Final Presentation

Creative Presence Presentation Boards

Creative Presence - Printed

I was struggling to configure "ayykaplan" onto the front of these business cards so I just settled for "Ayy" which I still think is fun and also intriguing in a way - people may pick them up and be like "ayy what does this mean?"

I toyed with having a black back of the card with green text to match the front but I feel like it didn't look so good, it just reminds me of the Matrix and maybe that early 2000's aesthetic suits me but I think the white version definitely looked better out of the two and I think the added skeleton parts are good because it's part of my work and links to my creative CV.

Something I see becoming a problem is the fact that I have elected to use a drawing of myself on the business card because I feel like I'm recognisable by style mostly - however I do change my hair a lot, so I would have to continuously update the card. For now it's fine but in the future I should think about a logo or something representative.

As a bit of fun I've applied some of these designs to promotional tote bags which I think look quite funky and could hypothetically be sellable merchandise.

Creative Presence - Online

Online I have used Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram to share my work. 

I am using the name "ayykaplan", and keeping them all deeply separate from my personal accounts because of reasons. Using instagram is nice because I can share directly from instagram to facebook, I can also tag things to get them seen better whereas on facebook you just have to convince people to like your page. 

I don't have a real website yet but this is something I will look into next year. I find it good to share both rough sketches and finished work - Though Jonathan Barnbook said David Bowie told him that once you share the roughs it changes the view of the final thing so I should be selective on how much rough work should be posted online. 

Creative CV

I'll be honest, this is not the most creative 'creative CV' but it's definitely a start. 

There is a running theme with this and my business card, using the same font and spooky bone motif. I like the use of the spine papercut to break up the sections but it does perhaps look a little clunky. 

Another thing that I'm not so hot on is the text saying my name, I wanted it to stand out from the rest of the text so it's a hand drawn 'type' I had wanted to use the slime writing but found it didn't really fit with the rest of the CV and I had only written "Ayy Kaplan" out in that. This fits the aesthetic but it should be more refined, I think. 

Vague Presentation Script

Introduce self: Hello I’m Amber I’m a kooky creative, eyebrow enthusiast and village witch. 

Let’s start off with some high points of the year, I actually found responsive one of the most helpful modules of the year as I got to try out a few different things rather than focusing a lot of time on one project. As well as helping me work to tighter deadlines I learned a lot of new things via the brief’s I did.

I really enjoyed doing the A Clockwork Orange book cover. Book covers are not really something I’d considered but I was interested none-the less and it’s something I ended up being really happy with and has inspired me to do more work with book covers in the future.

I learned a lot about mockups in responsive and I find it really rewarding to see what my work would look like as a finished product.

My substantial brief for responsive was the D&AD shutterstock brief where you had to illustrate 3/7 story archetypes and relate them to everyday life here are two. – The quest for coffee and the tragedy of messing up your makeup in the morning. I enjoyed this brief because it was really open and amongst a module where I primarily made imagery that would be on a product  It gave me a chance to just focus on my practice – as during 504 I found that I quite enjoy working with lino. So here I could experiment with lino and digitally adding texture, colour etc. This is some of the work I;ve been most happy with,

I didn’t know anything about pattern at the beginning of the year, and only ended up doing it because I had to learn how to make pattern for my responsive collaborative project. Here are two of the first patterns I made this year, they aren’t so great. I didn’t know what I was doing. But since then I have really enjoyed making patterns and have basically made a repeat pattern in all my other modules too just to satisfy my own desire to make pattern/

I found COP much harder than I did last year. I’m not sure why though. I had a really hard time writing the essay and narrowing down my mass of ideas into a focused question. Nevertheless the publication I made for COP had a good idea behind it (explain idea briefly). I am starting to find that I work better with a solid maybe meaningful idea. And I still love injecting a bit of humour into most of my work as it’s one of my greatest assets. My crafting however does still need work.

Outside of college I have had a small stall selling prints and badges at the Belgrave Arts market a couple of times. This is good for a confidence boost as I have had a couple of sales. Kids love the badges. Makeshift business cards.

I also am president of the comic society when I find time to put it on. This has helped me become a bit more confident in speaking to people and almost leading a group, as well as communicating with people outside of the college about stuff. – Next year I hope to be able to organise my time better so I can do more stuff with the society and be a good president.

Leading me onto my next point. My time management is awful, it started off okay for 504 but everything else has been totally terrible. I have never handed in something late but I definitely am sabotaging myself by not actually giving myself enough time to finish a project to the standard that I want. Time management impacts quality. I am an awful procrastinator and find it really hard to plan my time. I should have done it already but due to my aforementioned time management problems I have not, I will be going to learning support to help me manage my time better over summer and into level 6.

Another weakness has been my inability to narrow down ANYTHING which gets me into all sorts of trouble. I start projects late because I can’t choose a focused topic to do. For example 505 (space / greek mythology mess with products – If I had chosen to go with my gut I would have known  what I was doing from the get go)  - some more stuff about how 505 was a total shambles for me.

Moving on – I keep feeling as if I don’t really have a style so I decided to reflect on what’s working well in my current and past work. Thinking about my favourite thing from last year, similarities between this and current work – Black background, bright contrasting COLOUR, good use of shape and texture. I decided I wanted to capitalise on what’s working well and try and make some more pieces in a similar style – so I did this for my creative presence. I found I really enjoy this technique and style – papercut, not as bad as I thought it was etc.

Managed to make some good imagery that was transferrable from artwork to business card, to pattern, to social media. Little critique of using image of my face with ever changing appearance – explain reason for using this.

I am indeed using social media – facebook, Instagram, tumblr. Keeping personal and professional separate because I’m a terrible person. Aesthetic. Easy sharing. Tags etc.

Made some tote back mockups as sellable merchandise ideas.

Next Year: I’m feeling good about next year. Had a lot of realisations quite late this year but better late than never. Want to do more book covers, posters – shows, films, bands, carry on experimenting with this style I’m working on. Make more patterns. Manage my damn time.

The most important thing I’ve learned

Thanks n goodbye. 

Vague Business card ideas

I wanted to use an image of myself as I'm a pretty recognisable person and I feel like people would remember me better if they had the visual, like "who was that weirdo with green hair and eyebrows"

I decided to capitalise on a style that I thought looked good last year - the same technique I used for the 'Dragula' poster. I had a realisation of things that work well in my work and that I'd like to capitalise upon (which I will highlight in another post)

Some options for the card design are my face with this spooky text on it. It gets the name upfront. 

Framed face - draws attention to the imagery. Unsure because if I put the spooky writing on the back it would probably all have to be in that writing style or in a different type face. Perhaps I could also just capitalise on "Ayy", perhaps just my face with "Ayy" underneath it and then the full name / contacts on the back?

This was something I tried but it's terrible, the writing is barely visible against this and it's just not gonna work. 

"Lord of Masks" / Camille Chew

I love Lord Of Mask's work! It's so spooky but also quite cute and modern. There is a great use of shape and flat colour, and I love the way they incorporates pattern into different areas, like on the bat's wings or the witches socks. It is clear that this artist works mostly with digital media. They have posted a few gif's on how they build up an image which I have included one of in this post.

Their creative presence is mainly online; using platforms such as tumblr, instagram, society6, twitter, behance and threadless to showcase their work, as well as having their own website. They have translated the style of their work onto their branding - Logo's, titles, background of tumblr etc. to keep their look recognisable and consistent throughout the platform.

I think Chew has a really distinctive and unique style to their work. Definitely the kind of images that could be applied to products easily (I'm pretty sure they do sell products with their work on using Society6, etsy etc.)

Some Stuff.

Thinking about creating the visual presence for myself. I quickly did this type. I think the most recognisable thing about me is my spooky look. I feel like throughout this degree I have shyed away from doing 'goth' stuff because I didn't want to fall into the stereotype of goth artist, but the projects I have enjoyed doing most have capitalised around that for example last year's visual language I centred around Classic Horror movies. This year I enjoyed 504 when working on Edgar Allan Poe. I find at this point in my life it's what suits me, so why not roll with it. 

The name 'Ayy Kaplan' I decided to use because I was using 'Snillustraion' as my nickname is 'Snils' and I do illustration, but there are a few reasons for the change. A. I don't want to define myself as 'an illustrator' yet and I felt putting "illustration" in the name slammed me into that box. B. It could easily be mistaken for S.N. Illustration. (plus they already had snillustration.com)  C. I want people to know my name, and wanted 'Kaplan' to be part of my name. So I thought 'Ayy' would be good because it's like "A. Kaplan" but funny because it's like being: 

A combination of spooky aesthetic and humour encapsulates me I think.

WHO AM I? 251141 - Mind dump of me & CV stuff

Me? Who am I? What am I good at? What do I like? What have I done?

• AMBER KAPLAN
• Traditional print, getting good at lino & screenprint
• Painting
• Little clay badge making 
• Character (but not so much narrative)
• Got an eye for colour
• Spooky stuff, monsters and horror and stuff 
• I draw a lot of women 
• Humour
• Some photoshop & illustrator skills
• Pretty good at social media since I'm addicted to it

Profile:
 Kooky creative. Printer, painter, general maker, chronic doodler and village witch.

This works for something informal like social media, I think it puts across my personality and the fact that I consider myself quite versatile. I want to stay away from calling myself an "Illustrator" because I don't think that's a label I want to give myself, I'd rather keep it open. I need something more formal for a real CV prospective employers.
Also possibe informal taglines include:

• Faking Confidence since 1995
• It's better than nothing
• You've chosen worse

Slightly more formal one:

A creative with an enthusiasm for print, a keen eye for colour, and a sweet sense of humour.

(that's all I can think of thus far, I will have to look at this again for extra bits and wording etc.

STUDIO BRIEF 3 CREATIVE PRESENCE - {Just Briefing Notes}

YOU NEED AN IDENTITY TO SELL TO CLIENTS

AN ONLINE PRESENCE AND A PRINT PRESENCE

how do you present your work and yourself? 

(*internal screaming*) 

VISUAL IDENTITY - 'Brand You' Stationary and Promotional Material 

- LOGO / BUSINESS CARD / BESPOKE TYPFACE?

ONLINE PRESENCE - WEBSITE / BLOG / SOCIAL MEDIA 

CREATIVE CV'S

A standard CV does not exist, in the realm of creative CV's anyway. 

This is flexible and taylorable and should be unique. 

Display important info : Portfolio / Website / Name/ Address / Contact details

Profile: About me??? Talk in third person 

What do I want to do? What have I done already?

Education : GCSE's aren't so important to put down

Employment & Experience: Live work, Exhibitions, Entering current competitions (emphasis if you get anywhere with it)

Skills& Experience 

References on request

I am sufficiently afraid of making regular CV's so a creative CV is totally terrifying, as I am perhaps 4000% more self deprecating than the average human being. Can I use self deprecating to my advantage? Maybe but it's probably not a good idea while getting started. Trying to think about what I do well is a bad time for everyone involved because I can never find anything that I truly think I do well, distinctly average.