Agencies

Recently in our Professional Studies lectures, we have been learning about Agencies. All illustrators if not freelance work within an agency or design house. Within our lesson, we were introduced to various design houses. One of these industry's was a London based company called Pearlfisher who also have an institute in New York and are very successful, with workers all around the world. They work at creating great, positive imagery to support commercial companies and mostly design big well known food packaging such as Dairy Milk Chocolate, The Natural Confectionery Company, Ritz and so on. Each of the designs for these brands is very successful, and meets the needs set by the companies and the concepts behind the brands, resulting in very appropriate, well known and well designed product packaging. Below are some visual examples of the packaging design created by Pearlfisher for companies I have previously mentioned.

 

http://www.pearlfisher.com/designs/cdm_packaging/

I very much admire the designs produced by the Pearlfisher company and would really like to keep this company in mind, not only to inspire me and my studio practice but also because when thinking about how I would like to be professional in the future and when finishing University, I would like many options available to me and would like to consider the idea of working for a company like this one further.

http://www.bigactive.com/illustration/klaus-haapaniemi/general-portfolio

We also looked at an agency called Big Active, a great company in which the designers working for it usually produce big, well known music packaging designs. I have looked at their website which I have discovered is an excellent site to visit as it allows you to view the artists who work who represent the company. I have looked at the artist Klaus, an artist who designs for various things including book covers. An example of his work is shown here, an illustration of an Owl created for the Iseton Christmas Campaign. I find this illustration and other examples of his work shown on the website very influential and they are also fun to look at.
I have also looked at the artist Jody Barton who works for the Big Active Company too/ I think her work is also very beautiful and I admire the use of text in some of her pieces. She designs for all kinds of companies and produces for various types of commissions. I have shown some examples of her work here.

http://www.bigactive.com/illustration/jody-barton/latest-work

I very much admire these examples of Jody Bartons' work, as well as her technique.One more artist I also discovered through viewing this site was Sanna Annukka who has also produced some very interesting designs and illustrations. She has produced music packaging designs for artists like Keane, an example which I have displayed below.

http://www.bigactive.com/illustration/sanna-annukka/music-projects

 

We also looked at the artist Kate Moross, who was actually originally a freelance illustrator and then created her own agency, which is very much the opposite to what people in this profession usually do. I very much admire her work and style, as well as how she has made it so far and become so well known despite changing her direction throughout her journey.


Where do I see myself?
After researching these sites, I have in turn had to consider where I would like to see myself in the industry. I now have to consider elements such as, how I want to be represented, perceived by the market and I also have to think about how I want to win commissions.
Right now, I find it hard to envision where I will be or even where I want to be upon graduating. I like the idea of working for a design house, due to how I could potentially be designing for very well known companies or music industries etc, the vast popularity of which would gain me great recognition. This kind of choice would also keep me motivated to work, whereas being a freelance illustrator I would be working upon my own demands which although might be tricky I still find the idea quite interesting. This however may not allow me to become quite as recognized as the other, so perhaps it would be a good idea to become a member of a design house and make my way through collaborating with others, and later becoming a freelance illustrator. I would like to be perceived as an illustrator who would be willing to collaborate with others, design for a wide range of industries and companies and who's work would match many different companies wishes. I would hope to win commissions also by displaying these points.
I currently do not have to consider these things too much as I still have so much to learn, but I definitely have to begin thinking about how I would like to be seen professionally etc.