Defining My Target Market- Pro Studies

Defining Target Markets

In my professional studies lesson, we covered how to define your target market and also how to understand and cater to their needs.

In illustration, well in any profession really, in order to sell your product you need to understand what your intended consumer wants and needs, this is known as my target market.  

Every piece that I produce will have an intended consumer, the someone I want to purchase my work, and this may change from piece to piece. So it is always important for me to first define who I am aiming it at. 

1- To start defining my target market I would first look at what and who my work would be                                                               more appealing towards:
                                                              females or males
                                                                 age groups
                                                                regional areas
                                                          education or interests
                                                                occupations
                                                            average incomes

These are just a few groups that I could look at and within these there are also smaller branches which would lead to a more select target market.

 Each target market has their own needs and wants and to find out which I want my work to appeal to I will then have to research which groups are more drawn to certain things and what they want. 

For example: stereotypically a male would prefer a piece of work in more masculine colours whereas a female would be more drawn to feminine colours and rounded shapes.

2- Before choosing my target market I would then also ask my self:

- would these people be attracted to my art?

- do these people make the decisions about buying art?

 ( If I aimed towards children I would also have to create a piece which deems appropriate by the childs parents) 

- can these people afford my art

 ( there's no need aiming my work to someone if they cant afford it because it will never get sold )

- do these people have a need of some sort for my art?

(why, and what if these people decide to buy my art what would they do with it?)

- do I like these people?
(If I don’t enjoy being around them, I will dislike creating the work because Id have to spend a lot of time with them, thinking about  them and researching them)

3- After this I would then chose between 2-3 different markets which seem like good contenders. I will then go out (online or offline) and find people in that market and ask them questions. I wouldnt ask them questions about your business. Id ask them questions about themselves. In order to find out about there likes and dislikes.

4- After I have collected my data I will then decide on ONE target market and this will be the market which gave the data most fitting towards my project.  If I chose more than one target market this would mean more research and more work overall.

illustrator research- visual culture

Chrissy Lau

Chrissy Lau is a Sydney based illustrator with over 11 years commercial experience. 

Her illustrations are predominantly hand drawn in ink & digitally coloured in Photoshop. 

Chrissy's style is distinct, with a strong attention to detail focusing on intricate patterns & lines.

She takes inspiration from her Chinese heritage & nature.

Fashion, portraits & children's illustrations are her expertise.

She has designed a collection of coins for the Royal Australian Mint & apparel designs for Mambo.

Samsung recently commissioned her to illustrate on their Galaxy Note II for their Australian wide billboard & YouTube campaign.

Taking influence from her Chinese heritage she designed dragon flags for the City of Sydney to celebrate Chinese New Year.

hrissy's creative career includes curating exhibitions as an art gallery manager, running her own clothing label, exhibiting in the UK & Australia.

She also has 5 years experience in online digital media and currently focuses her expertise in Search Marketing.

                                       

She creates these stunning images and they are really appealing to me.

 I love her fluent smooth lines and attention to detail.

 The subtle sparing colour makes all her images "pop".

In my work in the future I will pay much more attention to my use of line, and also how I use colour because Chrissy Lau proves that you dont need to add an awful lot of colour in order to make an image appealing or different. 

She, as an illustrator, has made me think alot more on how much I think about my colour choices and how much I use.

Lady bird books- visual culture

Lady bird books.

I love Lady bird books, their pocket-sized physic and beautiful illustrations have always been well loved by children all over the world. 
The series of books have managed to cover nearly every subject and interest.
 They even helped kids learn through the use of keywords.  

Some of the best known illustrators have illustrated a variety of Lady bird books.

The first lady bird book was produced by a printer called Wills and Hepworth during the first world war.

The first "familiar" pocket sized Ladybird book came about in 1940, during the Second World War. 

An animal series including Bunnikins and Downy Duckling was an instant hit with children, who enjoyed both the full colour illustrations and the stories. 

(DOWNY DUCKLING- 1940)

After the War, Ladybird took a great step forward. They knew that school books, though dull, always sold well, and they expanded into educational non fiction. Well known authors and artists were commissioned to write and illustrate books on nature, geography, history and religion.

(LADY BIRDS- THINGS TO MAKE)

Lady bird books of the present day

Today, Ladybird is part of Penguin Children’s Books alongside alongside Puffin, Frederick Warne, Sunbird and BBC Children's Books, and continues to evolve with the needs of today’s parents and children.Ladybird is also an innovator in digital publishing, helping to guide children through important learning milestones and support them during every stage of their development via new digital platforms. For instance, the Baby Touch: Peekaboo and Baby Touch: Happy Babiesapps - an extension of the best-selling books

(VAROUS MODERN BOOKS AND APPS BY LADY BIRD BOOKS)

The ladybird books were a large part of my childhood and helped mould my thoughts on what an illustration is. The company itself have grown with the times and managed to keep ontop of whats popular and what the consumer wants. You can find ladybird books in nearly every book store. They are always so bright and colourful and eye catching and they are never ridiculously priced, which makes them more appealing. 
Whilst researching I have realised if this company didnt keep on top of current styles and trends and stayed the same as they were originally the company wouldnt be so popular today. In the future I will pay  more attention to what is trending and what people want and  try and produce my work around this rather than just creating work which pleases my self. By doing this it will make my illustrations more appealing to a larger group of people.   





(A COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL LADYBIRD BOOKS)

self identity and creative voice- visual culture

Self Identity

For my task this week I was asked to try and identify my self as an illustrator.
 Prior studying at university I never classed myself as an illustrator so I don’t really have any official works which I think could portray what and who I am. 
I still don’t think I fit into any one category of illustrator there is many forms which I could land  
Children's Book, 
Advertising, 
Editorial,
 Graphical, 
Product, 
Fashion, 
Gallery 
Prints etc.
 So at the moment I would class my self as a freelance illustrator. As I am still finding myself.

( The above image was for a book I was illustrating. It is ink on paper, after this I then went on to colour it with watercolours, which I ended up prefering the shaded version so used this one)

( The above piece was something I created outside of uni hours, It is watercolours and ink, and its purpose was just to catch up on my inking skills and tbh I quite liked the outcome, its made me get back into my water colours and ink)

(The above image was an initial sketch for "How the whale got its throat" a just so story, Unfortunately after this I changed my book choice and abandoned these illustrations, after finishing this module, I will be returning to these pieces and finishing them in my personal time)

( This piece was created for my friend Alice at the beginning of uni, It was the first time I used photoshop, and a wacom. All things taken into hand I dont think its too bad but If I were to recreate the image, knowing what I do now I feel the piece would have alot more depth and better line work)

( This piece was a set of 3 images based on see no evil hear no evil and do no evil, this was the best image out of the three. I created this when I was experimenting in photoshop.)

These are a few examples of my work from university. I think they are the best representations of my style and who I am as an illustrator. I am still defining who I am within the world of illustration and I think I always will. But throughout my time at university I am slowly finding what I work best with and what suits my style.  But I will always try new things in order to get a step closer to defining me as an illustrator.

Symbolism and colour in illustration- visual culture

Symbolism and colour in illustration

Colours hold significance for people around the world. 
Not only do colours influence emotion, but they also hold meaning in religion and various cultures.

Colour symbolism in art and anthropology refers to the use of colour as a symbol in various cultures. 

There is great diversity in the use of colours and their associations between cultures and even within the same culture in different time periods.

 In fact, the same colour may have very different associations within the same culture at any time. For example, red is often used for stop signs or danger. 
At the same time, red is also frequently used in association with affairs of the heart. 

White variously signifies purity, innocence, wisdom or death. Blue has similarly diverse meanings.

Symbolic representations of religious concepts or articles may include a specific colour with which the concept or object is associated. There is evidence to suggest that colours have been used for this purpose as early as 90,000 BC

Color Symbolism Chart

Symbolist artists used mostly mythological and dream like imagery in their works.
Symbolism in art influenced Art Nouveau style and Les Nabis.
The Nabis were a Symbolist, cult-like group that were creators of a subjective art that was deeply rooted in the soul of the artist.


The Purple Book and The Yellow Book

In the world of illustration Symbolism is portrayed amazingly in The Purple Book: Sensuality and Symbolism in Contemporary Art and Illustration.
 This book is filled with illustrations and creations which explore the idea of fantasy, sensuality and the erotic imagination. 
It represents the human desire's and relationship with dream states, fiction and symbolism.
 The majority of the work in this book is unpublished, personal work and the entry in the book is usually the first print of the work.

 

This book is inspired by The Yellow Book which was published in the 1890's, the colour yellow in this time was seen as sexualised and the colour purple today is seen sensually.

 "The color of The Yellow Book was an appropriate reflection of the 'Yellow Nineties," a decade in which Victorianism was giving way among the fashionable to Regency attitudes and French influences; For yellow was not only the decor of the notorious and dandified pre-Victorian Regency, but also of the allegedly wicked and decadent French novel" (Weintraub, 99).

 Its pages contained a  vareity of writers and artists, particularly women and relative newcomers such as Arnold Bennett, Charlotte Mew, Maurice Baring, who would make their reputations in the coming decades.

The use of colour vastly changes how an image is viewed by the consumer, it can evoke certain feelings and emotions. In the future I plan to pay more attention to the colour I use in my work as it is what really sells an image and can really catch the eye of the consumer.

Fredrun Shapur and illustration as a product - visual culture

Fredrun Shapur

Shapurs Background

Shapur, was born in 1929 in South Africa. His career demonstrates the true internationalism of modernism at mid-century, as he based himself in London, collaborated in Princeton, and was manufactured in Switzerland.
 Shapur first enrolled at St. Martin’s in London, and then studied graphic design at the Royal College of Art. 
There, he was taught by Edward Bawden and Abram Games; Games’s work included the logo for the Festival of Britain in1951. 
Shapur worked in Prague in 1957, where he admired the growing array of Czech modernist toys.

Shapur opened his own office in 1959, working on logos, packaging and posters. 
He was inspired to create toys by his own children. 
In 1963, he designed Animal Puzzle, based on a set of interlocking squares, and Four-Way Blocks, using square rods and silk-screened graphics to allow children to make their own staccato creatures. 
His children’s book, Round and Round and Square,1965, employed a similar reduced geometric vocabulary. 



(SHAPURS CHILDRENS BOOK, ROUND AND ROUND AND SQUARE, 1965)

Shapur’s first toys were handmade, sanded by himself and his wife.
He hired artisans to increase production.

He designed logo for Miller’s new company, Novo Toys and continued to design toys for variety of European companies until 1980. 
After his retirement, he began working with discarded objects, leather and paper.
 The book includes examples mask-like faces made from sardine tins. 

(FREDUN SHAPUR, MULTIVIEW PUZZLES- SET OF 4 TILES)


To broaden illustrations you can apply them to products of various natures.
By doing this it makes your illustrations more usable and accessible for your customer.
You can apply your illustrations to almost anything. 
Or you can create something in order to fit your illustration just as Shapur did with his illustrated toys. 
In the future I will try and use this in my own practise, by creating post cards and maybe even by creating items which go along with the illustrations.  

Albums and art work, youth culture of the 50-60's

Albums and art work, youth culture of the 50-60's

                     

The music of the 1960s dawned an electric, psychedelic version of rock, thanks largely to Bob Dylan and his use of the electric guitar.
The newly popularized electric sound of rock was then built upon and changed into psychedelic by artists like 
Pink Floyd and the Beatles

The '50s and '60s were a great time for album cover design. 
The great Blue Notes and Prestige LPs, for one. 

Pop Art

Pop art is an art movement which developed in the 1950's and progressed for decades after and is still a popular art movement today.

 The traditional pop art style consists of the use of very bright colours and bold black outlines, relating to that of a comic book style.

 It was usually used as part of advertising in the 50's. 

The two most well known and popular pop artists are Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.


         


( ROY LICHTENSTEIN, left , ANDY WARHOL, right ) 

 When pop art is mentioned these are the two artists you immediately think of because of their iconic art works such as Andy Warhol's Campbells Soup can and Marilyn Monroe and Roy Lichtenstein's Crying Girl. 

    

 (CAMPBELLS SOUP CAN, left, CRYING GIRL, right)

The pop art movement has been a huge influence on visual arts and still is to this day. Alot of albums of this time used bright colours and pop art esque styles this was common of the time as it was popular.

(CREAM, DISRAELI GEARS)

(LOVE, FOREVER CHANGES)

One of the ways Pop Art differed themselves from traditional art was by combining the mass-produced imagery of advertising with fine art.

Minimalists

Minimalists sought to create pure, geometric, abstract art in which the physical properties of space, scale, and materials were explored as ends in themselves rather than as metaphors for human experience.

Many Minimalist artists used industrial materials such as aluminum, plywood, sheet metal and Plexiglas. 

This challenged the notion of what constituted “fine art” and shared the Pop artists’ interest in using non-art materials.

( A sculpture by  Donald Judd)

I could apply various points from the art in the  50s and 60s to my own work. I could do this by studying more on minimalism  and applying it to my own work as I tend to over think my own work and try adding to much into it. I think if I take a step back and constructively criticise my own work I will be able to adapt and expand on my own work.