Agency's relationship with me:
- Promote and try to find you suited work as well as negotiate on your behalf on the price and then they will draw up the contract and once the job is complete collect the fees.
-They will sort out your taxes
- They will keep communication with the client
-Collect the money from the client from witch they take there fee (25% upwards)
-They also charge an annual fee for them finding you work
-They will want your best work to advertise and will only want children's book work through them they may be okay with you not putting other work through them like greetings cards ect.
Copyright:
-Copyright remains with the artist
-Unless otherwise stated the artist have write to grant the rights to third parties.
-Client has the right to make objections to the artist using the artwork in ways that are detrimental to there company within reason.
-Client can reproduce artwork as long as its within the original contract. Further fees with be charged for more licenses.
-License not granted if the full fee is not paid.
-Licenses can not be assigned without the artist and agency's consent in writing.
After looking through agency's I decided I only would consider one for my children's book work as some publishing companies wont touch you without an agent. But I need to be careful as I attend conventions to sell my own work in comic form and some publishers may not like this and could be put off. One company I may approach is Plum Pudding as they are always after new artists and are solely work within the children's book industry. Another agency I may consider is Advocate Art as they will let you choose what work you will find through them so enquiring if I could still do conventions they may be more lenient.
http://image.advocate-art.com/artistfolio/
http://www.plumpuddingillustration.com/
When considering what to do about agency or not I found this advice section from an established illustrator and found it quite helpful to read. http://www.claremackie.co.uk/biography/advice/
Monday 31 March 2014
Understanding Finances
I am aware I would need funds after I finish university to buy supplies and to fund attending conventions and fairs, so since the end of second year I have been saving money to self fund my part time illustration jobs. Although before I get a normal job I will attend interviews with publishers and greeting card companies. I do have a interview with Hampton Bond International who recently have began to publish children's books, and I need to make sure I am fully prepared so may have to put off getting a part time job this means I need to fund myself until them. After I have attended interviews I may need to get a part time job until I am stable enough a few years down the line to become a full time illustrator.
For my promotional items are mainly made them in house as this saved costs and adds the hand made affect like my actual illustrations though this came with its downfalls as it meant I spent a lot more time creating them than if I had just sent them to a printer. I also had to rely a lot on other people as I couldn't use the machinery needed on my own without a professional. This caused many issues of having to work my time around them meaning I haven't been able to get things as finished as I wanted due to the technician having to have time off work, this pushed me back even though I had been working with them for over a month planning this. The only item I sent off for was the banner as I couldn't print such a large image to a high quality, though luckily due to a contact I made at a convention managed to get a good deal.
For my promotional items are mainly made them in house as this saved costs and adds the hand made affect like my actual illustrations though this came with its downfalls as it meant I spent a lot more time creating them than if I had just sent them to a printer. I also had to rely a lot on other people as I couldn't use the machinery needed on my own without a professional. This caused many issues of having to work my time around them meaning I haven't been able to get things as finished as I wanted due to the technician having to have time off work, this pushed me back even though I had been working with them for over a month planning this. The only item I sent off for was the banner as I couldn't print such a large image to a high quality, though luckily due to a contact I made at a convention managed to get a good deal.
Presentation notes.
These are the notes I will take into my presentation so not to forget anything.
Hello my
name is Alex Lloyd.
- Paper craft
illustrator, mainly narrative based
- Enjoy
illustrating children’s tales from around the world as I feel children need to
be introduced to other cultures earlier in life
- create
colourful delicate hand cut illustrations that I apply to children’s
illustration, comics and merchandise such as tote bags and mugs.
- Predominantly my work is aimed at children;
recently I have branched out into comics for teens and making images for home
products.
- I plan to
create children’s books while self publishing comics to sell at conventions,
sell items and prints on society 6
- Range of
children’s publishers at London book fair, main being Tango books Limited, and
greetings card companies
-Simple site
with an easy navigate layout, video to show off skills and that its hand cut
make more personal
- Temporary
site having a more professional one built, show image
- Until then
site shows artist CV so employers can see prior experience, but I also added
blog, Facebook, events and my shop. Events show conventions and galleries I
will be attending that year. Also added social media as not only potential
client will see this and normal people will find it easier to follow them.
Keeping everything linked. Will add pages for comic once I have more solid work
on it.
-Portfolio
is aimed at children pub, contains mainly children’s book work but towards the
end I do have some comic related work, had range of narrative and non narrative
work showing my paper craft skills and styles.
- Promote
self in a variety of ways and have different strategies for each aspect of my
work.
-children’s book- make contact to make
interviews to show portfolio, great chance to meet a selection when I attend the London book fair, have
contacted Tango for an interview. After that will continue to look for
companies and email them for interview.
-Comic- attend conventions around UK and
maybe after a year branch out to France as they have a large comic market with
variety, here will sell self published work and prints. Founding member of
collective called POP collective, self publish zines on variety of topics.
Audience if teens, but still currently working on business model.
- 3 items
business card, postcards, banner
-business card- I created laser cut
business cards as these are a staple and handy as they are small and can fit in
wallets, I wanted my cards to stand out and represent work so laser cut then
but these card are only for formal occasions and publishers I will get cheaper
printed cards for conventions as these have less chance of being kept.
-Postcards- I created 2 different showing
different ways of reproducing my work, I chose this to show work can either be
laser cut or printed both work. I will leave these with publishers as a sample
of work they can keep and take away to think about, also will sell these at
conventions making them dual purpose. Also has details on as so if they lose my
card they have my website on here.
-Banner- sole purpose conventions, this
shows who I am, and can be seen over crowd of people. Attract people to the
table, I created an image especially for this purpose and thought it is from a
fairy tale so it shadows my other work, striking image to grab attention.
Saturday 29 March 2014
Collectives and zines
Recently I was part of a zine called 'I love my anime boyfriend' and this has developed into a string of ideas of zines we could produce in the future, but we felt if we were going to start making a lot of these zines we would need a name to sell them under. This idea came more developed when two other students wanted there collective business 2 cute 4 U to join Tea house art at conventions where we could sell our zines and meet new artist to work with on our future zine projects. We then went about putting together a meeting at our local tea house where we discussed what we wanted to make under this name and potential collective names. The first name that we took to was Cute cut collective this fused our 2 current names together but we felt that it was to girly and we don't want to put males off our products so we tired to think of a name that was diverse but stood out and was memorable. I like the name Rainy day collective as it is gender neutral but still sounds cute and sounds professional. But before we jump into using a name we need to make sure that this name isn't already in use and we wont get confused with something else.
Once we have a safe defined name we talked about how we would promote our new collective and who it was mainly being aimed at.
Naming
Coming up with a name was a lot trickier than we thought as this name would be a permanent name. These are a list of name that we considered.
But after doing some extent market research we found that these names were either to feminine or to much of a mouthful. So we went back to the drawing board and in the end decided on a shorter sweeter name of POP collective. I feel this name is suits us and will be memorable, I looked into weather this name was in use but couldn't find anything by this name making it a safe name to work under. We are still constructing a full business plan but have worked out our audience will be teenagers and we will promote and sell publish our work to sell at conventions. Once a full plan is made we sill split the work evenly, we plan on having a large web presence using YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Further if we become popular we plan to sell our zines on an Etsy on-line shop where we will create a stamp with our logo on to stamp any letters or packages we send out.
Future zine list
-slimy boy
Once we have a safe defined name we talked about how we would promote our new collective and who it was mainly being aimed at.
Naming
Coming up with a name was a lot trickier than we thought as this name would be a permanent name. These are a list of name that we considered.
-sugar plum
collective
-galaxy pop
collective
-shooting
star collective
-crystal comet collectiveBut after doing some extent market research we found that these names were either to feminine or to much of a mouthful. So we went back to the drawing board and in the end decided on a shorter sweeter name of POP collective. I feel this name is suits us and will be memorable, I looked into weather this name was in use but couldn't find anything by this name making it a safe name to work under. We are still constructing a full business plan but have worked out our audience will be teenagers and we will promote and sell publish our work to sell at conventions. Once a full plan is made we sill split the work evenly, we plan on having a large web presence using YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Further if we become popular we plan to sell our zines on an Etsy on-line shop where we will create a stamp with our logo on to stamp any letters or packages we send out.
Future zine list
-slimy boy
-cheltonia
-pearls of
the sea
-anime
girlfriend zine
-Legends
-Monster girl
-Monster girl
Current Zine Anime Boyfriend
Our current zine that we just finished is called I love you anime boyfriend, each person was to draw fan art of a character they once liked when younger, many younger girls would understand this and relate and find this zine funny. This is my image I submitted, the image is black and white as these were the specifications of the zine.
We are currently re making the cover of the zine as we plan to print it in cover in colour and the rest in black and white. Here are current photos of a mock zine.
Printing prices
This is the cost if we got our prining from Inky Little Finger, they were the cheapest printers we could find. Split between the 4 of us the cost would be £14.67 each and we would sell each zine from £2-£3. Once we have a logo and have re designed the cover we will send this zine to the printers.
Fairs
Along with attending conventions for comics I would like to attend fairs witch are more formal and professional as publishers and agents will attend these. The two main fair I want to attend this year is the London book fair and the London illustration fair. These would be great places to make contacts with other illustrators and publishers.
I will be attending the London book fair only for the Thursday so have emailed Tango books, a publishing company I am very interest in as they publish laser cut novelty books and greetings cards. Here is the email I sent them but I have yet to hear a reply as they are probably very busy preparing about the book fair.
The London book fair will be really important to scouting out publisher and making contacts and getting advice on my work.
Friday 28 March 2014
Conventions
Conventions will be a big part of promoting myself and selling my work once I finish university. I have already started exhibiting at some comic conventions in the UK to help promote my work, and am finding this very successful way of promoting and making contacts.
I have already attended, Bristol comic expo, Cardiff film and comic expo and Birmingham MCM and from these experiences learnt a lot form other vendors and artist on how to sell myself in the environment successfully. Like when behind the table you should always stand up and interact with the passers-by to bring people over to your stand, everyone likes a friendly face, this will also give you a good reputation if your friendly and nice to everyone. Also making sure the tables are covered with a cloth so you are presenting the table in the best way, we are starting to use a red cloth as white shows stains and black shows fluff. Another thing was no one likes an empty table so if after an hour no ones turned up next to you and the table is empty move over and use the table because you will be overlooked if there are empty gaps, presentation is important. Also I wont be handing out my laser cut business cards out at conventions as only about 50 percent of the cards are kept most end up in the bin, so I would rather keep these for publishers and illustration fair. So instead I will use the same image but get the cards printed at moo's so they are of high quality but it wont matter so much if they end up lost by the receiver. This is also because it will be more costly to get the cards laser cut after I leave university so I wont want to waste them. This is also how we learnt about the importance of having banners to attract and inform the passers-by.
At the moment I attended conventions with another illustration student and we split costs making it more cost effective to go but have found sharing a 6ft table isn't enough space as our work grows so we plan to start getting our own tables but under the business name' Tea house arts' this is so the tables will be together and so if we do collaborative works we still be together, also it means we can help watch over each others tables if we need a break. We use the name Tea house art because we want the name to be gender neutral but still feminine as we are both female.
As we become more adept to selling our work at conventions I would like to expand and attend more and more to help people recognise us and make friends who will also help spread word of mouth about us attending these conventions. At the moment I am thinking of at least attending at least 5 conventions a year that spread across the UK, but I would like to go further afield as France has massive comic conventions and over there the idea what a comic can be is freer so I would like to next year attend Paris's July anime and comic convention. This would be an amazing experience to make contacts and see what conventions are like in other countries and get a feel of what's hot in there comic industry at the time. I feel attending conventions will be the main way I promote and sell my comics and young adult material so travelling and selling in other countries will really help promote me and find a gathering who are interested in buying and following my new comics. I am aware that this wont be cheap as attending conventions in the UK aren't cheap, so France will cost even more but this is why I will have a part time job to fund these events and I have also been saving money since the end of my second year to fund me when I finish university.
List of UK conventions
I will highlight the conventions I plan to attend this year and once booked will make a timetable of the year so I have a timetable to show deadlines for these events.
February
- MCM Midlands comic con 15th, Telford international center
March
-Cardiff film and comic con 1st-2nd, Motorpoint arena
-Newcastle film and comic con 8th-9th, Metro radio arena
-London super comic con, 15th-16th, Excel
- MCM Birmingham 22nd-23rd, NEC
April
-MCM Ireland 12th-13th, Bailsbridge Dublin
-Wales comic con 23rd-25th, Glyndwr university Wrexham
May
-Bristol comic expo 10th-11th, Future Inn
-MCM London 23rd-25th, Exel
June
-Wigan comic con 22nd, Robin park arena
July
-London film and comic con, 11th-13th, Earls court
-MCM Manchester 19th-20th, Manchester central
August
-ICE International comic expo 2nd, The studio cannon street Birmingham
-Sunderland comic con 9th-10th, Sunderland software centre
-Sheffield film and comic con, 30th-31st, Motorpoint arena
October
-MCM London 24rd-26th, Exel
November
-Thought bubble 15th-16th, TBA
-MCM Birmingham 22nd-23rd, NEC
-Cardiff film and comic con 8th-9th, Motorpoint arena
Luckily I will only need to pay accommodation for when I attend Cardiff and Thought bubble as I live close to Birmingham and know someone who likes in Manchester. But when looking at cons I still have to take into consideration train fair, accommodation and table fees. Train fair isn't to bad as I have a 16-25 card making my fairs cheaper and as I am small press table prices are £50 per table. This sound expensive but I get the table for the duration of the convention, and it includes my pass into to convention. From the conventions I have attended I broke even each time, but I found Cardiff the most successful as after that weekend I had a lot more traffic through my blog and my Facebook. At the moment I have looked into accommodation for Cardiff and Manchester just in case staying with a friend fall through.
Manchester accommodation- prices for one night
-Premier inn city centre, city centre 0.5 miles away from convention, 10 minute walk, 2 people per room £78
-Premier inn central, 0.4 miles away from convention, 9 minute walk, 2 people per room £89
-Travelodge central area, 23 minute walk to convention, 2 people per room £51
-IBIS centre, 36 minute walk from convention, 3 people per room £48
-IBIS quays, 40 minute walk from convention, 3 people per room £37
Cardiff-prices per night
-Nomad backpacker, 15 minute walk from convention, 1 person £27.50
Considering pricing and booking is important, you don't wan tot be to far away from the convention as you have to carry your things, I don't mind a 15 minute walk but wouldn't go out to much further than a 20 minute walk as at the end of the day you are really tired.
I feel at the moment I am not advertising the fact I attend these convention, so other than my usual announce it on my blog and Facebook I would like to have a section on my website call upcoming events, where I will talk about events I am attending and what new work will be previewing there. I want to build more hype and start announcing on the social media pages about the conventions that I am goin and maybe start small promotional ways off attracting people like the first 50 people who visit my table get a free sticker that could contain my details and a illustration. So its almost like they will walk around and promote me at the same time they get a free small sticker of my art.
Collected promotional item
This is a selection of promotional items I have collected from conventions. I looked over these when considering what items I could use to help promote myself at conventions.
Post cards
Post cards will be an important part of my promotional plan to leave a lasting impression on publishers, as I will leave them 2 postcards so they have samples of my work to take away and consider. They are also good as you can send them out or can be sent on to other allowing everyone who sees it to see you work.
I have decided to do 2 different types of post cards that will best show off my work, one will show that although my work is hand cut it can be printed in a variety of ways such as risograph and the other will be a laser cut post card as this is a closer replica of my work.
I feel my postcards will really help show publishers that my work can be replicated in a variety of ways.
I have decided to do 2 different types of post cards that will best show off my work, one will show that although my work is hand cut it can be printed in a variety of ways such as risograph and the other will be a laser cut post card as this is a closer replica of my work.
I feel my postcards will really help show publishers that my work can be replicated in a variety of ways.
Social media
Social media is a very important way to make contacts and share your work. It is a more relaxed way to share current works and show case events. Social media is becoming a daily aspect of everyone's lives from young to old so using it to promote yourself means a larger chance of being found.
Facebook
I find Facebook easy to use and can be updated on the go. I seem to use Facebook the most out of all the social media sites as I find I check my personal one a lot and because there linked I find it easy to post. I also find it easier to be casual when posting and I want my followers to know that there talking to me and not someone who just runs the site, I want it to feel personal. Further I like how Facebook makes things easy to share and how it will automatically go onto the followers feed. This also means people are more likely to read or see your posts. Another thing I like about it is when someone likes your image it will pop up on there friends feed meaning more exposure. Although there are certain criteria I try to follow when posting like viewers wont read really long posts so I try to keep them short and snappy between 100-250 words. I do try and post when most of my followers are on but at the moment I feel I post around university and need to post at least once a week. I also need to start planning more themed posts in advanced so I could get the illustration ready and edited to be posted that day. Now I am going to be attending more conventions I could use Facebook to post promotions such as the first 50 people to my table get a free sticker and run competitions to win prints of my work, this will keep people interested and engaged. I will post a lot of work previews and will also promote other artists in exchange for them to promote me too.
Twitter
With twitter I know to keep interest you need to tweet often at least once a day, and make sure that each tweet is consistent. A good thing about twitter is gaining followers through the suggested followers helping exposure. Using hashtags at the end of tweets help emphasize the context of your tweets. You can also increases coverage through getting involved with trending topics or asking people to re tweet you. I am not a big twitter fan and don't quite understand how it works but I can see how it is helpful but I don't think I could keep up with the amount id need to be posting.
Flicker
Flicker is an image sharing site so when updating it make sure they are quality photos and that you keep them in order as you only see the last 5 photos.
Pinterest
Over the years Pinterest is getting more popular and it could be a good opportunity to share your illustrations on there and see how people re share them.
Tumblr
At the moment tumblr is my website but once I have built my official site I would like to then my tumblr into another social site like my Facebook because the more I use tumblr the more I find it easier to share my work. I think tumblr is a good site for illustrators and a lot of them seem to use it, especially because people post ideas for zines and collaborations with others and this is something I find very interesting and would like to look into in more detail.
Overall I don't want to have to many sites to update because even after I have brought my notebook to make it easier to update I don't want to be updating to many sites as when it comes down to it one would end up neglected and this would look bad as I don't want any an outward facing blank or outdated sites. Though I do plan to have a few social sites along side my website that I will update more often and these will be Facebook, my blog and a tumblr once I have built my official site. My blog will be a bit more formal and where I post sketches of character design and other works, where Facebook and tumblr I will post promotions, competitions and work in progresses.
I find Facebook easy to use and can be updated on the go. I seem to use Facebook the most out of all the social media sites as I find I check my personal one a lot and because there linked I find it easy to post. I also find it easier to be casual when posting and I want my followers to know that there talking to me and not someone who just runs the site, I want it to feel personal. Further I like how Facebook makes things easy to share and how it will automatically go onto the followers feed. This also means people are more likely to read or see your posts. Another thing I like about it is when someone likes your image it will pop up on there friends feed meaning more exposure. Although there are certain criteria I try to follow when posting like viewers wont read really long posts so I try to keep them short and snappy between 100-250 words. I do try and post when most of my followers are on but at the moment I feel I post around university and need to post at least once a week. I also need to start planning more themed posts in advanced so I could get the illustration ready and edited to be posted that day. Now I am going to be attending more conventions I could use Facebook to post promotions such as the first 50 people to my table get a free sticker and run competitions to win prints of my work, this will keep people interested and engaged. I will post a lot of work previews and will also promote other artists in exchange for them to promote me too.
With twitter I know to keep interest you need to tweet often at least once a day, and make sure that each tweet is consistent. A good thing about twitter is gaining followers through the suggested followers helping exposure. Using hashtags at the end of tweets help emphasize the context of your tweets. You can also increases coverage through getting involved with trending topics or asking people to re tweet you. I am not a big twitter fan and don't quite understand how it works but I can see how it is helpful but I don't think I could keep up with the amount id need to be posting.
Flicker
Flicker is an image sharing site so when updating it make sure they are quality photos and that you keep them in order as you only see the last 5 photos.
Over the years Pinterest is getting more popular and it could be a good opportunity to share your illustrations on there and see how people re share them.
Tumblr
At the moment tumblr is my website but once I have built my official site I would like to then my tumblr into another social site like my Facebook because the more I use tumblr the more I find it easier to share my work. I think tumblr is a good site for illustrators and a lot of them seem to use it, especially because people post ideas for zines and collaborations with others and this is something I find very interesting and would like to look into in more detail.
Overall I don't want to have to many sites to update because even after I have brought my notebook to make it easier to update I don't want to be updating to many sites as when it comes down to it one would end up neglected and this would look bad as I don't want any an outward facing blank or outdated sites. Though I do plan to have a few social sites along side my website that I will update more often and these will be Facebook, my blog and a tumblr once I have built my official site. My blog will be a bit more formal and where I post sketches of character design and other works, where Facebook and tumblr I will post promotions, competitions and work in progresses.
Risograph
For my postcards I wanted to see how well my work translated into other printing forms. I chose riograph printing as it is cheap when you print in bulk and has a high quality finish. I had never used a risograph machine and was unsure of how my work may print but I wanted to find different ways of reproducing my work without a laser cutter.
I decided to base my image around the Brothers Grimm fairy tale red rose and snow white, I chose this as at the time I only had access to to a red and black drum and I didn't want my image to be restricted by these so picked a story in witch match.
Before jumping in I did some ruff sketches of my favourite parts of the story and the characters to see what stood out.
In the end I decided on a simple design that would appeal to children and young adults so I could use the prints as promotional items and to sell at conventions. I first hand cut the black as I still wanted the handmade feel within the illustration, I then added the red on Photoshop as it needed to be a separate layer for the risograph machine to read it. Once I had created my image I went to a tutorial on how to use the machine and then booked in a day to use it. I found this machine easy to use but even after checking the images lined up sadly they couldn't line up properly on the paper as I had 4 onto one A3 sheet. This means my 204 prints aren't perfectly aligned but that is charm of in house printing, and I still feel that they are good prints that I will use. I have only done a limited run and never plan to print it again making the prints I have limited edition. I feel my work translated really well into a risograph print and that this is one way I could print my work that has a limited colour pallet.
Finally I will use these A5 prints to promote my work and show how my work can be printed, I intend to leave one with every children's book publisher and then sell the rest at conventions as limited edition prints. Risograpgh printing was defiantly worth the cost if you do a large enough run and will consider this was of printing in the future.
Banner designs
The purpose of the banner is to be eye catching and to inform people of who I am. It will be used at fairs and conventions to attract people to my table, so I have to make the image engaging and interesting. The banners size is 200cm x 85cm since I cant cut an image that size I scaled it down 4 times, this made the image slightly larger than A3 making easier to cut. I wanted the image to show my main work so I wanted to add a narrative to the image. After a few designs I decided to go with third design inspired by the fairy tale the wild swan princess.
 |
| Design 1 and 2 |
 |
| Design 3 |
 |
| Swan study and test ideas |
After deciding the image I needed a way to display the text, I went through 3 ideas on how to incorporate the text but decided to go with a simple boarder as I was unsure on how large the text would need to be.
Typography
When adding the text to the banner I went through multiple fonts. But as I was testing them out I had to make sure that they fit a certain criteria, the font had to be easy to read close up and a far, I wanted to make sure that the font is readable to everyone so went though rounder texts like Helvetica because its easier for people with dyslexia to read and that the fonts them selves didn't clash.
 |
| Dawning of anew day |
 |
| Minion Pro |
 |
| Tranjan pro |
 |
| Vtks Beautiful dreams |
I found this font though looks nice its complicated and unclear and wouldn't be easier to read, it would take a while to sink in rather than glancing past and reading it straight away.
In the end I chose a simple and clean font because I want it to be easy to read from close or afar. I also chose a more weighty text so it matched the thick black lines of the image. Here is a photo of my banner set up, I like the way it printed and think it will defiantly attract people over to my table at conventions.
Thursday 27 March 2014
Contacting conventions and fairs
I have contacted a few conventions and fair to find out about what the even is about.
sha@bhpcomics.com
info@marinestudios.co.uk
Thought Bubble 2014 registrati
Dear Sha,
I was wondering about
art tables at the Sunderland comic con, how much would it cost for a small
press table for the weekend?
Thanks
Alex
To whom it my concern,
I was wondering if you had any artist tables this year at
convention GEEK, and if so will this convention be run next year. I am also
rather interested in the contest you run every year and was wonder if you would
be running any other contests this year?
Thanks
Alex
Thought bubble
Thought Bubble 2014 registrati
|
Mar 24 (8 days ago)
 | | ||
Hello everyone!
As the dates for this year's Thought
Bubble<http://
to let you all know what's going on with this
year's festival, our plans for the convention venue, and how exhibitor
registration will be working this year.
Table Pricing
As well as expanding the convention to serve the increased demand, it's
also of paramount importance to us that all of our exhibitors are as
comfortable as possible, so the marquee needs to be very sturdy, safe and
warm. Because of this, we are having to slightly increase the cost of
tables this year, to help to pay for this new space.The costs for tables in
all halls this year will be £90 for a full table for indie
creators/professional artists & writers or £55 for a half table, and £135
per table for retailers and publishers.
Thought Bubble was founded as, and always will be, a not-for-profit
organisation, and as such we've always strived to keep our table prices as
low as possible, but there's no way we could create this extra space if the
prices were the same as last year. We understand some smaller publishers
and independent artists might find the extra cost prohibitive, so to keep
the festival as accessible as possible we are offering more half-tables
this year, and, as with previous years, we are more than happy for
exhibitors to share table space.
Festival Curation
We have always prided ourselves on being as inclusive as possible, and it's
very important to us that we stay that way. With the addition of the new
space we hope we can include everyone one who wants to come to the show.
However. there is a possibility that we will receive more exhibitor
applications than we have space in the halls. As much as we'd like to be
able to include everyone who may wish to exhibit at the show, we feel that
Thought Bubble has reached the stage where we are going to have to curate
our show for the foreseeable future. This will involve a simple online
registration form which will be going live on the website on Monday 31st
March, and remain open for two weeks until 5pm on Monday 14th April. After
this time, we won't be able to accept any more applications, and we'll
contact those who applied shortly after to confirm whether we'll be able to
accommodate them this year, and take payment for the table.
Every year, we also have a number of people who book tables and are then
unable to attend, and so we'll form a reserves list of unsuccessful
applicants who will be offered tables should they become available. Once
the registration form goes live, we'll be asking for your help to spread
the word, so that no one misses out on applying to attend. If we are unable
to fit everyone who applies to exhibit at the show in the space available,
then the decision on who we can accept to the convention will be made by
the organisational
team<http://
whole, to ensure the process remains as fair as possible.
Because of this move to curation, and the nature of the festival as a forum
to promote comics and those who make them, it means that where possible we
need to give priority to comic books, comic book publishers and retailers,
and comic book artists and writers, either independent or
publisher-affiliated. If you have exhibited with us in the past and do not
fit into this category, please still do fill in the online form once it
goes live, as we would love you to come if we do have room.
As the dates for this year's Thought
Bubble<http://
to let you all know what's going on with this
year's festival, our plans for the convention venue, and how exhibitor
registration will be working this year.
Table Pricing
As well as expanding the convention to serve the increased demand, it's
also of paramount importance to us that all of our exhibitors are as
comfortable as possible, so the marquee needs to be very sturdy, safe and
warm. Because of this, we are having to slightly increase the cost of
tables this year, to help to pay for this new space.The costs for tables in
all halls this year will be £90 for a full table for indie
creators/professional artists & writers or £55 for a half table, and £135
per table for retailers and publishers.
Thought Bubble was founded as, and always will be, a not-for-profit
organisation, and as such we've always strived to keep our table prices as
low as possible, but there's no way we could create this extra space if the
prices were the same as last year. We understand some smaller publishers
and independent artists might find the extra cost prohibitive, so to keep
the festival as accessible as possible we are offering more half-tables
this year, and, as with previous years, we are more than happy for
exhibitors to share table space.
Festival Curation
We have always prided ourselves on being as inclusive as possible, and it's
very important to us that we stay that way. With the addition of the new
space we hope we can include everyone one who wants to come to the show.
However. there is a possibility that we will receive more exhibitor
applications than we have space in the halls. As much as we'd like to be
able to include everyone who may wish to exhibit at the show, we feel that
Thought Bubble has reached the stage where we are going to have to curate
our show for the foreseeable future. This will involve a simple online
registration form which will be going live on the website on Monday 31st
March, and remain open for two weeks until 5pm on Monday 14th April. After
this time, we won't be able to accept any more applications, and we'll
contact those who applied shortly after to confirm whether we'll be able to
accommodate them this year, and take payment for the table.
Every year, we also have a number of people who book tables and are then
unable to attend, and so we'll form a reserves list of unsuccessful
applicants who will be offered tables should they become available. Once
the registration form goes live, we'll be asking for your help to spread
the word, so that no one misses out on applying to attend. If we are unable
to fit everyone who applies to exhibit at the show in the space available,
then the decision on who we can accept to the convention will be made by
the organisational
team<http://
whole, to ensure the process remains as fair as possible.
Because of this move to curation, and the nature of the festival as a forum
to promote comics and those who make them, it means that where possible we
need to give priority to comic books, comic book publishers and retailers,
and comic book artists and writers, either independent or
publisher-affiliated. If you have exhibited with us in the past and do not
fit into this category, please still do fill in the online form once it
goes live, as we would love you to come if we do have room.
Here are just a few samples of people I have contacted about conventions and fairs.
Tuesday 25 March 2014
Printing
For this module I needed a better quality business card then what I had made in the past as this was not for conventions but for publishers and clients. So I have looked into a range of printing on demand services that I could potentially use to print my work. I already had experience with Vistaprint and found that although cheap aren't the best quality printing out there. But they did serve the point I needed them for witch was to hand out at conventions as most of the cards would have been lost or binned, so having cheaper cards was a better financial decision. But now I need higher quality cards and prints to hand out to promote myself.
Other site I could use:
-Moo
-Solo press
Book printing
-Inky Little Fingers
-Blurb
-Lulu
Other site I could use:
-Moo
-Solo press
Book printing
-Inky Little Fingers
-Blurb
-Lulu
Self promotion ideas from other artists
I wanted to see how other artists had helped promote themselves so I looked into two illustrators/artists who had gone about it successfully. I first looked at Miss led's facebook where I found she was using facebook to help showcase her upcoming work and other things she had worked on. Firstly she post a lot of her actually making or with her work giving a face to the name, I like this idea it feels a bit more relaxed while keeping it professional. I also found after getting a lot of followers she runs competitions where you share her page, this not only promotes her more but involves her followers keeping them more active. The competition is also to meet her and ask for her help on being professional, this is a good idea to meet other artists and make contacts. She also runs workshops at a college where she helps aspiring artists, this is good to help promote you'd just need a facility to do it in. Another thing I liked was she posted about fellow artists who also did the same for her, this helps you reach audiences that might not have found you before. Miss led has also been featured in magazines and had one of images made the tumblr home page.
The other person I looked at was Peter Slight, he has promoted himself a lot my doing pop up exhibitions in galleries and museums around the Uk such as; Northampton and Gloucester. He also entered competitions local and far, like the Worthing tourist board design a postcard competition. He has also run workshops on paper craft and how to make it.
After going over this I think I need to come up with cleaver ways to promote myself, like making contacts and sharing each others work and running and entering competitions to keep my viewers interested and involved.
Another problem I have come across is the access to a laser cutter once I have finished university, as I will no longer be based in Cheltenham. This means reproducing my work could be a problem if I can only do it when I can get down to Cheltenham. I will be living near Birmingham though and from some research found a few companies that will laser cut your work if you send it them, http://www.lasercutit.co.uk/. But this could be a costly service so I looked at what other artist and illustrator that use a paper medium, and I found a rather successful illustrator Rob Ryan. He replicates his work by scanning and then applying them to other mediums making his work more marketable. He puts his work onto home items like mugs and clocks but also dose greeting cards, I feel I need to consider this as an option so not to limit how I reproduce my work. I think this is a good market to look into as the images can be decorative or narrative and would work nice as a side market I do work for to break up creating children's books and comics. This would also offers a small income that would help combat the cost I will come across when creating the paper illustrations for my children's books. Another thing about printing home items would be that I would be offering work to such a larger audience, helping promote my name and making it more recognisable when I publish books. I also wouldn't have to print the items myself if I didn't want to I could use an on demand printing serves that would sell my work for me while I worked on other projects. The only problem with using these kind of sites is they will take a cut of the sale as they print the items and ship it and I wont see what the items look like unless I order one, so this could have its set backs and would take a lot of consideration into which is better. At the moment I think using one of these sites would good especially because I will working on children's books and comics along side this, so having time to self print the items wouldn't be ideal. So the commission price they take wouldn't be such an issue because it would save me time that I could put elsewhere.
Sites I could use: society6
etsy
zazzle
I like the look of Society 6 but will need to see where my work is most suited once I create the images to go on the products.
The other person I looked at was Peter Slight, he has promoted himself a lot my doing pop up exhibitions in galleries and museums around the Uk such as; Northampton and Gloucester. He also entered competitions local and far, like the Worthing tourist board design a postcard competition. He has also run workshops on paper craft and how to make it.
After going over this I think I need to come up with cleaver ways to promote myself, like making contacts and sharing each others work and running and entering competitions to keep my viewers interested and involved.
Another problem I have come across is the access to a laser cutter once I have finished university, as I will no longer be based in Cheltenham. This means reproducing my work could be a problem if I can only do it when I can get down to Cheltenham. I will be living near Birmingham though and from some research found a few companies that will laser cut your work if you send it them, http://www.lasercutit.co.uk/. But this could be a costly service so I looked at what other artist and illustrator that use a paper medium, and I found a rather successful illustrator Rob Ryan. He replicates his work by scanning and then applying them to other mediums making his work more marketable. He puts his work onto home items like mugs and clocks but also dose greeting cards, I feel I need to consider this as an option so not to limit how I reproduce my work. I think this is a good market to look into as the images can be decorative or narrative and would work nice as a side market I do work for to break up creating children's books and comics. This would also offers a small income that would help combat the cost I will come across when creating the paper illustrations for my children's books. Another thing about printing home items would be that I would be offering work to such a larger audience, helping promote my name and making it more recognisable when I publish books. I also wouldn't have to print the items myself if I didn't want to I could use an on demand printing serves that would sell my work for me while I worked on other projects. The only problem with using these kind of sites is they will take a cut of the sale as they print the items and ship it and I wont see what the items look like unless I order one, so this could have its set backs and would take a lot of consideration into which is better. At the moment I think using one of these sites would good especially because I will working on children's books and comics along side this, so having time to self print the items wouldn't be ideal. So the commission price they take wouldn't be such an issue because it would save me time that I could put elsewhere.
Sites I could use: society6
etsy
zazzle
I like the look of Society 6 but will need to see where my work is most suited once I create the images to go on the products.
Making a website
As part of this module I need an outfacing web presence for professionals to see and view my work. So firstly I needed a domain name this is so it would be easier to find me on google search. I brought my domain name from One.com as I could get cheap hosting with my domain name free for the first year all I would pay is the set up fee, after looking at my options I brought 5GB of hosting with the domain name alexlloydillustraion.co.uk. I did this as it was my cheapest option because I needed to think about affording other costs like my banner and paper.
At the moment I have linked my domain name to a tumblr, witch is my temporary website until I move home and sort out building a website from scratch with my brother who has a degree in computer science. Because of this I wont have to pay to have a nice website that is professionally built, we will work together on design and then I will learn how to update and maintain the website so I wont need help in the future. I am hoping to have a built website by the end of July then I will transfer my domain name over so it links to the correct site. At the moment I am undecided what to do with my tumblr once I have a built site as its a good networking site for sharing work and finding contacts.
Designs
Here are just a few layouts I thought about when building my tumblr site.
I have also considered what I want my real website to look like.
Tumblr
I have found tumblr easy to use and edit witch is what I need as I am not that computer savvy. It also allows me to see how many followers and how my work is being shared. Further there is an easy hash tag system helping my images turn up more in the search bar. The only problem I have found with tumblr is I cant edit it as much as I like due to I don't know HTML.My ideal tumblr layout would be my design 1 but I cant get the video to constantly stay at the top, so i had to upload it last. I have compromised by having to change my template.
At the moment I have linked my domain name to a tumblr, witch is my temporary website until I move home and sort out building a website from scratch with my brother who has a degree in computer science. Because of this I wont have to pay to have a nice website that is professionally built, we will work together on design and then I will learn how to update and maintain the website so I wont need help in the future. I am hoping to have a built website by the end of July then I will transfer my domain name over so it links to the correct site. At the moment I am undecided what to do with my tumblr once I have a built site as its a good networking site for sharing work and finding contacts.
Designs
Here are just a few layouts I thought about when building my tumblr site.
Tumblr
I have found tumblr easy to use and edit witch is what I need as I am not that computer savvy. It also allows me to see how many followers and how my work is being shared. Further there is an easy hash tag system helping my images turn up more in the search bar. The only problem I have found with tumblr is I cant edit it as much as I like due to I don't know HTML.My ideal tumblr layout would be my design 1 but I cant get the video to constantly stay at the top, so i had to upload it last. I have compromised by having to change my template.
This was my original layout but I couldn't add pages and this wasn't ideal. Although I liked this one more have to change to the layout underneath as I could add pages, but I still couldn't lock the video at the top. I will have a lot more freedom once I have built my own website and wont have to stick to restraints like with tumblr.
For my website that will be built I really like design 1 or design 5, I will have separate pages for my portfolio, Facebook, blog, contact , and a CV. I would rather have an online CV as I will be able to update and change it more often, under the page portfolio there will be to tabs children's book and young adult. This is so they don't get mixed up and can see two different ways I work. I may also have an editorial tab were I put other works like editorial and greetings cards. I will have an opening video on my about me /home page that will show I hand cut all my work and makes my website feel more friendly like the one on my website at the moment. I want my website to feel casual but professional I want a link with my followers so they know that I run and update the site not anyone else. I will also have an area where I promote my next event or upcoming works, this is so people can see what I am up to without having to check on my blog.
This is the video I made to help showcase my work for my website, due to bad lighting I will redo this video for my real website but created this as a sample, but I still like this video and how it shows how I create my work.
Here are a few screenshot I put together to show what my real website may look like. I am still choosing a final design but made this from one of my favoured designs as it is simple and easy to navigate. |
| Home page |
 |
| Portfolio page, section children's book |
Tuesday 18 March 2014
Competitions
To help promote myself I plan to enter a few competitions as well this will help add variety to my portfolio and help me work to different kinds of briefs and deadlines. I plane to enter a range of competitions I have found some with close deadlines and some that have yet to be announced. One of the competitions I wanted to enter has sadly closed due to I only found out about it today but I plan on entering next year as it runs every year. Adventures in comics I like the fact you have to add a narrative over a double page spread in this one, its a very free brief with a only a phrase to go off. I have emailed the company who run this to enquire if they are running any other competitions this year.
The main competition I would like to enter is penguin design award as they have a great prize where you can intern with the company for 4 weeks, this would be an amazing experience and I would feel that I have missed out if I didn't try and enter this competition. I plan on entering the children's book cover awards because this is more what my work is tailored to. I also plan on entering the Cheltenham illustration awards and Thought bubbles competition as these will add variety and a chance to try somethings new with my work.
The main competition I would like to enter is penguin design award as they have a great prize where you can intern with the company for 4 weeks, this would be an amazing experience and I would feel that I have missed out if I didn't try and enter this competition. I plan on entering the children's book cover awards because this is more what my work is tailored to. I also plan on entering the Cheltenham illustration awards and Thought bubbles competition as these will add variety and a chance to try somethings new with my work.
Monday 17 March 2014
Laser Cutter
Once I decided to laser cut my business cards I made an appointment to have a tutorial on how to use it. I found out that the laser cutter is a very simple machine so you have to make sure that you put the file in correct place on the 2D software that the laser cutter can read. You then set colours to images lines and then you tell the colours what you want the laser cutter to do. The laser cutter has a few settings it can engrave, cut and fold. I will at the moment only need the cut setting but the other two settings could be something i experiment with in the future.
Here are some tests samples we did on the day to see how the laser cutter worked. Both tests are done on 180gms paper, the brown mark is what happens when you engrave on paper it seems to just burn the area. The text has been set to cut, on this sample it you can see that due to the laser cutter cutting using a laser it has burner the paper and left it dirty and smudged, this could be a problem if cutting on white paper as it would dirty the image. On the second test we were told if you layer masking tape over where the laser is set to cut it reduced the burn on the image. As you can see this works so much better but you do have to be very careful when pealing off the tape.
 |
| Test 1 |
 |
| Test 2 |
Testing out my files
Though I had been contacting the technician for a few weeks he had taken sudden leave due to family illness, this caused my laser cutting items to be delayed but I did manage to get a sample done but due to the thin lines they fell apart and we had to adjust the files to make them thicker.
Because of the situation I have created a hand cut version of my business card and the card we will laser cut on Friday ready for the London book fair.
Though I had been contacting the technician for a few weeks he had taken sudden leave due to family illness, this caused my laser cutting items to be delayed but I did manage to get a sample done but due to the thin lines they fell apart and we had to adjust the files to make them thicker.
Business Card
My original business
card was designed to be given out at conventions and fairs. I got them printed at
vistaprint and found that due to the cheap cost the printing quality wasn't brilliant,
but they served the purpose I needed them for because at conventions about 70%
of the cards handed out will be binned or lost so cheaper cards are more appropriate.
Whereas for publishers I want to hand out more professional and high quality
cards so I have decided to redesign my business cards and then so not to
conflict I will use the same cards for both.
I feel my first set
of business cards design was crowed so this time I will go with a simpler
design that wont crowd or overpower such a small space. When designing my new cards I thought they should
showcase what I do best; I am going to laser cut my business cards as paper
cutting is my main way of creating illustrations. To do this I will have to
learn how to use the laser cutter and I have already set up a date to do so.
But I always have like to hand craft my images so before I put them to be laser
cut I will hand but the image then scan it and trace it and then put it though
the laser cut. This will mean the laser cut images will still have followed my
hand cut design making them feel more like my illustrations.
Here are some of my
designs that I made that would be laser cut.
After looking over these designs I found I wasn't 100% happy and decided to do some more. I wasn't to keen on the idea of making the cards see through, although they would be unique and beautiful to look through it would make the card flimsy and easy to tear, so if the card got damaged and became unreadable this would mean I wouldn't be able to be contacted. I will try out and test a see through card but will also test a layered card.
Test stage.
 |
| Front of Cards from left to right, My first business card from vistaprint, hand cut double layered test and a see through card. |
 |
| Back of Cards from left to right, My first business card from vistaprint, hand cut double layered test. |
 |
| See through card close up |
After making the testers I have decided to create the double layered card as it stops the card from easily tearing. I have also chosen this as I couldn't think of a mass production way of to print the text onto the card, it would rip if put through a printer and letter pressing the text would be to time consuming, so it would be more efficient to use the double layered card.
 |
| Final card design |
Due to issues with getting my work laser cut I had to hand cut my final design but will be getting the laser cut cards on Friday.
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