically 1 colour plus stock. This was another challenge I set myself, and one that was quite difficult to pull off properly.

OUIL503- Collaborative Practice- Meeting 2

The second meeting was much like the first, we were bouncing more ideas around and not really settling on any, which made it seem like we were going around in circles a bit at first. We soon started to settle on a few ideas about what products we wanted to produce for the brief, and we decided on making a set of 8 posters and a short clip to possibly be used at the start of a YouTube video. This gave us a basis to then start thinking about the content of the posters and what the campaign would be about.

We talked about what we wanted the campaign to 'say'. We wanted to avoid the campaign being to pretentious, as stated in the brief, so we decided that we should include some humour into the campaign. We decided to move away from using illustrated posters, as sometimes illustrated humour can come across badly and can sometimes alienate certain people, which obviously we wanted to avoid. So we talked about doing an actual photoshoot, which would be a lot more effort but would probably work out well in the long run.

We then left to think about ideas for the campaign and what we want the content to be.

OUIL505- Marketing and Illustration

I wanted to investigate further how marketing and illustration can work together. I feel rhese are two skills that go hand-in-hand in some ways so I wanted to find some examples of how it can be used effectively.



Oreo Campaign- Various Artists-

Bright colours, concise wording, simple but interesting.



Carluccios- Malika Favre-

Bold, concise lettering, intresting, eye catching.



Crater Lake NP- Thomas Danthony-

Bold- concise lettering, sleek image, good looking.

All of these images seem to be really simple on text, and not necessarily 'in your face'. This is something I will look to transfer over into my practice specifially into this module.

The images are all really bright in colour and seem to focus on one main colour or group of colours, this is probably something I shoudl look at doing within my own brief.