Establishing my Web Presence

Identity

Introduction

Research of contemporary Designers and Illustrators

International

Deanne Cheuke - Illustrator, Designer, Art director and Artist.

Born in Perth, Western Australia - Currently working in New York

Not only is Cheuke an exceedingly successful Designer. Her website is full of a huge variety of different styles and types of work, all of it with an unbelievable amount of skill and detail. She is famously known for her illustrative typography. It was her typography that caught my eye in the book, "Hand Job"and since then I have studied more of her work to fall more and more in love with it.

Neither Fish Nor Fowl - Independent Operation - Brooklyn, New York.

NFNF is a brand and a shop which will always remain small and independent. It specialises in illustrated and printed goods such as posters and postcards and maps. I really like the work as it's unique and recognisable to the brand. It's quirky and very cleverly presented. The fact that it will always remain independent makes it special. 

Dan Funderburgh - Brooklyn-based Illustrator, Artist and Wallpaper Designer

Funderburgh focuses mainly on wallpaper design with a very unique style of highly detailed prints. I also found his work in the "Hand Job" book originally, a page of his type doodles. Although his work isn't related to what I tend to do, it really caught my attention. his attention to detail is just incredible.

National

Adam Hayes - London Based Illustrator and Graphic Designer

The work of Hayes' that drew my attention to him was his illustrative type. Although he has an original and unique style, his work can variate a lot between type and image. Some of it appears quite cartoon like where as other pieces are very sophisticated and detailed. His type is all hand rendered too.

Ben Rider - London Based Illustrator and Print maker 

Rider produces many inspiring series of prints in a number of different printing techniques. His work is not only beautiful but it has humour to it. Most of his pieces are chaotic and exciting and extremely vibrant with their colours.

Adrian Johnson - Graphic Designer from Liverpool

Comical, clever and contemporary, Johnson's illustrations are said to make him one of the leading current illustrators. They are bold in colour and have hidden meanings and symbols making them more than what meets the eye. They all follow the same style too making them memorable and recognisable to him.

Local

Henning Löhlein - Bristol Illustrator 

Löhlein in a professional practising book illustrator who was born in Germany but is now based in Bristol. I really love his work for it's entertainment value and the pure skill of his beautiful drawings and characters. His style covers a broad range of childlike and more adult drawings. I particularly like his editorial page on his website. 

James Gibbs - Freelance Illustrator and Designer based in Bristol

James Gibbs was born in Swansea and moved to Bristol to pursue his freelance Illustration career. His work is very cartoon like and quirky and clever. I like the block colours he uses and carefully considered layouts of his images. Each illustration has a clever theme or story behind it too which i really like. 

Rob Hodgson - Bristol Based Illustrator and Designer

I fell in love with Hodgson's work when I came across it on the internet. It has such a delightful element to it and is a brilliantly unique style. He has a beautiful abstract style that I just cannot get enough of. The style is sketchy and scruffy too which gives it that delightful childlike feel. 

SWOT Analysis

Strengths  Weaknesses  Opportunities  Threats

This was an exercise we did using David Bowie, to practise using SWOT Analysis

Strengths Voice Style Influential Glam rock Good musician Flexible with style Unique/individual Iconic International Success	Weaknesses Outdated Over booking Poor marketing Dated fan base
Opportunities Glam rock Has a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame Film Industry Music Industry Books e.g. biography Merchandise Memorabilia Record lables	Threats Current culture – new talent Piracy Rival record labels Aging – younger musicians Losing publicity

Design = Intimately connected to change


Press = Change made public

Logo Designing

I am not very confident on the Adobe programs such as Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator yet but I have been practising.

















These above are examples of me trying to put ideas into Illustrator.

The below are my sketches of ideas for a mix of Wordmark and Lettermark logotypes. They are all based around the letters or initials for my name. Through these logos I am attempting to represent my illustration/graphic design work. Because I am mainly illustration based at the moment I wanted to make it very arty and and loose but also have an element of digital in it.

Word Mark Logo Ideas

I avoided using my whole first name for my word mark logos. This is because I think using my whole first name seems to obvious. Although I do have an unusual name. I have lots of nicknames such as Aish and Smasha which is why I experimented with them. I also love my surname because it is so different so I might make my logo out of that. Also, when an audience of an Artist, Illustrator or Designer describes them or work they will always refer to them as there surname, never their first. So by incorporating my surname into my logo, it will become memorable and recognisable. 

All or at least most of my ideas are drawn in ink. This is because the majority of my work is done in ink and is very lucid. I think it's an important thing to keep the ink in my logo to represent this. 

Lettermark Ideas

This is my favourite idea so far so i am going to put it into illustrator and work on it further to see if I can get anywhere with it.

This is more of a combination mark logo type but I was just playing about to see how it works when type is involved. This way it is more clear what the logo represents.

These are all my ideas of playing about with my initials. The two below are an example of me attempting to put an idea into Adobe Illustrator. As you can see I still need lots of practise! But I am learning.

 Because all of my logo ideas are in ink, I decided to try out drawing it in pencil and then scanning it in to photoshop and editing it. It looks nice and I like the effect. However it doesn't represent what sort of work I do which is why I am going to stick to ink.

Symbol/Icon Ideas

For my ideas for my symbol/icon logo designs I could maybe explore the meaning of my name and try to make a symbol from that rather than just of your typical drawing and illustration symbols. Or even combine the two maybe?

Meaning of "Aisling"
Irish name

In Irish, the name Aisling means- vision, dream. The name Aisling orginated as an Irish name. The name Aisling is most often used as a girl name or female name.

Irish Name Meaning -vision, dream

Origin -Ireland

This is my first idea for a symbol logo. It is dream/vision like and also has elements of illustration in it with it's imperfect structure and line. 

Combination Word and Emblem Logo Ideas

This was the favourite of my designs amongst my group in class. However I am unhappy with the font used and also the positioning of it and the colour.

After going through these designs with a few of my classmates, they helped me in photoshop with changing them to look more professional. We came up with the below design.

After having a class crit over this we discovered a lot of problems and solutions to this logo design. 

Problems:

• All typographic based (could be a problem because I have called myself and Illustrator not a Typographer)
• Text looks awkward where it is. Looks a bit lost.
• Does the circle confine illustrative element so it looks restricted or does it confine it so it looks professional and suggests I am a punctual person, even though my work is vibrant and loose. 

Positive feedback:

• The symbol of the letters itself is strong and works when both large and small.
• The marks strongly represent my Illustrative ink work and my unique style.
• Stuart suggested that it look a little bit like a cell and he liked that idea, that more ideas stem from this one cell. He wants me to explore this idea further.

How to change:

• Some people suggested turning the symbol on itself so that the 'C' is the right way round and the 'A' stemming from it. This way it will be more clear for what it's saying. I am not too sure about this suggestion but am going to try it anyway.
• I could change where the writing is positioned so it doesn't look so lost. For example I could use the corner of a page so it looks protected. 
• Maybe lose the circle altogether 
• Change the colour scheme? Although I am fond of this colour scheme for it is the closest to the work I do without just having the obvious and a bit too crisp black and white.

Altered Design Ideas 

Some for the better and some for the worse.

I have decided to use this as my logo to represent my Illustration work. After altering it slightly after the class crit I had on it I couldn't be happier with it. I have had lots of positive feedback on it from other people who aren't on the course too. 

Establishing Myself Online

I recently signed up on Behance and uploaded some of my work. I have just gone back on there to find that someone appreciated my work. I haven't actually done much more on my website so will make it my target this week end to get that promoted more and potentially upload some more of my current work.

This is my page so far. As you can see I haven't done a lot on my profile and I don't even have a photo to represent myself yet! This is all things I need to work on. 

I am working on setting myself up a Facebook page too. I have wanted to do this for a long time but have been too nervous to do it, in fear of being nocked down and criticised. However the past couple of months of doing this Professional Contexts work has really boosted my confidence in myself and my work and I finally took the plunge and did it.

After only just over 12 hours I have had a lot of 'likes' and lots of praise for my work. People that I don't even know have appreciated my work which is even more exciting!

I have been online again today and three people have shared my page with comments such as, "amazing talent". I am so excited about this and really want to get more work up on it as quickly as possible to maintain people's interest.

I have now reached over 100 likes! 

I have also made myself a LinkedIn Profile.

I am currently signing up on Pinterest now too after looking back on my original notes on how to establish my web presence. 

I have only just joined it and I already feel so inspired by all the incredible Illustrations and Artwork I have come across. I can't believe I have never signed up for this before!