Exciting News: Tea & Crayons at UNCONTAINED, Shoreditch

Really excited about this: We're pleased to announce that we are taking part in UNCONTAINED, a 30-day pop-up event in the 55DSL store in the Boxpark, Shoreditch, London!

"In June and July, ShellsuitZombie is taking over the 55DSL store in BOXPARK, Shoreditch, and asking thirty creative individuals, groups and companies to take a day each."

We'll be taking over on TUESDAY JUNE 5th (That's Jubilee day!) We'll be hosting a Jubilee-themed Tea Party on the bank holiday tuesday; expect cups of tea, cake, drawing on the walls, an exhibition of our work (with the opportunity to buy prints!) and running illustration workshops/portfolio reviews for up and coming illustrators. Make sure you pop down if you're in the area to meet us face to face and get involved!

RSVP on our Facebook Page here.

Illustration & Design Forum with Rachel; THIS SUNDAY

 Just a quick reminder to all our lovely friends and fans that our very own Rachel Lewis is taking part in the Shipshape Studio Illustration & Design Forum this Sunday (15th April) in Hammersmith, London!

And we've got an 15% exclusive discount on tickets for all our Tea & Crayons followers if you book now! Just click here and use the discount code RACHELTALKS.

"A panel discussion and networking event on careers in the design and illustration industry.

During this intimate event, the panel will discuss careers in illustration and design, and will cover crucial aspects such as social networking and marketing yourself. There will be a Q&A session where you will have the chance to ask any questions about careers in the creative industry.  

The artists will be exhibiting a selection of their work and it will be available to buy."

Rachel will be talking about her experiences through Uni and after graduation, getting freelance work, setting up a collective, and working as a graphic designer in the fashion retail industry; hopefully giving an insight into the different paths that you can take as a creative and the various ways you can make a living from doing what you love!

Hope to see you there! xx

Out & About: Shipshape Illustration and Design Forum, 15th April

Tea & Crayons are super excited about this: Shipshape Studios are hosting an Illustration and Design Forum on 15th April 2012 - with our very own Rachel L taking part! The event is now being held at The Brook Green Hotel, which is a 5 minute walk from Hammersmith tube station. It's also easily reached from Goldhawk Road and Shepherd's Bush stations.

"A panel discussion and networking event on careers in the design and illustration industry, with Emma Block, Alice Potter and Rachel Lewis.

During this intimate event, the panel will discuss careers in illustration and design, and will cover crucial aspects such as social networking and marketing yourself. There will be a Q&A session where you will have the chance to ask any questions about careers in the creative industry.  

The artists will be exhibiting a selection of their work and it will be available to buy. Refreshments will be available to purchase."

Tickets are £15 if you buy before 15th March, and as well as talking about our own careers to date, answering questions and generally discussing starting out in a creative career, we'll also all be selling prints of our work on the day, and Emma Block will be selling and signing copies of her amazing book, Tea & Cake. (Which we wholeheartedly approve of. Of course.)

This is the first time you'll be able to purchase archival prints of Rachel's work, which is super exciting. All of the panel members have followed slightly different career paths since graduating and it will be great to hear about the different options that are there for aspiring illustrators, and hopefully each panel member can give really varied and interesting insights into how they've got where they are today. It's going to be a great day and we hope to see as many of you there as possible!

BUY TICKETS HERE: http://illustrationdesign.eventbrite.co.uk/?discount=RACHELTALKS&ebtv=C

Out & About: Selfridges and It's Nice That 'Words Words Words'

Welcome to our brand new weekly feature Out & About - our round up of what's going on where - exhibitions, book reviews, competitions and general cool stuff that we find.

This week I want to highlight something I discovered last week and am really excited about; It's Nice That's window commission with Selfridges.
"To coincide with the iconic store’s Words Words Words season – a unique, multi-stranded initiative that promotes slow communication and celebrates the inspirational and creative power of words and literature – [they] have art-directed four special three-dimensional extravaganzas."

"For the showpiece corner window of Oxford Street and Orchard Street, we have collaborated with interactive designer Stewdio to create ‘The Word-A-Coaster’ a playful fortune telling machine. The 14 foot high hand-built wooden rollercoaster (constructed by model makers Atom) is surrounded by a sea of 30,000 brightly coloured balls filled with 30,000 unique fortunes that can be picked up in store for free. Inside the balls, shoppers will find a small card emblazoned with a uniquely numbered adjective, generated by a clever computer programme that leaves each individual with their own personal, playful prediction for 2012."

"To complement the corner window, we have worked with three of our favourite designers, challenging them to create a physical interpretation of the word WORDS. All three are wonderful in their own ways, from artist Ben Long’s beautifully constructed scaffold structure, to designer Chrissie Macdonald’s (above) superb oversized objects and surface designer Giles Miller’s intricate cardboard creations." (below)

 They look amazing and I can't wait to get down to Selfridges to have a look for myself. I am in awe of the free rein that Selfridges allow for their windows - they are always incredibly conceptual, incredibly well thought through and always fantastic. They understand that good window design, and good VM, needs to come from a well grounded place of creativity and in this day and age, customers are just not turned on by generic placement and arrangement of products. Indeed, I feel the best windows are often the ones which feature barely any product at all - it is a strong concept and flawless production which captures shoppers imagination and draws them in to part with their all important cash. For let's not forget - it may look like art, but this is highly crafted functional design with a crucial focus; increasing revenue and profit for the retailer. How to go about this is the million pound question; Customers are getting savvier and more careful with their money; a half-arsed window scheme just won't cut it if you want to make an impression and ensure your customers have an emotional and loyal link to your brand.

It's Nice That are also putting on a series of talks at the Ultralounge in Selfridges, London, with an eclectic line-up of inspiring and darn-right interesting thinkers, writers, and designers to explore the ‘Words Words Words’ theme. Kicking off the series next month is polymath James Bridle, copywriting strategists We All Need Words, and The Guardian journalist Paul Lewis (this event is sold out). But the one I'm really looking forward to is Words as Images on the 9th February - a subject I am passionate about (being an illustrator and graphic designer in the fashion industry, it's quite crucial) with Why Not Associates, Fraser Muggeridge, and Sara Fanelli, possibly my favourite illustrator of all time. As soon as tickets go on sale I'm snapping one up - anyone fancy joining me?

Rach L x

‘Life As An Illustrator’ Talk from the YCC

On the 28th July Rachel P and Rachel L went to the ‘Life As An Illustrator’ Talk from the YCC, in conjunction with Jelly London and Creative Floor, featuring Matt Lyon and Alison Carmichael.


Jelly London is a great multi-disciplinary creative agency, and so it was great to hear from two of their artists.

Matt Lyon was up first. I recognised his work immediately; he has a distinctive style which makes you want to stop and stare. So much detail and colour in his work! He described himself as a doodler (or freestyle drawing, if you want to make it sound more professional) and that’s how he starts all of his pieces; by obsessively doodling and filling the page until he finds something he likes, which he then works up on the computer. An amazing process and something which is quite alien to me; I have to have a clear idea in my head of the image I want to produce, do lots of little mindmaps and thumbnail sketches, then I get straight to it on the computer or in pencil. Doodling never really creates anything exciting for me…

The thing that struck me about Matt was his incredible prolificity, and his lack of worry over things going wrong or being too precious. He takes mistakes in his stride and often uses them as a way of taking the work in another direction. The other thing that made me think was how his career had panned out; starting out as a fine artist, not really knowing what to do with it once graduating, sort of falling into teaching graphic design, then getting into freelance t-shirt design through Threadless, and continuing from there. He strikes me as the kind of person that doesn’t particularly have a ‘plan’ – and I think this suits him just fine.

He showed us loads of slides of his early work and the transformation his style has gone through over the years. One thing that I thought particularly interesting was when he wanted to try out a new style; he went under an alias in case it flopped and everyone hated it, or it would damage his career. In fact it didn’t, the alias stuck (C86) and he has used it ever since. I often think about style, and wanting to do something dramatically different, but you do get worried about confusing people – it’s a great idea to do it under a new, anonymous alias I think.

Another ‘aha’ moment he spoke about was the way he uses Photoshop and Illustrator – Illustrator first, to create the elements, then Photoshop to add the colours and textures. This interested me because that’s the way I’m starting to use them (I used to be entirely in Photoshop, now I seem to be almost exclusively in Illustrator, except when I want to add texture etc) and it was nice to hear about someone’s process of working.

His work isn’t my most favourite ever, possibly too digital/primary colours I think, I like to see hand-rendered elements, but I admire his work ethic very much and his energy and passion was amazing. His client list is so enviable and he seems to have an amazing career both behind and in front of him.

Next up was Alison Carmichael, who’s one of those creatives who you’ve probably seen her work everywhere but just not realised it was her. She’s worked with so many amazing clients, a really varied portfolio. A quick look through her website shows just how much she has done – it’s amazing. My favourite pieces are her retro-wall-inspired-ads for Anchor, which I love. They look so genuine and heartwarming!

She also talked about the reference/scrap books she keeps – amazing treasure troves of ephemera which always came to her when was was tackling a tricky brief. A lesson there, definitely. I collect bits and pieces but I stopped doing scrapbooks after Uni – as such things happen – and I really should pick it up again. I just have tonnes of bits of stuff floating around my room now.

Another nugget of wisdom from Alison was ‘always take a brief on the phone’ and use visual reference between you and the commissioner too, so that you’re on the same page. Emails are great but I completely agree that you can’t get the full picture unless you actually speak to the person. Emails can be so impersonal.

At the end there was a Q&A session, lots of great questions asked, including the age old ‘What do you think of free internships’ – Alison said they could be invaluable in terms of real world experience, but only do what you can afford, and don’t do it if you’re not learning anything. Matt was more wary of doing free work in the context of ‘exposure’ etc – while experience is good, you can’t undersell yourself.

It was a great evening, and thanks for the free beers too YCC; good stuff!

Event: The AOI Head to Head in London, 10.11.10

Hello all! Rachel Lewis here. (There's two Rachel's, I may change my name for ease ha) So lovely to see lots of nice new followers and friendly Tea & Crayons supporters! *waves*

On Wednesday this week I attended an event put on by The AOI (of which I and others of us are members of) called Head to Head, which presented "illustrators Jenny Bowers and Garry Parsons, who create imagery for a broad spectrum of commissioners, including editorial, children’s books, broadcasting and design. They talked about their work, careers, motivations and how they find work. The evening also included discussions moderated by Rod Hunt, covering a range of topics, including, Have you compromised your ethics for money? Do you feel the need to adapt for the future? How do you deal with clients, and other issues raised from the audience?"

It was a really good evening; I haven't been to an illustration talk for ages now and it left me feeling so inspired. Both illustrators gave a short talk about their work, what they do, how they got started, lots of useful things like that. Let's start with Jenny Bowers:

Jenny Bowers:

Her work is so lovely and so fun, the exact style I love. She has a unique visual language and I really aspire to have my work be so uniquely 'mine'. It's not quite there yet.

Jenny is part of the Peepshow Collective - a very established collective, set up in 2000, who have been going from strength to strength. She talked about how she joined (she wasn't an original member) and what they do when they are approached with projects; whether jointly, singularly, or just a few of them taking part. As a collective aesthetic, they're rather eclectic, which works perfectly on a lot of the things they do, especially large animation projects for clients like Nike, etc.

What was inspiring for me, (and for us, as a fledgling collective) was to hear how they have grown, how they present themselves, and everything from how they pay themselves (they are a Ltd company so get paid as Directors would, depending on who took part in each brief) to how they share resources and contacts. Until recently they have shared a studio together, working together and separately in a shared space - something I would love to do, and maybe in a few years, something Tea & Crayons could work towards. Being a freelancer is a lonely thing sometimes, and to have somewhere to go to work, that isn't your bedroom (and isn't your current full time job) would be lovely.

Above all, they are not precious about their contacts and ideas - everyone works together, and there's no sense of 'this is my contact, I'm not going to tell you' between them - if they feel like they can't fit the brief but someone else in the collective could, they tell them. It also means clients and art directors can approach them almost like an agency - all members can pitch for the brief and then it means that someone in the collective will probably get it - keeping that relationship with the client within the Collective so future commissions may come.

 Above all, I was struck by her work ethic, and what amazing clients she has had. Such as AOL, BBC, Channel 4, Creative Review, Don't Panic Media, Elle Decoration, Guardian, howies, Intro, John Brown Publishing, Kate Spade, Kessel Kramer, The New York Times Magazine... to name but a few. Amazing. I would do anything to work with any of those! Another interesting thing is the time-span of her career - I don't know how old she is but I'd say mid 30s maybe, but she said she'd only been a proper full time illustrator for 5 years; in that, she can fully support herself with illustration. Before that there had always been part time jobs, work as freelance production design assistants in television (she worked on Doctor Who!!) and such. Far from making me feel a bit depressed about how long it takes to reach your dreams, this buoyed me a bit - even amazingly talented illustrators have to go through the ropes for a good few years, but eventually, if it's your passion and you work hard enough, you'll get to where you want to be. Ultimately, it's all about patience (something which I have to work on..) and realising you're not going to be a fully established, full time illustrator overnight.

Garry Parsons:

Garry was second and had a slightly different story, although many threads were the same. He isn't part of a collective so has gone the more 'traditional route', eventually getting himself an agent. Both agents talked about the merits and disadvantages of having an agent for a bit - Jenny having only just recently acquired one, Garry Parsons having had one for a bit longer. I think the message overall was this; you don't need an agent to be successful, and some illustrators prefer to not have one, but they can be useful for negotiating higher prices that you normally could, for getting to clients that you normally couldn't, and above all, being able to fight your legal battles with you (such as when clients steal your copyright or your work!).

Garry has 2 threads to his work; Editorial and Advertising (as above) and Children's Books. He keeps the two portfolios very separate and this seems to work well for him; both careers have run simultaneously and when one dries up a little, there's always something going on with the other one. This I think is a really healthy approach to have and shows you don't have to pigeonhole yourself into one 'type' or even one style - even though both portfolios are clearly 'him', both feel different.

Garry was originally a painter, and eventually arrived at illustration a few years after graduating. To this end, he still produces all his children's book work with paint and ink; but his editorial is done in Photoshop. This is mainly to save time, as editorial has very short deadlines, but also does lend that slight different aesthetic, which gives a nice differentiation between the two.

Garry has also had a long and successful career so far, and went fully 'full time' a few years ago now too, agreeing with Jenny that you have to juggle part time work with illustration for a good while in order to become fully established. He was lucky in that he was working 3 days a week in retail, and could spend the rest of the time illustrating; for those of us with full time jobs it becomes harder to balance the two. In the end he said, you just have to fit in the illustration where you can and eventually, it will pay off.

When talking about how he got his first paying client, he said he simply started the traditional route, and fired off hundreds of self promotional postcards to magazines. Eventually, he was offered work by a Nursing magazine; 11 years later he still does work for them! Which is amazing and pretty rare I think; but he offered a good piece of advice - don't ignore the lesser heard of, trade magazines, such as nursing, or financial/mortgage type things - they will often take a chance on less established illustrators, rather than chasing The Guardian or The Times; start small and move up to them.

He still now sends postcard mailers and says he still finds them the best method of getting new clients. Jenny agreed, and said don't underestimate the power of free work, or work done for exhibitions; even though they don't pay, the exposure can lead to paying clients spotting them and contacting you. For example, she did some free work for an exhibition, which the V&A spotted and then commissioned her for something similar:

Vases for Concrete Hermit exhibition, Jenny Bowers

At the end of the talk, there was a Q&A session, which had really varying questions, everything from What's the best way to get an agent, to what's the worst client experience you've ever had. (Amusing, some of them, but probably not at the time. Everything from over-demanding, underpaying clients, to big names that steal your work *cough*Topshop*cough*) It's refreshing, although somewhat worrying to hear these stories - it's not just the slightly dodgy, non-paying clients that can screw you, so you have to really know your contracts, know your rights, and above all, not get disheartened. The Aoi are great at giving advice and have all kinds of knowledgeable people that can help you out, it's one of the reasons why I'm a member. Luckily, I haven't experience a bad client or getting ripped off - thankfully.

A really insightful and interesting evening, and has definitely inspired me to get cracking on more self promotion and pushing myself further. Some food for thought on the whole Collective side of things too; things that we'll be taking on board I think!

What are your experiences with starting out as an illustrator? How did you get your first client, or are you still working on that? Had any disasters or successes? Do share with Tea & Crayons!

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