IDENTITY
Before choosing a brief, I had some difficulty picking one which would portray my identity in the way I would enjoy the project too. But during one of our first lessons, our task was to create a brand for ourselves as illustrators, giving us a short task of making designs of our own business cards, ranging from interactive to just visual pieces of small art. I thought of a character I like to draw from time to time, which belongs to one of my first characters I made during first year. I was stuck on some few designs until I thought of using the format of a playing card since my character is a clown.
I chose the Handmade Brief because it gives me the opportunity to experiment with new materials and media that I’m not usually comfortable working with, while still allowing me to be creative. I'll hoping to work with materials like clay, ceramics and printing.
Handmade
My 'Identity'
I decided to use the character I created in first year from my Journey product, a clown called "Hugo". I often found myself doodling him whenever I had a blank canvas in front of me, and over time his design began to feel more personal. Because of this, he stuck with me and felt like the right choice to develop his character for this project.
I also decided to use him as the main focus and mascot of my identity throughout the project. His design stood out to me as a reminder of what I created in first year. The fact that he is also a clown, something which I personally love, made him feel like an even
His design has evolved through multiple drawings and sketches, and this project gives me the opportunity to continue experimenting with and refining it. I’m interested to see how his character and personality change as the project progresses.
I also want to explore the theme of clowns, as it is something I’m personally interested in and often associated with by my friends. This makes it a natural extension of my identity and something I’m excited to experiment with throughout the project.
Additionally, the topic of clowns can often make people feel scared or uneasy. This isn’t usually how I feel when I see clowns represented in media and art, especially depending on their makeup and costume. I want to explore this contrast by reinterpreting clowns in a cute way, showing how something traditionally seen as creepy can also be playful and somewhat appealing to the eye'. This approach suits my identity, as I’m drawn to things that sit between cute and creepy.
Research
Takahashi Murakami
Takahashi Murakami is
When we arrived at the end of the day (5pm), I checked to see how much of my products where bought and found that there were only two clowns left! (plus 18 business cards taken). I was really happy when I saw this because I was subtly sulking about the fact my stall was untouched after 2 people bought something (which was 1-2 hours after our rota).
No one really bought any of my prints,
especially the ones that cost £10, except for some of my friends who've bought my a5 ones.
In the end 6 out of 8 of my clay clowns were sold in total, giving me about £81 plus £24 from the prints. It was really nice getting rewarded for tiring manual labour, even though I felt it was all for nothing at first since I thought nobody would even buy my stuff. The Handmade market was an amazing experience overall and one of the few positive highlights in my illustration course.
For the next event I want to create even more clay items with variety and more planning.
