SWOT/PEST workshop

Following on from the PPP session last week about SWOT, yesterday we did a SWOT analysis on McDonalds:

 

It was useful to practice this exercise on a company as an outside perspective, rather than an analysis on myself where I tend to be quite harsh on myself and not recognise my own strengths. While a SWOT analysis should be harsh in order to identify your weaknesses and where you can improve, it's also important to identify your strengths and what makes you or your business unique!

After the SWOT analysis, we learned about the PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) or PESTLE (add Legal and Environmental). I hadn't actually considered the wider context of a business and how factors such as law changes and trade regulations etc. could affect it. It was useful to do a practice analysis and consider all the ways in which these factors could affect how a business operates, including perhaps my own practice later in life.

Personal work/projects

When I spoke to Ben last week about worrying about 504, one of the things that came up was how I sometimes focus on or prioritise my own personal work.

I have a lot of ideas for graphic novels or longer comics, and I have multiple Word documents with notes, ideas, timelines and character lists etc., that I occasionally add to whenever I get a new brainwave. Something John said in one of the PPP lectures was that great ideas take a long time to form, and that's basically what's been happening with all my ideas for stories. They all stem from one idea, be it something someone said to me, a snippet from a blog post on Tumblr, or just something I overheard on a bus, but they all started as small ideas (lots of them from years ago), that have gradually picked up speed (some more than others) and become larger and more well-formed as the months and years go by.

I can go weeks without thinking about the story but then I'll get a new idea and it'll be added as a new story or a snippet of an existing story idea I have to form a larger story.

What got me thinking about this was when I said to Ben that in my sketchbook I write a lot of lists and diagrams - my sketchbook is a lot more wordy than some people's, but that's just how I work! That's how I tend to think through ideas - through writing and lists and mind maps.

Anyway, over summer, for our summer brief (draw every day), I decided to focus on one of my story ideas and work on character development for characters I'd already pictured in my head.

This particular story (I don't want to actually reveal it lest someone somewhere see it on my blog and create it before I ever get round to it) has been changed and moulded over time, particularly in terms of the love story angle - as I've grown up and become more aware of issues in cinema and other forms of narrative, my tastes have changed and my view of what I think my target audience (primarily inspired by what I myself would want to read) would want to read has changed as I've had new experiences.

But, moving on, here are some of the drawings I did over summer:

I wrote a blog post on my Studio Practice blog in July about struggling with my own visual signature (link here), which you can probably see in the drawings here, but this is the kind of personal work I'm doing at the moment, and the kind of work I want to be doing now and in the future. Obviously there's still room for improvement and a long way to go before the character development stage is complete, but just a snapshot into what I'm doing outside of uni!

S.W.O.T (Study Task 3)

Strengths

• Character
• Narrative
• Humour!
• Using Copic (and similar) pens (I didn't think I was that good but I've been told by quite a few people now that I am a Copic wizard (okay maybe they didn't say wizard))

Weaknesses

• Time management
• Motivation
• Drawing landscapes
• Digital skills

Opportunities

• Comic/zine fairs and conventions - I could make work (or use existing work) to sell (or at least showcase) and get my work out there!
• Responsive briefs and competitions! The work I do for the Responsive module could get me recognised and present new opportunities for work.
• Sites/apps like Tumblr and instagram - start a webcomic or daily/weekly comic strip/life observations on instagram

Threats

• People who draw better than me
• People who have more motivation than me
• My own motivation/time management
• People who have a more consistent style than me?

Who is my target market?

• People like me!
• Young adults (ages about 16-26), students
• People who like a laugh (and sometimes quite dark/niche humour)
• People who like stories!

Unique Selling Point:

There may be people who draw better than me, there may be people who draw the same things as me, but no-one has my exact sense of humour, ability to/way of telling stories or IDEAS! I have lots of ideas and I'm sure no-one has thought of ALL of them (maybe some of them). No-one sees things in quite the same way as me and I will always give a unique spin on an idea or image.

Observational Drawing

One of my friends recently reminded me of something I've done in the past - observational drawing! I know it sounds obvious and I should already be doing it, but it's slipped my mind recently. 

For projects in the past I've carried sketchbooks around with me and drawn people on trains, in coffee shops etc., just to get better at drawing people (my subject matter of choice) and to draw every day, which I should be doing, as an illustrator.

I'm going to buy a few small sketchbooks, A5 and A6, and try to remember to carry one around with me at all times.

The Creative Industries & me - Study Task 2

I think the areas of the creative industries where my work fits the most is Character & Narrative and Publishing & Book Design.

In my work, I primarily focus on character, narrative and humour, and putting that into physical comics! However, my work could potentially (and has in the past) expand into Editorial & Reportage, as there is opportunity for studying people/characters, or making comics as editorial pieces.

My work could also expand into Retail & Merchandise, as in the future I do hope to expand my practice into saleable products, such as mugs and T-shirts for example. In Responsive, I'm doing the UK Greetings brief, which involves producing not only greetings cards but also accompanying wrapping paper and a gift bag, so I'll need to consider how my work will work in those formats. This also comes under Product & Packaging.

I could also envision my work in the Advertising & Promotion category, perhaps in the form of gig posters or other event advertising, as that is something I'm personally interested in.

The only area of the creative industries I'm not sure my work fits in is Object & Environment. I'm not quite sure what this category actually entails (I don't like to draw either of these things really), but I guess perhaps how my illustration would fit in an environment such as a shop window, or on a large-scale mural? A lot of these industries seem to overlap!

I guess my work could fit in that industry, but I think comic strips (and graphic novels) work better on paper/the web, rather than blown up to a larger scale, but I could see a character-based piece at a bigger size in the environment.

Rob Hodgson Big Heads (and other ramblings)

Honestly the only thing I really took note of from Rob Hodgson's Big Heads talk was right at the end when he said no-one really cares in the industry if you went to university or not, or what grade you got.

Sounds like I'm being cynical, but I have thought about this quite a bit before. Creative subjects like Illustration, Graphic Design, Animation etc., can't really be graded or quantified. Creativity and talent is so subjective. In some respects, Maths and Physics are a lot easier than doing a creative subject (or at least that's what I shout at my brother every time he tells me I'm not doing a real subject) because there ARE right answers. You can look up the answer and it's easy to quantify. In the creative industries you can't really be right or wrong! Some people will like your work, some won't. If they don't, it doesn't mean it's bad work.

But back to Rob; if you don't succeed at university in a creative subject, it's not necessarily representative of you talent and passion. There are so many boxes to tick and hoops to jump through in order to try and make sure everyone is graded fairly, but in the end, once you get a job or go freelance, all consumers (and bosses) care about is the end product. They don't necessarily care how you got there and how many hours it took you, just that they get a pretty picture out of it.

Again, not being cynical!

However, university does obviously have a point. I've already learned so much only being here a year and a half, things I wouldn't and couldn't have learned on my own, but sometimes I do find it stressful constantly ticking boxes and jumping through hoop after hoop. Sometimes it takes the fun out of drawing.

I do think I've picked the right course for me though. I do love it, even though it kills me sometimes, but if things are worth having, they shouldn't come easy. I hate to be cheesy and add a quote, but, 

"If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough." - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf


(and I'm scared every day!)

Thought Bubble!

OUIL502 Study Task 1

5...

...things I've learned on this programme so far:

☼ ROUGHS
☼ To take more risks in my work
☼ Less is more (sometimes) - e.g. reductive image
☼ To draw things over and over
☼ It's okay to make mistakes

...skills I think are my strengths:

☼ Comics
☼ Humour
☼ Character
☼ Narrative
☼ Academic writing

...things I want to improve:

☼ Digital skills
☼ My self-confidence
☼ TIME-MANAGEMENT
☼ My 'visual signature'
☼ Blogging

...things I want to know more about:

☼ Animation
☼ Comics industry
☼ How practitioners stay motivated/avoid procrastination
☼ How to network
☼ Digital drawing

...practitioners that demonstrate my interest in illustration:

☼ Bryan Lee O'Malley
☼ Kate Beaton
☼ Rubyetc
☼ Ellen Forney
☼ Luke Pearson

...websites/online resources that demonstrate my areas of interest within the creative industries:

☼ juxtapoz.com
☼ imagecomics.com
☼ nobrow.net
☼ vice.com
☼ drawnandquarterly.com