Craig Oldham talk

This is my Criag Oldham talk poster. I must admit i had a helping hand from the boyfriend. I came up with the idea, drew the dog and wrote the words, he helped me lay things out and organise the text. I'm really happy with the way it looks. I like drawing fonts but often don't know what to do with them when i've finished or where to place them. This made me think more laterally about things andi will definately try and get more typography into my work, typography seems to be very popular at the moment. I drew a dog because that's his pet and Craig has a love of ampersans so she has one as her name tag. I was thinking about the title 'But isn't that your job?' and thought what 'jobs' we give dogs and came up with the fetching of slippers. She's then holding up a contract which Craig has signed sayin 'But isn't that your job?'.

The talk itself was very interesting and insightful, it was nice to see the designers budet and the slice the illustrators are given. It was nice to hear him say 'If you can think, we can teach everythin else' and that personality and passion were more important than talent. If he doesn't like the illustrators attitude, i.e won't take feedback or make amends, he can't work with them, whereas if someone is passionate and willing but maybe needs a lot of direction he's willing to put the effort in to get a good result. He also said that ideas were like slot machines, 'keep going until you get the three cherries', and that ideas come from years of life experiences so to keep doing things, going places and seeing new things.

As a learner illustrator i would be very eager to please with my first jobs, so much so that i could be in danger of losing me and just doing what other people wanted, even if they wanted me to copy a specific artist instead of pay for the real thing. Craig told us all to put a little of ourselves into our work, so don't just fit the brief perfectly, surprise them a little; give them something they didn't even know they wanted.

I learnt that designers and directors will always change their mind so to keep sending them sketches to keep them upto date. I will definately be employing the 'Mum Test', where if your mum doesn't understand it it probably needs changing.