So these last few weeks have left me bewildered, what with all the shenanigans and goings on... but either way, I'm tired of art's absence in my life! So it's time to get busy again. Through all the various interviews and what-not that I've been running around for, I have been forced to reunite myself with my portfolio, reel, leave-behinds, website, etcetera... and like getting stuck with the gross, kind of creepy kid with no hygiene sensibility as your lab partner for the rest of the school year, I've become extraordinarily embarrassed with the way my artwork is being presented to potential employers. And more frankly, how it's being seen by other artists. Whilakers! So pretty much all of my presentation outlets are getting overhauled, hardcore.
So here's where it started. A few months ago I redesigned my business card, I needed a card to give to people, and it needed to say something about me as an artist. I love texture, specifically old paper. I also have a love of all things rustic and aged in appearance. so I took that idea and ran with it. The business card gave me my current direction. At the time it was just an embodiment of some of my aesthetic inclinations; However, I came to really like how the design represents me.
My decision to revamp my entire Ident has been welling up in me for a long time, but laziness, among other influences kept it on the back-burner until a few weeks ago when at my last job, I was essentially told that I wasn't worth my hourly rate. While the job itself was somewhat of a nightmare, I respect the people I worked with at that company. When one of the directors told me this, it really got under my skin... So I broke ground on my work by brainstorming, I want my ident to carry an aged, hand-crafted appearance. The generous use of distressed elements and type. Heavy textures and the Violet and creamy ochre colors should be dominant. Conversely to these elements I adore crisp, defined vector art: grids and graphs, charts and maps, contiguous circular patterns, and graphic illustrations of objects. Earlier in the week these themes were combined to create the backdrops for my new print flatbook. While tentatively complete, save a few minute adjustments, I am going to detour momentarily to applying this design theme to my showreel's keep case, disc labels, and my resume. Once those items are taken care of, I will return to the flatbook and begin layout and printing. Then once that's done, comes the biggest challenge of them all, my website's revamp... I'm glad I live with a web designer.
If you've actually read this... very long blog post, please remember that all of my work is never closed to critique (so I can maybe get better :} )! So if there's something in my design that doesn't do too much for you, let me know why.
Well, dear readers, that's all I have up my sleeves for tonight, and whilakers, what a sleeve-pulling it was. But now I must return to my room and immerse myself in the telling world of my own head... filled with hairy thoughts and miniature equine aficionada... Woosh and woosh.