FMP

Illustrator - Fon Fon - design context contributor

Fon is a Leeds based Illustrator, whos work is often seen in street art & graffiti, but fon also has a website and picks up live briefs from clients, one example of who Fon has worked with is barnados. Fons approach is quite broad, as she makes plush toys, one off canvases and illustration for her online portfolio and exhibitions. Fon had a recent exhibtion at North bar, Leeds, called Zombies monsters and guts OH MY!

I have asked fon to feature in my design context publication and she kindly agreed. Her work is fun and playful, and i personally am a big fan. Fon also is really good at showing how diverse her approach is, which im sure opens up more doors for her than if she only had one main way of producing and displaying illustration. I havent yet asked fon for any hi res images of her work for the book, but will be doing in the next week or so.

contacting the guardian.

I contacted the contributors inquiry section of the guardian yesterday, because I wanted basically to get feedback about the work I have recently produced based on G2 headlines. I also asked them if I could send them some hard copy versions of the work, just to see what comes out of it. On their website they say if you dont recieve a reply within a couple of days, feel free to phone, so that is the next plan if I hear nothing back. For now though, I directed whoever recieved my email (the adress was pictures@guardian.co.uk) to my website page with the editorial illustrations on them.

http://www.jonnypackham.co.uk/root/editorial/

Hopefully I'll here back from them even if it is just feedback, but it would be great to get something out of this. That or just to be safe in the knowledge that I am in their heads.

I asked If I could send a hard copy because in addition to some hard copies Im going to send them a little promo pack which Im developing at the moment, which has all the illustrations I produced from that project in it. I'll post that up as soon as its finished.

Design context - idea, research activity and contacts

I thought i'd put up a post about where I'm at with my design context project. After my PPD presentation, I decided that the research I am undertaking needs to reflect my practice as a freelance illustrator more than it has been, it was previously more focused on just print places, which isnt all that I want to know about. I decided that I needed to formulate some questions aimed at other freelance illustrators, that were engineered in a way that would give an insight into their practice based on their answers. Ive decided my target audience is going to be young aspiring illustrators who arent sure if illustration as a career is an attainable prospect. Here are the questions I developed - based on what I want to know, as well as what I think could help others gain an insight into the world of freelance illustration.

- First off, could you write a litle bio about yourself you know all the basic stuff like where youre from, what you like doing, the fun stuff! dont worry about how long, we can sort that at a later date! thankyou!

- When did you realise that illustration/art was what you wanted to do? Is there a back story to it?

- What was your first ever paid brief, who was the client, what was the story, and how'd it go!?

- What is your favourite piece of work you have ever done, is there a few? why do you like this/ these ones?

- What in your eyes, is the best part of being an illustrator?

- In your opinion, and from looking at your work and other people's, what makes a successful illustration?

- How long have you been drawing, and what motivates you do carry on doing it?

- Do you prefer self directed work, or working for a client/ customer... why?

- Who is your all time favourite artists? what do you like about them.

- What inspires your work, how do you get inspiration for what you do?

- What materials and mediums are you most in your element using, and what informs your medium choice from piece to piece?

- Do you ever work to a mantra? If you do, do you mind sharing this mantra?

- If you could sum yourself up as an artist in one sentence, what would you say?

I decided that I needed to send these questions to a range of illustrators each with their own unique approach, in an effort to get a wide range of answers and responses. So far, here is a list of people that I have sent these questions to:

Kid Acne
Fon
Godmachine
MrBingo
Mark Howe
Loch Ness
Neil Parkinson
SPzero76
Drew Millard

...And Fon, Mr Bingo, SPzero76, Loch Ness and Neil Parkinson have got back to me and are thinking about what they are going to write as we speak. I did also email Si Scott, but im unsure if he will reply based on my ill behaviour! (or just down to how busy he is) Im going to send these questions to more illustrators, The ones I have in mind at the moment are - JR Goldberg, Kev Grey, Andrew Joyce and Aaron Miller. I say these people because I think there is a chance they may get back to me and love to get involved. I might have been setting my sights a bit to high for the moment, but i suppose time will tell on that front.

Based on all of this, my concept is at the moment: 10 Illustrators, 10 questions. Which will have (hopefully) 10 interviews with illustrators as feature double pages, supplemented by case studies of a range of illustrators with different approaches. I have a design direction in mind, which would be this:

Simple, clean, fun and engaging.

Produced by Victionary: http://www.victionary.com

I want the publication I produce to have the same fun and passionate approach to the subject at hand, because I think this is really accessible and engaging to the audience of aspiring illustrators I am aiming to go for. Being one, I know that a fun yet dashing approach is way more likely to have a more profound affect on a reader and lover of illustration than a boring or serious approach.

I'll keep you posted on how my research develops!

Morning Breath & Mudwig

Morningn breath:

“Morning Breath is Doug Cunningham and Jason Noto. In 1996, the two worked together on skateboard designs at Think Skateboards in San Francisco. There, they discovered they had similar tastes and influences, many of which were associated with the late 70s and early 80s. These included everything from sniffing glue and punk rock to racking paint and hip hop.”