Ideas generation lecture

I had a lecture on thinking about developing ideas for Units 7 and 8 which was really useful in making me try and focus my ideas by considering the context and motive behind my work. An important question is who are we creating work for? Myself, others or both. I think most people would like to think both but others is definitely more important for me. I do for it for myself because I want to challenge myself and improve, but that is working towards my main goal which is to create work that people will enjoy and get the same pleasure from that I do from other illustrator's work.

It is also important to think about where the work I create will fit, what will it's application be? We looked at the following categories:

• Magazine: Oh Comely, Elephant, Anorak, Cabinet, New Scientist, Monocle, Mr Magpie, Spectator, Private Eye, Varoom
• Publications: Books, Faber & Faber, Folio Society, Penguin etc
• Competitions: Folio Society House of Illustration competition, D & AD, Penguin Design Awards, Macmillian Prize Childrens book prize, RSA student awards, YCN student awards, Hermione Hammond Drawing Prize, Jerwood drawing prize
• Advertising campaigns

Apsara advertising campaign- a great example of appropriate and effective materials

First of all this made me realise how few magazines and journals I actually look at! I need to allocate a certain amount of time every week to taking advantage of the NUA library's extensive range on offer and absorb some new inspiration and ideas. I went through the subscriptions on offer and Oh Comely had a good 6 month deal so I'm looking forward to my first magazine.

Secondly I realised I don't really know what category I want my work to fit into to, the only one I'm not so keen on is advertising campaigns. For my final major project I am stuck between narrative illustration, self-promotion and competition work. A competition would supply me with a predetermined brief and context for my work which could be useful it helping me to focus my ideas quickly and give me a competitive motivation. At the same time narrative illustration is a big passion for me which is why I have decided to explore it now to evaluate whether to take it further into my final major project. I do like the idea of my work being in magazines but I think at this point in my education narrative or self-promotion would be more key to my confidence and skill building.

The lecture covered a topic that I can sometimes struggle on which is creating work about what I am interested in a way that works for me, not what style or subject I think others will like. Therefore through this project I am wanting to really explore what materials and techniques work for me as this is something I need to discover before I move into Unit 8. I am now realising that Unit 7 is about finding out what subjects, ideas, styles and contexts work for me and refining that for my final degree work, which has made me more confident and relaxed to approaching my project as experimentation is something I enjoy.

Angela Carter's Night at the Circus by Bekah Cranch

I was interested to see the work examples of previous NUA student Bekah Cranch, as she seems to have responded to a narrative text similar to mine in an unconventional way through a visual essay, playing with text and image. This has inspired me to me more open about my approach to The Night Circus and to experiment more with text, image and outcome.

The key piece of advice I have taken away from this lecture is to make mistakes quicker to resolve them quicker and to allow time to think and reflect.