Samantha Landells

I must admit I really struggled with the academic writing portion of this module as I found it difficult to discuss my topic from a 3 rd person perspective. However, I made sure to attend meetings with an academic coach at my university in order to support me through this. I found this really useful especially considering my limited understanding of how to Harvard Reference as they were able to clearly explain the structures and requirements to me. I also made sure to set up tutorials with my tutor as much as possible so we could read over my essay and make necessary alterations before my final submission to help me boost my grade further. I am unsure how successful I will be in this module as it is my first time attempting academic writing however despite this I am grateful for the amount of knowledge I have obtained through the research portion of this task. I found it extremely interesting being able to devise my research around topics I found personally interesting and using t...

Whilst working between my 3 current modules: personal professional development, commercial illustration and contextual studies. I chsoe to update my time plan to help me re-work the layout of my tasks as things hadn’t gone to plan over the Easter holidays as I ended up needing to work on further research for my contextual essay rather than staring my initial write up as I had planned. Due to this, it caused disarray between the schedules of my other tasks as well so I felt the best way to try and resolve this would be to recreate my time plan, blanking out all of the dates which have already passed. This would enable me to identify how much time I was working with before each individual deadline so I could organise my tasks accordingly. I found this really useful in helping me remain confident and motivated to complete my tasks on time as it was a visual reminder of how long I could spend on each individual task, helping make sure I worked efficiently and effectively to meet these ...

Continuing my research into available sustainable printing companies I located an interview on ‘Ethical.Net’ discussing a company called ‘Happy Pineapple’. Within their interview they noted how the company in discussion used sustainable paper methods, recycled paper and vegetable based inks, which had me invested. I decided to visit the website of ‘Happy Pineapple’ to find out more,   upon visiting the website it appeared to offer similar options as ‘Ashley House’ had, although the information on the website was much more difficult to interpret. At first glance it seems their website is focused on discussing their goals and what their company is achieving in terms of working sustainably and advertises it being a printing company. However, there are no clear directions as to how an individual could go about exploring the services they offer without first making contact with the provider. I feel this isn’t as effective as the methods used on ‘Ashley House’ which make the consumer f...

Following on from my inspiration from Penguin publishing and my recent investigations into eco-friendly printing companies, I wanted to discover a company which could be used to print the completion of my upcoming module ‘Commercial Illustration’ where I am designing a children’s book. I felt this would be extremely relevant to my future practices and wanted to investigate further whether the printing of an eco-friendly book would be possible within the UK. For this I found a company called ‘Ashley House: Printing Company’ where I discovered they are actually knows as “One of the most eco-friendly printing companies in the UK” (Eco Print | Eco-friendly Printing | Green Printing | Ashley House, 2020) which was supported within their websites ‘Eco Printing’ page which discussed their ‘zero landfill policy’ and replantation of woodland resources used to create their products. I really enjoyed the theme and purpose of this website, not only is it there to enable people and businesses ...

Considering my first load of research focused on the use of sustainable printing methods and how I could imply that within my work, both now and in the future as I strive to become a children’s book illustrator and writer I thought the next best stage to research would be pre-existing publishing houses and any steps they are taking in order to be more eco-friendly and print using sustainable methods. For this I decided to research the well-known publishing house, Penguin who luckily had a whole section in their ‘About Us’ page dedicated to their approach on sustainability. I felt Penguin shared some promising commitments to not only altering their own carbon emissions as a publishing house, but also through their choices of publication which in their words have “power to change minds and behaviour” (Sustainability, n.d.) . Due to this they have a wide selection of books to help a variety of individual’s at different ages to understand their impact on society and have now even “establ...

For my upcoming Contextual Studies essay I have decided to focus my argument around sustainability as an illustrator / publisher as I felt these were two areas which heavily relate to my chosen specialism and my impact within the environment. As an artist it can often be hard to work sustainably due to large printing quantities, the types of ink we need to use to obtain the results desired and the necessity to sketch on large amounts of paper yearly. I began by researching what printer ink is currently commonly made from and found out it consists of many harmful ingredients such as resins, solvents and inorganic varnish bases. Due to this it would seem logical to search for an alternative and compare the cost to see whether a more sustainable method is possible for a small illustrator. On amazon the current price for my printer ink is £24 on sale. However, as I attempted to explore a home use printer which utilises vegetable based inks for printing, I was unable to locate one. All of...

My course provided me with tickets to the first ever online INTL : International Festival which provided an assembly of different graphic artists from around the world who discussed their experiences with Covid-19 and lockdown as well as an introduction to their artwork and practices. There were 9 artists in total including; Veronica from Hey Studio, Elijah Anderson, Nono, Edmond and Jennifer from Two Times Elliot, Amber Weaver, Nam Huynh, Mitzi Okou, Rich Tu, Eva Cremers and Thierry Blancpain from Grilla Type. The two artist’s work I really loved were Veronica from Hey Studio who creates her graphics utilising traditional drip painting or paper crafting techniques, resulting in beautiful one of a kind designs unique to their clients. They are based in Barcelona but work with clients worldwide and create some truly beautiful creations. I was so intrigued by Veronica’s work as I often feel due to the development in technology handmade projects are often overlooked within the creative ...

I have incorporated an image of my Bibliography for the Contextual Studies task as when I attempted to import it as a PDF or direct text it would either be incompatible or remove the layout settings I had utilised.  I found the best way to include this would be via a screenshot although it does mean the hyperlinks aren’t able to be copied directly but can be written in the search bar. I found this task really hard initially as I didn’t understand how to accurately layout all of the information, however through the help of multiple resources I feel I have definitely began to understand this process a lot better and feel much more confident trying to apply it within my final Contextual Studies essay. I have however booked in for an appointment with an Academic Tutor in the near future to go over this bibliography and identify whether my methods are correct and useable within my final bibliography, as well as to look over the structure of my essay’s first draft. I feel this will b...

Entering this site immediately created a sense of joy and wonder which is why I felt so strongly compelled to complete research regarding this agency. I found out that ‘Flying Eye Books’ is actually a child company of the well-known ‘Nobrow’ publishing, I could definitely see this by the standard of the website and books available. I found out they are also an international company which allows them to translate books into various languages so their books can be enjoyed worldwide. I chose three books which I felt inspired by to base my research on which were all located from ‘Flying Eye Books’. I realised I had actually seen some of these books before, which was interesting, such as Hilda which is as stated a series on Netflix. I loved the fact I was able to relate to at least one or more books available on their site, as it showed me how wide an audience range they have managed to create, despite specifying as a children’s publishing company. I chose to look at these 3 stories...

For this task I was asked to look at 3 agencies within the creative industry which I felt resonated with my chosen future specialisms. Due to this, I decided to explore agencies which were not only based around the representation of those who work within children’s illustration and publishing but advertising as well as these are the two areas I am working towards developing my skills within.   Lemonade –  I love how they have an area specifically devoted to children’s illustration, I really liked the artists they currently represent and would be keen to use them as research and inspiration within my upcoming projects next year. I would love to continue developing my skills and understanding surrounding children’s illustration in order to hopefully one day be represented by a company such as Lemonade. Represented Artist of Interest |  Michael Cotton Russell   Handsome Frank –  They support contemporary artists and practices which would provide me the opport...