DD2000. Suzanne Lee Talk

Suzanne Lee is a fashion designer turned biological conjurer. Suzanne Lee Directs the BioCulture project, which came from and idea in her book Fashioning the Future: Tomorrow’s Wardrobe in which she discusses fashion and future technologies: Can we grow a dress from a vat of liquid?

Her talk was very interesting as she discusses something I personally have never seen or even heard of before. She talks about making her own ‘vegetable leather’, she tells us how this is done and how it can be used. She uses bacteria, yeasts and organisms in a fermentation process to spin threads to create a matt on the surface. She uses boiled tea and sugar which when cooled living organisms are added; she keeps the liquid at a certain temperature in a bath (or if nice out, outside).  When left for up to 2-3 weeks it is ready to wash and spread out for the water to evaporate which will then leave the end product. This can then be sewn and coloured by using iron oxidation, vegetable staining or indigo.  You can tell that Suzanne is truly passionate and interested in this new method and way of producing fabric and is still finding new things to do and flaws, which need to resolve. She talks about her appeal to the fabric and how it almost resembles human skin, which is something she likes and is interested in. When the fabric is done and hasn’t been coloured the tea leaves it this kind of nude but transparent colour. She then goes into the problems she has found, such as it isn’t water resistant as it is made of water. If you were to go outside in the rain the fabric would fall apart and the stitching would come apart. She is really interested in keeping the fabric as environmentally friendly and recycled as possible, the liquid left over to make the fabric can be re-used again, the ways in which she forms colour on the fabric is using vegetable stain; also the indigo she would use to die it would only have to be dipped once for a very short time, but she said that cotton would have to be dipped several times.

Her talk drew me in straight away from the word go, she is very dedicated and determined to carry on and be successful at what she is doing. Overall a brilliant talk.


Word Count: 403

DD2000. Fig Taylor

We have recently had a talk at university from the very successful AOI portfolio advisor, Fig Taylor. This was a very truthful and eye-opening talk on how to present your work and portfolio to potential clients. She was a woman who didn’t mess around and was straight to the point, and also very passionate about the illustration industry and wanting to help people hoping to get into it.

She told us all the main things to avoid doing and to use to create the strongest portfolio possible. Pieces of work should always be finished and of a same style as the rest of work in the portfolio. If you have more than one distinctive style then you should create more than one portfolio. Keep one portfolio for one style. The portfolio size shouldn’t be too large, so avoid A1 and A0. You should never put work you personally don’t like in your portfolio, if they like it you might have to continue doing something you hate. Work should be presented to a professional standard and never on a Pc screen. The portfolio should be suitable and relevant to the client you are going to see. Show what makes you different from everyone else. Life drawings and sketches aren’t necessary, they know that you can draw already; however don’t hesitate to take sketchbooks, they may be interested to see how you work. If you have any 3D pieces such as packaging you should always get it photographed professionally, rubbish photos don’t do your work any justice.

Fig Taylor had many, many useful tips and valid points, which I probably wouldn’t have considered. Her talk has made me think more about what work to use and how to structure my portfolio. I will definitely be thinking of her talk when creating any future portfolio.

Word Count: 305

Editorial re-work. "You May Scoff"

I have re-worked this piece as the last one I did for it I didn't think it was clear that the article was about weight, so added the tape measures. I added these in the last piece but after a uni crit it was clear that they weren't effective, the feedback I got also was that the balls of tape were too perfect and round so I balled some tape up myself, took a photo and copied it. I also thought the colour of the tape needed changing so i have changed the yellow to a green colour. 

Any thoughts or changes?

DD2000. Design Practice 1-Ben Tallon

Earlier this year our university was visited during an editorial project we were in the middle of by a former UCLAN student and illustration practitioner Ben Tallon. The lecture couldn’t have been at a better time as Ben has had much success in the editorial area. I found the talk very helpful and inspiring as he talked about his university experience and how he got where he is today.

Ben Tallon has worked for many different clients to date, but he has worked very hard to work for the people/companies he has. He explained that he actually invited himself to an art director’s home for dinner once after an exhibition, who he then went on to do illustrations for on an advert for E4.

He has helped me gain confidence in that I can’t look for a style and that a style will find me. Ben explained how he tried to be like an inspired illustrator and his work then lost its sense of quality. It’s pointless trying to be like someone who has mastered the style. He went on to show us a piece of his third year uni work in comparison to the work he does now and what helped him to produce his work. Having studio space and people to talk to about his work helped him work.

Going back to the editorial project we were doing at this time, Ben gave us an editorial piece to do a draft for by the end of that day. He came around the class and helped many of us improve our current ideas. A day to me seemed like a very short time to have a complete idea, but this was quite a long period of time compared to how long Ben mentioned he had had for previous works. He told us about how he was given an outline idea for a brief to do and agreed to do it, only then to find out he had around 48 hours or so to illustrate many pages for a booklet, he laughed about it when he told us but said he was exhausted, frustrated and barely slept to get it done.

I also felt like I could relate to some of the things he said about his work about style and media. He mentioned that he enjoyed and wanted to include collage but it wasn’t his strong point and distracted you from his line drawings. He went onto talk about how he started to use Photoshop to put his work together, which is something I have started to teach myself and still not great at. Ben said that a lot of his earlier work tended to be on white background as he found it difficult to change with having layers on ‘multiply’ which is something I struggle with, he said to just work at it and in time your skills will only get better.

Ben had quite a lot of stories to tell and advice to give us, which I’m sure we all found extremely helpful. He also answered many questions we all had about his work and the progression of his style.

Word Count- 523

Editoials Finals.

Over the past two weeks at uni, we have been working on editorail work. We were given an article every, morning and had to produce a draft illustration by the end of each day. We have then selected two of the four draft to produce pieces of work from...

You May Scoff

The artcicle covered various areas as to how we put on and lose weight in ways we wouldn't really notice. I chose the part of the article which talked about how when we get a cold we have an increase in fat cells and an increase in the fat contained in these cells. I still think it needs a little work, after having a uni crit I am going to re-do the tape measures.

How To Maximise Your Memory

This article was about different ways we remember things and tests which have proved some of these methods. I did this illustration based on part where it talked about the 'tip of the tongue theory'. They asked student volunteers to name obscure objects such as an abacus. If they left them trying to remember the name of the object for 30 seconds they would be more likely to have a 'tip of the tongue' state, but if they let them know after only 10 seconds they were more likely to remember next time. 

Again, I think I'm going to do a little more work on this. After having the crit for this the feedback was mainly good, but I was told that the text in the tongue area needed changing.

The Big Issue-Ben Tallon

At the end of the week when we did the drafts, the illustrator Ben Tallon came in to discuss his work and then gave us a brief from the Big Issue magazine. It was about an anti-fear directory, which helped people with worries about money and debts and things. I tried to symbolise the emotion people get when they feel like this and wanted to show that there is light at the en of the tunnel. Again after a uni crit I have decided to make a couple of changes, I would like to use a better model for the man at the bottom and make it so he is moving out of the rain into the sun.

Black Swan- REWORKED.

After having a crit at Uni I have made some amendments. I personally wasn't happy with the text on the last one, but I'm also still unsure with this one. What do you think?

I was told that the space could have been filled a little better so I have also put some more "darkness" and texture around the portrait.

Another thing I wasn't completely happy with was the lines on the face which I have tried to perfect a little.

Which one do you prefer?

Editorial number 5- FINAL.