Finalising Presentation

Unfortunately I am really not feeling well, I turned up to our final meeting on Friday with a sore throat and cough which made it hard for me to practice our presentation with the group. I did it but I know that I am not talking at my normal pace and I am not talking as clearly as I normally do which is annoying seeing as this is our last chance to meet as a group before the final presentation.

My Caricature

We are adding in everyones final bits and pieces into the presentation today and also pulling together everyones pieces of script into one document for everyone to take away. I am really hoping that I am feeling better for Monday. Seeing as the presentation file is on my laptop, I will be making sure that the final thing looks okay for Monday, keeping the scheme consistent and removing all the notes and things we have on there at the moment. I will also copy everyone's script into the presentation notes section so it will appear on the iMac in the presentation room to help anyone out if they get stuck. 

Final Script

Title - Alice

Hi, we are Platform. 

Who are we? - Alice

I'm Alice, this is Tyler, Rebecca, Naomi and Georgie and together we are creating an online business called Platform. We are all illustrators coming from different backgrounds, each of us having different and unique styles, which is what inspired us to build a business for creatives inclusive to any style and background.

What do we do? - Naomi

We are an online creative community that hosts monthly, themed competitions for UK based aspiring artists. Each month, twelve winning designs are made available to purchase as print based products through our website. We also act as a promotional platform as the winning artists can be featured on the website and our social media accounts.

Manifesto - Georgie

We want to create a sustainable business that believes in supporting creatives, and establishing a respectful, honest online community between artists, buyers and everyone in between. We think that the artists deserve a fair commission, and want to provide the Platform for their work to be showcased, whilst giving buyers a unique opportunity to buy refreshing artwork for a limited time.

Target Market - Tyler

Who is our target market? We want to attract artists who aren't necessarily well known in the creative community, such as post-graduate students, part-time artists and hobbyists. There is a great opportunity every month to be promoted with their own "about the artist page" if selected during the monthly judging. On the other end of the spectrum, we want to attract art and print enthusiasts to our site, interested in buying unique and limited artwork, supporting aspiring artists. It may be also be artists looking for inspiration, or participate in art related discussions on our forum page.

Web Mockup - Georgie

This is a rough web mock up demonstrating what the website could potentially look like. The home page shows the current winners and each photo will have a link to a small artist profile so that the creative has the chance to provide links to their own personal websites or social media pages. 

This one is an example of the artist submission page, where a banner will show the next months word and creatives can read up on the terms and conditions, and entry requirements before they send us their designs.

On both pages, the grey banners showing the words will actually have imagery designed by one of the team each month to help inspire designs and also showcase our own work. 

Flowchart - Tyler

The process of our internet business model will loop monthly. Work from the previous month goes on sale on the 1st, whilst artists continuously submit to the current word. On the 7th, a newsletter is released to members about the work for sale and some of the highlights so far. Entries for the submission of work ends on the 21st, where the new word is selected and released and the winners are named within the following week and there is a last chance to buy this months prints before the switch over to the new winners on the 1st.

Branding and Packaging - Georgie

The brand attempts to remain pretty neutral, so that it can be applied to the packaging, and printed on the back of all kinds of styles of prints. We wanted it to maintain a friendly kind of aesthetic, and a hand made feel, whilst still remaining quite minimal.

Promotion - Alice

As we are an online based business, we aim to promote ourselves mainly on social media, keeping up with the many social networking sites. We will also distribute business cards and leaflets to locations such as art cafes, student unions, art and craft shops. Networking will also be important to us, so that we have a presence in the art and business community, outside of our online existence.

Roles - Rebecca

(read from screen)

Studio Space - Rebecca

We will be based at Duke Studios in the creative heart of the centre of Leeds City Centre. It is a is great space, big enough to complete simple admin tasks at the desk such as arranging deliveries with the printers over the phone, or by email. By being in a collaborative environment, the bills such as internet, lighting and heating are shared across multiple office occupiers, who are also in the art related field.

Funding - Naomi

As we are setting up this business from scratch we are relying on funding from a number of possible sources to cover our initial costs. Organisations such as The Prince’s Trust and the Arts council could provide us with these if our applications are successful. Alternatively we could take out a small business loan to cover the initial costs and then pay this back with the income we receive each month. Most of the funds in the first year will be spent on the website and promotion and it will also cover initial printing costs. If the business takes off, we will be able to use advertising as a more stable, ongoing method of funding. 

Finances and Costings - Alice

Realistically, the business depends on whether people will actually want to buy these products and this is why a consultation period is required. If the business does not succeed and the profits are not substantial enough for us to continue then we will leave the business after the consultation period has ended with limited losses. However, if we sell enough products and the numbers show that we will be able to fund our own rent for the coming years then the figures on the right of this slide will come into action.

Print Pricing - Naomi 

We figured that this is the most effective way of pricing our products. We are using a printer who charges a set up cost and then charges a smaller fee per unit so our profit margin will increase as the quantity of prints increases. It is important to us that the artists to get a fair commission price so we have worked out that we can give them 40% of the profit after the printing costs have been covered. This works out at 66p per postcard, £3.76 per print and £5.16 per poster. If we sell twelve of each product in one month then we will be making over £2000 which can then be invested back into the business. 

Future Projections - Tyler

Looking towards the future, we can see opportunities for our business to develop. We could look at introducing more products to our range such as stationary and textiles. We could also start saving money on our printing costs with increased demand for products as unit costs decrease as the quantity of prints increase. There is the possibility of employing staff to carry out certain roles to allow us to spend more time on our own practice. We could also bring the artwork out of the online bubble and host exhibitions and pop-up events to hopefully get more artists and potential buyers involved. 

Exit Strategy - Naomi

We are a not for profit company which means any funds leftover after all costs and salaries have been covered must be reinvested back into the business. If there was any money left in the business after the consultation period or any of the years after that and we chose to terminate the business, the remaining funds would have to be spent in accordance to non profit legislation. This could be paying final bills and paychecks, hosting a final event or donating the money to charity or an organisation who have a similar aim and ethos to ourselves. 

Contact - Tyler

We are easily contactable within traditional working hours over the in office telephone, or you can pop us an email and we'll get back to you with appropriate and helpful information as quickly as we can.

Bye - Alice

Thats all from us, thank you for listening. Are there any questions?

Presentation Planning and Script Writing

I made a quick draft presentation based on the lists we had come up with before and then we all sat down in the studio and started putting information into our presentation. At the moment there is a lot of shifting around going on to try and make a good order for this and it has a lot of notes written on it which won't be there by the time the presentation is finished but we need them there now to help us write a script. We are using this as a tool to divide up the workload, writing on each slide who needs to produce the content and who will speak about it in the presentation. We tried to work it so that everyone felt comfortable with what they were speaking about and tried to balance out the workload.

The slides I need to work on are:

- A caricature for 'who are we?'
What do we do?

- Funding

- Finances and Costings

- Future Projections

- Exit Strategy

More Research

I think most of my research for these slides has already been covered but I still needed to look into future projections and an exit strategy. Future projections was relatively simple because it was just highlighting what would be a natural progression for our business. I thought the idea of the exhibitions and pop up events would widen the market for our business but would also change the structure as we would need more people available to work. Employing more people may become a necessity as time goes on. 

I did some research into non profit businesses and used http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-exit-strategy-nonprofit-20149.html to learn about the exit strategy possibilities. This site kept it in quite simple terms, that any leftover money in the business must be put back into the business in some way for a final event or paying off bills. Alternatively the money can be given as a charitable donation. 

Script Writing 

These are the words I have come up with to explain what will be appearing on the slides and a brief idea of the words that will be typed onto the slide.

What do we do?

Script: We are an online creative community that hosts monthly, themed competitions for UK based aspiring artists. Each month, twelve winning designs are made available to purchase as print based products through our website. We also act as a promotional platform as the winning artists can be featured on the website and our social media accounts.

Information on slide: online create community, monthly themes, twelve winning designs, print based products, promotional platform. 

Funding

Script: As we are setting up this business from scratch we are relying on funding from a number of possible sources to cover our initial costs. Organisations such as The Prince’s Trust and the Arts council could provide us with these if our applications are successful. Alternatively we could take out a small business loan to cover the initial costs and then pay this back with the income we receive each month. Most of the funds in the first year will be spent on the website and promotion and it will also cover initial printing costs. If the business takes off, we will be able to use advertising as a more stable, ongoing method of funding.

Information on slide: Prince's Trust, Arts Council, Big Lottery Fund, small business loans, personal funding, advertising.

Finances and Costings

Script: Realistially, the business depends on whether people will actually want to buy these products and this is why a consultation period is required. If the business does not succeed and the profits are not substantial enough for us to continue then we will leave the business after the consultation period has ended with limited losses. However, if we sell enough products and the numbers show that we will be able to fund our own rent for the coming years then the figures on the right of this slide will come into action.

Information on slide: two sets of figures, one for consultation period (one year) and one for years to come. 

(EXTRA SLIDE) We decided to add in the table of the pricing of our prints which I have written the script for. 

Script: We figured that this is the most effective way of pricing our products. We are using a printer who charges a set up cost and then charges a smaller fee per unit so our profit margin will increase as the quantity of prints increases. It is important to us that the artists to get a fair commission price so we have worked out that we can give them 40% of the profit after the printing costs have been covered. This works out at 66p per postcard, £3.76 per print and £5.16 per poster. If we sell twelve of each product in one month then we will be making over £2000 which can then be invested back into the business.

Information on slide: table of costs. 

Future Projections

Script: Looking towards the future, we can see opportunities for our business to develop. We could look at introducing more products to our range such as stationary and textiles. We could also start saving money on our printing costs with increased demand for products as unit costs decrease as the quantity of prints increase. There is the possibility of employing staff to carry out certain roles to allow us to spend more time on our own practice. We could also bring the artwork out of the online bubble and host exhibitions and pop-up events to hopefully get more artists and potential buyers involved.

Information on slide: wider product range, strong partnership with printers, lower printing costs per unit as numbers increase, employing more staff, exhibitions and pop up events. 

Exit Strategy

Script: We are a not for profit company which means any funds leftover after all costs and salaries have been covered must be reinvested back into the business. If there was any money left in the business after the consultation period or any of the years after that and we chose to terminate the business, the remaining funds would have to be spent in accordance to non profit legislation. This could be paying final bills and paychecks, hosting a final event or donating the money to charity or an organisation who have a similar aim and ethos to ourselves.

Information on slide: Not for profit, bills or paycheques, funding an event, charitable donation. 

Print Pricing

Georgie has been doing some more number crunching and based on her experience at an independent printers, she has used a different way of finding the costs for the prints than how we were previously trying to work it out. Before, we were using printers websites to find costs for different length runs of prints but these costs work on the basis of having a set up cost and then pain a smaller fee per unit that you print. This way, once you have made the money back for your set up cost, almost everything else is profit which does seem like a better way of doing this. 

We made this table to lay out the information in a more understandable way and find how much we could potentially make each month based on selling 12 units of each product. 

The figures that the artist would get from this are looking a lot more reasonable than what we were looking at before and we would be looking at a profit of over £2000 per month after the commission has been taken off which is a good start. I am concerned about wages, especially if there are five of us working for this company and with these numbers we will be making around £25,000 year which means £5,000 each. This is without considering any other costs that will need to be taken from this sum. It wouldn't be enough for five of us to live on but if the time was organised so that this wasn't our primary job then it might work out, especially if the sales figures went up. 

Logo Design Ideas

I drew out a few ideas for the logo of our business. I was first trying to get across the idea of a platform by having a high midline for the letters to sit against. I quite liked this idea as it suggested an upward movement which seems like a positive thing. It also represents what we are doing as a business which is elevating unknown artists into the spotlight. I did an example with a lower midline but this didn't have the same effect in my eyes. 

I then thought about adding a platform within the 'O' but when I drew it out, I thought that it distorted the letter and might look like a lowercase 'e' at a glance. 

The final idea I had was looking at showing an upward movement through an incline, arrow or steps. I think this idea might be a bit overcomplicated and cliché. It is not as easy to read as a linear arrangement of letters and seeing as we want to keep the overall design simple, this might not be the best direction to go in. 

I am looking forward to seeing everyone else's designs so we can compare and make a decision as a group about which one to use or develop further. 

Costing Issues

Not everyone could make it to the meeting today so we postponed it until tomorrow. Me and Georgie spent about five hours today going over what each of us had done and seeing how to progress. Admittedly this took longer than it should have but we kept finding ourselves going round in circles, struggling to come to any proper conclusions and landing on figures that we thought were legitimate. I really liked her ideas for the logo and I agree simple is definitely best. We will have to see what other ideas the rest of the team have come up with though. 

The conclusion of today is that everything is a bit of a mess. The costings need more consideration than we originally thought. We really need to meet as a group and discuss what people would be happy to charge for the products and whether this would actually be feasible or not. There is then the issue of wages because there is there is the chance that the sales pattern won't be steady because the designs are always changing and therefore wages may not be either. 

We're finding it really hard to come up with realistic printing costs when we have no idea how many prints will sell in the first few months. We thought about doing a print to order service to tackle this but the prices of short run printing are so much higher per unit than printing in bulk that we might be preparing for a loss. The other option is to print in bulk to get a cheaper price per unit but then we might end up with loads of leftover prints which can't be sold at the end of the month. There is the option to keep selling the work until it is sold out but that will change the whole idea of the business as it is meant to be on a monthly rotation. 

We have probably spent too much time on researching this and working things out when we have been told to keep it simple but if we are including figures in our presentation, they need to be realistic and need to make sense. 

Colours May Vary - Print Design

For the exhibition at Colours May Vary, my design needs to fit into a square format frame. Unfortunately, the prints I have produced in response to the process and production module are ovals so its not really an option for me to just crop them down to size. Instead, I am going to have to alter a design to make it a circle. 

To get this started, I shortened the height of each of my prints to see what they looked like. Some of them clearly look out of proportion like the knights for example,  but others don't actually look so bad. I have decided to go with the bishop print which is representative of secrecy, I think this is one of the prints that gets across theme the easiest and it will also take less editing. Colour also played a part in my choice because this pale green/blue colour is really popular at the moment and if I am selling prints that people might potentially want to hang on a wall in their home, this seems like a good option. 

I have decided to cut a new lino because I am not happy with the proportions in the squashed version of my digital image. Because I am cutting a new lino altogether, I have decided to try out the reduction process, so I will print blue as my first colour, cut away more of the lino and then print my black outlines. 

I printed a to scale image of the squashed image and then traced over it making any necessary changes, the main change was making the chess piece thinner but I also altered the flowers and leaves a bit too. 

I feel quite under pressure with time for this print because it is more work on top of my existing workload and I need it to go as planned first time because there is no going back with reduction lino. I am hoping this is the right route to take for this, although it is risky because I have only done reduction lino once before and on a smaller scale. I think people looking around in Colours May Vary will value a reduction lino print more than my initial digital prints because it has a more handmade quality and the fact that they will be limited edition may appeal to some people. 

Costings Research

One of my tasks for this week was to get the costings for the business sorted out. I feel like this isn't going particularly well because a lot of obstacles keep cropping up and it is harder than expected to find out actual costs of things for a theoretical business. I know we're been told to keep it simple but I'm finding it hard to find the balance because I don't want to just ignore really obvious problems. 

I used the Prince's Trust website and found a business plan which helped me to work through all the things that needed to be considered in terms of costings. I have used Duke Studios as the primary option for studio space and have looked at some other offices as a more long term option. It was mentioned to us that you as a Leeds College of Art student/graduate you can win a studio rent free for a year at Duke Studios, so this is what I think we will base our first year figures on. However, obviously this wouldn't be long term so I have had to look at funding opportunities which would go towards funding our rent for years to come after this. There is also the option of a loan but if we were actually going to do this, I doubt as recent graduates we would have the funds to put into a business we didn't know was going to be profitable. I think the Prince's Trust and Arts Council seem like the best options for grants. 

Equipment costs - I have looked at the price of a second hand iMac because it wouldn't matter to us whether it was new or not and it would save us money. I have allowed £1000 in total to cover the cost of the iMac and the Adobe subscription for the year. 

Using the guide we were given I am using £30 as the monthly insurance cost. 

The printing costs have become a sticking point for me because this is something I think I need everyone's input on. It depends what quality of print we want, how much we are willing to pay and how much profit we want to make so I think everyone needs to have some input on this. I am going to discuss this research with the rest of my team at the next meeting. I don't want to be making decisions without at least informing everyone and asking for their opinions but I think some things need to be altered for our business to be feasible financially. Because the individual print costs decrease with the quantity of products, it is hard to know what numbers we will be working with. I need a vague idea of whether we are planning to sell one of each product or one hundred because this will make a big change to our pricing strategy. 

Initial Planning for Presentation

Results of today's session...

We have finally decided on a name : Platform. It got to the point where there wasn't really a preference between Platform and Springboard but we took a vote and Platform won almost unanimously. I am happy with this decision because I think the word conveys the ethos of our business which is to support aspiring artists. We are providing a service/platform to raise their profile and successes. 

Ideas raised when discussing what to include in out presentation...

• Handmade elements to be viewed on screen to get across the idea of supporting artistic talent and craft. 
• Georgie had a great idea of having caricatures of ourselves to make things more personal and match a name to a face. All done individually to get across a range of styles which fits in with the concept of our business which is accepting of all styles of artwork.  
• Using the business as a way to fund our own individual practice through wages. 
• Consultation period - Duke Street Studios? 1st year free?
• Initial funding - arts council, lottery, local trusts and funds, personal sponsorship. 
• Continuative funding - more long term options. 
• Not for profit organisation - nor for guarantee. (As long as there is no money left in the business after expensive and all profits are fed back into business in some way. No shareholders.)

I didn't really know a lot about non-profit organisations but Patrick explained today that the business can still make profit after expenses as long as this money is put back into the business. I think this would work well for our business because being 'not for profit' fits in with the fact we are there to help people and not just in it for the money. 

The idea of finding funding as well is something that will probably have to be ongoing and not just a preliminary thing. This is something I hadn't actually thought of but I suppose it would make sense for us because it would mean that we are not totally reliant on the sale of prints. 

After discussing some issues for a while we came up with a more structured plan for our presentation which we could then start to split up into separate tasks which we could distribute out. 

1. Name (logo) and tagline. (ALL CONTRIBUTE)

2. Introducing us - names and caricatures. (ALL CONTRIBUTE)

3. What we do - include a venn diagram showing where we fit. (ALICE)

4. Manifesto (simplified version, consider five key statements). (ALL)

5. Target audience. (ALL)

6. Visuals - website. (GEORGIE)

7. Process - a flowchart showing the process from submission to purchase. (TYLER)

8. Visuals - branded packaging design. (REBECCA)

9. Promotion - social media presence, blogging, direct contact, networking. (TBC)

10. Individual roles within the business - business structure. (promotion, blog, financing, search for funding, shipping, website updating, liaison...) (ALL)

11. Location - office space. (ALICE)

12. Costings. (NAOMI)

13. Future projections. (NAOMI AND ALICE)

14. Exit strategy (links to terms of non-profit organisation). (NAOMI)

15. Contact. (ALL)

16. Goodbye and thanks. (ALL)

Overall piecing together of presentation (ALL)

The tasks have been split up amongst us so we can go away and complete these before our next meeting. Some of the things we all need to contribute to like the idea for logo design and the distribution of roles within the company so these will have to be done while we are all together. A lot of the other things that are labelled that we all are to contribute are actually already sorted. For example we already have a manifesto and a target audience, we just need to simplify the wording of these to make them work in the presentation. 

We briefly discussed script writing and said it should be done altogether as nobody really thought writing was their strength. I don't think we would be able to write a script before the presentation is put together anyway because we need to know how the order is going to flow yet. The list above shows a general order but I think this will end up being shifted around once we start putting this together. 

I have realised since the session that we haven't covered all aspects of our SWOT analysis in the presentation which is something we might want to include. Threats to the business might be something we want to address but then again we don't want to bring negative aspects of our business to the forefront of our presentation. It might be wiser to have some strong answers prepared in case these issues become raised as questions at the end. 

I think the presentation needs to be kept simple and to the point - our process of out business is quite difficult to explain briefly so I am very wary of overcomplicating this. I feel that it could put people off if it comes across as more elaborate than it needs to be. When we have decided on a logo for our business, the theme of the presentation should probably be based around this to show consistency and professionalism. 

Without sounding overly optimistic, I am quite happy to be working with the numbers for this business. I personally thought the teaching for this brief would involve more knowledge about costings so this way I will get to learn about this myself. I think it really important to understand the money aspect of a business - it is an essential skill for the future, especially if the end goal is being self employed. 

I think it is important to keep in contact with my group over Facebook this week so we can all keep working along the same wavelength. My individual tasks for this week are...

• Design some ideas for the logo. 
• Produce a small caricature of myself for the 'introducing us' slide. 
• Try simplifying the manifesto into a few concise statements. 
• Make a list of all the things that need to be considered for costings. 
• Do some research to find out some numbers to put against these different things. 
• Look into funding opportunities. 
• Work with Alice to think of the future opportunities for the business. 
• Think about how this would affect our costings. 
• Research the legislation of a not for profit business and find out the exit strategy. 

Life's a Pitch Session Notes

Review of the Brief

• As an illustrator, you will always be working with other people in one way or another. 
• Plan and propose a presentation that will inform the panel about our business idea. 
• What skills and services do we have to offer? As a group and also individually within the team. 
• Target market. Consider marketing and how to reach the audience. 
• Who is the competition? What makes us different or better and will allow us to compete?
• Cost, charges and financial considerations. 
• Structure of the business/studio. What are the roles that need to be filled for the business to work? Who will be responsible for what? Does this involve any collaboration with other disciplines such as graphic design?
• How to promote the services we provide. Who is best to talk to? Through what methods should people be reached? Networking. 

Figure out my own responses to these points and then we can all combine them into our group presentation that everyone contributes to. Answer these questions in response to myself and in response to the business. This may help my own understanding of where I belong individually. 

Summarise and evaluate the presentation and project after we have done the presentation. All blogging must be completed by this. Reflect on the success and how it could inform future pitches for my own professional practice. What have I learnt?

Other points

• Agencies/agents - it is in their interest to talk to people, become familiar with that people want and individuals who would be interested in certain things. They would promote the people who belong to the agency. 

A 10 minute presentation - best shown on screen. 

At least 50% of the presentation needs to be about selling the business. 

Be aware of the grading criteria - use this is a guideline. 
Blogging to be complete by the 8th Feb. 

Start up and Project Costing Rates

• Rental costs
• Computers and other technology
• Software
• Utility bills and internet
• Food and travel
• Studio equipment
• Insurance
• Materials
• Salaries

Presentation - things to consider and include

• Who we are as a business, put a face to the voice and make ourselves familiar to other people.
• Why choose us?
• What do we stand for? Manifesto/mission statements/where we want to be. 
• Costings, consider a yearly basis but only very simply. 
• Aims and objectives
• Members
• Ownership and management, 
• Start up finances and ongoing finances. 
• Our target market. 
• Distribution. 
• Exit strategy. 
• Long term plan. 
• Branding - how does this work on products and promotional material?
• Website and how it functions
• Aspirations for further down the line
• How to get in touch. Location and contact details. 
• Tone of voice and appropriateness of imagery. 
• Spell check and grammar. 

Part 2

• 10 minute presentation which summarises my reflection of the course to date (MAY). 

Business Name Feedback

We posted this on Facebook almost a week ago in an attempt to get some feedback. We didn't get a response from as many people as I had hoped, probably because the group this was sent to was quite small, we probably would have needed to reach out to a wider audience if we wanted a stronger response. However, 'springboard' has clearly come across as the favourite here with 'platform' being mentioned as well. I hope that we can decide on a name during the next meeting now we have a bit of input from people outside of our group. I personally would be happy with either of these names, spring board does sound more exciting and the 'board' aspect could be linked to drawing. I also like platform because it seems supportive which fits well with our business concept. 

Idea for Presentation Plan

In preparation for our session tomorrow I thought I would review what has been done so far to try and create a list of things to include in out presentation. This really needs to get going soon because the presentation is only in two weeks.

• Name
• Our manifesto.
• The business concept.
• Define the audience.
• Where does our business fit in terms of sectors and services, the current market?
• What do we care about?
• The process of how the competition works.
• Products available.
• Costings.
• Social media presence, forums, newsletters, etc.
• How are the roles of the business split up?
• Legislation.
• SWOT analysis.
• Final word.

This plan does have a vague order to it but I don't think this order will make optimum impact. The middle section seems a bit all over the place. Hopefully we can develop this plan as a group to get the ball rolling with the preparation of this presentation. 

In terms of the making of the presentation, it might be best for everyone to have their own individual tasks to do and these can be compiled in to a presentation over the course of a few meetings. I personally thing the theme of the presentation should be kept very simple and to the point, a simple design suggests that we are professional and have a clear idea of what we are doing. The script needs to be clear and to the point and I think its really important that we practice this as a group before the actual presentation. 

OUIL504 Summative Evaluation

This module has definitely been a journey for me, I feel my work has become more conceptually driven and I have moved away from being literal and started to visually represent the intangible. 

I informed an opinion on Agatha Christie very early on which stemmed from my prior knowledge of her work and my initial research. My opinion is very two sided because her stories are a pleasant read, however this relaxed vibe contrasts with the dark things actually taking place and the bad feeling between characters that lies below the surface. This idea is something I have carried through my whole project from the very first mark making task to my final prints. 

Drawing around a theme is something I find useful when becoming familiar with a topic and I think I have produced a broad range of work. This began in my summer work and continued in my visual journal, it helps me to get all my obvious ideas out of my head and I can start to look past them and consider more sophisticated ideas and concepts. Merging these drawings with my research led to the development of strong, informed concepts.

I think my prints and animation do work well as a collection. They are clearly linked through process, colour and texture and the key feature of the chess piece in each means they literally do form a set. The oval frame is something which exists in all of my outcomes and the vague symmetry of the composition creates consistent layouts as well. 

The process of drawing and redrawing things, tweaking them each time is something that is just becoming a matter of course for me now. This has been especially noticeable where I have had to simplify my sketchbook drawings to make them appropriate for linocut.

I had never used AfterEffects before this module so I have learned a whole new skill from scratch. The only animation I have done before involved the use of individual frames so this is a totally new approach. I understand how the program works but the transition from a storyboard onto screen is something that took a while for me to get used to.  

I am glad I loosened up with my mono printing this year. In last year’s workshop I stuck to my subject matter too closely and it inhibited my experimentation. This year I was more confident to try out new things and this is what sparked the use of textures within my work. I have kept a bank of textures now because I really like how they can change the aesthetic of an image so drastically. 

Linocutting is harder than it looks, what I produced took a lot of concentration and this was a learning process for me. I had never cut lino before but I think my skills have improved as I got used to the tools and action, it just takes practice and patience. It would have been great if I had managed to print my finals entirely through analogue methods. This is my main regret with this brief, I feel like I settled for the easier option too soon. 

I think screen print is something I will always be battling with. I don’t find the process enjoyable which is frustrating because I have seen how great the outcomes can look. It is just something I really struggle to connect with and I always seem to revert to digital processes when making my positives. Maybe the next time I use this process I should use hand drawn positives.

Colour is one of my main weaknesses. I love working with black and white imagery so adding a second colour was a challenge and as a result of this, the decisions about colour were left to the very end of the project. Part of me thinks I could have pushed myself more with colour by eliminating the use of black.

I have been really strict on myself with my blog because blogging retrospectively is really frustrating as I can’t remember what I was thinking at the time. For this reason, I blogged most days so my ongoing evaluation was running parallel to the development of my project. This allowed me to be as honest as possible and also meant there was very fewer things I forgot about. 

Organisation and time management have been good for this module, I have kept a list of things to do on my laptop which I continuously have been updating, I then select things from this to do each day. I worked hard over the Christmas break to try and keep up with my workload, I did wear myself out and started feeling anxious that I hadn't got enough work and it wasn't good enough. Stress is something that is becoming more of an issue with me, deadlines have always stressed me out but I am finding it harder to manage the ongoing pressures of the course. I know I need to give myself a break, but I see how much work I have to do and feel that my time could be used more wisely. This is an attitude that I really need to change before I run myself down.

I lost a lot of confidence in my work at a few points in this project and sometimes found myself treating feedback as approval. Feedback is important but I want to have the confidence in my work to trust my instincts.

There have been ups and downs with my motivation for this project, I would be churning out lots of work and then have a phase where I just cant see how to progress. I guess this is just a part of being creative. I am normally driven by the pressure of a deadline as a project comes to an end but this time especially because I am really keen to up my game this year.