TestSpace Exhibition & Retail Space

I was contacted early last week about having some work in a local exhibition with some space to have products for sale too by TestSpace Leeds

"From 4th-12th June Test Space will be taking over Crash Records basement space and 42 New Briggate hosting a series of rapid exhibitions, live music showcases, workshops, film screenings, arts markets and retail opportunities" (borrowed from TestSpaceleeds.com) You can find out more about TestSpaceLeeds here on their website, here on their blog and follow them on twitter too.

[all images can be clicked to take you to TestSpace's Flickr account]

Exit

I attended the presentations and networking event EXIT at the university to listen to companies talk about how to get a career/job and how to sign up to recruitment agencies to help with money in the mean time. I found it quite inspirational as it gave me ideas about what I could do for cash working part time, while also working part time on setting up as self employed. There was a wide range of people at the event, both presenting and in the networking section of the evening. As I had context work to finish I couldn't stay long at the event but signed up for the email alerts about future events and I will definitely be getting in contact with business link as soon as possible to arrange a session to figure out what I need to do first and how I go about doing it in relation to setting up as self employed.

Artist Statement

Artist Statement

(Used when applying to galleries for my products to be stocked there)

Jonathan is a papercut artist and graphic designer working in Leeds, UK. Using nothing but paper, a scalpel and inspiration he creates typographic and illustrative designs that focus on both details and simplicity. He is also a full time student in his final year studying a BA HONS in Graphic Design and is due to complete his course within a few months.

Jonathan has a wide range of inspirations that include nature (in particular the repetitive patterns that naturally occur in plants and trees), man made patterns, stories, shapes, paper and its variable uses, fairytales and typography. Graphic design also has a huge influence on his art work as can be seen by the professional finish of his products and the care and attention given to the concepts and ideas behind them.

Having has gained wide exposure on the Internet selling his paper cuts on the website Etsy, under the name mrYen, and contributing to their blog, he has also had his work featured by Etsy several times in their online articles. Through Etsy, he also welcomes commissions and sells to people all over the world, which led to his involvement of the project “Lost Things” which was collaboration between himself and Angela Kohler (an L.A based producer). Jonathan was asked by Kohler to create paper cut designs for a short stop-motion film based on an Alice in Wonderland theme. The short film included an appearance from Alison Sudol from “A Fine Frenzy” who not only stars in the film, but also wrote a piece of music specifically for it and it was produced by Angela Kohler and Ithlye Grifiths, who have recently created adverts for Amazon.com

Jonathan’s paper cut artwork has been featured on many websites and design blogs including, Apartment Therapy, Poppytalk, My love for you is a stampede of horses, Juxtapoz, Domestic Sluttery and DigitalArts Online. His papercut Alice in Wonderland Book cover designs have also been recently featured in the April issue of DigitalArts magazine. He is also a contributing artist to “The New Twenties”, which is a collaborative book to be published by IdN magazine and Society6 and is due out in spring/summer 2010.

His paper cuts are currently for sale at Welcome Home Gallery in Glasgow, Snug Gallery in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, in an online shop named AllThings Original.com and in his own etsy shop at
www.mrYen.etsy.com with negotiations in place to have work stocked in the online shop named uponafold.com which is based in Australia.

Digital Portfolio - ISSUU

I have upload a few examples of my work as a portfolio to ISSUU which I could also use as a link when emailing people my portfolio.

Website Update

I have recently updated my website with images from all recently completed university projects, you can visit my website by clicking the image below:

New Full Range of mrYen stationery

the newly branded mrYen stationery has arrived -

Letterhead/Invoice
Business card
compliment slip/receipt
notepad

Brand Change

I have had a re-brand of my personal logo and applied it to a whole new range of mrYen stationery. I have designed a letterhead, business card, compliment slip and an A5 notepad, which I have sent to print and will update with photos of the printed material once it comes back form the printers. I have also used the below logo and text for my website splash page, all blog headers, twitter avatar, and shop header.

New Stockist

I have recently been asked to stock mrYen products with All Things Original.com which you can see here and have been asked for a range of my products from my shop. They have also had some amazing press about products from designers who sell with them, in great magazines!
I will update with more information once they have all been made and sent to be stocked.

New York!

I was recently contacted by a production company in New York who manage the producers that created the short animation I was a part of (which you can see here) and they have asked me if it would be possible for me to create a set of three alphabets (of an existing alphabet) for a job they are bidding for, which I believe is for an American T.V advert. They are wanting to create a stop motion advert and I was recommended to them to cut the typography out by hand as they liked my work before and felt it would be appropriate for the advert they are bidding for!

I should find out by the end of this week I think, then it will all have to be created very quickly, so I can get it shipped off to New York!

New Stockist

I have recently secured another stockist of mrYen products at North Lincolnshire Visual Arts Centre shop which you can see here. I have been asked to create a range of products from my shop including some papercut postcards alongside some original papercut pieces. I will update with more information once they have all been made and sent to be stocked.

Simplicity in Design

I have recently been reading the book 'Simplicity' by Edward De Bono. It talks about simplicity in general, simplicity in design and leading a simple life. I have picked out the following quotes that I feel have some meaning in relation to my design practice and what I feel is important to my work. There are some principles and ideas below that I would like to apply to my new brief while designing imagery for my range of stationery.

"There is often a much simpler way of doing things – if you make the effort to look for it. Simplicity does not just happen." (Page 2)

"Simplicity is easy to use but can be hard to design. You need some creativity." (Page 4)

"There is always the possibility that there is a simpler way to do something. Even if that is not always the case it is always worth investigating some thinking time and creative effort in trying to find a simpler approach." (Page 20)

"In order to make something simple you have to know your subject very well indeed." (Page 72)

"If you are unwilling to be satisfied with the complex you will spend more thinking time trying to make things simpler." (Page 88)

"Although a good idea may be focused in one direction, it must also take all other factors into account." (Page 110)

"It is essential to work with the middle level of concepts. Concepts that are too broad lead nowhere. Concepts that are too narrow lead only down that narrow path." (Page 148)

Princes Trust

"The Princes Trust Enterprise Programme - ...supports unemployed young people aged 18-30 to work out if their business ideas are viable and whether self-employment is right for them.

Depending on the outcome of this process, the programme can then offer mentoring support and, for those that really need it, financial support to start a business or mentoring support to secure goals in employment, education or training."

{text taken from Princes Trust Website}

This is something I would really like to look into further as they could provide me with a start up fund for my business. They also supply mini business guides, which I have downloaded, printed out and filed in my PPD file to start looking at and working my way through.

Self Promotional Mailer

Below are a few DPS's from my self promotional mailer which I will also be using as a portfolio in a hand bound book format. It includes my contact details, my CV and a few of my briefs I have completed that I feel show my abilities in the areas I am interested in. I used some of the same layout characteristics as my initial layout design for my context book as I thought it was a nice clean, clear layout that could show my work at its best.

New Stockist

Below are some images of recently completed work that has been in progress for a while as I have been getting some papercuts ready for a new stockist!

The papercuts below have been sent to Snug Gallery in North Yorkshire, which will be opening soon. The gallery will be opening where Hannah Nunn's shop used to be and will be managed by Ed Chadwick and Yvonne Hardman, so everyone who can, should go and visit as soon as it is open......but while you're waiting, why not follow them on twitter to find out when they open and keep an eye on the Snug Gallery blog

Updated website

I have been working on my website for a while now and have updated it with all my personal/self initiated work and a few features I have had. I have also added links to other places I can be found on the internet, such as my shop, blog and flickr account.

Blogging for Etsy!!

Due to my involvement with the video "Lost things" which I blogged about here, I contacted Etsy to see if they wanted to interview me for a blog post about the video as it has had 135,452 views since 26th of February, so it is obviously quite popular. I wanted to see if they would be interested in an interview as I was found through Etsy to produce something for the film that was made in L.A. As I am from the UK and Etsy is an American website I thought it would be a good promotional interview/blog post for me, for the creators of the video and Etsy (as the video has a loose alice in wonderland theme and the film has just been released in the UK) and as it is already getting interest from many design blogs, I thought Etsy would want to be in the 'loop' too.

As one of my photographs was used by Etsy recently for one of their blog posts, I already had a person who I knew I could contact in relation to Etsy's blog so I sent the following email to them -

Hi, I thought I would contact you to ask if you would like to create a blog post in relation my papercuts that I created for a recent project I took part in through Etsy. Angela Kohler (handsomepanda.etsy.com - http://www.angelakohler.com) contacted and found me through Etsy and asked me to create some custom papercuts to be used in an art project that she was creating, that is now complete and can be found here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwX7uEiEWx4 It is a short stop-motion film called 'Lost Things' and is loosely based around an Alice in Wonderland theme. It features the singer A fine frenzy and has already been featured on several great blogs such as Ohjoy and Mint and I think it would appeal to people who read the Etsy blog, plus it is great timing with the release of Tim Burton's film Alice in Wonderland! It was released on the 26th of February and already has 133,893 views on YouTube, so it is obviously quite popular. I thought that you would want to mention it on Etsy's blog as I was found through Etsy and created the papercuts for the film, so It is great promotion for Etsy and shows the kind of things that can be achieved through Etsy as an Etsy artist from the UK. Hope to hear from you soon! Thanks Jonathan

From this email, I got the opportunity to actually be a guest contributor for the Etsy blog!
I was sent a list of deliverables such as rules of what can & can't be said, images needed and sizes, word count (below 800!) etc.

You can see my guest post here.

DigitalArts Magazine

My papercut Alice in Wonderland Book covers have been featured in DigitalArts magazine's April issue and on their website here! This is a great achievement, as I was interviewed for the magazine online and didn't know if my work would be published in the magazine but it has been! Go out and get your copy, its a great issue !

Newsletter - Mail Chimp

As I need to create a newsletter for myself and my online presence & shop I have been looking for a cheap (meaning free!) ways to do this and the best option I have come across so far is Mail Chimp.

I have signed up for several newsletters of people/companies in my area of interest - such as people who create paper based products, designers, illustrators, design blogs etc and the majority of them use the services of Mail Chimp to send out weekly/monthly updates in the form of a newsletter. I will have to have a play around with Mail Chimp so I can understand how to design something appropriate for my branding and style hat works within the constraints of what Mail Chimp allows.

CV Update

For my new CV I have decided to include a hand cut element on it, as this is where I could have a potential first impact with a client and I think this is also a way to make my CV stand out from other applicants to a job, plus my hand cut CV will also be an extension to my branding and stationery. The image below is my CV before I have cut the papercut design onto it. I will have to create a design that is both simple enough to be repeated quickly & easily, yet detailed enough to show my skills off.

(the grey border is just to show the page edges - the actual CV would be on just plain white, quality stock)

Red Lemon Club

I recently bought an e-book about online self promotion from the Red Lemon Club run by Alex Mathers, who also runs a contemporary illustration blog called Ape on the Moon. I have visited Alex's website for a while now and signed up to his newsletter as there are always really interesting and important tips and advice about promotion and setting up a business/brand as a designer. The e-book is over 200 pages long and has 3 pages of resources too! I am slowly making my way through it and so far it is all really interesting, with a huge amount of information that will be useful in the coming months.