The brief outlines all the information you will need to complete a project successfully. It should cover:
• what you are being asked to do
• what the illustrations are trying to achieve
• your target audience or other relevant contextual information
• the form the illustrations will take – print size, colours, etc.
• deadlines and milestones – such as when you need to submit a rough draft or when it needs to be completed.

Research Task:

The following are examples of ‘live’ student briefs offered by BBC2 via the Young Creatives Network Student Competition (2008). For this research task I need to read the briefs and identify what the client wants and how they will judge what a successful outcome would be.

I will answer the questions:

1. What does the client want?
2. How will they judge what a successful outcome would be?
3. Do these briefs provide all the information you need?
4. If not, what questions would you ask the client?
5. Where would you place these briefs on the open – closed spectrum?

Client 1- BBC 2:

1. What does the client want? – Opening credit sequence for ‘The Culture Show’, creative guidelines laid out well.
2. How will they judge what a successful outcome would be? – 1 or more 20 second opening credit sequences, sticking within guidelines for editorial issues.
3. Do these briefs provide all the information you need? – Yes, but I would have to research TV format for that time.
4. If not, what questions would you ask the client? – X
5. Where would you place these briefs on the open – closed spectrum? – OPEN <———–X————————> CLOSED

Client 2 – Orange:

1. What does the client want? – Create illustration showing my vision of what communication in 3 – 5 years time will be like.
2. How will they judge what a successful outcome would be? – If I create my vision of what communication in 3 – 5 years time will be like.
3. Do these briefs provide all the information you need? – X
4. If not, what questions would you ask the client? – No! What is the illustration for? What format? The brief is too open!
5. Where would you place these briefs on the open – closed spectrum? – OPEN <–X———————————> CLOSED

Client 3 – Sainsburys:

1. What does the client want? – To create artwork to appear on limited edition rage of shopping bags.
2. How will they judge what a successful outcome would be? – If it’s based on one of the key themes central to Sainsbury’s business & staying within the guidelines of the mandatories.
3. Do these briefs provide all the information you need? – Yes, this brief is detailed and also includes the format for the illustrations.
4. If not, what questions would you ask the client? – X
5. Where would you place these briefs on the open – closed spectrum? – OPEN <——————————X—–> CLOSED

Exercise: Writing a rationale:

I have been asked to go back to the briefs above and think about how I might go about answering
one of them. I will write a short rationale outlining my intended approach. I need to think about how I would creatively go about answering the brief but I would actually be producing any illustration – just a rationale.

As Sainsbury’s brief has provided me with the most information that I need, I chose this one for this exercise.

Rationale:

The client Sainsbury’s has asked me to create a piece of design or illustration for a limited edition range of Sainsbury’s shopping bags. The requirements for the brief is to create artwork to appear on a new range of bags, based on one of
three key themes that are central to Sainsbury’s business: Be the best for food and health, Show respect for our environment & Source with integrity. The bag dimensions are 390mm high and 450mm wide. So my artwork should
fit within such a canvas. There are no colour limitations at all. Sainsbury’s branding will be applied to the side gussets, so my design will dominate both main faces of the bag.

I will start off by brainstorming and researching all three of the key themes “Be the best for food and health, Show respect for our environment & Source with integrity” and choose one of the three to work from. I decided on “Source with integrity”. I understand that the word integrity means the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, so thinking about this is context to a supermarket, this would be sourcing their produce from farmers/producers who are honest and having strong moral principles in regards to their produce. So in my eyes that means ethical and sustainable e.g. Organic, Ethically-Sourced, Free-Range and Zero Carbon.

Organic, Free-Range, Ethically-Sourced and Zero Carbon is part of a lot of produce that you find in the Supermarket now but two that come to mind more than anything else has to be Chicken and Eggs. So next I would research Free-Range and Organic Chicken and Eggs from Sainsbury’s as well as their welfare standards. When researching I found that the Organic poultry are grown to a high standard of welfare in harmony with nature, they also made a commitment that all fresh chickens sold will be grown at a reduced stocking rate meaning each chicken will have over 20% more space than the UK industry standard, allowing the chickens more space to show healthy and natural behaviors. The Sainsbury’s RSPCA Assured chickens are also slower growing and come from farms that provide more space, so chickens can exercise freely. There’s a richer environment, so chickens can engage in natural behaviors. And there are extra health and diet checks, too.

Next, I would create a mind map of all my design ideas, then go on to draw some thumbnail sketches for the design (remembering the format given). The design process would then continue on to creating initial sketches from my chosen thumbnail sketch. I wouldn’t need to leave room for the Sainsbury’s logo as this would be displayed on the side gussets of the shopping bags.

Finally, as there are no colour limitations I would create 3-5 designs using different colour schemes so Sainsbury’s could either choose from the variations or agree to all colour schemes going out as as part of the limited edition collection of bags.

Research Task:

For this research task I need to find an example of a self-directed project set by an illustrator and answer the question – what sort of brief did they set themselves?

Jake Parker:

Jake Parker created Inktober in 2009 as a challenge to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits. It has since grown into a worldwide endeavor with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year.

Jake Parker is a comic book artist, illustrator and animator who created the challenge. The reason behind this was that he wanted to improve on his traditional and digital inking skills so he inked an illustration every day for the entirety of October 2009 continuing on each October since. He posted his outcomes online and other started to become inspired to try out his challenge, since then hundreds of people worldwide take part in the challenge. In 2016 Jake started posting prompt lists with a word or phrase for each day, but not everyone follows them.

The rules of the challenge are:

• The drawing must be in ink, preferably of a single colour. Though pencil is acceptable for the under-drawing.
• One must post it and hashtag it “inktober” so that others can see it.
• The process repeats every day of October.
• The most important part of the challenge is forming the habit of drawing something finished consistently. So some people decide to post every other day.

What sort of brief did they set themselves?:

Jake Parker set the open brief of creating a drawing for each day in October in order to improve on his inking skills.

References:

https://inktober.com/

Exercise – What’s your working process?:

For this exercise I have been asked to write a short outline of my creative working process, reflecting on the projects I’ve been involved with up to this point.

Creative Process Flow Diagram:

Creative Process:

Depending on the brief, the method below may be shortened or lengthened, but below is my basic creative process.

Reading the brief:

I read through the brief (or exercise) set for me. I read through it a few times to make sure I have understood what is needed. I then highlight specific wording including questions that I need to answer which I will then add to my Learning Log.

research:

I start off researching the topic of the brief (whatever that may be). I usually do this through using Google as a search engine and type in questions or names of whatever I am researching into Google. I search Google Images and Wikipedia as well as other online libraries and reliable sources. I then add the information that I found to my Learning Log.

brainstorming and idea generation:

I use my iPad to create a digital brainstorm on Procreate. I always do a spider diagram when coming up with ideas as this helps their generation. Sometimes I also do small sketches instead of words to show am idea more than words alone.

thumnail sketches:

I use both my iPad and my sketchbook when creating thumbnail sketches depending on what the brief asks but I primarily use my iPad for thumbnails. I create these using Procreate again. I create as many thumbnail sketches as I can that show my ideas.

initial illustrations:

When creating my initial illustrations I normally sketch over my chosen thumbnail from the previous step that I enlarge digitally on Procreate. I then trace over the top of the sketch, normally in blue so I can differentiate between the sketch line and the final coloured or black linework.

linework:

Next, I complete the linework normally using the ‘Syrup’ pen on Procreate. I use different pressures and line sizes in order to create contrast or perspective.

colour palette choosing and colouring illustration:

The colours I choose depend mostly on the context of the brief, for instance if I was to create an illustration to go with a brand logo and the logo consisted of the colours yellow, red and black then I would use the colour dropper in Procreate to that the colours I use within my illustration would be the same as the logo. If I was creating an illustration and the colour palette was down to me, I would use palettes that are either consistent or rebel against the true colours of the subject e.g. I would either choose orange for a carrot or rebel and go blue for abstract illustration.

evaluation:

This is the final step in my creative process. This is where I normally answer questions or explain specific parts of my design process that may be misunderstood or need more context. I also write what I thought went well and what I thought didn’t go well and what I enjoyed and what I didn’t enjoy so much.