My Contract

Under PP, I have been asked to make an invoice form, and also a contract which can be used under my specific brand. This was not something I had currently considered and therefore I had to think about all of the things that I needed for each of these.

This is the invoice I made for my own specific brand. I used a template from microsoft word to help me with this, I tried to take out anything that related to the template, by trying to colour it so that it was as branded as possible. All of the numbers are fabricated and do not relate to anything that I have agreed on. 

I tried to be a bit more professional with my contract. I did not use any sort of template for this, and heavily considered what I should be earning. I decided on £15 an hour for my rate, as I considered that as a cleaner I earned £10 an hour, therefore I should be earning more after earning a degree in a subject, and for my skills as a practitioner. Here is where I considered where I should be charging a decent living wage based on my practice. This is something I will use going forward with my branding. 

A Rebrand for the Better

Throughout PP I have been considering my professional presence a lot more. I have been looking into my own personal background with the creative industry, and have made a change in terms of how I represent myself online.

AT_art - This was my original logo on DeviantArt when I simply called myself AT_art. However I decided to rebrand myself into something that was not my own name but catchy and something people could recognise and remember. 

TheBritsonian - When I was living in Australia, I decided a rebrand was in order, I decided to make it something quite quirky and memorable, and also something that made me stand out against my peers. For this I based my name on my home country of Britain, and decided the smithsonian was a name to base my name on. Mixing those 2 words helped me come up with a name I liked. 

Rebranding - Throughout PP I decided that I wanted my logo and presence to be different. TheBritsonian was something I have enjoyed being over the last few years, and wanted to continue. Therefore I decided to rebrand myself, this is my sheet of designs which I made to try and update my logo, I tried many different variants but 1 in particular stood out to me.

Colour Change - When making my new logo in Illustrator, I decided to try and change my colours. However I ultimately decided that my original colours stood out to me the most, and I kept my own colours. The red is a very specific red which I use in my art so I kept this exactly the same.

The New Britsonian - This is my final new logo, I love the way this came out, it is a vector so the quality stays in place, and I can now begin building my professional profile on top of my personal one. This will not be a hard task as I do not often keep my posts up and delete them if I believe them to be not good enough to represent me anymore.

A banner - From the font I used to create my new logo, I decided I needed to specify my practice a lot more, using this, I made a banner for YouTube, I used this to specify my interest in animation. I want to make a motion graphic which I can use in my showreel and on my social media accounts in order to represent this to its fullest.

My Copyright?

I have been asked about my own copyright and how I protect my online presence. Honestly this is not something I had considered before, as all my professional work is technically owned by the University and not by myself. I am also active on Instagram with my art work, where I have no watermark, and Instagram can technically can use any of my posts for promotional purposes if they should so choose.

What will I do? 

To better protect myself against copyright I am going to create a watermark to put over my artwork and set up my own website so that the artwork is all legally owned by myself as it is protected under my own branding.

I will use this logo to create a watermark for myself as well as brand my own website correctly. I may have a new logo by the time I get around to doing this. 

TheBritsonian - Domain

My first goal when making my plan for PP was to buy my domain for my website. I have already achieved this. I want to brand myself correctly and use the domain I have acquired to aid my creative presence online. I believe this will help me with jobs in the future and will give someone a place to go to see all of my work, professional and personal without any fuss.

Here is my proof of my buying my own domain.

My Social Media

Currently my social media is active and has little traction, I do not have many followers on any of them.

LinkedIn: My LinkedIn account is very recent, so there is not much on there so far. I want to begin using this more in terms of a professional presence. I believe so far I have been treating it as too much of a social media instead of a professional environment to share my work, so I need to focus more on this.

TheBritsonian - TheBritsonian is a name/banner I have been going by since early 2015, I am going to write a separate post about that, here are the social medias I have which are listed under this banner.

Facebook: This is also relatively new, I was trying to move my art onto new spaces where I could share my work, however I have not updated it or promoted it at all so it has almost no followers. 

Instagram: My Instagram is the place I am most proud of, as it shows all my side art which I do when I am not in Uni. This has a few more followers than other places, nothing to brag of though. In future I would like to promote and rebrand this to become a bit more professional.

Twitter: I am still not sure how to use this platform properly, but so far I have been using it to promote other artists whilst staying low key. I should probably start using this more, and not just retweeting people I see or like.

My Plan 

In the future I want to expand more in terms of my brand "TheBritsonian". First I am going to look into buying a domain name so I can set up my own website, from this website I will promote on instagram and twitter primarily. I want to rebrand myself in a professional manner. I will try and use illustrator for this to make a vector logo, I have experience in graphics and viscom which will help me make a professional logo which I can use to brand my website and social media accounts. This will be a long term plan which will aid me in my creative endeavours.

Network?

In a competitive industry like animation, we have to take every opportunity to network with creative professionals. I have made a list of ways to talk to professionals which could lead to a better understanding of the industry.

1. Art Station - Art station is a growing website where creatives can like and share each other's work. 
2. Instagram - Instagram is a popular picture based social media network, artists have made a good following there which is easy to understand and easy to share work with others. 
3. Linkedin - Linkedin is a professional site for connecting with people in your industry. Linkedin suggests people for you so that you always have new opportunities to talk to a professional from your practice. 
4. Manchester Animation Festival - MAF is a great way of creating with people in the animation industry, it offers networking events where you can get into a room full of people interested in and from the same industry. 
5. Leeds young film festival - This festival is a great opportunity to meet creatives, they may not necessarily be in the animation industry however it is still the film industry which can greatly aid you in many areas. 
6. Thought Bubble - Art is an essential part of animation, and thought bubble gives opportunities to meet artists from all areas. 
7. Via email - Although it can be daunting, many creatives will reply to emails to answer any questions you may have about the practice. 
8. Animex - Animex is a convention of sorts which offers a variety of talks from professionals which is held at teesside university. 
9.  Cardiff animation festival - although a relatively new festival, I think it would be a great opportunity to network similar to that of MAF. 
10. Studio Visits/Tours - Upon emailing some studios will accept people to come and take a look into their studio to gain an understanding of how the industry works and pratices. 

To help myself in connecting with others in my practice, I have set up a linkedin account, since making my account I have a fair few connections of whom are from different backgrounds and from different practices. Thanks to my brother I have also connected with people in the gaming industry. 

My SWOT Analysis

During the session today, we undertook a practice called SWOT, which means analysing our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. During this practice I made my own version, and then 2 of my peers also contributed to their own versions for me. From these I made my own final version,

Strengths -

• Drawing
• Fast Paced Work
• Good work ethic
• time management 

Weaknesses - 

• Change of ideas
• Time management of write up
• Drawing females
• Not going out of my comfort zone
• Leaving things until last minute
• shy

Opportunities - 

• Festivals outside of Uni
• Summer Internships at studios
• Studio visits
• Potentially Singapore? 
• Commissions 

Threats - 

• Ever changing technologies ie animation software
• Competitive industry especially in specialisation
• Other classmates going into the industry at the same time
• lack of work for my specialisation 

This is a condensed version of all 3 of my SWOT forms, I believe this effectively analysis's my strengths and weaknesses and what I need to improve upon in the future and over the course of the year.