Yesterday Brian Grimwood (illustrator and founder of the Central Illustration Agency) came down to uni to help out with the Self Promotion crit and then to do a talk on his work.
Self Promotion Crit
We spent the morning all gathered in the Fishtank whilst Jonny, Pete and Brian took turns opening up everyone's Self Promotion work and giving feedback on it all. Overall it was pretty successful and not a lot of work went in the bin, but having to wait around til very near the end (so after around 40 people) did make me quite nervous!
When it came to mine though I did get some good feedback. To begin with Jonny recognised the image of the envelope as a looking glass straight away, which was good a that was something I was a little worried about whether or not it made sense. They said that my pieces had been well designed and well printed, and contained a good selection of my work whilst sticking to a clear theme of story-telling. Pete was also quite keen on the Hansel and Gretel illustration, as well as the typography I had designed.
I told them which art director I had sent the work to and they had a couple of other suggestions that I might want to send my extra copies to: Nobrow Press, Bloomsbury Books.
Overall I'm really pleased with how the Self Promotion unit went and its definitely something I will be re-visiting once uni is over.
Brian Grimwood talk
Brian Grimwood spoke to us for an hour and a half about his career and the work he has produced. He started at the very beginning of career and showed us the development of his styles over the years. It was really interesting to see how his work has changed and developed as he has progressed through his career. He has worked for a lot of big clients such as BBC, Sony, ZSL etc. and it was really quite inspiring to hear how successful he has been in the world of illustration.