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Evaluation:
The Process brief was a very fast turnaround project that was initiated thanks to Mike Williams from the Brewers Design Society for inviting me to take part. The brief was an open creative invite to submit to the exhibition that would be held at Tall Boys Beer Market, a shop I spend a lot of time at due to my interest well made beer.
It seemed like the perfect opportunity to network with like-minded people and take part in my first exhibition before the end of year show.
This was a brief I really enjoyed doing and used as a break from more intense and demanding projects. I used my skills in illustration to create a selection of scenes within brewing finishing at Tall Boys.
When I was at the exhibition, the people that own the shop approached me and asked if we could take it further and get it printed on hand made tote bags for the shop because they loved it so much.
I was really pleased about Cody asking if they could print my illustration on tote bags for the shop so I was quick to email my chase-up, especially as if it was sorted soon enough I would be able to hand it in alongside the print for my module.
I was also cheeky enough to mention getting paid for the use in beer, seeing as that would make me just as happy as money and they get it all at stock price anyway.
I was really optimistic about it all running smoothly and working out so I had more collateral to hand in until it got to today (Tuesday 19th) and I hadn't yet heard from them. I sent them an e-mail prompting an update to see if they'd sorted it and what the plan of action was.
Unfortunately I got the news back that they were waiting on a reply from a particular printers who they were confident provided the best quality they have seen, this means they more than likely won't be ready for hand-in but it will still be great to see them when they are done!
On the day of the opening I was freelancing at The Lift Agency and brought a few of them along once the shift was over.
It was a really great event that Mike had organised full of great work, beer, food from Grub & Grog and discussions about brewing and working with breweries in the creative industry.
One of the owners of Tall Boys Beer Market, Cody, approached me and told me how much they loved my print before asking if I was interested in them pushing it further and getting it printed on tote bags. This was such a great thing to hear from him and I told him that it would be really awesome to push it further than just the print and that I'd e-mail him about it that week.
Now I had the full illustration completely finished, I needed to play with colour options. I had a rough idea of what I thought would work best which was a pale yellow and brown to represent the beery colours you tend to relate to the craft, but I wanted to experiment just in case.
I decided finally on the light cream and burnt brown colour-way as I felt it would work in an exhibition environment the best at the same time as linking back to it's beer-y roots.
Using a the grid system in illustrator like when I illustrated the Mallinson's logo, I was able to easily create the heroes of the first layer in the right scaling before adding into it. Detail was implemented where I felt it was necessary while keeping a very stripped back rounded illustration style that retained that character I was envisioning.
For the second illustration I wanted the tractor to be driving through the hop-bines towards the viewer while remaining flat, I expected this to be a challenge in perspectives but it was remarkably easy. I adjusted small details like the grass being less consistent in the field unlike the farm which was more tidy due to the harvester.
For the third, things became more complicated as the levels began to merge. I illustrated the separate elements and then brought them together so that everything fit together in a cohesive structure.
The final layer to the composition was Tall Boys Beer market. I popped in to catch up, grab a couple of beers and take some photos of the bottom floor for some loose reference.
I illustrated the bottom floor as if it was one long strip without corners to structure it within the print and work with the rest of the elements. I was really happy with the finished illustration and how it fit into a final outcome.
I was first approached by Mike to take part in this exhibition because of the work I did for Mallinson's in the response to my critical writing. For this reason I definitely wanted the style to follow the same rules that I loved producing so much.
The idea that I wanted to push forward was the literal context of 'Process', I wanted to put into perspective the amount of effort and practice that goes into making a singular batch of beer, the professionals involved, the actions they have to complete in a chronological step by step illustration that goes through every phase until finally arriving in the bottle-shop, for this project though, I wanted it to finish at Tall-Boys itself.
I referred back to the research conducted in my Context of Practice work to remind myself of the processes involved in the creation of beer along with this book that I picked up from Colours May Vary 'Barley & Hops' which discusses the topic of craft beer in a huge amount of detail!
One of the book sections presents the stages of brewing with supporting information, I used this information to generate a rough sketch plan of my 'phase levels' within my illustration.
A
In the illustration I would have six levels:
Farming the barley.
Farming the hops.
Grain milling.
Brewing processes.
Fermenting and bottling.
Bottle Shop.
I got an email from Mike Williams who graduated last year inviting me to take part in an exhibition called 'Process' which celebrated the brewing process of craft beer with artwork by designers, illustrators, artists who have worked with breweries. This was the brief that he sent.
