Blog:4

Presentation

How to become a published illustrator
(Interview with Tamsin Ainslie)


I will be gathering advice from local illustrator Tamsin Ainslie on ways to become a published illustrator. Tamsin is based in Murwillumbah and is a successful working illustrator who illustrates for children books, magazines and the like. Free promotions, blogging and clever tricks on self promotion will be explored and a look over three of the most happening illustration agencies in Australia. Is it better to be represented by an agency or not? Pros and cons will be covered and hopefully a better understanding of how it all comes together will be achieved.
Thanks. Melissa

ORGANIC OR GLAMOUR

I will be presenting about package design, and the different package ideas to promote products. Ive chosen to talk about two skincare/cosmetic brands, Jurlique and beneFit cosmetics. Both brands are as successful as each other but have completely different packaging and promotional material to attract consumers. Jurlique take from the environment only what they need. In an effort to leave the smallest possible footprint on this planet. Jurlique's branding and packaging on the products are natural looking and eco-friendly. BeneFit Cosmetics, known for its brightly coloured, candy themed cosmetics, are beautifully imaginative and utilize a fanciful 50's style and bold typography to communicate a brands personality built around the ideas of imagination, free spiritedness and individuality.

Jurlique

BeneFit Cosmetics


"WHICH ONE WILL YOU CHOOSE........ORGANIC OR GLAMOUR"

Post 4: Report and Presentation Summary

Since i have been interested in the web and in virtual world, my report and presentation will be on the virtual world Second Life, also know as SL to its users. In the report i will be dealing with how you use it, how a graphic designer can make money in the virtual world, graphic designers that have been successful in SL, what SL is about, also the other ways you can make money in SL.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

street graphics from another land....egypt

When i was eight years old my mum took me to Egypt-  the cultural extravaganza of colours, smells, architecture, people and food was amazing-the realization that there is allot more happening out there in the world outside of Australia, or in the least inner western sydney, where i grew up. 

Modern Egypt is a fantastic mix of ancient and new coming together, culturally and graphically. There are three distinct cultures and visual styles: ancient Egyptian imagery, a developing Western international style and the traditional Arabic calligraphy of Egypt’s Islamic majority.

Egypt is a land of graphics and symbols, ancient and new, ever morphing, and like no other place on earth. Thousands of years ago egyptians carved a pictorial history of Pharaonic culture on their temples, tombs and monuments. Hieroglyphs- a written language of symbols. Representations and interpretations of this ancient culture saturate modern Egypt's tourism industry, from hotel signs to petrol booths, souvenir stalls, market stalls. There is a beautiful contrast of signage, colourful and diverse- new imagery thriving alongside the traditional in stark contrast or startling confusion of ancient culture cross modern Egypt. 

One thing i find interesting about Australia is our cultural diversity. We have little pockets of life from all over the world- China town, Italian suburbs, African suburbs, Maltese, Lebanese, Indian, Croatian... there are suburbs where the menus and signage for restaurants, doctors, supermarkets stocked with products all written in other languages. 

The lettering, characters and typography hold a decorative feel and mystery to my untrained eyes. Grid tetris block styled  Korean lettering, the calligraphy of Arabic, unpronounceable greek lettering, perfectly placed Japanese characters.  I love the gamble of buying unknown substances in brightly wrapped packaging from Asian supermarkets, new taste and smell sensations. Potions and lotions, perfumes and oils.

As a designer i think that it is important to think and design globally- especially as the gap between cultures is getting smaller and smaller, with globalization and westernization of the planet. I feel it is crucial for cultural diversity alive. 

I came across a book "street graphics Egypt" by Barry Dawson. It is a photographic record and colourful source of diverse street images. Visually it is inspiring, although the written content is minimal.

Ok,
So I have been chating with Jae Copp on and off for a while now and I suppose the thing I have most been impressed with is the guys interlect and sense of humoure, he doesn’t come across as pretentiose or up him self or any sort of gimmick he seems to be the real deal so any way just a few examples of his wit and sense of humoure shine through in these latest statements .When asked “do you collect any thing” he answers “I collect dust because it’s easy” and when asked “what is next for Jae Copp ? he answers “I don’t know ,Mexico…children’s books everything! If life catches up I’ll just run faster !. I also asked him if he makes much of a living doing what he does and he answered,”not exactly….i have a one bedroom unit and an unregistered camry station wagon which now acts as a tool shed”. I was also thinking to broaden may topic I should discuss the fact that Jae copp does art work for skateboards and t-shirts and also does finer visual arts things so I thought I could maybe categorise his work some how . Let us know what you all think

Ok,
Hi every one by now some of you must be wondering just who exactly “soopkichn” is and what it’s about well it’s a brand/company/identity for some one who goes by the name of “Jae Copp”.I have been making regular contact with mr Copp basically just founding out what he is about and where he is coming from.Here is some basis information I have found out about him ok, he is “a 37-year-old-jaded-grey-bearded-bastard” I also found out where he lives/resides calls home and it’s “the high hills of Carool which is situated about half hour drive inland from Coolangatta on the southern side ridge of Currumbin valley”. I also asked him about his history/where he grew up what his childhood was like and I found out that he grew up in Sydney during the early eighties to late nineties which just so happened to be when the major progression period was for skateboarding, graffiti/break dancing and the whole punk to indie to grunge merge was so as a youth Jae was surrounded by a “highly influential and creative space in time” I also asked him abit about previous experiences jobs ect and he had this to say “Although I fell into a well paid but ultimately unfulfilling job I always stayed or surrounded my self in a creative environment “ so basically creativity has always been at the core of jae’s exterior and has ultimately always been creatively driven but it wasn’t until 1999 that he decided to take the leap and travel down his chosen path of creativity and that’s when he started right here at Kingscliff t.a.f.e “to basically catch up with technology i.e learn how to turn a computer on” “and walked away with a wealth of knowledge thanks to the good people at kingscliff”.Then in 2004 he started up his own business/company that fell under the name of “soopkichn” but there was a problem what Jae did not count on was his ultimately not so compatible or enthusiastic partner which he has not named and ultimately lead to the downfall and demise of “soopkichn” he was also kind enough to give me some pointers and advice for future use in my graphic design path if it is to be and they are as follows.
.create goals and directions and write them down
.try to do as much on you’re own within reason
.take you’re time but work you’re ass off
.stay original
.work on developing your own style early on
I would also like to mention that my task has become more difficult as the “soopkichn” website has been under construction for a long time now so it has become difficult to source a lot of information but emails have became a regular source for me.His exact words “I will be putting SOOPKICHN to sleep for the next few months to pay attention to more personal endeavors which is mainly concentrating on art.Which is what I guess I’m saying is he is so diverse in his range he does street art for his skate boarding things but also does finer more visual art which he sells in gallerys. I also asked him where he got a lot of inspirations from and he had this to say “ I usually draw inspiration from something that has effected me in one way or another past or present, conversations with friends, good times, bad times and music has a huge influence on his train of thought but he ultimately sais that influences are derived from any where really “from there I generally start by writing down quick thoughts then work on filtering out ideas that I think will be worth working out visually”.I also asked him what artists he was into and he said “I like way to many artists for one reason or another , although I will say this I am really enjoing Canadian born artist “ACORN” at the moment , so I sourced some images of acorn online and here they are.