OUIL501 Evaluation

I think this module has taught me a lot about managing workload, this being because I didn’t do a very good job at it. For the first time on this course, I have been stressing a lot about the work load. After having the stress of getting my work done in time, it’s made me realise the importance of doing a little as you go along instead of leaving it. But instead of getting annoyed at myself for this, I’m going to take this as a learning curve. Now I have fully experienced this, I feel like I will definitely take it on board, not just for my next two submissions, but for the future modules. I have also learnt from this module that this isn’t the way that I work, as I enjoyed the 504 and 505 module a lot more. I think having a long thin module makes me think that I have a lot of time to do my work, which in reality of course isn’t true. Having a shorter amount of time to get my work done in gives me more pressure, making me get on with my work a lot more. I will think about this in the future in terms of my career, I should go into something that provides me with short deadlines to work by. 

In terms of methods and image making, I did learn how to do simple pop-up. Although I didn’t take it into my final practical response, it is something that may be more appropriate as a response in future work. I also re-taught myself how to make a hardback book, as this piece of information had been buried in the back of my mind from foundation. Now I have created my first successful hardback book, I should definitely use this method again in later projects or maybe even for fun. 

The strengths that I have shown in this module is my willingness to explore methods that aren’t in my comfort zone. This being evident in my pop-up exploration and the style I chose for my final practical response. Although I used to do realistic painting a lot back in my GCSE days, it’s not something I really go to anymore or honestly enjoy that much. It seems a bit silly going for a method that I don’t really enjoy doing, I think it was the best material and ‘style’ to go for, as anything else would not have looked half as good. I also think that this shows good initiative, knowing what will work and what won’t and not just going for what I feel comfortable doing as you won’t really get anywhere with that mindset.  

A weakness from this module apart from my time keeping was not wanting to give up on something even if I knew deep down that it wasn’t working. I should have ditched the pop-up idea a lot earlier then when I did, but I was blinded by wanting to try something new that would look cool. I need to realise that some things don’t need fancy flaps and pop-ups and can work even better just being simple but convicted well. Again I’m taking this as a learning curve to be aware of what really isn’t working for me and address it straight away. To capitalise on this, I will have a ‘stop and reflect’ every 2 weeks to see where I’m wasting my own time and what I should push forward. I think this will then impact a lot with my time management, because I think my time management was so terrible for this module because I was very stuck and just didn’t try to solve the very apparent problem. I also didn’t submerse myself into the module as much as I should of. I wish I researched a lot more about relevant subjects and different paths that I could’ve and maybe should’ve explored. 

But, one of the main things that I can take away from this module is that I have found a tone of voice that I really enjoy doing - satire. Once I started writing the short statements for my book and also doing the illustrations in 505, I found myself getting so involved in it, coming up with all these ideas. This has made me think that this is something I really want to get into in the future for my work. I really want to capitalise on this and make it the best that I possibly can make it. Although this module didn’t go as well as I wanted it to, the fact that it’s made me realise this has made it all worth it. 

OUIL501 Practical Response

OUIL501 COP Essay

OUIL501 COP 3 Proposal

OUIL501 I actually did it - FINAL BOOK

I have had quite a stressful morning with this stupid book. I finished all my paintings and writing and had it all set up on InDesign ready to print - yay. But when I went to print it, James said it wouldn't work and should just have a thicker stock for my front cover because I don't have enough pages to create a hardback. So I began to panic a bit, because I really don't think it'll look half as good with paper. But, my mock up didn't turn out too bad, so I thought no I'm still going to pursue my dream of a hardback.

And I actually did it

After not really thinking I'd have a finished book in time, I managed to create a 12 page hardback book. It may be a little not really perfect, but I am pleased with what I have achieved, I never thought I'd be able to finish it! This book has given me a lot of confidence, because I don't even really like making publications in the first place, but I am for once proud of this. I now would consider doing a publication again, although if I were to do a hardback I would hopefully have more pages next time… 

I'm also happy with the context with my book, because I think this is one of the first times that my work has a juicy amount of context to the illustrations. Although the style of my illustrations isn't what I really like doing, it works really well for this. But if I had more time, I would have liked to have proper full page illustrations of the types of people who would drink these cocktails to be drinking them instead of just having the drinks. This is my fault though because I should managed my time a hell of a lot better, so this is a real shame. 

But overall I am pleased with this, it has also made me realise that satire is something that I should continue to do in the future, as it's also working well in my 505. I am excited to see where this takes me. 

OUIL501 Mock Up - Hardback

I have decided to do a hardback cover for my book, because that's what ladybird books have, and thought it wouldn't look as good if it was just paper. I'm a bit worried for my final, as we only have 8-12 pages, so maybe it won't work too well as hard books do need quite a few pages to work. I thought before I just went for it that I should make a hardback book mock up to see if it would actually work. I learnt how to make them in foundation, so hopefully I'll still remember how to make them… I remember it not being too hard so was optimistic.

I am very glad I have done this before doing my real one, because I had made the spine far too big, forgetting that I didn't have many pages so I for my real one I need to make it as small as I can. Apart from that, I think it'll work out!

OUIL501 Extra Extra

Annoyingly, I have given myself extra work where it wasn't needed. I don't think I realised how small a 8-12 book is, and, after realising that the book would look better with one page illustration one page text, it means I can only include 4 out of 6 of my cocktails. This is a shame because this means I've wasted x amount of hours painting them, but I suppose it's better to have too much work than not enough. If there wasn't a limit, I would have liked to have done a 16+ page book, but sadly this just isn't possible.

OUIL501 Ladybird Book Inspo 2

I had already decided to base my book on a Ladybird book, having a nice painted illustration with the satirical text, but I didn't think about layout. When i put the writing with the illustration I didn't think it looked right, something was missing.

It seemed to be a bit too messy on the page, and with some of the cocktails like the Manhattan, I wasn't sure where to put the writing. So I went and looked at an actual Ladybird book and saw that they have the illustration on full on one page and writing on the other. Annoyingly this means I'm going to have to do less cocktails due to the page allowance, but I think it will look a lot better. And I think it'll make it more clear that I'm almost recreating a Ladybird book. 

It also made me think that I shouldn't have a list of ingredients and then the methods, I think I can be more clever with the writing. The Ladybird books always have short to the point sentences or small paragraphs, so I think I should do this instead. I think it'll make the book more satirical and again more Ladybird book-like.

OUIL501 Front Design?

So I've finished my inside pages - YAY. But I still have the front page to do… And I am pretty stuck. I was thinking maybe to have all the cocktails displayed on the front with the similar background, but thought no that'll look terrible.

So I went back to my main inspiration, the good old ladybird books. They always have a full page composition, again done in the nice watercolour material. This is something I really really struggle with, so the thought of having to do a whole composition was scary. But I thought, get over yourself and stop pushing yourself away from something that you think you can't do. So I decided to go for it.

But what am I going to draw?

I remembered seeing this ageeees ago. 'Gin Lane' is pretty much a scene full of really drunk people all over the place, I think this is the one. But I should change it slightly to incorporate the brands subtly instead of just copying which is silly. I'm also not going to do all of it because I do not have enough time and I'm not a mad man. 

OUIL501 Type for book

My book has been inspired by the ladybird books, so I wanted to try and find the type face that they use. This was more of a struggle than I anticipated, as no one really knows what type they use. But after a bit of googling, I managed to find a super nerdy forum that came up with the closest solution.

OUIL501 COP3 Proposal - Websites?

First thoughts - events to relate? Drawings/illustrations of muhammad being forbidden - restricted on what people are allowed to draw.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30814555

Found websites

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21494990

Indian authorities are trying to introduce legislation that will force large companies in the country to spend at least 2% of their profits on social responsibility projects.

> These projects/courses being mainly creative ones

OUIL501 COP 3 Proposal ideas

Picking apart the question

Question 1: What is Good? - To what extent does Social Responsibility impact on the role and function of Illustration?

Splitting the questions up into key words - good, social responsibility, impact, role and function 

What is social responsibility???

Social responsibility is an ethical framework and suggests that an entity, be it an organisation or individual, has an obligation to act for the benefit of society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems.

Don't take away from society 

our actions and how it effects people

> balance between rights and responsibility <

between what you want to do/draw and what you know you should be doing

Not just about not taking away from society, but how to give to it

The impact of social responsibility on the role and function of illustration:

> Over ruling framework to work within and maintain 

> By working within the rules you reinforce the rules

> Illustration is used to show social responsibility 

Why should illustration be used to give to society instead of just being balanced? 
The power illustration has for being a visual aids - influential medium  - now more than ever in a world with twitter/instagram etc. illustration is the best way - simple and quick way to understand something - people can kind it easier to read something if it's visual

how well to do things and what else they could do?

It's hard to find things that aren't about corporate social responsibility. 

OUIL501 Research - Current Satire books?

After deciding on doing a satirical cocktail book, I thought I should see first if there is already something similar on the market (which would be really annoying) but if there is then the layout that they chose? As I'm still quite up in the air about how I'm going to display my pages.

I accidentally found this cocktail book when looking at ladybird books on amazon. I thought it was a really clever way of combing a classic children's book for adults. Especially as the generation that grew up with this book are now adults, so it's like an adult version of their childhood. It is a little similar to my own idea, combing adult contents with a childhood book that people would easily recognise. Although I don't think I can take layout ideas from this, because it's obviously set out like the very hungry caterpillar. 

  

I remember hearing about this book a while ago. I think it's a great idea combining two things that a lot of people like or are familiar with. I think in a marketing point of view, combing two things like how this book has ups the sale of the product massively, as people love novelty. I think it makes the perfect gift for an alcoholic english student.

I think the layout from Tequila Mockingbird will be similar for my own book, having the cocktail on the left and writing on the right. I've noticed it's the layout that most cocktail books go for and definitely looks the smartest. Although, I'm not going to put as much writing on mine, because firstly it's meant to be mainly illustrative and secondly it's more real to what the ladybird book layout is like. 

OUIL501 - What brand to brand?

NESTLE: White Russian - baby formula milk - milk being a main component in white russians
COCA-COLA: Long Island Iced Tea - it has coke in it
APPLE: Appletini - self explanatory
MCDONALDS: Mai Tai - One of the highest calorie cocktails
STARBUCKS: Espresso Martini - self explanatory
GOLDMAN SACHS: Manhattan - Manhattan being where wolf street is
MAC: Cosmopolitan - girly drink, make up brand
NIKE: Shirley Temple - non alcoholic drink/children's drink (child labor)

OUIL501 Research - Books

I remembered that I had this book, one of the collection of Ladybird books for adults. I really like the sarcastic humour mismatched with the old fashioned watercolour style paintings. I think this is something that works really well and think that I should pursue. I had a look at cocktail books, and they seemed to all be a bit samey. But I think I should copy the style of having the cocktail on one page and then the ingredients on the other?



I also realised that cocktail books are all quite glamourous. I think this is because cocktails are quite a glamour thing and have become quite popular now. I think they used to be a thing where wealthier people would have them, like in Great Gadsby. I think this idea links in with my big swanky corporations, with all the money that they have. They're all bright bold and colourful and even if you're a vegan environmentalist, you still like or use one of those brands. They can't help but be liked.

OUIL501 Websites

Where I sourced my information from for my corporations:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apple-looks-into-new-allegations-of-labor-violations-in-china/2013/09/06/d2650320-16e5-11e3-804b-d3a1a3a18f2c_story.html

http://www.academia.edu/8824914/Analysis_of_the_Ethical_Behavior_of_Coca-Cola_Inc

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/mars-coca-cola-and-other-big-brands-failing-ethical-standards-8510880.html

https://ethicalfootprint.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/unethical-companies-coca-cola/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/csr/2010/05/20/goldman-sachs-and-legality-vs-morality/#b0f5b8744c20

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/the-coca-cola-company-struggles-with-ethical-crises-business-essay.php

https://ethicalfootprint.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/unethical-companies-mcdonald%E2%80%99s/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2014325/Nike-workers-kicked-slapped-verbally-abused-factories-making-Converse-line-Indonesia.html

http://www.tutorhunt.com/resource/5990/

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/scoredetails.aspx?ProductId=1321449

OUIL501 Research - brands

Now the penny has finally dropped, I need to get researching straight away. So I had a look online and found what big corporations were the 'worst' and picked out what ones would be best for my book. I then wrote a lot (issuu doc)

I found it quite hard to find information that you knew was 100% true:

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_675_16-diabolical-acts-evil-by-famous-corporations/

Like this one for example, I'm not sure if IKEA furniture was built by 'slaves' in a nazi style camp. I think that would have got a lot more coverage on it if it were to be true... But not all of them were bad, I think that this website for Nestle was probably the most useful:

http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/nestle-california-bottled-water/

Even though it's called the daily dot which I'm not sure is a real thing, but was the most useful in terms of layout and statistics.

Now I have all my main pieces of information about the companies, I have to look at cocktail books and other satirical books to see the layout

OUIL501 The penny drops

I have just over a week till my deadline. I have no idea what I'm doing. These pop ups are cool, but what is my context?????

But what should you do when you're stuck and you have a deadline looming?

Look at your feedback sheet from your last session!!!!

I saw that someone had come up with the idea of making a cocktail book, having each of the cocktails has a different corporation and then having the ingredients as different evil things that are associated with the corporation. Yes

The penny as finally dropped! It's a shame that i'm not longer doing a pop up book because it would look so so cool, but if it doesn't have any relevant context then what's the point? It's called context of practice not yeah but it looks nice practice. This has taught me that if something isn't working stop trying to pursue it and come up with something new!! Annoyingly I have learnt this the hard way, because I had been carrying on with this stupid idea for far too long and now I really don't have much time left, I'm going to have to proper power through this!

But there's no point stropping about how much time I wasted, get on with it! 

OUIL501 Mind Block

I spent most of this morning making a better version of the Starbucks interactive slidy woman, mostly because I think I don't know what I'm doing. I'm really starting to panic because I'm so stuck. I really want to do this pop-up interactive book idea, but at this point I'm still clueless about context and just what I'm doing in general. I need to have a proper sit down and a rethink. I really need to get on with this, because I just give up and do 505 instead because I enjoy it a lot more but I'm seriously running out of time and I'm getting scared. 

OUIL501 Easter Work

From my feedback in the crit before we broke up for Easter, people were really liking my pop up sexy corporate lady combos, so thought I should carry it on.

I thought that I need to explore my knowledge for pop up, so looked online to see if there were any good tutorials that I could use

http://www.mr-d-n-t.co.uk/pop-up-mechanisms.htm

As basic and dodgy as this website looks, I found it really useful as a step by step guide to making pop ups. In particular

This makes me think that my book doesn't necessarily have to be pop up, but have interactive elements which are a lot easier to make. 

But I still have no context