Portfolio Visit Number 5
David Bailey of Kiosk, multi-disciplined design studio
David has a beard, a very full, very black beard, which I can’t see to keep my eyes off, especially with his constant scratching at. He appears confident and not as bored with me as some of the other designers I’ve been to see, he has a similar attitude and approach as Paul Reardon. Maybe the designers in Sheffield just have a different manner to those at the other side of the Pennines (I’m still trying to figure out whether this ‘boredom’ attitude of designers is with the area they specialise in, me, my work or the general prospect of having to see yet another student showing them their work, any advice on this would be greatly appreciated).
Anyway, we’re apparently pushed for time so unfortunately I have to rush through my work and he gives me advice at the end of all my spiel which is a different method to all the other designers I’ve been to see who give advice at the end of each individual project I’ve presented. So off I go, full steam ahead.
His first remark is that he would like to see more of the pieces I have presented in context (same as Paul Reardon). Clearly this point needs working on as it’s beginning to crop up frequently. To work on this I will rework my James and the Giant Peach book cover which I designed for the Puffin competition 2011 and start to bring my Helping Uganda book with me to every portfolio visit, I have the option to show it to the professional then, even if they don not wish to see it I have it with me in case they do – covering all bases. For this reason, the Little White Lies competition entry seems a strong favourite as it is photographed in context and printed within the magazine template showing exactly how it would look as the magazine’s front cover.
David too enjoyed the Helping Uganda images better than the mixed media characters (another case of painterly vs. mixed media) because of their tactile properties and because he can see children engaging with it well. He said that he didn’t want to sound crude, but on the mixed media characters he feels ‘nothing for them’. They are very flat and would have like to have seen them better or more so if they were presented in context (funny how the different feedback contradicts each other with some saying that the Helping Uganda images are flat because of their painterly finish and some saying the mixed media images are flat because of their use of collage).
On the Little White Lies piece he said that he didn’t understand the concept of it until I explained it but I managed to pull it off because it is very well executed, photographed well (even though I photographed it and in poor light!) and aesthetically pleasing. As well the use of just line instead of block shapes is very nice and interesting and utilises good incorporation of type. I do think that the type is integrated well in the Little White Lies image, probably because it is not an additional layer but actually within the image I created. It was considered before I started to sew and therefore it looks part of the whole image, I need to do this more often rather than the type being an after-thought, which it usually always is.
He found the scarab image interesting (which both Paul Reardon and Paul Bartlett didn’t) again because of its painterly technique and style; this particular technique is what he was interested in most.
The type explorations at the back of my portfolio were described as ‘nothing to like or dislike’ they are just a good show of type experimentation.
David Bailey is currently involved in a project with CBeeBies children’s television channel and is seeking illustrators to collaborate on the project. He did seem very interested in my painterly work so I left my business card with him on the off chance he may want to contact me (though this is probably very, very unlikely and he was probably just being polite by making such positive comments).
I have provided the link to David's agency at the top of this post, please go and check him out and a big thank you for making such positive comments :)
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