The Scratch cards - Part Five.

Here we are at Part Five.

If you need any catching up, here is the Original post as well as the sequels in Part One, Two, Three and Four.


Jumping off the overground, I swaggered into the familiar village-esque area of Forest Hill and knocked on the doors to my latest interview at Place in Print,  a company who specialise in word play and location/geography artwork, which if you know me well is right up my street. 

I was a whole 5 minutes early.

The owner, Ed, answers the door. A sudden look of surprise spreads across his face. 

"Oh! You're... early!" He exclaims.

There I stood, all smug. I'm a man who prides himself on his punctuality and usually shames people on being late. 
Finally! Some recognition for my timekeeping!

He continues.

"I thought we said next Friday?"

"Ah!"

Oh I'm early, a week early. We had a case of classic email miscommunication that both of us agreeing to meet on a Friday... but not the same one.

It kind of reminds me of a miscommunication I had once when I was referred to as 'Ms Kyle' in an email. I can only assume that this was because of my unisex forename. 
The cheek - I didn't even get the chance to be called a 'Miss'! Humph.

But regardless of this we ended up having a great chat, I'd highly recommend checking them out as a company as they have great work and a great attitude. 
Unfortunately, this opportunity didn't work out for me. Ed seemed to like what I had to offer but he mentioned that there had been over 80 applicants for this new position in his currently, one man company. That's massive competition. It makes you think that what sort of numbers you're up against for the bigger companies - two, three times that? More? It really puts the creative job market into perspective. 

Are we churning out too many creatives or do we not have enough jobs for them?

Cheers, Conservative Party.

Next up - I had been liaising with the creative lead at Innocent via email for about 2 weeks now trying to squeeze in a date to meet, kept being pushed back and back until things had to be put on hold until April 30th as they had a holiday booked. So unfortunately I was put back into limbo.

But fortunately for me, I also had a trip booked. I was invited by a friend to go for a long weekend in Athens. That's one benefit of having time off, you can scour for cheap flights and go on them when you want. Good food and shenanigans - with one perk of the trip being taken along to the Olympiakos women's water polo semi final. It was quite the experience:

When I returned I had an interview with Havas Work Club with one of the creatives there called Dan.

This was the view as I waited, they hired an illustrator to re-create all of Bart Simpsons chalkboard detentions. The illustrator hired even dressed up as Bart too!

We had an awesome chat and got along really well. Dan said he liked the cut of my jib and liked my work - which was great. Only criticism and it has been mentioned before is that there's not enough digital/campaign/social media work in my portfolio, which is true. This slightly irks me as these kind of campaigns are usually obtainable once you're in the job - it's a slight catch 22. It's not the end of the world by any means but it's no where near as bad as when 'Junior' roles that were advertised in 2010 needed to have 2-3 years experience (!!).

Regardless, it seems like this is the main weakness of my 'folio - so I'm pursuing some set briefs to tackle this and make it a bit more well rounded. Dan was awesome enough to give me a few pointers which I've happily taken on board and I'm grateful for.

All in all, I've had to reflect on this whole experience. The scratch card saga has lasted about 3-4 months now, the sails aren't as full as they were but I'm recycling the campaign further into new job applications which is still giving me exposure.

When I started this, I had 2 goals I wanted to achieve:

a) Increase my profile and exposure as an illustrator.

b) Get a brand spanking new job.

I can definitely say (A) has been completed. I've obtained crazy exposure, attention, commissions, contacts, you name it. It's been great and so much fun.

Now, (B) hasn't been achieved just yet - I did anticipate this may take a bit more time - especially for a creative role - and I've been very diligent and patient towards this goal in particular.

The dream job I want is to work for Innocent. I've been in and out of contact with them over these past few months without much flourishing from it. 

I'm going to get them.

I thought of an interesting allegory. My scratch card project has been like me qualifying for the Olympics. I'm here now at the games, now I need to win the Gold medal. 

So I'm making 'something' to really get Innocent's attention...


I'll be talking to Innocent whether they like it or not.

Stay tuned for later this week...

Making my own luck - starting from scratch.

Aloha!

I was staring at my green tea one morning and it occurred to me. Not only is Saturn fast returning, but it's been a good while since I've done any sort of interesting project. So I decided I wanted to be proactive and do a 'social design experiment' (ohhh err).

When I graduated from art school nearly 5 years ago, we were in the middle of a toxic recession.
Job applying was extremely hard, tedious, depressing and down right nearly impossible for creative types. Despite sending out numerous CV's and portfolios, you would rarely get anything in return. Even getting a reply in the form of a template rejection email was a rare treat.

At the time it encouraged me to go and do my own thing - freelancing and gallery work. These days the economy in general seems in much better shape and jobs are now more readily available. I figured it was a good time to approach this again in a creative way, unique to Jamie Kyle.

Anyone who knows me well knows I'm a sucker for a scratch card. I'm not a betting man in the slightest but as soon as I scratch away that silver foil, I go all giddy inside! I've won okay amounts in the past, the most being £100. I even won £40 on two consecutive cards. That was immense. Even when you win £1 it's exciting. This got me thinking, what if you had a scratch card that you'd always win on? Instead of winning money, what if you won a person? What if that person was an exciting creative?
"What a great prize!" I hear you shout!

Well, that's the concept of my idea - scratch away at a scratch card to reveal my portfolio. Interaction is always a strong tool to grab one's attention, even more so if it shows initiative. I'll be making the whole scratch card from, erm, scratch!

With scratch cards, notice how the odds of winning are displayed on the back, which I feel will ring true in this experiment - the odds of any sort of reply or interest are probably against me, making me very much a human scratch card.

In this case, I'm literally making my own luck.

I'll be sending these out to all sorts of companies: global, corporate, design, illustration, editorial and music to spread my odds (pun intended). I'll send these all out via post, everyone loves receiving post don't they?

Depending on the replies and the amount of interaction I receive, I'd like to display the results - perhaps as an infographic - but we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.

Let's see who takes a gamble (Pun also intended).

I've worked on this project for the past 2 months, updating this blog post as I've gone along so apologies if tenses are a bit all over the place. 

So, here's the skinny - the card stock and design I'll have no problem with. It's the scratch-able silver foil which will be the challenge. I managed to find this helpful online step by step guide how to do it with basically uses washing up liquid and acrylic paint. Photos below:

I tried the mixture with two types of paint to see which was better suited, I wanted to avoid any colour other than grey/silver to give a more realistic silver foil finish. When I was at home for Xmas my Mother had at a hand the perfect metallic silver that I needed.

Thanks to a suggestion by my Father I even tried a silicone gel to see if that would have a more beneficial finish/setting quality.

Mixed results, the silver paint coming through nicely but definitely needs several more coats. Promising all the same.

Decided to stick to the silver and introduce the silicone gel to a batch (the sample on the right above). As you can see, it did not take at all, it just congealed with the paint and didn't spread at all in the slightest, which was a shame. Oh well, I'll miss the strong ammonia smell.

Few more coats later and I decided to scratch away. The finished looked good, but as soon as I started scratching it all went to hell. It's definitely down to the coated paper, I have a feeling it absorbs too much of the liquid and would prefer a surface that lets it sit on top of it better, either by using a gloss or matt finish with a thicker stock.

Found a matt stock at 160gsm which was thinner than I wanted, printed onto to it to give a test run.

A few coats and a scratch later and really great results. The mega downside to this though is that once I apply the foil mixture it goes really wavy. Need to try and flatten it or find a thicker stock to accommodate the moisture and at the same time be thin enough to be able to be printed through my printer.

A teaser:

 

Mysterious...

I settled on a garish design fairly quickly, threw in a couple of foxes to keep it relative to me. In the picture above: Left is 160gsm card, middle is 300gsm card with the scratch-away answer on a separate piece of 160gsm which is stuck on top  of the thicker stock and on the right is 300gsm.

All foiled up.

Worked on all 3! Pleasantly surprised by this. The least convincing card is the thickest stock which is the bottom sample in the picture above, it was practically tearing apart when I was doing it. But the 'compromise' card in the middle is my favourite. Overall, this will mean a bit more work for me to do but glad it's worked.

I also decided to try it on a gloss finish stock, which ultimately would be a closer match to an actual scratch card aesthetic. Despite the much better aesthetic it became too wavy for a finish product so I'll combine the two stocks = Print the silver foiled answer on the matt stock and the scratch card on the gloss.  Hurrah!

Getting down to print.

First coats.

About 4 coats in.

Looking good.

Ta daaaaaaaa.

Corr.

All addressed and stamped.

Each one will have a shiny tuppence too. I'm practically giving money away!

So here we are. All ready to send. 52 envelopes. So like I mentioned earlier, I'll be sending them to different types of companies with the likes of: corporate, design, editorial, illustration, advertising and music. In all honesty I'm just really intrigued to see who will take the bait and get in contact.

If you're an agency or company who came across this post thanks to the scratch card, make sure you say hi! Drop me an email at jkdraws@gmail.com with your thoughts.


If you're a pal or kind stranger, I urge you to share this post too. G'wan, pretty please.


Let's see what happens!


Until next time.

Jolly good update!

Aloha!

So, my blog posts have more or less developed into a summary of recent projects rather than posts about individual ones it seems. I'm not sure if I prefer this method but it this is how it's developed organically in recent times with my workload so it is probably quite appropriate in that sense.

Huzzah!

Down to business, let me give you the skinny, kind reader:

Data Tech Services

I designed a logo for a good friends new IT company called Data Tech Services. This is probably quite formal for me in terms of project branding, as it's almost quite corporate. However, you only learn new skills and experiences when you push out of your comfort zone so thought I'd embrace it.
The company is about security and data, so looked into common icons, symbols and themes that relate to this. I doodled away a few thoughts and settled for the final look below, which myself and my clientate (a term I've coined for someone who is a client and a mate) are both very happy with.

Kids with Puns

I was approached a couple of months ago to submit work to a magazine called Kids with Puns, a magazine specializing in puns and word play. Anyone who knows me well or even just a little bit, knows how much of a sucker I am for bad jokes and puns in general, so I jumped at this chance and had a lot of fun with it. This was for the 4th issue of the zine, go and check out the glorious madness of puns and maybe buy a copy for £3. G'wan, that's like half a pint in most London pubs!

Gum control

This is my second gum artwork of my planned 'Gums and Puns' trilogy (click here to view the first one I did a couple of months ago). Touching on a similar subject issue as the last one, this time using the gum as more of a basis of imagery, using the iconic semiotic of the recycling silhouette. It was really fun to get a bit more creative and hands on with the gum, I have a feeling the third and final installment will push this element even further. Stay tuned.

That's all for now folks, until next time!

TTFN

New Facebook page.

It happened.

Zuckerberg's charming curls finally entwined their way into my soul and forced me to make a Facebook page. I'm quite self aware how self centered this is, especially just naming the page as 'Jamie Kyle' and not a variation of 'Jamie Kyle illustration' or 'jkdraws' or 'like a fox'. I spent an hour typing, deleting and retyping different names for this page, really can't believe it took me so long. I came to the conclusion that I'd like to represent myself, rather than a brand or an alias. I guess a part of me doesn't want to hide behind something?

"No one will suspect a thing"

But why create a page? Well, similar to my Twitter account the vast majority of my followers are people I don't know and I like that. They chose to follow me due to my interests in art and design and that's fun. So, with my normal Facebook profile, I know a lot of 'Facebook friends' are interested in what I'm doing, but not all of them. So I figured that those who like my stuff can still follow me, as well as people I don't know directly follow me if they're interested too, I'm making it a choice. Vote Jamie! Democracy Jamie! Huzzah.

"Like his page, punk"

Here's the page: facebook.com/jamiekyleillustration

 

Flurry of updates.

Hello Hello.

This is a bit more of a wordy blog post than usual, thought I'd give a quick update on what's turning out to be a very eventful couple of weeks:

Designers / Makers

This has been quite an exciting development, Designers / Makers is an agency for contemporary design, looking to help promote and develop freelancers and brands. The premise is that you apply for a year long membership, if they deem you suitable, you're in. Think of it like the Justice League - but for creative types. That's how I like to view it (I'm Batman).
They organize marketing and selling events for your work (also via their online shop) and offer advice on professional development. I have my own profile up on their site, scroll down to the bottom to see. Definitely more news to follow soon.

For Arts Sake re-stock

Had a re-order of stock at For Arts Sake which is always appreciated.

Brand spanking new card designs

I'm also happy to announce that I've released some new designs onto my shop. I've produced 5 new designs with a view of making 5 more in the next month or so. I'm happy with the results. I surprised myself with the quick turnaround of just a week to think up and complete them all. Hopefully they'll do just as well.



I have a few other projects in the pipeline including a Film Noir comic based in a school environment which I've been dipping in and out of for the past year, more info to follow soon. As well as that, I'm currently planning a 'video comic' collaboration which I'm very excited about. These things always take a while to process and finish off so patience is a virtue (for now).

TTFN

Tropical Gallery.

Hadn't done one of these in a while. FELT GOOD! Click for a closer look.