The three musketeers

External Speakers

Korky Paul

Korky Paul is a prolific illustrator from South Africa. He is most popular for his Winnie the Witch book, which is now being developed into a TV series. He discussed his working practice, how he developed his stylisation and the process of illustrating a book. He showed us mock ups of his book in various stages and was here to offer advice alongside an insight into the world of a successful freelance illustrator.

He visited the University to speak about his work, Being an illustration student, I found Paul’s work the most insightful and found he answered lots of the questions I had naturally in his talk. I found his working practice of particular interest as Pauls work, like mine, has a strong emphasis on line. However, unlike me he uses pen and ink and I prefer to use fine liner. Yet, this has made me reflect on whether I should try and use different materials. With pen and ink, Paul achieve a more rustics looks with the line quality creating a sharp and scratchy visual. I feel this is a lot more playful and creative than using a fine liner like myself because the line is so controlled and uniform looking compared to Korky Pauls more fluent mark making. I feel the way he work allows the imagery to capture a sense of movement from the sharp ink etching which I feel is a really interesting visual device as it makes the image more engaging. A sense a deviation is also created by using pen and ink, I feel there is more room for creative mistakes, whereas, when using fine liner, everything always turns out uniform and precisely how it is intended to be. This contrast between the uniformness and precision created with fine liner and the sprawling deviation with pen and ink interests me greatly. I feel using fine liner is a great way of recording something accurately and allowing ample control to the illustrator, but, pen and ink seems more playful and creative and even makes a more engaging visual. I feel Paul’s choice of ink is perfect for the type of illustration he does, it being for children’s books, its keeps the illustrations engaging, creative and imaginative.

Sam Moore

Animator Samantha Moore visited the University to speak about her experience being a freelance animator. What makes her work different is that she make animated documentaries, this sets her apart from other animators and has stirred a lot of interest. Moore has successfully managed to her a niche, a gap in the market. She has created a style of videography this is now picking up steam and she is now getting commissioned by the likes of channel 4. I feel Moore’s videos are abstract and truly something I have never seen before. She has created something new and really different. Animated documentaries are such an interesting development. I feel they were never previously considered because documentaries are about recording events, and the way we can always thought to record these evenst is accurately, exactly the same as the are and with no deviation from reality. Yet, Moore’s take fact and reality and partners it with surreal movements, visuals and sounds. This create surreal imagery juxtaposes the hard, concrete facts. I think this is such an interesting contrast and as well as a stunning art piece, a much more creative way to deliver factual information. I feel this could be beneficial to visual learners and this new genre Moore’s has created could even be paving new devices to educate and inform to suit the learning styles of students.

Moore’s has experimented widely in her work. One of the most striking pieces she has created in my eyes is animating with printed fabric. While it must have been an incredibly tedious process, I feel it’s a really interesting and beautiful way of working. She printed each individual frame of her documentary onto material and then photographed each material print and complied all of these to create a stop motion animation. I feel this is a really interesting way to work as it marries together the old style stop frame where images are drawn frame by frame and the new style of the creative clouds ability to compile and edit this footage. Being totally freelance also means that Moore’s get to chose what work she would like to create, however I learnt that this is possible to a degree when working as a creative freelancer because the funding bodies need to like the idea for you to win the funding for it! It was very interesting hearing her speak about the compromises she had to make.

Another really interesting avenue Moore explored was synaesthesia which is the mixing and confusion of sensory experiences. She explain how she work very closely with a neurologist and various people in medical work and worked on the project “What is it like to have synaesthesia?” She focus her animation of real life case studies and working with people with the condition who could see sound. She then animated these sounds to make synaesthesia something everyone without the condition can experience. This kind of inclusive look into a medical condition would have never before been something someone could have experience until Moore’s created animated documentaries. I think her work is definitely something that will continue to grow and pick up steam and could even some day be revolutionary.

Ian Cheery and Nick Raven, Derby County graphic design

Ian Cheery is Derby counties lead graphic designer and brand manager. He is the only of the 3 guests who isn’t working freelance and is employed by someone. Therefore, he spoke about how he got into graphic design and climbed up various ranks through the means of promotions to get to where he now is today. He is our first example of a creative employed by a company, and therefore this led me to reflect on the difference between our speakers freelance and in house employment. I think an interesting contrast between our three guest speakers is that while two of them were freelance and, the third, Ian Cherry is employed, they have all always had to pitch their samples of their work in order to secure this work. While Paul and Moore’s have to rely entirely on the outcome of the pitch as to whether they will be paid in this industry, Ian Cherry’s employment with various firms throughout his career has always secured him his pay check and if I company weren’t interested in what he pitches them, Ian Cherry would still get paid unlike our two freelancers. Therefore, being employed brings a lot more financial stability than working freelance, which is a lot more uncertain. This, however, doesn’t mean a freelance creative will earn more or less necessarily, it just means nothing is guaranteed. While this may seem like a con of being freelance, from listens to them talk a realised there are many positive aspects. Predominantly having more creative control over your work and projects. Neither Paul or Moore’s has full creative control as they always have to please either publishers or funding bodies, but their type of employment certainly allows for a lot more creative freedom than creative opportunities do when working for a company.

Something Ian Cherry did remark on which I feel all our guest speakers relate to is the very tight and fast deadlines in their practice. He remarked that on certain days in the year graphics and visuals are required in minutes for occasions such as deadline day, so as soon as a new year is announced within minutes, he and his team are required to have designed an image to be released. Both Korky Paul and Sam Moore also have to work to tight deadlines respectively. However, a tight deadline for the illustration of a book would be a year and the same with an animation. Yet they all have to work fast to enable them to meet these deadlines.

After reflecting on all of the speaker’s talks, another thing that struck me was while being employed by a company seems a better option for securing a steady income being freelance allows more creative freedom and Cherry employment means that through the work has creates, the amount of money he will make from those creations is irreverent because he is on a salary. If the shirts he designs make millions like they have, Ian Cherry wouldn’t personally reap any of the benefits of this success and therefore his earnings, and rewards are capped. Whereas, with Paul and Moore’s they reap the full reward for the returns of their work. This is somewhat fair of course because most of the money and traffic for the sales of the design is because derby county is a very reputable brand with fans guaranteed to buy merch and engage with publicity either way. So in a way Cherry’s position is different to the freelancers because they themselves are the brand that they’ve created themselves.

In conclusion, having the guest speakers in gave a really insightful look into the world of professional practice and learn about various opportunities, employments avenues and potential problems we will encounter as practitioners and, through the Q and A’s, how to overcome these obstacles.