Frances Moffatt studied BA Hons Fashion Marketing and worked with assistant accessories design at Luella, received a PGCE and studied an MA in future design illustration. She realised she was more interested in fashion illustration in her final year of studying, which I think is quite inspirational as it assures us as students that it is okay not to know what we want to specialise in immediately.
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| found here |
She created this image 'Sunglasses girl' and included it within her MA portfolio where it was selected by New Talent and given national recognition, which was a huge turning point for her as an illustrator.
She then set her own website up, sending her work to book publishers, greetings card publishers (who were working for Marks and Spencers) and different magazines.
One of the publishers she had contacted was Batsford publishers, "a leading publisher in the areas of fashion, design and illustration, practical art, textile art, heritage and chess."
They approached her roughly 18 months after she had sent her promotional mail out to them, showing us that we should not lose heart when contacting agencies.
She began to grow more interested in childrens fashion illustration and greetings cards, looking into these areas with more detail.
Frances created many commission pieces whilst finding her feet in the industry, 35% of which went to the company she worked for for each: The Bright Agency, which is a company specialising in childrens illustration. This was a big stepping stone as it enabled her to become known in this area of the field and develop her confidence working on childrens fashion illustrations.
She created some childrens sticker books which she claimed was hard work as it involved a lot of time and correcting. Her first published pieces appeared in Go-Girl Magazine (a magazine for young girls).
Frances Moffatt uses the technique/process of creating her studies using pencil and ink, and then further editing her studies using Photoshop. I quite admire that the artist combines both traditional and nontraditional techniques to create her work, and it gives them quite a tidy and professional look as well as keeping the quirky feeling of them alive. As an artist, she prefers to be working with people rather than at home alone.
Here is her working progress in order:
- Picture research
- Pencil sketch
- Draft layout in Photoshop
- Awaiting approval
- Ink in, create layout and tidy up in Photoshop
- Submit work as PDF file
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| found here |
She stated that being a student did mean that she had more time to put into her work. Frances also explained to us that it is hard to get work agreed upon as all agencies want different things, so it can take a lot of time before final images are reached. The process therefore requires patience and determination.
Another company she was approached by was Paperlink Greetings Cards who create stunning occasion cards, however she disagreed with what they wanted and left them. It was then that she was approached by Batsford, who actually had already a specific project in mind for her. This was a childrens exercise book based on fashion illustration.
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| her book |
She used the same timely working process as described earlier to create this book, and it was the first project she really enjoyed. She found it a struggle to complete it because of the issue with time and money, but it was a huge success in the end. She had to take accurate measurements for the book and used typography by tracing over font in this product.
Batsford Interview with Frances Moffatt. Frances exclaims that this company were a pleasure to work with.
She holds stock lists with companies such as V & A, National Portrait Gallery, Tate, Baltic, Amazon, Waterstones, TK Max and Oliver Bonas.
Frances Moffatt is currently teaching to earn her money.
The whole journey she has been on up to now she feels as though has given her freedom in the creative industry. I found this lecture to be very inspiring. I strongly admire the work of this artist and as well as this I have took influence from knowing she did not always know which path to take on her way, but has found great success in the field and loves her job. I found her optimism very influential and have also took on board more ideas for potential careers for myself in the future.
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