Liberty as emporium

The current managing director of Liberty, Ed Burstall, describes the stores of being 'One of the last emporiums of its kind on Earth'. This idea of 'emporium' is one of the starting points for my ideas process, this idea alongside the very open brief opens up a world of possibilities to my ideas bank. 

To me the word 'emporium' conjures up ideas of a wondrous and exciting place that is filled with beautiful ephemera that you just want to touch and discover. 

As I have come to conclusion that I want to create a kids range of products this whole idea of emporium just suits it to the ground, I want the children that may see my products to have this feel of wonder and excitement. 

The shop itself is a pice of art, with its wooden beams it does conjure up idea of a pirate ship or an old stately home. Either way it is very grand and imposing but still maintains a homely feel. I will need the brand I create to fit in whilst still making a statement amongst all of the other beautiful products for sale on the shop floor and the competition I will have during the open call. 

http://www.justsomestuffimade.com/2011/04/14/liberty-of-london-style/

http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/place/120227-liberty

Liberty ideas

Now I have finally decided on pursuing the Liberty brief I can begin to really solidify ideas and to also look into what type of aesthetic fits this prestigious company. 

Firstly I feel it is important to look into the background of Liberty of London simply because of it's historical stature in the retail community. 

The story of Liberty goes back to before its actual opening in 1875 and it really starts with the stores founder Arthur Lasenby Liberty. He was employed by Messrs Farmer and Rogers on regent Street in 1862, the year that the international exhibition was held in London that was curated to promote British designers and craftsmen. Most notably William Morris was a huge success in this exhibition and it was the main launch pad for his career and design house that is still carrying on his work after his death. 

 Over ten years after starting his place at Regent Street, Arthur Liberty was inspired enough by his experience there to try and start up his own business with the belief that he could change the look of homewards and fashion. Which he undoubtedly did when he opened the doors to Liberty of London in 1875.  

He began with a £2000 loan from his future father in law and with this he bought one half of a building on Regent Street. Within eighteen months he had repaid the loan and bought the other half of the original building, following this the business just grew and grew and neighbouring buildings were acquired to house the growing range of homeware, fashion, millenary and other beautiful object d'art.   

The store quickly became the most popular place to shop in London with a wide range of exotic clientele due to the new trends they stocked. The store was integral to the promotion of the Arts and Crafts movement and also to Art Nouveau. 

The iconic Tudor style building that we know today was designed by the architect Edwin T. Hall at the height of the tudor revival in the 1920's. According to Liberty's website, The building was designed around three light wells that formed the main focal point of the building. Arthur Liberty wanted the architecture to feel homely and as if you were walking around your own home when you came to spend money at his store, therefore each of these larger rooms separate into smaller spaces to create this feel. At the beginning many of the rooms also had large fireplaces to further his homely intention even more. 

Unfortunately Arthur Liberty did not live long enough to see the his full dream realised but the shop has always stayed true to his original ideas, where they created a shopping environment that is both exciting, luxurious and homely.  

Since the post war years Liberty of London has gone from strength to strength, Still promoting up and coming designers and staying true to its creators vision. 

http://www.liberty.co.uk/AboutLiberty/article/fcp-content

Decided

I think i've subconsciously come to the decision that it will be the liberty brief I will be pursuing for this project. I feel as though it will give me a chance to really give myself a free reign on what I will be drawing and producing and this really appeals to me. I have no idea what products I will be creating yet but I'm fairly certain my illustrations for them will include some kind of fantasy/ fairy tale/ mythology feel mixed with the colour palette for 2015 trends which seems to be gearing up to be quite neon and bright. 

 ( http://blog.patternbank.com/pick-me-up-illustration-trends/) 

 My reasoning behind this is that hopefully the two ideas I have at the minute will juxtapose each other really nicely and look really contemporary,but still maintain that Liberty of London edge. 

Narrowed Down

I think I've narrowed it down to two; Liberty and the magazine editorials.. 

The main worry I have with the magazine editorial illustrations is that after some research it seems like a lot of the previously included illustration editorials have been quite graphics based, and I don't know if my style will be accepted and fit in to the overall look. Plus it is quite strict in its requirements, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as it may give a more realistic view of the industry that I will be launched into at the end of next year. 

The thing that appeals most about Liberty is the fact that as an illustrator considering doing the open call competition, I have complete freedom to research, design and make anything I want as long as it will be suitable to sell in this prestigious shop. 

New Brief

The title of our new brief is 'Commercial Image Creation' and I have a big decision to make on what I want the future to hold for me as whatever I choose from the list will be career altering in some way. Which is definitely scary but it's why I wanted to change to this course; the simple fact that I get these kinds of career opportunities whilst still studying.

• Com Arts Brief- Competition
• Ernest Brief 
• Liberty Brief 
• Off Life Brief- Comic 
• One & Other Brief 
• Two Puffins and a Penguin- Book Cover
• Travelling Man- Comic/Zine Brief 
• Wylam Brief- Beer Labels/ Clips

All of these opportunities are amazing but it's whittling it down to which will suit my illustrative style and which will give me the most motivation to really do it right. 

Although the two Comic book briefs are awesome, it's not my style... maybe it's something that I can get into at a later date but for now and the time frame I have I don't have enough experience to do it right. 

In terms of the Competition Brief and the Ernest Brief it is simply down to funding and the fact that I would have to fund everything myself and this is something that is not achievable at the moment for me. 

The Book Cover brief wants something more graphics led and this is not the career path I really want to go down.

Now after getting it down to three briefs I am very stuck as each appeals to me in a different way... 

The Liberty Brief leapt out at me as I already have a lot of experience from last year in designing prints/ illustrations for fabric but at the same time the fabric side was one of the reasons I left the course as when we work together we do not agree on what the final product should look like because fabric is just stubborn. This led me on to look at the vast range of home ware and stationary that liberty stock and made me consider it more seriously as working on paper and other solid objects really appeals to me as I can still use the techniques from last year and translate them to a more illustration led project. Plus it would be a complete career changer if I were to make it through even the first stage of the open call, and if not the advice and feedback I would recieve would be worth so much to furthering myself in the future. 

The One & Other magazine editorials also appealed to me. Being from York and having actually read the magazine it's a really cool little publication and I feel that having lived in York for the first 18 yard of my life would benefit me with this brief. Another factor is that if I get my editorial illustrations chosen it could mean they may keep coming back for different commissions from me in the years to come, I know they like to showcase new talents as my old photography tutor from York College used to write and take pictures for them quite regularly. If my illustrations are deemed right for the magazine it will be seen by so many people in and around York and also tourists. 

Finally the Wylam Brewery Brief seems like an amazing opportunity, the beer clips and labels will be used for the nationwide Illustration symposium meaning a huge amount of exposure to industry professionals plus the new beer will be placed in various pubs around the country. I also feel that one of the reasons  have kept this as a main contender is due to the fact I know it will challenge me, the historical references needed for the products really interest me as I always like to have a good read and I know that I will need to look up the Roman era and other independent beer companies illustrative labels to really make mine stand out. 

I really need to think hard before tomorrow as once we have chosen it is set in stone. I like all three for different reasons and this makes it ten times harder. 

I think deep down I know what I want to do but I don't want to be stuck later down the line thinking 'what if?' 

Catch up main blog style

For some weird reason I decided to make an entirely new blog to use as my research log for the first brief of the year. So I am just going to post the finished products on this blog as all of the leg work has been done on my illustration for commercial application blog. 

The brief we were given was to produce a range of products from an album we had picked from a given list. I chose the artist King Krule, who is an up and coming London artist who is part of the underground trip hop scene. His style as a person is a mixture of many different era's but the one that magazines pick up on most is his teddy boy/ punk style. So this is what i decided to use as a start point. I also really love the song 'A Lizard State' from the album and decided to create these strange anthropomorphic lizard men in teddy boy suits. It was my first foray into photoshop as well so i'm really pleased with how it's all turned out. 

Been away

But now I'm back.