The final speaker of the day was Max Porter. Max is an art historian, editor at Granta Books and also a writer in his own right. Max gave a great insight into the machinations of modern publishing. This was followed by a question and answer session involving all speakers to round the day off. Many thanks to Steve Braund and his team, in particularly Catrin for organising such an intellectually stimulating forum.
Max Porta
The afternoon of the Falmouth Illustration forum 2015 kicked off with a presentation by Mat Osmond. Mat is an important part of the MA team whose practice takes on the form of an ongoing series of chap books of illustrated poetry, self published as Strandline Books and by third party anthologies.
After Mat came Mireille Fauchon. Mireille talked about amongst other things her illustrated version of ‘The Prisoner of Zenda.. Third on in the afternoon was Vincent Larkin, a grduate of the MA Illustration course at Falmouth. Vincent has recently finished a residency at the V&A
Mireille Fauchon
Vincent Larkin preparing for his presentation
This year’s Falmouth Illustration Forum has been a real success so far with some great speakers having spoken eloquently about their work and on the theme of ‘Hidden Agenda’. Speakers this morning were Dan Fern, Anna Bushan and John Vernon Lord, with Vincent Larkin, Mat Osmond, Mireille Fauchon and Max Porter to come after lunch.
Amazingly the day started with the solar eclipse. Strangely the presentations intermittently referred to both the sun and the moon . Catrin Morgan who is responsible for developing this year’s forum kicked off with a fascinating introduction to the notion of what a ‘hidden Agenda’ might be within an illustrative context. Dan Fern took us through his early influences and onto to his later interest in the natural world and it’s importance on his work. Anna Bushan gave a fascinating deconstruction of her interpretation of Bhagavad Gita for the Folio Society, particularly referencing ideas of meditation and ‘creative flow states’. john Vernon Lord was the final speaker before lunch. John did not disappoint with his entertaining discussion of his recent illustrated version of James Joyce’s ‘Finegans Wake’
We’re all looking forward to this afternoon’s talks after lunch
John Vernon Lord on stage
Natalie, Nick and students in Berlin
The last two months have been an incredibly busy time for both staff and students on the BA (Hons) Illustration course at Falmouth. So much has happened since the last proper post when we were in London with the first year of the course.
Aswell as students across all three years were assessed in February at the end of the first semester second years have been away on their study trip week. While a many of our students organised their own trip a good number accompanied Natalie Hayes and Nick Mott on the course’s first ever trip to Berlin, which was great success. This trip included a visit to the University of the Arts Berlin, who were great hosts. Staff and students were also able to meet up with two recent graduates of the course, Beth Walrond and Olivia Meyers who are both enjoying success as freelance illustrator and designer out there. Natalie also was able to meet by chance another ex Falmouth Illustration student called Anders Sommerfeldt who is studying for his MA at the University. Many thanks to Natalie and Nick for organising this trip.
University of The Arts Berlin staff showing Falmouth students the preparations for the upcoming first year show
Martyna Dziekan showing students some of the prints in the collection.
Ex students Beth Walrond & Olivia Meyer in Berlin
The New York trip will soon be upon us. Third year students are beginning to prepare their portfolios in readiness for this amazing opportunity. The Quotes and Sayings Book is almost ready to go to the printers. Keryn Bibby has been working really hard to get what will be the 10th and last edition of the book ready in time for the New York trip.
A couple of weeks ago we were fortunate to be visited by another ex student of the course. Cosei Kawakubo brought a group of his students from Kyoto to visit us. Nick Mott organised a drawing workshop based around the ‘exquisite corpse’ game. A number of our students joined in the morning’s activities which generated some pretty wild and surreal images. The work from last years visit had been bound by hand in a one off book and was presented to Cosei during the morning. A copy of this book will be kept in the glass cabinet in the 2nd year room.
During each blog posting from this point on I hope to be able to showcase examples of student work. Here is the first gallery of student work:
All at Falmouth Illustration would like to express their deepest sympathy to the friends and family of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack.
A level one Illustration trip would not be same without our annual pilgrimage to the Marquiss Cornwallis near Russell Square for an end of week drink to celebrate what has been a great study visit. Pretty much everyone was exhausted after a week of travelling around London but it was good to reflect on the visits that we had and also the previous day’s forum over a beer.
It also gave Nigel the chance to honour his promise to perform some very amateur magic which he duly did (very badly!) in fact he was certainly out performed by the 1st year’s very own prestidigitator Ben Prichard.
It was a great evening and good way to round the week off.
Sue, Liberty and ?
Many thanks to Sue Clarke for organising the study trip. Thanks also go to Rachel Dunn and Linda Scott. Finally thanks to all of the art directors and designers that have up their te to see students, much appreciated.
Anna, Yolande and ? (I think)
Drawing of Nigel By Zoe Bolt (uncanny!)
Thursday saw the final visits for the week. Sue Clarke took seven students to Design Group ‘Human After All‘. This company has been involved in a variety of innovative projects in recent years. Students were asked to create their own Christmas cards form a variety of rubber stamps that were created for a recent Ad campaign. As well as gaining really relevant knowledge of the design process, a lot of fun was had by all.
Rubber stamp printing at Human After All
Straight after the Human After All visit Sue had to rush back to Russell Square to pick up nine students for the visit to Dorling Kindersley. DK are based in the same building as Penguin Books and have employed a number of Falmouth students over recent years as paper engineers. It was fascinating to get an insight into this important publisher of non fiction books. Many thanks to the team from DK for their time.
Dorling Kindersley
Finally Rachel took nine students to the Dutch Uncle illustration agency. Dutch Uncle was founded in 2005 and has become known as the home of some of the worlds best illustrators. As well as London it has offices in Tokyo and New York. Students were treated to a fantastic overview of the industry by the Agency Founder, Helen Crowley and creative Director, Dan Crichlow. A really great visit that ended with students being given a number of freebies that included beautiful portfolio stands. We have decided to refer to these as ‘Dutch Uncles’ or ‘Duncles’ for short. Many thanks to Helen and Dan…
Students at Dutch Uncle Illustration Agency
Dutch Uncle
A final London Post will follow shortly……
Nigel Owen took 8 students to see Senior designer Julian Humphries at Harper Collins today. Julian is an experienced book designer who was able to take students through the process of commissioning illustrators, developing the concept and navigating a route through the maze of editorial meetings with editors, sales and marketing, the author etc. it was very revealing for students who asked intelligent questions throughout.
Later in the morning Rachel Dunn took 22 students to Saatchi & Saatchi. This was a new visit for Falmouth students that had been organised by Linda Scott (thanks Linda). The students were met by ex Falmouth illustration student Layla Boyd who is now a project manager at Saatchi & Saatchi. Layla gave students a wonderful insight into the world of advertising and her career pathway. Students were looked after from the moment they walked through the doors and Layla’s professionalism and words of advice were inspirational. Thank you Layla…
Students with Layla Boyd at Saatchi & Saatchi
Early in the afternoon Nigel took five students to Arena Illustration Agency. Arena are based in Stratford, east London, close to the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. The Long trip was really worth it. Tamlyn and Caroline spent well over an hour talking at length about the role that Agents play within an illustrator’s career. Their in depth knowledge of the industry is just what students needed. Topics such as characterisation, copyright, marketing, visual language amongst others were discussed all under the watchful eyes of Tamlyn’s cats! It was great to see three ex falmouth students that are represented by Arena doing so well (Levi Pinfold, Emily Fox and Euen Cook).
Tamlyn Francis at Arena
Many thanks for the free book Tamlyn…..
This event had been eagerly anticipated with some great speakers being booked. The range of speakers this year was particularly broad in range, and included one of the country’s leading reportage artists (Lucinda Rogers), an international award winning illustrator (Mark Smith) and a truly innovative animator (Cyriak).
After getting both Falmouth and LCC students settled in the Lecture theatre the day kicked off with Lucinda Rogers presenting a broad range of amazing drawings from across her career, spanning her her time living in New York where she was able to thoughtfully document events surrounding the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Also covered in her presentation was an articulate discussion surrounding the threat posed to the architectural heritage of great cities like New York and London. Its really great to see an artist who feels that her work can make a difference to the world in which we live, not unlike the recent lecture given by Sue Coe at Falmouth.
Lucinda Rogers
Next up was Mark Smith. Mark has worked with students at Falmouth before but it was great to see his work once more and even more exciting to gain a glimpse of his approach to visual problem solving. Falmouth students that were present will hopefully recognise something of the strategy that Mark outlined in the workshops that they have been participating in during the first term. A really great presentation.
Mark Smith
Finally after lunch students sat down and were treated to an amazing opening sequence to what turned out to be an inspirational talk by the animator Cyriak. For those that haven’t come across his work I recommend that you seek it out on You Tube at the earliest opportunity. His work has evolved organically from early experiments with animated GIFS and now can be seen as part of major ad campaigns or in the form of innovative music videos for bands like Bonobo and Bloc Party. Cyriak delivered his presentation with a good deal of humour which went down well with the audience.
Cyriak
Cyriak, taking questions in the Illustration studio after his lecture.
The Forum event was a real success this year and both LCC and Falmouth students left feeling suitably inspired and enlightened. A big thank you to Lucinda, Mark and Cyriak for letting us into their thought processes and amazing visual worlds for the day.
Organising this event is always a challenge and great credit goes to Sue Clarke with help from Rachel Dunn, Linda Scott and Nigel Owen and the team at LCC (thanks Paul & Stuart).
Every year Louise Power at Walker Books is kind enough to present to twenty Falmouth illustration students, outlining the process of developing a Childrens picture book. Her advice is invaluable in helping students understand what is required from a successful picture book. We are also grateful to her looking at and giving feedback on a number of Level three dummy books that Sue Clarke brought up from Falmouth for the visit.
Louise Power at Walker Books
Later in the day Nigel took 8 students to see Margaret Hope at Transworld Childrens Books. Margaret explained the international co-edition principal for funding the publication of picture books and also gave an insight into potential of teen fiction as an outlet for our students. A really useful visit…
Margaret Hope at Transworld
Students talking to art directors at Transworld
falmouthillustrationblog.com 