tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-150029442024-03-13T17:41:42.461+00:00Illustration by Sarah J. Coleman ----------- † 'Moments of urgent need to share, snatched from between the jaws of a jobs list from Satan.' † -----------
Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.comBlogger525125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-68860603312819083202024-02-09T18:13:00.004+00:002024-02-10T14:17:55.647+00:00Sage Francis 3.0: an always-evolving logo<h3 class="graf graf--h3" name="d03c">Artist, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://strangefamousrecords.com" href="https://strangefamousrecords.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">record label</a> boss and rapper <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sage_Francis" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sage_Francis" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Sage Francis</a> has just unveiled his new logo, over 20 years since I first fell in love with his records, 18 years since I did the biggest art project of my life on his work, 16 years since I did a piece of art that wasn’t meant to be a logo but became one, 17 years since I did his first proper ‘new logo’, and ten years since I designed him another ‘new logo’. Like the artist himself, this is a logo — and a relationship — that doesn't stay still!</h3><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="070b"><img class="graf-image" data-height="2000" data-image-id="1*UPIRgNRa1GAvNYFXCPPOIg.jpeg" data-is-featured="true" data-width="2000" height="400" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*UPIRgNRa1GAvNYFXCPPOIg.jpeg" width="400" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="9953">We never <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">sat down to do a logo</em>, to brainstorm or sign an NDA or moodboard or A/B test or anything else. It’s been a fully organic journey. <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The first one </strong>was actually a piece specially created for the 2007 Manhattan outing of our big Sage-inspired show, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://writeofftheworld.net" href="https://writeofftheworld.net/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">If A Girl Writes Off The World</a> (a pre-Adobe <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/pictures.reviewcentre/b64/b11/70c/5d0.jpg\" href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/pictures.reviewcentre/b64/b11/70c/5d0.jpg%5C" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Dreamweaver</a>-built site will open up. I built it myself and it’s so poignantly 2007). It was picked up and put onto some of the hoodies in Sage’s Strange Famous merch range — best-sellers at that. Detailed and writhing, it was made with a very fine Nikko-G nib and black ink. The original is actually very small, and framed in our hallway.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="54cb" style="width: 595.21875px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1290" data-image-id="1*KQOt7HJOtki47Yf3bnTnUw.jpeg" data-width="4067" height="203" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/1*KQOt7HJOtki47Yf3bnTnUw.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="9723" style="width: 188.765625px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="450" data-image-id="1*y56I8ghB5NA7GdqdAaKjIw.jpeg" data-width="450" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*y56I8ghB5NA7GdqdAaKjIw.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="aaf2"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1200" data-image-id="1*QGncgypsB6-cYrjiWH48XA.jpeg" data-width="1600" height="480" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*QGncgypsB6-cYrjiWH48XA.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="42bf"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The second</strong> was kind of accidental as it was made for the cover of Sage’s 2007 album <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_the_Death_Dance" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_the_Death_Dance" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Human The Death Dance</a>. It just kind of…started to get used on things, posters, ads, posts and merch. In the way that a logo does, I suppose. Made with an inkpen and nib, it featured sad faces and a minimal slope, just designed to peer over the shoulder of the man himself, next to a watermark-like Death. With hindsight, it was flimsy and odd, but then again…unlike a lot of my formal client commisssions, I hadn’t ‘sat down to design a logo’.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="e107"><img class="graf-image" data-height="413" data-image-id="1*ngrWzF_a3hHNvttLS37YhQ.png" data-width="982" height="269" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ngrWzF_a3hHNvttLS37YhQ.png" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="604c"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3570" data-image-id="1*5voYvVaFTZMaDAR3JcZKcw.jpeg" data-width="3570" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*5voYvVaFTZMaDAR3JcZKcw.jpeg" width="640" /><figcaption class="imageCaption">The album cover. Which was almost…</figcaption></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="ab1a"><img class="graf-image" data-height="579" data-image-id="1*aI3ONhaCcaMTI6y856iy8A.jpeg" data-width="579" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*aI3ONhaCcaMTI6y856iy8A.jpeg" width="640" /><figcaption class="imageCaption">…this one instead.</figcaption></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="47a2"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1200" data-image-id="1*x3CLvQK8pQMpG-iq50k-Ug.jpeg" data-width="600" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*x3CLvQK8pQMpG-iq50k-Ug.jpeg" width="320" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="1f29"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The one that came after</strong> that was also for an album, 2014’s <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2014/04/copper-gone.html" href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2014/04/copper-gone.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Copper Gone</a>. It formed part of a single piece of ink-on-paper art but once again lived a life of its own, and served as Sage’s identity for the ten years prior the current one. I almost can’t believe myself the huge spans of time I’m casually throwing around here, by the way — but those are the dates, and this is the longevity of it all.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="53d9" style="width: 392px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3024" data-image-id="1*nBMaLPiCddxJTC18bPuBLw.jpeg" data-width="3024" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*nBMaLPiCddxJTC18bPuBLw.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="8b23" style="width: 392px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3024" data-image-id="1*tvdz4zGdTDidIq86aoe__w.jpeg" data-width="3024" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*tvdz4zGdTDidIq86aoe__w.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="2d4d" style="width: 274.734375px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="737" data-image-id="1*XqDQB9-rnCc7Q1Fs0va_yw.jpeg" data-width="795" height="593" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*XqDQB9-rnCc7Q1Fs0va_yw.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="83de" style="width: 254.625px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1200" data-image-id="1*8-huzP8Z46KcZZDv6FVHig.jpeg" data-width="1200" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*8-huzP8Z46KcZZDv6FVHig.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="64e9" style="width: 254.625px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="960" data-image-id="1*B6pfqk348_LFMzq--1J73w.jpeg" data-width="960" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*B6pfqk348_LFMzq--1J73w.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="8422">Again if I’d known at the time that this would be deployed in the way it was, there are things I’d have changed — but would it have improved anything? Not sure. Really not sure, but at some point someone filled it in and made it solid — which wasn’t a cool move, and around that time I began thinking, I <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">really</em> need to do that properly, or scrap it and do the whole thing again.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b166">Eventually I did. I can’t remember whether I just did it and sent it to Sage with a note saying ‘this really needed doing’, or whether he asked — it doesn’t matter — but the outcome is this one. This time I *did* sit down to ‘make a logo’ from the roots put down by the Copper Gone iteration, but clean and clear. I faffed and tweaked and moved vector points and smoothed out bezier curves then undid it all, and repeat, eventually creating so many versions I think we actually really <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">should</em> have done some A/B testing. But there it is.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="dea0" style="width: 261.328125px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="905" data-image-id="1*J31fdtuB4YdjvwYrZrKtZA.jpeg" data-width="1000" height="579" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*J31fdtuB4YdjvwYrZrKtZA.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="0f8b" style="width: 261.328125px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="905" data-image-id="1*7H7HESzoMtrNPlx5HdqgfA.jpeg" data-width="1000" height="579" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*7H7HESzoMtrNPlx5HdqgfA.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="61c4" style="width: 261.328125px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="905" data-image-id="1*PZQfwwZzZ1uPbfic1m2b_g.jpeg" data-width="1000" height="579" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*PZQfwwZzZ1uPbfic1m2b_g.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="8272">There are still things I’d change, even now, and it may or may not serve for another ten years. But I like the organic and slightly clumsy way all of these were done. They sort of ‘happened’, which is very different from the art-directed, purposeful, accountable way I do my other work.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="eb01"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1000" data-image-id="1*wou6eX1EMSReAlC0ZsJk2Q.jpeg" data-width="1000" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*wou6eX1EMSReAlC0ZsJk2Q.jpeg" width="640" /><figcaption class="imageCaption">The final. I think. Not sure. I like it. Sage likes it. But do I like one of the other versions more? We can always use one of those…can’t we…I think. We fly in the face of your Logo Rules, sir!</figcaption></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="728e"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1000" data-image-id="1*2fubABxBDA5IwanW51oRSQ.png" data-width="1000" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*2fubABxBDA5IwanW51oRSQ.png" width="640" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="d52b">When Sage posted it to the fans, most people just loved it and started slapping money on the counter for the T shirt. Someone said ‘Francis’ reads as a completely different word. Someone <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">else</em> said having seen it they’re now expecting a country album (which I applauded).</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f528">I still look at it and see a curve I would change, bits I’d move, and I stare at it till I’m logo-blind. But honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="3f11">Thanks Sagey for the wholesomely organic way we do things, every time.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="a068"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">(If you want to read more, there’s a </em><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://blog.inkymole.com/search?q=sage+francis" href="http://blog.inkymole.com/search?q=sage+francis" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">bunch of historic blogs here</em></a><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">).</em></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f905">P.S.; this one was a wild card, and <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Did Not Make It</em>. Nor shall it ever…I think…</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f905"><br /></p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="911e"><img class="graf-image" data-height="2169" data-image-id="1*v9dF5Q2eBwcj6jS06n6nIw.jpeg" data-width="1577" height="400" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*v9dF5Q2eBwcj6jS06n6nIw.jpeg" width="291" /></figure>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-70520553009173595422024-02-07T23:00:00.005+00:002024-02-08T13:00:29.560+00:00Writing Their Story<div class="separator"><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="0ebc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">I’ve just posted a new project <a href="https://www.inkymole.com/work" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">in my folio</a>, and although I’ve got over 20 years of pharmaceutical work hidden away in a password-protected archive for all manner of legal reasons, this one I was able to share. And I’m glad, because it was both a privilege and a responsibility to work on.</span></b></figure></div><p class="graf graf--p" name="38d8">We watched <b>'<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHgMSR4F1Ak" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHgMSR4F1Ak" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Still</a>' </b>last week, the documentary about Michael J. Fox’s life as a person with <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_disease" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_disease" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Parkinson’s Disease</a>. We were shown the myriad clever, agonisingly secret techniques he developed to hide the effects of the disease for as long as he could. We watched the trembling left hand always given the task of holding something or gesticulating, and the way he exaggerated his already restless manner of moving through the day, in order to fold any twitches or unexpected movement into his famously energetic modus operandi.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ce13">It was funny, educational and extremely moving, and the moment we were shown his hands beginning to move I thought of this project.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f754">Commissioned in 2020 by <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_disease" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_disease" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Saatchi Wellness</a>, it was designed to communicate the effect that Parkinson’s Disease has on motor control through the power of handwriting. My job was to develop a set of authentic handwriting styles for a set of fictitious patients, each with unique characteristics, that are shown both subjected to the effects of Parkinson’s, and after treatment by the drug <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.duopahcp.com" href="https://www.duopahcp.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Duopa</a>.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f8c4" style="text-align: left;">Although it isn’t suggested that the treatment returns the patient to pre-Parkinsons handwriting, their motor control is shown to be sufficiently improved as to render their writing readable once more, communicating a sense of a return to empowerment and confidence. The stories of each individual are based around achieving modest, important tasks such as picking up a grandchild, or dancing with a partner.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="a846"><div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="668" data-image-id="1*xK51kC8WmvVDwYTYo_2lnA.jpeg" data-width="1000" height="428" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*xK51kC8WmvVDwYTYo_2lnA.jpeg" width="640" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></figcaption><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;"><i>From the Duopa project, working with Saatchi Wellness: the patient’s handwriting is challenged. It had to be hard to read, but not difficult, and accurately demonstrate the potential effects of the condition. You can see this image in use on <a class="markup--anchor markup--figure-anchor" data-href="https://www.duopahcp.com" href="https://www.duopahcp.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">the website</a>.</i></figcaption></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="d204"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="668" data-image-id="1*dzANsuFi927TCjmXm_wCHQ.jpeg" data-width="1000" height="428" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*dzANsuFi927TCjmXm_wCHQ.jpeg" width="640" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></figcaption><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The conclusion to the story is the patient’s handwriting showing the improvement in his condition; he’s able to hold and read a book.</i></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="ad9b">The two shown here are from a larger set we created, with a complete font developed for use on behind-the-scenes assets. The research and development for this project was extensive and very moving at times, and I cried a few times as I channelled everything I’d learned through my fountain pen into the words of the imaginary, but also very real, patients.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="c378"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="647" data-image-id="1*QcUOi0bWko1skA49oVkEkA.jpeg" data-width="1000" height="414" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*QcUOi0bWko1skA49oVkEkA.jpeg" width="640" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption"><i><br /></i></figcaption><figcaption class="imageCaption"><i>Part of the developmental work for this project.</i></figcaption><figcaption class="imageCaption"><i><br /></i></figcaption><figcaption class="imageCaption"><img class="graf-image" data-height="340" data-image-id="1*2yZbmgfGTfDDiFGfrcQUJQ.jpeg" data-width="608" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*2yZbmgfGTfDDiFGfrcQUJQ.jpeg" /></figcaption><figcaption class="imageCaption"><br /></figcaption><figcaption class="imageCaption"><i>A small section of the font I created for the Duopa project, including the range of variations that are possible within the scope of the disease’s effect on the patient’s ability to write. This is manifested in the changing ‘T’s, ‘U’s and ‘V’s shown here.</i></figcaption></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="499f"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1419" data-image-id="1*ucWuq4Xa6xdwuxNcz7QFuQ.jpeg" data-width="2000" height="454" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ucWuq4Xa6xdwuxNcz7QFuQ.jpeg" width="640" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption"><i>Some of the many. many experimental pieces created for the Duopa project, showing notes and adjustments. Each of these handwriting styles must be thought of as ‘a voice’, rather than simply ‘this is how they write’.</i></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="7d35">I do a lot of what might be called <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.inkymole.com/design-for-film-tv-games" href="https://www.inkymole.com/design-for-film-tv-games" rel="noopener" target="_blank">forensic lettering work</a> — maybe that’s too exacting, perhaps ‘reproduction lettering’? — whereby I’m called on to recreate the handwriting of a famous person, or someone deceased (sometimes both) for advertising or TV, film or books. Some of won’t be seen publicly. I’ve also done a lot of work that involves developing handwriting for fictitious characters — in fact, I’m doing one right now, three different ‘voices’, three different ages and situations, with a different choice of writing implement for each.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="ac57"><img class="graf-image" data-height="794" data-image-id="1*OD0rbgAsqprFi-A72RjxIA.png" data-is-featured="true" data-width="1400" height="363" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*OD0rbgAsqprFi-A72RjxIA.png" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="025b"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="2339" data-image-id="1*1MR-ulhHz76sNRIFHWQadw.jpeg" data-width="1571" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*1MR-ulhHz76sNRIFHWQadw.jpeg" width="430" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption"><i>An example of the specialist lettering work I do. Here I’m recreating the handwriting of the physicist Paul Dirac, one of the founders of Quantum Theory, for use inside and outside the book, using just handful of the extant references available. The age and style of fountain pen used were of great importance too.</i></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="2285">It’s harder than you think to override your own muscle memory and install new clicks and flicks of the wrist, different angles and pressure and descenders, a way to dot ‘i’s and cross Ts that’s someone else’s, and to keep it consistent — while tying in any historical factors too. In fact, it feels more like <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">acting</em> than design or lettering work, and it’s a million notebooks away from calligraphy. Once I’ve got the writing locked down, I can get into that costume and ‘be’ that person for as long as I need, even switching between them day to day. (There is, incidentally, always a voice that isn’t mine that accompanies the words I’m writing.)</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="079e"><img class="graf-image" data-height="360" data-image-id="1*fk8WCRJEhWuwy70ooh1aCw.png" data-width="1530" height="151" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*fk8WCRJEhWuwy70ooh1aCw.png" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="c935" style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="838" data-image-id="1*gDBNy0uMoXyl8oeGI2uM0Q.png" data-width="1092" height="491" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*gDBNy0uMoXyl8oeGI2uM0Q.png" width="640" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="5d97">But I love the immersion and focus that comes with the task, and the attention to detail. It’s very different from the kind of lettering I might make for an <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.inkymole.com/editorial" href="https://www.inkymole.com/editorial" rel="noopener" target="_blank">editorial</a> or a <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.inkymole.com/logos" href="https://www.inkymole.com/logos" rel="noopener" target="_blank">logo</a>, where I throw my brush, nib or Apple Pencil across the page with energy and only the loosest idea of outcome.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="4de6">If you would like to know more about this type of work, please <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.inkymole.com/contact" href="https://www.inkymole.com/contact" rel="noopener" target="_blank">get in touch</a>. In fact — write me a letter; I’m far more likely to respond…and who knows, maybe I’ll do it in your own handwriting.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="4b67"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Images shared with the permission of Saatchi Wellness.</em></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2e4d"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.duopahcp.com/" href="https://www.duopahcp.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.duopahcp.com</a></p>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-83881730277149650752023-11-30T12:31:00.007+00:002023-11-30T12:39:33.505+00:00A Logo for Maine.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtI5kUqJG8nVRqWOAeXrnjCokARJw0YEwlZ1qsfx0nE_NLhuIPXNK5msXz_R_xMrdTZjKEfNxslu6AiuTR76Na1p1PFUNuCQcRw5Abc-2mG42tfndvJEL5Hau9Xmb_llOPIf4vWvPVPkGwbqZrZ7I-9qsOBScRBa1MiRslex0zSYyJJvVQF1k/s600/VISIT-MAINE-thumbnail-II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtI5kUqJG8nVRqWOAeXrnjCokARJw0YEwlZ1qsfx0nE_NLhuIPXNK5msXz_R_xMrdTZjKEfNxslu6AiuTR76Na1p1PFUNuCQcRw5Abc-2mG42tfndvJEL5Hau9Xmb_llOPIf4vWvPVPkGwbqZrZ7I-9qsOBScRBa1MiRslex0zSYyJJvVQF1k/s16000/VISIT-MAINE-thumbnail-II.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>My new logo for the US state of Maine has begun to roll out in the last few weeks, and it's a thrill to see it.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>It began in early January 2023 with an email from creative Jordan and VP Neal at Miles Partnership, asking if I'd like to have a stab at updating the logo for the state of Maine. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Now all I know about Maine can be summed up in three points: 1. Our friend, the poet <a href="https://andreagibson.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #45818e;">Andrea Gibson</span></a> was born there. 2. It's huge and beautiful, and 3. </span><span>Stephen King!!!</span><span> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I said yes and within a couple of weeks was hashing out some proposals. The Miles team had made my job easier by carrying out acres of research with the inhabitants of the state itself. They'd got a stack of feedback on what they liked about the original logo, what they didn't; what living in Maine meant to them, what they thought of when they pictured their home state, and hundreds more answers to in-depth and nuanced, thoughtful questions.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The existing Maine logo looked like this:</span></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqJw22pQPEV49jGjVzm55XaM-hBRuIsRrmwp2hqHcsMlzXSm4F7GGlNHF7LCK3UbgYNXwKbh-GC8lf05YZ2mVrdloKJoIt1t3zVBC4N0IzOkp3qsgR3PUPOmaqwFjKRdG220ZUptyiLPKvvvTH7SRetZakhKnlZLkYqG-JUEx-3hT_3gsKUFg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="1624" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqJw22pQPEV49jGjVzm55XaM-hBRuIsRrmwp2hqHcsMlzXSm4F7GGlNHF7LCK3UbgYNXwKbh-GC8lf05YZ2mVrdloKJoIt1t3zVBC4N0IzOkp3qsgR3PUPOmaqwFjKRdG220ZUptyiLPKvvvTH7SRetZakhKnlZLkYqG-JUEx-3hT_3gsKUFg=w640-h472" width="640" /></a></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The core feedback was that the logo felt </span><i>"outdated, bland and uninspiring, particularly among Maine visitors"</i><span style="font-size: large;">. When asked what the new logo should be, the answer that came back most often was </span><i>"bold"</i><span style="font-size: large;"> - but with the near-unanimous caveat that it should nod to the traditional nature of Maine.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The findings came to me in an extremely thorough 45-page document which formed the backbone of my thinking. 'Organic, craft, charm, outdoors, nature, wood, trees, breathtaking, rustic, authenticity and sustainability' were other pivotal words which came out of the research.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And that was plenty for me to go on! I had the final logo in mind almost immediately, but presented lots of different looks to the team. After all, sometimes it's just as useful for the client to see what they DON'T want as it is for them to see what they do. All but a couple were analogue, made with ink, crayons, pens and pencil on paper, I was keen to communicate movement with solidness and history; contemporary energy with tradition. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTk7KqDZfi4f2nMcUzvPqliTcNJaRq351LZQfhy9PDIDPAuHk0of6zmElN2RoiJ71E2irZy6ryIaQikr0J8p06IpVvNjkjdI3R_bjh9TSOP3UupuV9gUUOVFrsBnPvey-UFVP9RYLSKpvNzKVSPXcf2TQHk-ip5-6Wjd4XlfRByl7p73pMDdk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="1220" data-original-width="1262" height="619" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTk7KqDZfi4f2nMcUzvPqliTcNJaRq351LZQfhy9PDIDPAuHk0of6zmElN2RoiJ71E2irZy6ryIaQikr0J8p06IpVvNjkjdI3R_bjh9TSOP3UupuV9gUUOVFrsBnPvey-UFVP9RYLSKpvNzKVSPXcf2TQHk-ip5-6Wjd4XlfRByl7p73pMDdk=w640-h619" title="From the WIP video I made" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A still from one of the WIP videos I made while working on the logo.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi10hguYUWPBNJeKTrtYKJMM1Pd_2ICFnkJCLhAaG7dnRQMJs--L6ZMqV-hcFopef76CNVEkj6K8Pb_hqxGaVQZqLLodZREPBKKGdzgNiZUFSaUJUdS2GBqLgRbMYmbBOlAW3WKEJcrL2NOUmGO2yTwQYJXHiifsG52AP3ud07jXpG7Gf06AMU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1308" data-original-width="1250" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi10hguYUWPBNJeKTrtYKJMM1Pd_2ICFnkJCLhAaG7dnRQMJs--L6ZMqV-hcFopef76CNVEkj6K8Pb_hqxGaVQZqLLodZREPBKKGdzgNiZUFSaUJUdS2GBqLgRbMYmbBOlAW3WKEJcrL2NOUmGO2yTwQYJXHiifsG52AP3ud07jXpG7Gf06AMU=w611-h640" width="611" /></a></div><span style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: medium; text-align: center;">While wax crayon, used to make a resist version.</div><div style="font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;">Here are a few of those initial suggestions - there were a LOT. I do this because, at this stage, the client could spot ANYTHING in an idea which triggers the final outcome - so I tend to leave very little out; I guess you could call this a brainstorming of sorts:</span></div></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhpIggNtHHB3VmxWIkLomefOOt5kyrKkh6xTQqcGuRLISGgRjuuAKbANFJvzRzUgIAeM6h8saewOFZqzwDtsTes2ETCa93xTQzBxgvTKvW-DR_OpWVIQQt79NI81c7cKjTaFNVE04JMwsFrPDIhUs3U-X7S782KRjZVyi2EJN8lZfnkEepSMs" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2835" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhpIggNtHHB3VmxWIkLomefOOt5kyrKkh6xTQqcGuRLISGgRjuuAKbANFJvzRzUgIAeM6h8saewOFZqzwDtsTes2ETCa93xTQzBxgvTKvW-DR_OpWVIQQt79NI81c7cKjTaFNVE04JMwsFrPDIhUs3U-X7S782KRjZVyi2EJN8lZfnkEepSMs=s16000" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Preferred options were 'put to research', and after a few weeks a trio was isolated for further tinkering. And by tinkering, I mean the start of the fine-tuning process - without knowing which the final choice might be. This is things like examining the weight of letters, kerning, trying different options on 'e's and capitals, whether on a single line or a little bumpier, like this exploration:<div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyMvzrpII4gtQJYEVs22K0IEJxxlvmyMrgrlosIy_u-bqjEhCcQl-LlFL_mExUmnWyxB_51wlaEw9mlTpENYoU9LmCbCugqq2b-e5De3fWxBsC2Wx6kEQ-r0aoIN_wpZUoTA8FxlPAYmn1XC_yKmwE5KM_-Fif88LcWTYJuaLDhSrtpWmr5c0/s2272/Screenshot%202023-11-29%20at%2017.30.10.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2272" data-original-width="1734" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyMvzrpII4gtQJYEVs22K0IEJxxlvmyMrgrlosIy_u-bqjEhCcQl-LlFL_mExUmnWyxB_51wlaEw9mlTpENYoU9LmCbCugqq2b-e5De3fWxBsC2Wx6kEQ-r0aoIN_wpZUoTA8FxlPAYmn1XC_yKmwE5KM_-Fif88LcWTYJuaLDhSrtpWmr5c0/w488-h640/Screenshot%202023-11-29%20at%2017.30.10.png" width="488" /></a></div><br /></div><div>Often at this point the client's curious to see how my very analogue work will look when transformed into vector art (presuming we're working with art that wasn't created digitally to begin with).</div><div><br /></div><div>This isn't a <i>'click the button' </i>or <i>'apply that filter'</i> step - rather, I do this via a series of processes which sensitively and carefully change the format of the piece (from pixel to vector) without changing its nature, preserving its human warmth, detail and idiosyncrasy. Without blowing any of my hand-sketched trumpets, it's often why people come to me for logos; in a sea of Canva-generated/off-the-shelf/plastic-looking logos they want something very obviously crafted by human hands, but which functions in every format, at every size, and performs in any technical, screen or print environment. I've been doing that a long time, and it's surprising how that need has remained consistent.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here you can see a close-up of a very carefully vectorised version of this inky option:</div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhskiRMToQlKKmmtIpKYyu6EYxshCa1WpJ-mA2fw74NHV5MbvD-fMhvgIdhlWQohs29AS25xpC_e8G4-8x5J_7N1h7s11iHIKhlHW68Iz407HRCPCTwVMLePsWIcQaNGbtamzbOPibGLEFzIrl5IiEZb0YqTqnXmUokALKUK2eKp_O2pxC0sps/s3508/A-Logo-For-Maine_Round-II-Logo-4-ink-wash-vector.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2480" data-original-width="3508" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhskiRMToQlKKmmtIpKYyu6EYxshCa1WpJ-mA2fw74NHV5MbvD-fMhvgIdhlWQohs29AS25xpC_e8G4-8x5J_7N1h7s11iHIKhlHW68Iz407HRCPCTwVMLePsWIcQaNGbtamzbOPibGLEFzIrl5IiEZb0YqTqnXmUokALKUK2eKp_O2pxC0sps/w640-h452/A-Logo-For-Maine_Round-II-Logo-4-ink-wash-vector.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div>This option from the second round of ideas was chosen to get through the third round. Made with simple, freely-drawn capitals in ink on paper, it worked as well in colour as it did greyscale and vector:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4_38Xdf-rpaUB_2uNha8kGBOlzAIJkJ-bDHw2LLpvRPhkMImGr3eVU21cd75_RQ02x9kY8hQRhmWMafYYRE2QDudCQomN2ZVjjA7iKgOnUctYrWyGiEvZwndQyLo-esCpAnAaqhHH_a-_GTJqQFBoPbBB7NZpEjlaPmdW6xO3IhQ3ayWtcyk/s2156/Screenshot%202023-11-30%20at%2011.43.09.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2024" data-original-width="2156" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4_38Xdf-rpaUB_2uNha8kGBOlzAIJkJ-bDHw2LLpvRPhkMImGr3eVU21cd75_RQ02x9kY8hQRhmWMafYYRE2QDudCQomN2ZVjjA7iKgOnUctYrWyGiEvZwndQyLo-esCpAnAaqhHH_a-_GTJqQFBoPbBB7NZpEjlaPmdW6xO3IhQ3ayWtcyk/w640-h600/Screenshot%202023-11-30%20at%2011.43.09.png" width="640" /></a></div><div>And as a partner suggestion to this I made a version created separately with ink and pencil to hint at cut wood, wood and trees being things that emerged as strongly connected to Maine and eliciting affectionate responses in their research group. Here's the raw art before any refinements:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXi2x2Q5VZAqxnItB3PLxlx6g_mEkbBfHevSnzRxa5ay719jIR7dZMIxyy3T2qtdEcv6jcmxJgLWBbTOBAS0I0y4CNjhUmTlz_cLLbdPzNoXg9JBv-I_mMFR-CMp5Pb_Hs6WscPYt0d-YIX0GY5OiTgKj7cSJmmQFi1TVnaA_Vhi39yjZgJk/s2408/Screenshot%202023-11-30%20at%2011.46.52.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="2408" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXi2x2Q5VZAqxnItB3PLxlx6g_mEkbBfHevSnzRxa5ay719jIR7dZMIxyy3T2qtdEcv6jcmxJgLWBbTOBAS0I0y4CNjhUmTlz_cLLbdPzNoXg9JBv-I_mMFR-CMp5Pb_Hs6WscPYt0d-YIX0GY5OiTgKj7cSJmmQFi1TVnaA_Vhi39yjZgJk/w640-h488/Screenshot%202023-11-30%20at%2011.46.52.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Watch some of the process here:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxf7ZDmbW0ybaS3uh1ShT_GFw8AT9z7uj5aVnKpdm52Do4_W0KifxhuE08gg_Dmhw-4Pgt6xeFeXXo' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyFrUzIW3SUJVD5L40kVBkpxfqig3Lwt6DH0HyyveFuepsmfURvdGM5uObUYrPdYeHCl3SHwJS0Dac' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>At this point, I got <i>The Tingles</i> - when you know underneath you've cracked it, and you desperately want the client to agree with you...but you daren't hope too hard, because your experience tells you it can go completely in another direction! But those Tingles came when I played with these layered and coloured versions. Suddenly, I could see this on all the signs, the site, the products, the T shirts...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtZ9XU1_UtV9P2yushyphenhyphenjEkk8FgSnywPBC-JhlTMLYVBp4JK2a5dxGrjRPhQ9XMMSKHPK3cOqV3wJnruzZSolTHBPnmjTWyMe8K8IgENaNKxcrAhQ-0v3OASwNtQ9FPM86Ve0tV3Tg70fXSmPBE3oWxVWZQU3bPWy2UmcklfNIDB1LwBnSXsYw/s3508/A-Logo-For-Maine-Round-III-PDF_P7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2480" data-original-width="3508" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtZ9XU1_UtV9P2yushyphenhyphenjEkk8FgSnywPBC-JhlTMLYVBp4JK2a5dxGrjRPhQ9XMMSKHPK3cOqV3wJnruzZSolTHBPnmjTWyMe8K8IgENaNKxcrAhQ-0v3OASwNtQ9FPM86Ve0tV3Tg70fXSmPBE3oWxVWZQU3bPWy2UmcklfNIDB1LwBnSXsYw/w640-h452/A-Logo-For-Maine-Round-III-PDF_P7.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMbRouAhMq4Ie5EcxLYTEDSKeTeB2Dq8hsYGURyKWrC48cjH3AUGpNVK9apLWpiynsMhYcW-FZ7u8QlPNDoO68z9EIRynhbn6lkI3ovfg5wglLVuupa5BN0hrLEz0nkJl_kytEx40gjklwoWgJy9I4b2VzBl1ZDC_T9cwY2fDrxsM_mr308k/s3508/A-Logo-For-Maine-Round-III-PDF_P9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2480" data-original-width="3508" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMbRouAhMq4Ie5EcxLYTEDSKeTeB2Dq8hsYGURyKWrC48cjH3AUGpNVK9apLWpiynsMhYcW-FZ7u8QlPNDoO68z9EIRynhbn6lkI3ovfg5wglLVuupa5BN0hrLEz0nkJl_kytEx40gjklwoWgJy9I4b2VzBl1ZDC_T9cwY2fDrxsM_mr308k/w640-h452/A-Logo-For-Maine-Round-III-PDF_P9.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div>The team liked it. But there was one more thing. I was aware from the start that when I said the word 'Maine' in my mind, it was actually <i>'Maine.' </i>- with the full stop. I couldn't stop seeing it this way. I felt it communicated a confidence and pride in this single-syllable name, and suggested that the state was everything you could need - the full stop made it both a name and a statement. </div><div><div><br /></div><div>"Where you from?" <p></p></div><div><b>"Maine."</b></div><div><br /></div><div>And so it was added to the next round. Would they go for this punctuatively unusual choice?</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghbbKp0MPP7FtojUwTQiqjZqBF7I2vmlyE6gRjLyHd5XAGNrPY6cLTGlSekNtg-L46sUZ44yCiUmkqbGLQXLZMTUu60Ju_1LEzSAl04rFF_6ya_zarsTJjFgaIjuWFX_W3oxotiY2YxQVPHQgImWy-LbXOsgDVaSf2nDkKaNim85hC46T_vpM/s2528/Screenshot%202023-11-30%20at%2011.56.20.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2290" data-original-width="2528" height="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghbbKp0MPP7FtojUwTQiqjZqBF7I2vmlyE6gRjLyHd5XAGNrPY6cLTGlSekNtg-L46sUZ44yCiUmkqbGLQXLZMTUu60Ju_1LEzSAl04rFF_6ya_zarsTJjFgaIjuWFX_W3oxotiY2YxQVPHQgImWy-LbXOsgDVaSf2nDkKaNim85hC46T_vpM/w640-h580/Screenshot%202023-11-30%20at%2011.56.20.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1c8PHpGrYW7cy4kBH13NLC-abYjTKJHZLXwh9IB7oT9-vVyqZ4JbE8ZSqMYjhRSNkbjrZtfnDoVlyrZSzH5XdKl6f-NeW7q_w6IQlYJvpAsC8SwHGP63GmAdxdD0-JAqzPDrSKA1uooaB928Jq9UIHGkGsqL9eWsJxAda67haVfbf5F-lRug/s2552/Screenshot%202023-11-30%20at%2011.56.32.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1980" data-original-width="2552" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1c8PHpGrYW7cy4kBH13NLC-abYjTKJHZLXwh9IB7oT9-vVyqZ4JbE8ZSqMYjhRSNkbjrZtfnDoVlyrZSzH5XdKl6f-NeW7q_w6IQlYJvpAsC8SwHGP63GmAdxdD0-JAqzPDrSKA1uooaB928Jq9UIHGkGsqL9eWsJxAda67haVfbf5F-lRug/w640-h496/Screenshot%202023-11-30%20at%2011.56.32.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>The answer was YES. And so, over the course of six months, our logo was born, and final artwork was prepared in myriad formats and al the colours of the new Maine branding guidelines. In its final iteration, the logo is currently working its way over the next few months onto hundreds of products, signs, printed materials and online platforms, but you can see it right away on the <a href="https://visitmaine.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #45818e;">visitMaine</span></b></a> website, and on these satisfying examples.</div><div><br /></div><div>To my delight, as well as embracing my 'thing' for the full stop, they're using both the flat-colour version <i>and</i> the textured version together, deploying them in different environments, and that in itself is unusual. I applaud their boldness!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>If you live in Maine</b> and you see it about, please take a snapshot and send it to me! "Out in the wild" has become a cliché, but only because the thrill of seeing one's work out doing the job it was created for never gets boring. </div><div><br /></div><div>Not for me, anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Thank you to the brilliant team at <a href="https://www.milespartnership.com/what-we-do" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #45818e;">Miles Partnership</span></a> in Denver for bringing me on to do this prestigious project, especially VP Neal and Jordan, and thanks to my agency BAreps for their patient, professional cheerleading!</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsdlhgehMER12_E-F24jfaqlLyMb2dtNRF4Uo1pxYthIxyz6sGdGJP6jmH1k7nUoG8ISEDSq6cb9Lo7Z36LqmQ2RD3Lus8vXRHNQJGRiP4r3Ej07zyn6gcdb0YXZyxSUTLccTvqWdjec3qAWlcnUmkV9h9TohYnxVrpUNzMOev_ywtPRnjNU/s1500/MAINE%20booth%20closeup.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1131" data-original-width="1500" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsdlhgehMER12_E-F24jfaqlLyMb2dtNRF4Uo1pxYthIxyz6sGdGJP6jmH1k7nUoG8ISEDSq6cb9Lo7Z36LqmQ2RD3Lus8vXRHNQJGRiP4r3Ej07zyn6gcdb0YXZyxSUTLccTvqWdjec3qAWlcnUmkV9h9TohYnxVrpUNzMOev_ywtPRnjNU/w640-h482/MAINE%20booth%20closeup.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuNnOgq-GYYDSVcOd9fPFQ6qWGLQhw2P8fgAa7EnnIQ1bOPmqbPufeQWJVk3t0I8zmbofyE09QGQHxTAn5G4pp7Sco1sw6EM0VCCFajQ3BDvIdwzQ66Ju-WuvGKcx7QprUHANUY-dIIYav0BveVWPetwWWCxn8FSpU2ux93ixwyBxZn3-Vj60/s970/MAINE_Summer23_Small%20Town_970x250.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="970" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuNnOgq-GYYDSVcOd9fPFQ6qWGLQhw2P8fgAa7EnnIQ1bOPmqbPufeQWJVk3t0I8zmbofyE09QGQHxTAn5G4pp7Sco1sw6EM0VCCFajQ3BDvIdwzQ66Ju-WuvGKcx7QprUHANUY-dIIYav0BveVWPetwWWCxn8FSpU2ux93ixwyBxZn3-Vj60/w640-h164/MAINE_Summer23_Small%20Town_970x250.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHwVk0s5cr7gnKWwUsusyNmz0vrE15yw8v6T4Nmn4_D6pQkvGwAT7D_e7xhY649msbVnagOBoygBvYYdtAQtYEhk3XBv_O-_0q_NGl-F1qu4oPl82dpL3v3kB9j0-dplFVRgl9Mv-zbb-7IyX9SAG06j2-2TbSnUZ-oo41NsxukPouq2xLuPU/s1500/MAINE-Print-Ad-Example-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1095" data-original-width="1500" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHwVk0s5cr7gnKWwUsusyNmz0vrE15yw8v6T4Nmn4_D6pQkvGwAT7D_e7xhY649msbVnagOBoygBvYYdtAQtYEhk3XBv_O-_0q_NGl-F1qu4oPl82dpL3v3kB9j0-dplFVRgl9Mv-zbb-7IyX9SAG06j2-2TbSnUZ-oo41NsxukPouq2xLuPU/w640-h468/MAINE-Print-Ad-Example-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-35639648074569373402023-11-28T15:08:00.006+00:002023-11-29T11:52:44.070+00:00Fran.<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>I learned yesterday that my New York agent, Francine Rosenfeld, died at the weekend.</b><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">I'm really sad about this. I came across Fran’s last ever email to me only last week, by accident while I was looking up some info about an old job. I was thinking about her the rest of that day, wondering what she was up to, worrying that I hadn't done my Christmas promo yet and thinking about the time I told her I hoped she'd get some decent time off at Christmas: " ...not my holiday", she said, and shimmied off presumably to book in another seven meetings. </span><div><br /></div><div>When I joined Bernstein & Andriulli in 2007, now <a href="https://www.ba-reps.com/?location=us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #45818e;">BA Reps</span></a>, I went to their office in Manhattan and was introduced by agency director Louisa (who'd recruited me to the agency) to the tall, slim Fran on arrival. She had dark eyes, dark, thick hair with a reddish tinge, boots, and a forbidding vibe; sort of Goth Lite, and I knew she meant business.</div><div><br /><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(36, 36, 36); color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.06px;">And she was ALL Business</span><em class="mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(36, 36, 36); color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.06px;">, </em><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(36, 36, 36); color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.06px;">with an upper-case B. She set about shoving me under as many art directors’ noses as she could, within a couple of weeks bringing me a fat pharmaceutical project with a price tag I’d never seen the likes of before. And from that moment, she was my boss. VIVIDLY I can still feel the anxiety of being chased around the town on a </span><em class="mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(36, 36, 36); color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.06px;">Saturday afternoon</em><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(36, 36, 36); color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.06px;"> as I was getting coffee, having just climbed down from a scaffold where I was trying to finish a wall piece, while in the throes of releasing a record the following day, finishing a pharma job AND getting on a 6am flight to Lisbon the next morning. She didn’t care — she just wanted to know that I was working on her client’s job. “Saraaaaahhhh….where ARE you? The client NEEDS you.” We got it all done somehow. With decades in the industry, she knew everyone and everything, quoted fees like a demon (a fee-mon??) and managed projects with what can only be described oxymoronically as a kind ferocity, keeping clients calm and artists on their tippy-toes till the work was signed off.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Later on she got a tattoo I designed of her little dog’s name, Kody. I'm always surprised and honoured that someone would want anything I've made on their skin forever, but with Fran's I felt especially trusted with what would have been an important little creative statement for her.</div><div><br /></div><div>My Mum will be saddened too; as Anne The Accounts Lady, she frequently emailed her to chase TAs and client details. Equally brief with comms, they were around the same age, I think, though Fran was notoriously coy about her age, partly because she looked so fantastic and full of confidence. Not coy enough, however, to hold back on advising me which cosmetic surgeries she thought I would benefit from the most, during a walk to a downtown meeting one sunny spring afternoon. Her background was mysterious and I liked it that way - she was all about the now, and her enthusiasm for creativity and commerce was infectious.</div><div><br /></div><div>She was my agent, my friend, a tyrant and a pain in the arse, and she was responsible for bringing me some of the biggest projects of my career (so far!) We spoke almost every day while she was with B&A. Over a period of almost 13 years, she was a core part of my work family; the day genuinely did not feel normal if I hadn't had a call with Fran.</div><div><br /></div><div>I missed her when she left the agency. Her mantle was taken up by a set of handsomely able successors, and the BA family continues. But Fran will always have a special place in my memory. Her terrier-like ambition helped put me where I am now, I'll forever be grateful to her. </div><div><br /></div><div>She was really quite amazing.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicE7ADZl-bPoHBUP__yaOjwlSjxvrSiMEr1gH4jr34ISJgen_bQ0pq7rxllk4RRqy8X3Kycf_PWEgm70Ned0c4BblwOwQABysswqmptK76yJaDWFP0oYKJvcva0G3-__Bg6WPBpRQ8_tbuf1MkgDSJ38nEbm4kxs_XCKshQEF-RV2fhbn69p8/s1280/P1010732.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicE7ADZl-bPoHBUP__yaOjwlSjxvrSiMEr1gH4jr34ISJgen_bQ0pq7rxllk4RRqy8X3Kycf_PWEgm70Ned0c4BblwOwQABysswqmptK76yJaDWFP0oYKJvcva0G3-__Bg6WPBpRQ8_tbuf1MkgDSJ38nEbm4kxs_XCKshQEF-RV2fhbn69p8/w640-h480/P1010732.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Fran, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stan_chow/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #45818e;">Stan</span></a> and Bec, taken by me, on a Manhattan rooftop in 2009.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7X3KCcjySsPG0Ba5xS5sesxNEMIj78wBTZ-dbtxyjx0LXkH_5hl3h_atgRFBOgOQFOkYJEJqBaPk7yIlMkRWGjTkYDtT1JIONNBFBzkTNkFtwjDJec6bszoC-EF5oPnIkXzzT2SpjIdEUEGe4DaL9uUlWbE_sxnh7cqhqF9pJcLF9oVxsHn0/s1080/20747975_10157159311743973_93632813956773695_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7X3KCcjySsPG0Ba5xS5sesxNEMIj78wBTZ-dbtxyjx0LXkH_5hl3h_atgRFBOgOQFOkYJEJqBaPk7yIlMkRWGjTkYDtT1JIONNBFBzkTNkFtwjDJec6bszoC-EF5oPnIkXzzT2SpjIdEUEGe4DaL9uUlWbE_sxnh7cqhqF9pJcLF9oVxsHn0/w640-h640/20747975_10157159311743973_93632813956773695_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Fran just being very Fran.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZn13EhOiSZDF_csBryQkVkANakYVfACilawsqyofuVoh2T0IQFsCwMCfjKOd4jBh9EKerZq7wEyOfAHYPvc6kNyyRN8ZhM_0auo7Lr9fDRKVQjYP9jyXvKcdesnWJxlVt_hf4vu88lZxKn3vR41s-mmqf6kJbmBsS_gGUoPp6cm_07H7su_I/s1080/37568646_10158178508518973_1453544381825941504_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZn13EhOiSZDF_csBryQkVkANakYVfACilawsqyofuVoh2T0IQFsCwMCfjKOd4jBh9EKerZq7wEyOfAHYPvc6kNyyRN8ZhM_0auo7Lr9fDRKVQjYP9jyXvKcdesnWJxlVt_hf4vu88lZxKn3vR41s-mmqf6kJbmBsS_gGUoPp6cm_07H7su_I/w640-h640/37568646_10158178508518973_1453544381825941504_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">KODY.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwHr_IEiu399_jxOWbo4hcEP-bFog9737g9Y-YG0pE4t8lT_ZD1-99hoZqwoohvhz8MXIngEhOLS4l4DhNteGlxHNJtIj-prU-Y1idqSMNZaGhGsfimho1GxhbISq5wO_9m35W1rryKbNM6fk06DjK8JxCVaFf_jeHXVtDSDAAQtY9WJLf_5E/s1190/Screenshot%202023-11-28%20at%2014.54.30.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1190" data-original-width="884" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwHr_IEiu399_jxOWbo4hcEP-bFog9737g9Y-YG0pE4t8lT_ZD1-99hoZqwoohvhz8MXIngEhOLS4l4DhNteGlxHNJtIj-prU-Y1idqSMNZaGhGsfimho1GxhbISq5wO_9m35W1rryKbNM6fk06DjK8JxCVaFf_jeHXVtDSDAAQtY9WJLf_5E/w476-h640/Screenshot%202023-11-28%20at%2014.54.30.png" width="476" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I mean...look at her! (from her brother Gary's post on Facebook).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZdgSWPk62jys92G-_qzlw_A02nt4GxaWYRjG53s4Y6-jKwxlXjrnstiKhNEbUk4Ha7-Tuev0CDQm-FylT0tT5kAFVuArYPwH2npVH1_C7qImLaTcnuXAnAwO8YwfS7HumRLweQZkd-SwVxb3g0bwNVl4vz4iuuyoufH7VD1II09Mr7wM-2k0/s2144/Screenshot%202023-11-28%20at%2014.55.41.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2142" data-original-width="2144" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZdgSWPk62jys92G-_qzlw_A02nt4GxaWYRjG53s4Y6-jKwxlXjrnstiKhNEbUk4Ha7-Tuev0CDQm-FylT0tT5kAFVuArYPwH2npVH1_C7qImLaTcnuXAnAwO8YwfS7HumRLweQZkd-SwVxb3g0bwNVl4vz4iuuyoufH7VD1II09Mr7wM-2k0/w640-h640/Screenshot%202023-11-28%20at%2014.55.41.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">F R A N with <span style="color: #45818e;"><a href="https://www.tristaneaton.com/about" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #45818e;">Tristan Eaton</span></a>.</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-83718347029585041672023-10-05T15:28:00.001+01:002023-10-05T15:28:22.031+01:00Factoryroad: A Shop of Industrious Creatives<h3 class="graf graf--h3" name="2294"><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c21a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Exactly ten years ago we opened our shop, Factoryroad.</span></strong></p><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="me mf eb mg bg mh" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lv lw lx" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1020px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="935" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*hGvzREhi53YqR89NdMpsNg.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></span></picture></div></div><figcaption class="mk ml mm lv lw mn mo be b bf z dv" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #6b6b6b; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Working prototype for the FR shop site. This wasn't all of the artists.</span></figcaption></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e37e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Possibly ahead of its time, it was named for the street we live and work on — known, as the name suggests, for its rows of factories, humming away all day and sometimes into the night with a half day on Friday. Channelling the industrious, round-the-clock nature of working, the building we still live and work in — Factoryroad’s base — was built by one of the factory owners for himself, with the foreman’s house built next door, and we still look out from our studio every day at the Victorian factory behind us (now flats, of course).</span></p><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="me mf eb mg bg mh" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lv lw mp" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 971px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="533" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*vZofLtDoNu37oLN4oxNI5Q.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></span></picture></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c522" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;">I’m thinking about the Factoryroad Shop today</strong> not only because I’ve just noticed it’s ten years since its launch, but because had its roots in the collaborative, spontaneous, risk-taking way of working that we’ve always fostered, and which we’ve struggled to get back to after a hammering by the isolation and hesitancy of the pandemic. It’s coming back, but our shop represented an energetic pulling-together of friends and colleagues who all made and designed lovely things, and whose work we wanted to sell alongside our own in one place — the site itself was commissioned from an ex-student and creative colleague, Nathan at <a class="af mq" href="https://wearesmile.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Smile</a>, then a new company.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e6b5" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">From robustly working-class backgrounds, and living with a strong sense of purposeful industriousness, both of us channelled usefulness and productivity in all that we did. You can see it in the design of the site, based on a found invoice from a real factory, hand-drawn rubber stamps included. For us Commerce + Art was never, and still isn’t, a dirty combination, and we embraced the idea of giving a leg-up to our creative mates who made beautiful things.</span></p><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="me mf eb mg bg mh" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lv lw mr" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 796px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="1127" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*-IjT0SQ4HdR7xsNPh7yHZQ.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></span></picture></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7716" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Factoryroad itself </strong>as an entity had existed since the late 90s, making T shirts, 45rpm record adapters, doing record distribution and and making records under our label <a class="af mq" href="https://blog.factoryroad.net/bluntforcetrauma" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank"><strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Blunt Force Trauma</strong></a> — it even had a <a class="af mq" href="https://www.tumblr.com/factoryroad" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Tumblr</a>!</span></p><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="me mf eb mg bg mh" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lv lw ms" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1374px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="738" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*_AftPUTratMekawdmX02rg.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></span></picture></div></div><figcaption class="mk ml mm lv lw mn mo be b bf z dv" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #6b6b6b; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">From our lovely Tumblr, still there today.</span></figcaption></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a88e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">A natural follow-up to a lifetime together putting on music, social and creative events in clubs, empty and <a class="af mq" href="https://writeofftheworld.net/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">unorthodox spaces</a>, we’d done promotion the long-hand way — going out, driving miles to see people in person, make friends and connections, taking pressies and enthusiasm. To network, you had to travel, and travel we did, in our series of odd little cars.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b3e4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;">And the thing about FR is that we did it all, everything, without funding.</strong> No arts council money, no grants, no awards. Not that we didn’t try a few times — we were just never eligible, or the hoops to jump through were creatively restricting, or we didn’t move in the right circles. So we gave up on that fairly quickly. More correctly, we funded everything <em class="mt" style="box-sizing: inherit;">ourselves</em>, sometimes putting the household in a precarious position. We didn’t come from money and neither of us had any - only what we earned at the time from freelance illustration, a little part time lecturing and Leigh’s job at the time in a series of record shops — which he proactively decided to leave behind in 2007 — and we were paying a mortgage and studio rent. So we took what with hindsight were huge risks, gambling sometimes thousands on ambitious projects that we never sure would pay us back. But they did pay us back — always in ways we couldn’t predict, and always slowly, but surely.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="76e0" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Nowadays</strong>, I see the ease with which Crowdfunding or Kickstarting is deployed — and good for you, if you can do a nice job of that; there’s something terribly appealing about being answerable to a hundred strangers who’ve given you money. I’ve funded plenty of those projects myself, but we never felt comfortable risking anyone’s money but our own!</span></p><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="lv lw mu" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 640px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 640px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/format:webp/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 1280w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 640px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg 1280w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="480" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/1*_78EZOIl6DDAUAdXLh7Jaw.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 640px;" width="640" /></span></picture></div><figcaption class="mk ml mm lv lw mn mo be b bf z dv" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #6b6b6b; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">I still don‘t know who this girl was! If you’re her, let me know.</span></figcaption></figure><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="lv lw mu" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 640px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 640px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/format:webp/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 1280w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 640px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg 1280w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="480" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/1*zLJmiO11snSuHcItCeMoOQ.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 640px;" width="640" /></span></picture></div><figcaption class="mk ml mm lv lw mn mo be b bf z dv" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #6b6b6b; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Getting someone to wear your T while DJing was a superb free promotional method!</span></figcaption></figure><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="lv lw mv" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 480px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 480px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:960/format:webp/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 960w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 480px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:960/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg 960w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="640" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:960/1*gtTBcb7HKHNiFM7E6P-7Og.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 480px;" width="480" /></span></picture></div><figcaption class="mk ml mm lv lw mn mo be b bf z dv" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #6b6b6b; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Gifting our wares!</span></figcaption></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c6e0" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">To this day, our manifesto remains:</span></strong></p><blockquote class="mw mx my" style="box-shadow: rgb(36, 36, 36) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;"><p class="kx ky mt kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh mz lj lk ll na ln lo lp nb lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5fb7" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 21px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">“Our projects are usually created and executed together, and are usually things we want to try out, do for the sake of doing, or experiment with. They’re neither designed to make money (though they sometimes do), nor to satisfy any brief but our own. They’re also, sometimes, collaborative, and are almost always for the entertainment and engagement of other people.”</span></p></blockquote><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="db5f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">You can still read this at the top of my <a class="af mq" href="https://www.inkymole.com/special-projects-1" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank"><strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Special Projects page</strong></a>, which attempts to gather as many of these together as possible, though there are too many to list (and many, though it seems improbable, are ‘pre-internet’, with no traces online to link to).</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8f72" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">As well as a shop, Factoryroad was also <a class="af mq" href="https://factoryroadgallery.blogspot.com/2012/05/dj-food-and-henry-flint.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">a gallery</a> that held myriad events in its space, and was supported by a network of creative friends from a mile away to 5000 miles away — they attended in person, contributed work to shows, and spread the word. Every event was a huge undertaking, and you can read about some of those shows and events <a class="af mq" href="https://www.inkymole.com/special-projects-1" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></p><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="me mf eb mg bg mh" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lv lw nc" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1000px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="495" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*vhtVkfFVK3dtcFJPoR_Suw.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></span></picture></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ca00" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">We even <a class="af mq" href="https://www.inkymole.com/copy-of-radio" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">ran a radio station</a> from there, Altar Ego — itself an incredibly challenging project, even for two ex-pirate radio people, which we weren’t sure we could pull off till we’d, erm, pulled it off…several times.</span></p><blockquote class="mw mx my" style="box-shadow: rgb(36, 36, 36) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;"><p class="kx ky mt kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh mz lj lk ll na ln lo lp nb lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="fa9e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 21px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">“Go ahead and chew <strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;">everything</strong> that you’ve just bitten off, Sarah”.</span></p></blockquote><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="me mf eb mg bg mh" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lv lw nc" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1000px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="350" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*1VwD3UhPJRCWUSwmns9m5Q.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></span></picture></div></div><figcaption class="mk ml mm lv lw mn mo be b bf z dv" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #6b6b6b; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Instructions for using Altar Ego Radio’s mixer. Oof. Sounds like a bollocking.</span></figcaption></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e4bf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Doubling up as our working studio space, the gallery space itself eventually became too disruptive and energy-consuming amid the mad amount of client work and other commitments happening at the time, so we pressed pause on it. (We just <a class="af mq" href="https://www.inkymole.com/murals-and-customisation?pgid=k681fmua-4cfd08e4-97fa-4a7d-983b-1690671c8e8a" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">do things now</a> without disassembling the entire studio for a week.)</span></p><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="me mf eb mg bg mh" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lv lw nd" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1365px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="399" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*DzHRnfLde4Y87boMAogRLg.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></span></picture></div></div><figcaption class="mk ml mm lv lw mn mo be b bf z dv" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #6b6b6b; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Painting scrap cars, because we can! And *not* inside our office space.</span></figcaption></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="83f7" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">The Factoryroad shop was a commitment to our friends and colleagues to provide a platform to sell their work, which most didn’t have at the time. We built it to offer a selling space to some of the people we’d worked with the most, at a point in time when it was far less easy to jump online and set up a payment system and a shop. But it was also a time when was Instagram wasn’t as massive, Etsy wasn’t the big thing it is now, accounting and book-keeping was still a little on the time-consuming side, cheques could still be written, and the avenues for selling were fewer.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e1e6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Even just ten years ago, promoting, in other words, was harder, but we had the audience and mailing list to make it work.</span></p><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="me mf eb mg bg mh" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lv lw nc" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1000px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="664" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*ABOse1kwg7cnZLPW1_UINw.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></span></picture></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2b55" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Some of the artists involved eventually moved away from their creative practice, or lost interest in selling products, and our shop, though beautiful, wasn’t live for long. It might have existed for longer had it been set up today where, a mere ten years later, selling your art online is not just an nice added extra, it’s pretty much mandatory for any artist.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6df2" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;">In the end Factoryroad evolved into four separate shops</strong> — the busy <a class="af mq" href="http://inkymole.shop/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">one I run now</a>, a Discogs shop for records, a smaller shop just for our 45rpm adapters, and a new one for our other business, <a class="af mq" href="http://motors.inkymole.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Inkymole’s Motors</a>, designing and selling automotive accessories and parts. But I look back at all the FR stuff today — stuff it’s impossible to do justice to in one brief article — with fondess and gratitude that we crammed them in, and took those risks, feeling the roots of it all underpinning everything we still do, and tuning into the gentle tapping of my foot as I feel the same urge to ‘get cracking’ again — but with the added perspective, experience and wisdom of someone a few years further along.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4f21" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><strong class="kz fp" style="box-sizing: inherit;">For the curious, here’s some of Factoryroad’s collaborators, who either took part in projects or shows, were the star of a show or film or collaborated in some other way — music, film, art, sound or video recording, food, admin. </strong>Most are still creatively active, though not necessarily in the same at form. <br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><em class="mt" style="box-sizing: inherit;">In no particular order:</em></span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="af2a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><a class="af mq" href="http://melanietomlinson.co.uk/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Melanie Tomlinson</a> (metal sculptor, jeweller)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.djfood.org/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Strictly Kev</a> / DJ Food (designer, recording artist, DJ)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.instagram.com/henryflintzombo/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Henry Flint</a> (2000AD comic artist, illustrator)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://www.buddywakefield.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Buddy Wakefield</a> (spoken word poet, author, performer)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://h099.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Dick Hogg</a> (prints and artwork)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.horridge.com/#" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Peter Horridge</a> (illustrator, designer, typographer)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.atrbute.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Aaron Lloyd Barr</a> (was illustrator, then agent, now co-owner of ATRBUTE)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.instagram.com/junkyardmax/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Max Ellis</a> (illustrator and photographer)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.anthonysaintjames.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Anthony St James</a> (photographer)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://linktr.ee/edgarland5000" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Ed Garland</a> (author and musician)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://strangefamousrecords.com/artists/sage-francis/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Sage Francis</a> (rapper, hip-hop artist, label owner, musician)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.buddypeace.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Buddy Peace</a> (hugely prolific musician and producer)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.iambdolan.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">B.Dolan</a> (musician, producer, rapper, activist)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2284484/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Gareth Edwards</a> (screenwriter, film director)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.instagram.com/louisastpierre/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Louisa St Pierre</a> (illustration agent)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://foodwithflight.wordpress.com/2018/05/15/meet-the-chef-jed-smith/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Jed Smith</a> (chef)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.alishamiller.co.uk/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Alisha Miller</a> (public artist)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://jonathanlevineprojects.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Jonathan Levine</a> (gallery owner)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://www.andreagibson.org/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Andrea Gibson</a> (spoken word poet, author)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Anne Coleman (textile artist)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://thedesignconspiracy.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">April Ball</a> (designer)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://strangedolls.net/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Beth Robinson’s Strange Dolls</a> (dollmaker and artist)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://www.paperscissorsstone.info/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Caroline Allen</a> (sculptor, artist)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://www.snitchbag.blogspot.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Drew Jerrison</a> (author, now senior marketer in publishing)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://florenceblanchard.wordpress.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Florence EMA Blanchard</a> (artist)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.instagram.com/bannecker/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Andrew Bannecker</a> (illustrator)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.instagram.com/_nomoco/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Nomoco</a> (illustrator)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://stanleychow.co.uk/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Stan Chow</a> (illustrator, DJ)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.colourboxstudio.co.uk/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Joe Rogers</a> (artist)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://jpelham.co.uk/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Alan Titmash aka Jonathan Pelham</a> (musician, now art director)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Graham Robson (<a class="af mq" href="https://www.behance.net/GrahamRobson" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">illustrator</a>, now a senior artist at <a class="af mq" href="https://www.instagram.com/gpaintsminis/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Games Workshop</a>)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.behance.net/thecloudcommission/projects" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">The Cloud Commission</a> (prints and original artwork)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://soloone.blogspot.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Solo One</a> (original artwork and stickers)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://h099.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Dick Hogg</a> (prints and artwork)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://www.tomhare.net/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Tom Hare</a> (woven sculptures and vessels)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://jacquieoneill.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Jacquie O’Neill</a> (illustrator)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://www.jillcalder.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Jill Calder</a> (illustrator)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/KellyMerrell" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Kelly Merrell</a> (doodler)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://www.folksy.com/shops/LisaMichelle" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Lisa Hayes</a> (jewellery)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://www.rebeccalupton.co.uk/galleryone.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Rebecca Lupton</a> (photographer)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="http://teaandtype.co.uk/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Shirley Gibson</a> (designer)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://axonarchitects.co.uk/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Nigel Axon</a> (architect)</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5e46" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><a class="af mq" href="http://inkymole.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Sarah J Coleman</a> (illustration, prints, stationery)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a class="af mq" href="https://factoryroad.bigcartel.com/who-are-we-then" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Factoryroad itself</a> (music ephemera, T shirts, 45rpm adapters)</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph kx ky fo kz b la lb lc ld le lf lg lh li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu fh bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="906a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><em class="mt" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Linkless But Nonetheless Participating People:</em><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Lisa Hayes (jewellery)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Tracy Walker (artist)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Brook Valentine Menown (assistant)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Lily Blythe (assistant)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Rebecca Lewis (artist management)<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Bob Neely (music)</span></p><figure class="ly lz ma mb mc md lv lw paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-weight: 400; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="me mf eb mg bg mh" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lv lw nc" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1000px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg mi mj c" height="1047" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*79PatzI6Gt-ijQVU8Wwouw.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></span></picture></div></div></figure></h3><div><div class="l" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8);"><div class="og oh oi oj ok l bw" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; box-sizing: inherit; padding-top: 72px;"><div class="h k j" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="ab ca" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><div class="ch bg et eu ev ew" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 24px; max-width: 680px; min-width: 0px; width: 680px;"><div class="pt ab iy hp" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-flow: wrap; padding: 24px 0px;"><div class="pu l" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px;"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-91732201477839890392023-06-12T13:15:00.003+01:002023-06-12T13:15:44.359+01:00Artofficial Inktelligence III: Copy; right? - A human-generated story in 3 chapters.<p><span style="font-size: large;">After I’d been on BBC Leicester to talk about AI, I arranged to visit <a class="markup--anchor markup--h4-anchor" data-href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/soltoggio" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/soltoggio" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Andrea Soltoggio</a>, Associate Professor in Artificial Intelligence at Loughborough University.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="0e1c"><span style="font-size: medium;">Although I probably knew a fair bit about AI compared to Maureen, busy shopping in the High Street when she was <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.mixcloud.com/inkymole/sarah-discusses-ai-x-copyright-on-bbc-leicester-february-2023/" href="https://www.mixcloud.com/inkymole/sarah-discusses-ai-x-copyright-on-bbc-leicester-february-2023/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">vox-popped by the Beeb</a> (although not necessarily: Mo could be knocking out thousands of Made-By-MJ Adonises every night after work Because She Can Now) I realised I needed to increase my knowledge all-round; especially in the area of <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">copyright</strong>, a wiring-loom-style nightmare of confusion that’s currently the subject of myriad studies and manifestos.</span></p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="94f9"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1760" data-image-id="1*UE1FZKOps99pwLn192RO5w.png" data-is-featured="true" data-width="1760" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*UE1FZKOps99pwLn192RO5w.png" width="640" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption">©Maureen. Except, not, because this dude can’t be copyrighted. Maybe he needs <a class="markup--anchor markup--figure-anchor" data-href="https://levelup.gitconnected.com/an-ai-girlfriend-makes-72k-in-1-week-38fbe5263523" href="https://levelup.gitconnected.com/an-ai-girlfriend-makes-72k-in-1-week-38fbe5263523" rel="noopener" target="_blank">a girlfriend,</a> though?</figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="4af7">Andreja had been on the radio just before me, so I went over to the university and talked for an hour and a half over decent coffee.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="d617">I’ve advised on copyright and IP, and obviously deal with it regularly for work, but what I knew about AI and copyright amounted to this:</p><ul class="postList"><li class="graf graf--li" name="7551">First, <strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">copyright is automatic at the point of creation</strong> — in this country (the UK, from where I’m typing) you don’t have to ‘do’ anything ‘to copyright’ an artistic, photographic or literary creation.</li><li class="graf graf--li" name="fdba">Copyright is <strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">enshrined in UK law, </strong>poignantly enough, as a <strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">human right </strong>by the<strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong"> </strong><a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">Berne Convention</strong></a> of 1887, still applicable in law, which states:</li><li class="graf graf--li graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="d92a">“All (artistic and literary works) except photographic and cinematographic which have different terms) shall be protected for at least 50 years after the author’s death, but parties are free to provide longer terms if they choose.”</li><li class="graf graf--li" name="6ecf">However there are many countries who are not signatories to the Berne Convention.</li><li class="graf graf--li" name="be7d"><a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" data-href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/957583/Copyright-designs-and-patents-act-1988.pdf" href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/957583/Copyright-designs-and-patents-act-1988.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">The Copyright Act</strong></a> states that the <strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">author of an original work</strong> owns the copyright to that work. At the time the law was enacted, the purpose of copyright was to act as a financial and intellectual stimulus: <br /><em class="markup--em markup--li-em">“The Act exists to incentivise original authentic effort. </em><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--li-em">The person’s</em></strong><em class="markup--em markup--li-em"> contribution is protected.”</em></li><li class="graf graf--li" name="5ce7"><a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" data-href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protecting-your-uk-intellectual-property-abroad/protecting-your-copyright-abroad" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protecting-your-uk-intellectual-property-abroad/protecting-your-copyright-abroad" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">This government page</strong></a> is a nicely readable, brief guide to whether and how your copyright is protected abroad, but since geography is irrelevent to AI-generated art, this is only so comforting.</li></ul><p class="graf graf--p" name="4da0">One of the largest swells of research and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://apple.news/ApuLQzgm9Tp6gxJ6Z4Jr0Hw" href="https://apple.news/ApuLQzgm9Tp6gxJ6Z4Jr0Hw" rel="noopener" target="_blank">discussion</a> has been to work out whether copyright can be claimed by someone making a picture using AI , and conversely, whether the copyright of an artist whose image has been ‘scraped’ from the www has been breached, which would normally automatically trigger a conversation about financial remuneration. This might seem obvious now, but it wasn’t at the creeping outset of the current rabid AI use, when it was all ‘look, I put my face into the Lensa app’ — you could never own those beautiful, flattering but heavily stylised portraits of you, based robustly on existing artist’s styles.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="d0ea">So platforms have been making up their own rules, since there’s no umbrella policy to cover things.<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"> Midjourney’s looks like this:</strong></p><ul class="postList"><li class="graf graf--li" name="c0c0">people on their <strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">PAID MJ plan</strong> theoretically have copyright granted in anything they make, since it assumed the fact that they’re paying means they have commercial interests or incentives in using the programme; at the same time, an unlimited licence to use the image is granted back to the platform itself, meaning ‘it’ can do anything with it:</li></ul><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="d436"><img class="graf-image" data-height="438" data-image-id="1*vbXTrpsBNFor-AnLA1D6qQ.png" data-width="1860" height="151" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*vbXTrpsBNFor-AnLA1D6qQ.png" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="a536"><img class="graf-image" data-height="442" data-image-id="1*eK8nihvZGsyJTq6J1gGr8g.png" data-width="1834" height="154" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*eK8nihvZGsyJTq6J1gGr8g.png" width="640" /></figure><ul class="postList"><li class="graf graf--li" name="0cab">Anyone else is <strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">free to put in exactly the same prompts</strong> used by someone else —you’d get a different output anyway, because that’s what ‘generative’ means.</li><li class="graf graf--li" name="1b19">people on the <strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">FREE MJ plan</strong> (who it is assumed are generating experimentally or just ‘having fun’) do NOT get granted copyright:</li></ul><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="9d14"><img class="graf-image" data-height="164" data-image-id="1*4s4mQyYZHarFgy7LFEC5Kw.png" data-width="1856" height="56" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*4s4mQyYZHarFgy7LFEC5Kw.png" width="640" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="4560">Unusually, the UK is one of only a handful of nations to offer copyright for works <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/artificial-intelligence-and-ip-copyright-and-patents/artificial-intelligence-and-intellectual-property-copyright-and-patents#:~:text=Works%20generated%20by%20a%20computer,be%20protected%2C%20as%20described%20above." href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/artificial-intelligence-and-ip-copyright-and-patents/artificial-intelligence-and-intellectual-property-copyright-and-patents#:~:text=Works%20generated%20by%20a%20computer,be%20protected%2C%20as%20described%20above." rel="noopener" target="_blank">generated solely by a computer</a>, but it deems ‘the author’ to be “the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work are undertaken.” Interpret that as you will.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="462a">In the US, there is currently<em class="markup--em markup--p-em"> no copyright protection</em> for works generated <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">solely</em></strong> by a machine.</p><h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="7848"><strong class="markup--strong markup--h4-strong">It’s the chain of creation of an AI artwork that makes it so difficult to determine where the work ‘originates’.</strong></h4><p class="graf graf--p" name="4530">AI-produced works of art start with a programmer (or more often, a large team of programmers) who have written an algorithm. That person may — or may not — provide some input data. Another person - an artist, or group of people - might do this. The output is then generated by AI independently.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b443">So if an AI-generated artwork isn’t copyright-protected by law, anyone can freely make copies of, distribute it, use for commercial purposes or sell the work to anyone else; it can also be remixed, chopped, imitated, and so on.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="93fc">…which sounds <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">exactly</em> like what can and does happen to copyright-protected work, just without the financial or legal consequences.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="3171"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Which makes me wonder; </strong>the rather cruelly-named ‘prompt monkeys’ describing themselves as artists and selling their output online — don’t they <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://apple.news/AF3qdfgVvQXimI0Z9zEhHSQ" href="https://apple.news/AF3qdfgVvQXimI0Z9zEhHSQ" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">want</em> some ownership over what they’ve made</a>? If Maureen’s keeping herself in fancy earrings through her Etsy shop selling those meaty He-Men, would she be mad if Dolly in Pennsylvania started ‘borrowing‘ her screen-shotted He-men, but to fund her Louis Vuitton habit instead?</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2020">Possibly not. Maybe that’s going to be the big pivot — that all art becomes universally, omnipotently open-source; no-one’s, and everyone’s property. There’s <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">something</em> in that I like the notion of, in an incredibly idealistic woo-woo kind of way — but then, money. Paying the bills, buying food, you know; the things we do to stay alive. If we already lived in a world where the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://twitter.com/inkymole/status/1665705803410550786?s=46&t=WoyOgvyPQzaiVJOR8O_L6A" href="https://twitter.com/inkymole/status/1665705803410550786?s=46&t=WoyOgvyPQzaiVJOR8O_L6A" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Universal Basic Income</strong></a> was a well-established fact of life, and capitalism wasn’t the system, something like that could be beautiful.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="21c9"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">At least one Midjourney user has it all figured out:</strong></p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="6c72">“Watching Artists get mad 😡 at ai wondering why? I mean as an artist I don’t understand copy rights [sic] because I’m constantly wondering about influences and I think these artists concerned with ai copying their art is a compliment because you know every artist is copying someone else’s work to inspire themselves regardless original ideas are very slim compared to imagination. As an artist I’ve never seen a non influenced art piece besides imaginary creatures and they’re [sic] not many left to create… never see any landscape artists bitchhing [sic] about the same mountain scenery…”</blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="9956">(I’ll wait a sec while you spot the really special bit.)</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2289">This is why there are <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20230505IPR84904/ai-act-a-step-closer-to-the-first-rules-on-artificial-intelligence" href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20230505IPR84904/ai-act-a-step-closer-to-the-first-rules-on-artificial-intelligence" rel="noopener" target="_blank">big moves to work it all out</a>, before the alleged robopocalypse — known in scientific terms as <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/@paul.k.pallaghy/ai-singularity-realistically-by-2029-year-by-year-milestones-d7b3f8fa442c" href="https://medium.com/@paul.k.pallaghy/ai-singularity-realistically-by-2029-year-by-year-milestones-d7b3f8fa442c" target="_blank">AI Singularity</a> — hits. And my chat with Andrea very much started out as a list of questions about copyright, but ended up a broader conversation about the philosophy of art, its purpose, the human intention, and much more besides. He talked extensively about which artificial intelligence projects are already redundant — the self-driving car was an example—and which aren’t, such as <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57929095" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57929095" rel="noopener" target="_blank">medical</a> and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-023-01349-8.epdf?sharing_token=pgrKXr2JQhzDG3whTjY3OdRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PgqDK_eQp8NcAST1F90jpq3WEGXG2Su3RGayoL_4HVm-885WktBHURHlCxulwlcvqKkHgdWqrHo6v6OktzRXc-zL4MsysGdAFnKBAI2wyymCj5gtw5qVJSvyZDrTK_wGJCAhDWMJlKwvEI_sHlnfHNqQNncbTZeBh-0YwnB5W0cbEexIjpXm8VMt4gqxZ5fuE%3D&tracking_referrer=www.bbc.co.uk" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-023-01349-8.epdf?sharing_token=pgrKXr2JQhzDG3whTjY3OdRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PgqDK_eQp8NcAST1F90jpq3WEGXG2Su3RGayoL_4HVm-885WktBHURHlCxulwlcvqKkHgdWqrHo6v6OktzRXc-zL4MsysGdAFnKBAI2wyymCj5gtw5qVJSvyZDrTK_wGJCAhDWMJlKwvEI_sHlnfHNqQNncbTZeBh-0YwnB5W0cbEexIjpXm8VMt4gqxZ5fuE%3D&tracking_referrer=www.bbc.co.uk" rel="noopener" target="_blank">scientific</a> problem-solving applications. There are things that are <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/@brandeismarshall/whats-unai-able-44b6cce1c0b7" href="https://medium.com/@brandeismarshall/whats-unai-able-44b6cce1c0b7" target="_blank">un-AI-able too</a> — something it’s easy to overlook when there’s a constant stream of doomy prophesies flying at your head.</p><h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="5953">By the end of it, I felt reassured and freshly curious about AI and its place in our lives in a bigger-picture way. This was a man who works with the machinery on a daily basis - his life’s work — and if he wasn’t afraid, why should I be?</h4><p class="graf graf--p" name="bc75"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">But there’s still the fact that copyright and ownership of intellectual property is tied up with money;</strong> it’s how revenue is generated for artists, through royalties, licensing, re-licensing, adding work to stock libraries and more. And since copyright is granted for 50 years after a creator's death, the artist is not the only human to benefit financially from their life’s work — providing wills are left and all in good order, children, spouses and grandchildren can, too. This notion of artwork being stolen by AI and melted into an enormo-bowl of cake mixture from which billions of new cupcakes emerge doesn’t simply put the much-maligned Tarquin The Painter’s nose out of joint — it could have a tangible, terrible impact on the futures of his dependants and descendants, too.</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="61f7">“Legislators will take forever to even fathom the tech, let alone build in any guardrails, so it takes things like litigation and public debate to move the needle on the ethical use of this technology.” — Jason Chatfield, president of the National Cartoonists Society.</blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="6719"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://holliemengert.com" href="https://holliemengert.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Hollie Mengert</strong></a><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"> is an illustrator for Disney</strong> who found that her work was being cloned as an AI experiment by a mechanical engineering student in Canada. The student downloaded 32 of her pieces and trained a machine learning model that could reproduce her style — it only took a handful of hours. As she told technologist Andy Baio, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://waxy.org/2022/11/invasive-diffusion-how-one-unwilling-illustrator-found-herself-turned-into-an-ai-model/" href="https://waxy.org/2022/11/invasive-diffusion-how-one-unwilling-illustrator-found-herself-turned-into-an-ai-model/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">who reported on the case</a>:</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="7b15">“For me, personally, it feels like someone’s taking work that I’ve done, you know, things that I’ve learned — I’ve been a working artist since I graduated art school in 2011 — and is using it to create art that that [sic] I didn’t consent to and didn’t give permission for.”</blockquote><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetCenter" name="7565"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1046" data-image-id="1*0rEsfth9Kx7YfYsGP8yOdQ.png" data-width="2098" height="319" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2400/1*0rEsfth9Kx7YfYsGP8yOdQ.png" width="640" /><figcaption class="imageCaption">Hollie’s illustrations, left, used to train the model, and the trained Stable Diffusion output on the right.</figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="2ef8"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">“I see people on both sides of this extremely confident in their positions, but the reality is nobody knows,”</em> said Baio in an interview with The Verge. <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">“And anyone who says they know confidently how this will play out in court is wrong.”</em></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="c13b">For now, our own <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.dacs.org.uk/latest-news/dacs-evidence-contributes-to-government-not-procee?category=For+Artists%7CFor+Art+Market+Professionals%7CCampaigns+&+Lobbying%7CLatest+News=&title=N&utm_source=email_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dacs_newsletter_q1_2023&mc_cid=c09a7c24b7&mc_eid=41c655bdb6" href="https://www.dacs.org.uk/latest-news/dacs-evidence-contributes-to-government-not-procee?category=For+Artists%7CFor+Art+Market+Professionals%7CCampaigns+&+Lobbying%7CLatest+News=&title=N&utm_source=email_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dacs_newsletter_q1_2023&mc_cid=c09a7c24b7&mc_eid=41c655bdb6" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">government has decided</strong></a> with the input of the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.dacs.org.uk/about-us/what-is-dacs" href="https://www.dacs.org.uk/about-us/what-is-dacs" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Designers and Artists Copyright Society</a> to scrap controversial plans granting artificial intelligence platforms an all-encompassing exception to copyright, asking instead to work with creative industry leaders to strike a balance between promoting innovation within AI, and supporting creativity in the UK:</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="2d89">“The debate followed months of objection by the copyright and creative industries warning of the detrimental impact the proposals could have on UK creators.”</blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="d8e5">The words ‘could have’, written in February, already sit uneasily with me having watched colleagues talk openly about reductions in their client work on social media; others new to the industry talk in bewildered terms about a tentative career they’ve just got off the ground that’s already impacted. Others at the very outset of their career, perhaps still studying or recently graduated, are openly questioning the point of pursuing such a career — careers that, as of 2020, were contributing almost <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">£13million</em> to the UK economy <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uks-creative-industries-contributes-almost-13-million-to-the-uk-economy-every-hour" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uks-creative-industries-contributes-almost-13-million-to-the-uk-economy-every-hour" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">every hour.</em></strong></a></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7cc5">— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —</p><h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="897a"><strong class="markup--strong markup--h4-strong">I doubt this is the last time I’ll write about AI,</strong> though to be frank it’s been exhausting, keeping up, reading and archiving articles and continuing to walk the tightrope between my natural excitement and curiosity, and outright fear.</h4><p class="graf graf--p" name="f8c1">Though I didn't react the same way, I feel for the very, very established and much-loved <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Dave McKean</strong>, whose response to playing with AI for the first time was visceral:</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="ea94">“I spent a day on the floor of my studio in a foetal position…My immediate response was: Well, that’s my career over. Why would anyone pay me to do an album cover when anyone can type a few words into Midjourney and, in a couple of minutes, start downloading endless finished possibilities for free?”</blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="8310">I thought about ending this article by summarising the idea of AI itself as a playful, obliging but not very bright puppy that’s been let into the park too early, and everyone wants to play with it but as a result lot of people are getting bitten and shat on — but that sounds a bit naïve, and not quite right.</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="066c">“There are a lot of people whose argument seems to be: ‘Well, the technology is here now, there’s no taking it back.’ I personally find that ridiculous because you’re just telling artists to give up without a fight.” — <a class="markup--anchor markup--blockquote-anchor" data-href="https://sarahcandersen.com" href="https://sarahcandersen.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Sarah Anderson</a></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="8cbd">Instead I’ll quote my partner Leigh:</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="6b64"><strong class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong">Making AI Art vs Making Human Art is like masturbation vs actual sex with another person. It’s like PornHub; you go in and type what you want (‘big boobs’, ‘forties’) and there it is. You might get the same outcome, but none of the feels, the textures, the scents, emotions; you feel your way through.</strong></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="0b7a"><strong class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong">Like a PornHub user, a prompter is always still sat safely tapping a keyboard. It has its place. <br />But an artist is in a way more akin to a porn actor; willing to go the whole way, in person, for real, many times over, to get the result they want.</strong></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="43de">For now, I’m still refusing to think of AI (as it relates to art) as a monster that’s escaped from under the bed. I enjoy playing with it. I<em class="markup--em markup--p-em"> still </em>think it’ll be useful to me and I watch in awe as people use the machinery to generate beautiful, <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">beautiful </em>things. The following pictures made me gasp, and almost brought a tear to my eyeballs — and if that’s not an example of a picture triggering a human emotion, howsoever created, what is?</p><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="8df1" style="width: 392px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1232" data-image-id="1*axC5xUZaieSG3u1WoQd5ig.jpeg" data-width="928" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*axC5xUZaieSG3u1WoQd5ig.jpeg" width="482" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="abad" style="width: 392px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1232" data-image-id="1*ipQxmGlqHQAjoK9OaxkBmA.jpeg" data-width="928" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*ipQxmGlqHQAjoK9OaxkBmA.jpeg" width="482" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="98e9"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Further reading:</strong></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="0597"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.mybff.com/discover/the-risks-benefits-and-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence?mc_cid=20497a76a4&mc_eid=443f95299b" href="https://www.mybff.com/discover/the-risks-benefits-and-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence?mc_cid=20497a76a4&mc_eid=443f95299b" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.mybff.com/discover/the-risks-benefits-and-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence</a></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f604"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://theaoi.com/campaigning/campaigns/consultations-blocks-2/artificial-intelligence/" href="https://theaoi.com/campaigning/campaigns/consultations-blocks-2/artificial-intelligence/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://theaoi.com/campaigning/campaigns/consultations-blocks-2/artificial-intelligence/</a></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ca1d"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://theaoi.com/2022/12/09/artificial-intelligence-ai-aoi-survey-results/" href="https://theaoi.com/2022/12/09/artificial-intelligence-ai-aoi-survey-results/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://theaoi.com/2022/12/09/artificial-intelligence-ai-aoi-survey-results/</a></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2f4b"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Maybe this will interest you:</strong><br /><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://theaoi.com/event/aoi-webinar-ai-and-illustration/" href="https://theaoi.com/event/aoi-webinar-ai-and-illustration/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://theaoi.com/event/aoi-webinar-ai-and-illustration/</a></p><h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="d458">PS: At the time of writing, AI is still struggling with type.</h4><p class="graf graf--p" name="fac0">But the spectre of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-banksy/series-laugh-now" href="https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-banksy/series-laugh-now" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Banksy’s chimps</a> is never far away.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="1f88"><img class="graf-image" data-height="788" data-image-id="1*Tp4IgQSKKXiABQXnhcSxoQ.png" data-width="762" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Tp4IgQSKKXiABQXnhcSxoQ.png" width="619" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p graf--empty" name="1be1"><br /></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-51446109154748987102023-06-12T13:13:00.005+01:002023-06-12T13:16:43.710+01:00Artofficial Inktelligence II: Bro, they feel threatened. - A human-generated story in three chapters.<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> “All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?” — Banksy, Existencilism.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="6f7b"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><span style="font-size: large;">Oof, AI eh. Never in all my career have I experienced something <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">so</em> dramatically divisive, threatening and talked about; discussed, debated, vilified and worshipped.</span></strong></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="0771">I’m not talking about any old artificial intelligence — the inoffensive metallic triage voices that follow a flow chart of responses when you ring your insurance company, for example, or the delightfully clever stuff that knows how you want to fill in the space when you use your ‘content aware’ setting in Photoshop (check this brand new and exciting one <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/using/generative-fill.html" href="https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/using/generative-fill.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">here</a>).</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2070">I’m talking, of course, about the one that knows how to mimic artists.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="8682"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="482" data-image-id="1*ecFjksKMKm1ilH1NERoXmA.jpeg" data-is-featured="true" data-width="1182" height="261" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ecFjksKMKm1ilH1NERoXmA.jpeg" width="640" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption">This was the tweet that caught the BBC’s attention a few weeks back.</figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="d932">A while back I tweeted this, and 48 hours later sitting in my car on a break from a <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">gleefully</em> visceral IRL primary school day, I found myself thrust into the position of impromptu AI consultant for <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_leicester" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_leicester" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">BBC Radio Leicester</strong></a> and their imminent vox pop feature, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zqnwxg8" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zqnwxg8" rel="noopener" target="_blank">an in-person verson of this</a>. At that moment, as I advised on which artists were great examples of building AI creatively into their existing workflow (<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.instagram.com/stevedmcdonald/" href="https://www.instagram.com/stevedmcdonald/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">this man</a> and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.instagram.com/emma_catnip/" href="https://www.instagram.com/emma_catnip/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">this woman</a> in particular) and talking about copyright, I realised: if the man-in-the-street is opining about this, it is HERE.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7308">The next day, I was <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.mixcloud.com/inkymole/sarah-discusses-ai-x-copyright-on-bbc-leicester-february-2023/" href="https://www.mixcloud.com/inkymole/sarah-discusses-ai-x-copyright-on-bbc-leicester-february-2023/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">live on air talking about it </a>— specifically the complexities of copyright and a little about whether I personally had been negatively affected by the rapid, and rabid, uptake of AI to make pictures. That was March, and my answer was <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">no</em>. But in the interim weeks, during which I made notes and researched, that answer has turned to <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">yes</em>.</p><h3 class="graf graf--h3" name="3186">This is <em class="markup--em markup--h3-em">another article</em> about AI, but I’m not really wanting to write about ‘<em class="markup--em markup--h3-em">it’ </em>— ‘It’ gets enough column inches as it is. As with Chapter I of this series, this is about how I’m experiencing the growth of AI — living through it — as a human artist who’s a month away from having spent thirty whole, full-time years making a joyful, thriving life as someone who creates pictures.</h3><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="93f1"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1024" data-image-id="1*ur1gaWP5DTCwSCjNk4zlVA.png" data-width="1024" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ur1gaWP5DTCwSCjNk4zlVA.png" width="640" /><figcaption class="imageCaption">My face when I worry about AI. I need those specs to see the unseeable future. Generated for me by a machine.</figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="dfd4"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">First, since humans find comfort in tribes and a binary (‘scuse the pun) approach, let it be stated: </strong><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">I’m not anti-AI</em>. I’m not anti-future, anti-evolution, nor anti-tech. Never have been; never will be. I’ve used AI. I liked it. So has my Mum. It’s actually been useful: it wouldn’t have been me <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite" rel="noopener" target="_blank">setting fire to any of those looms</a>. Here’s an AI-generated Luddite. He has five fingers, but he’s actually quite amazing isn't he? As is his machine.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="e358"><img class="graf-image" data-height="801" data-image-id="1*xU5CEhmnFap-baCj1jNIIQ.jpeg" data-width="800" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*xU5CEhmnFap-baCj1jNIIQ.jpeg" width="639" /><figcaption class="imageCaption">The lucky lad’s hard at work doing…something.</figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="b88e"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">But where we seem to have to got to very suddenly</strong> is a scenario which sees professional artists facing an enforced exit, or partial departure, from their vocations. It’s a terribly-timed soup of circumstances. There’s the combination of post-pandemic changes to the business (senior or experienced art buyers and creatives taking early retirement or switching streams, replaced with with individuals less experienced and less au fait with commissioning artwork, if replaced at all), visceral shifts in the fiscal landscape, budgets plummeting, a growth in ‘race to the bottom’ offerings such as Fiverr, the free/cheapness of the likes of Canva, corporate clients taking work in-house, triple-bidding, ghosting, brands producing work themselves rather than using agencies. (As you might be able to tell, I have been researching <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">what exactly the hell is going on</em> for a couple of years).</p><h3 class="graf graf--h3" name="81f5">And into this landscape waded AI, itself devoid of personality but dragging with it shocking levels of hitherto unrevealed entitlement and resentment.</h3><p class="graf graf--p" name="6dd3"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">I never in a gazillion light years envisaged my third decade in business.</strong> All I ever wanted to do was ‘draw for a living’, do it well, and do it consistently. I wanted to be in demand, but I didn’t think about getting rich. I definitely never wanted to be ‘famous’. I <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">did</em> want to be able to do my job indefinitely, until I choose not to. Standing there at 23 and being told I’d be doing this 30 years later would have taken my breath away — I’d have felt like the most privileged girl in the world.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="d8ec">But here’s what seems to be a revelatory word in the story of AI — <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">privilege. </strong>The exposed vein of resentment toward artists suggests that ‘we’ (everyone is very ‘othered’ in AI-fan conversations) are in the positions or jobs that we are through privilege or deceit, rather than hard work, consistency and persistence. What happened to the diehard notion of the starving artist being the only valid or authentic one? (which itself is nonsense).</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f0f1">I joined the Midjourney FB page a couple of months ago just to see what other people were doing. As I’ve said in the previous article, I play with Midjourney myself. Some of what’s posted in the group is a bit dull, but some of it is exceptionally eye-catching, arresting, even. Some of its users are utilising the new, cheap power at their fingertips to finally make their kinks r*e*a*l. A lot of it is just <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">funny</em>, people making the kinds of visual mash-ups and remixes we saw in the 90s and early noughties with sound, the likes of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://blackmelody.com" href="https://blackmelody.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Richard X</a>, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassetteboy" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassetteboy" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Cassette Boy</a>, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dinNmtfLUD4&list=PLFZEollm5nevQ_Bi_Cl6RG5hJLKQDf-GB" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dinNmtfLUD4&list=PLFZEollm5nevQ_Bi_Cl6RG5hJLKQDf-GB" rel="noopener" target="_blank">DJ Rubbish</a>. I feel obligated to be in the group — not exactly ‘keep your enemies closer’, but something along those lines—despite it causing me to swing nauseatedly between ‘omg that’s beautiful’ and ‘I haven’t got enough Ugh for that’.</p><h3 class="graf graf--h3" name="6245">Unfortunately, comment after sour comment reveals among users a feeling that, <em class="markup--em markup--h3-em">somehow</em>, ‘we’ had been keeping creativity all to ourselves; we’d been gatekeeping all these…erm, millennia.</h3><p class="graf graf--p" name="2858"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Check these real quotes from ‘professional prompters’.</strong> With artists on one side pitched as greedy, secretive hoarders of a mysterious dark skill, and AI users on the other viewed as vacant, jealous prompt-monkeys, the division and schoolyard name-calling is real, and utterly pathetic — bordering, at times, on a weirdly rapey ‘they asked for it’ kind of vibe:</p><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="b305" style="width: 441.984375px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="170" data-image-id="1*t4c24MPUi_2EE2lD4rHizw.jpeg" data-width="1104" height="99" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*t4c24MPUi_2EE2lD4rHizw.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="cba9" style="width: 342px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="236" data-image-id="1*dhfw44MTWA5rUCPse6rOsg.png" data-width="1186" height="127" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*dhfw44MTWA5rUCPse6rOsg.png" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="070e" style="width: 437.046875px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="94" data-image-id="1*HpBR4Bfl2d6QOb98uOOeHA.jpeg" data-width="388" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*HpBR4Bfl2d6QOb98uOOeHA.jpeg" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="dc31" style="width: 346.9375px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="94" data-image-id="1*9lSTa2BY65B_tquouoW_IQ.png" data-width="308" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*9lSTa2BY65B_tquouoW_IQ.png" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="d634">This dovetails with an oft-repeated script seen in mine and my colleagues’ online dealings with fans and would-be professional artists. It goes something like this.</p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="e848">“Hey *artist’s forename*! I love your work. What app or filters do I use to get my work to look like that? Any short-cuts or tricks?”</blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="18b3">Another example:</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="3b6f"><img class="graf-image" data-height="446" data-image-id="1*E9rmbrpqZrAwLs70URFBcw.jpeg" data-width="800" height="357" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*E9rmbrpqZrAwLs70URFBcw.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="6b5f">The answer is usually a little less blunt than this — kind, patient, firm, and something along the lines of “there is no app, or filter, or shortcut, this work evolved through many years of practise, experience, trial and error, and if you go through the same process, you’ll develop your own thing too.” <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.instagram.com/matttaylordraws/" href="https://www.instagram.com/matttaylordraws/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">This fella</a> is a great example .</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="a424">Generally it seems that people don’t like that answer, or at the very least, don’t believe it. The question itself seems to suggest that hidden in the answer is a lofty smugness or palm outstretched saying “you can’t come in” when, in fact, the answer given is the opposite.</p><h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="4011">People <em class="markup--em markup--h4-em">calling</em> themselves artists and getting cross about artists being paid appropriately for their years of training, practice and accrued expertise has parallels with me on Gran Turismo driving Monaco in the wet every weekend for a year, getting really good at it and then whining that George Russell’s getting £5m a year and where’s mine?</h4><p class="graf graf--p" name="ec25"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Well; let’s see.</em> I might not be brilliant at <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.gran-turismo.com/gb/" href="https://www.gran-turismo.com/gb/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Gran Turismo</a>, but I do play it and can get around tracks without crashing. <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">More importantly, I can get around <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">real </em>tracks without crashing.</strong> My first ever track day was at the infamous <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nürburgring" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCrburgring" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Nürburgring</strong></a>in Germany - akin to your first ever karate class being a black belt one and then working your way back down — before driving at Mallory, Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Donington. The thing about driving on track is a) there are <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">so</em> many variables, and b), it’s a tough, visceral, physically-demanding experience. You need to have the car set up right; you need to have the right tyres set to the correct pressures for the condidions. Is it raining or dry? Do you need to put slicks on? Is the oil topped up? Have you had enough to drink but not so much that you’ll be distracted by your bladder? Have you eaten enough to maintain focus? Is your helmet in good nick? Have you driven this track before? And are you taking a passenger?</p><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="04c1" style="width: 392px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3648" data-image-id="1*5Wl9B8sJ_s-PvZsMAQjllg.jpeg" data-width="5472" height="427" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*5Wl9B8sJ_s-PvZsMAQjllg.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="3690" style="width: 196px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="4032" data-image-id="1*xnK6qiarFPe9hP_Tbv14Ug.jpeg" data-width="3024" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*xnK6qiarFPe9hP_Tbv14Ug.jpeg" width="480" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="7618" style="width: 196px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="2048" data-image-id="1*WGDWK5uUUhQFto2sNUi7jw.jpeg" data-width="1536" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*WGDWK5uUUhQFto2sNUi7jw.jpeg" width="480" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="e7c3"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Driving on track subjects both you and the car to incredible G forces, tyre squeal, a screaming engine, unburnt hydrocarbons, not to mention the nervous exhilaration.</strong> Intuition, fast reactions, knowing the car and building experience are pivotal. It’s challenging for the body. But <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.instagram.com/inkymolesmotors/" href="https://www.instagram.com/inkymolesmotors/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">I can do it</a>, and I can confirm that driving a super-realistic but synthetic car on screen is NOT the same, in the way that making a piece of art with a keyboard is not the same as making art with the hands/body (and for the last time I’ll state that I include digital painting in that): it’s completely free of risk and consequence.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ec4c"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">So I still won’t ever get a five million a year driving contract</strong>, because a professional F1 driver’s contract pays him not only for his driving but for experience, total professionalism, commitment to physical fitness and diet, incalculable pressure, high risk of death of injury, discretion, brand awareness, interaction with sponsorship deals, PR savvy and that’s just the start. So in addressing the resentment shown by over fees paid to artists, when a client pays for a professional artist, they’re also paying for not only the art but <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">all the rest of what makes them professional, </em>and aside from the risk of injury and death there are many parallels in the qualities above.</p><h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="4820"><strong class="markup--strong markup--h4-strong">Back in the picture-making world,</strong> the app/shortcut/filter to make art that looks as good as ‘the real thing’ <em class="markup--em markup--h4-em">is</em> here, and virtually free.</h4><p class="graf graf--p" name="3dca">You never even need to have picked up a pencil, digital or otherwise, to make a nice picture. You just need to tell the machine what you want. And yes, there’s some practice-makes-perfect in knowing <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">how</em> to ask, and precisely <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">what</em> to ask for, but that’s it. It’s art direction, without the artist <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">(see examples of significant exceptions above)</em> and with a vapourised budget.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2680">But you don’t even need to go to that much trouble. I went into my MJ Discord and bashed my keyboard for three seconds with my eyes closed, producing this prompt:</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="c069"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">kfsygrfueyg87560874jk-89374nsdvffytesfhndsdf — 33hdhdnc5x=kjehbfserjhaefb)(11erhbfb775hhsdjfvsf-sdfjsdf1jdfhbggdfjh</strong></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="915c">and got these perfectly pleasant pictures:</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="4d94"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1598" data-image-id="1*MoetPtybPjkrjrHewddaEA.png" data-width="1598" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*MoetPtybPjkrjrHewddaEA.png" width="640" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="86bb">Reminds me of the scientific theory that if you got <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem" rel="noopener" target="_blank">a bunch of monkeys</a> to hit a typewriter for long enough, you’d eventually get some Shakespeare.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="e33a"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">(And you can go ahead and copy that prompt to see what MJ makes for you, because nothing that’s generated by Midjourney, Stable Diffusion or OpenAI is currently subject to copyright, nor are prompts. More on that later.)</em></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="daed">I read this morning, while trying to finish this article, that “prompting is the new painting” — the rapid turnover of gems like this is one of the reasons this article’s taken so long to finish, by the way; always something new to add to the ‘finished thing’ (a bit like a piece of work you’re really loving making).</p><h3 class="graf graf--h3 graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" name="21c9">“But you won’t be put out of work by AI itself”, the boss of my agency was told. “You’ll be put out of work by someone using AI”.</h3><p class="graf graf--p" name="512e">Of course. Makes sense, albeit alarming. <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">A rapid succession of incidents </strong>over the last couple of months show this is not a theory. A client of mine, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/" href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Bloomsbury</strong></a><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">,</strong> who I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with on <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/search/?q=tonya%20bolden" href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/search/?q=tonya%20bolden" rel="noopener" target="_blank">many covers</a>, used an AI image of a wolf on the paperback edition of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/discover/sarah-j-maas/sarah-j-maas-books/" href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/discover/sarah-j-maas/sarah-j-maas-books/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">a bestselling author</a>’s novel. They claimed not to be aware that it was AI, but the image was spotted on Adobe’s stock site for $79.99, clearly marked AI-generated. I retweeted this, pondering my own dramatic and sudden reduction in book cover work, and it’s been my most RT’d, liked and commented-on tweet — it clearly struck a nerve. I truly, but perhaps naïvely, was surprised at Bloomsbury.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="3623"><img class="graf-image" data-height="772" data-image-id="1*ldmR0hLh9y4BwiT9Vi_BPA.jpeg" data-width="1527" height="324" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ldmR0hLh9y4BwiT9Vi_BPA.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="3734">Before this, in another Tweetpocalypse, <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Bradford Literary Festival</strong>, whose lineup included events with human illustrators, were found to have deployed AI-generated pictures of a girl with three feet for their promotion (<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk" href="https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">now replaced</a>). It wasn’t JUST that it was so blatantly, crudely AI-generated; it was that the festival claimed a human illustrator had worked with it afterwards — then defended their <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk/support-us/statement-ai/" href="https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk/support-us/statement-ai/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">decision-making</a>:</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="627a"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="898" data-image-id="1*IuUnVZ-wjDdmI-2QjeI16A.png" data-width="832" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*IuUnVZ-wjDdmI-2QjeI16A.png" width="593" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption">- plus three pull cords and a hoof, for good measure.</figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="f278">Then Google’s <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65452940" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65452940" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Geoffrey Hinton</a> stepped down, and since we were speaking of racing drivers, a German magazine drew heat for <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/65333115" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/65333115" rel="noopener" target="_blank">this interview</a> ‘with’ Michael Schumacher, and an AI-generated picture won the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/17/photographer-admits-prize-winning-image-was-ai-generated" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/17/photographer-admits-prize-winning-image-was-ai-generated" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Sony World Photography Awards.</a> There were a few weeks there where it felt like we were living in a blizzard of AI stories, and I <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">still</em> wasn’t convinced AI was actually having a negative impact on my work.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5f3e">Until I saw that it <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">has</em> to be. A fellow illustrator sent the most apt response to my <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://twitter.com/Inkymole/status/1661076456917614602?s=20" href="https://twitter.com/Inkymole/status/1661076456917614602?s=20" rel="noopener" target="_blank">second-most-popular tweet ever</a>, about the ‘inexplicable’ fall-off of my previously plentiful book work: <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">‘What a time to be alive’.</strong></p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="1c4d"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1632" data-image-id="1*XMtxHnYLuJJr3Tm5jp0piw.png" data-width="1192" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*XMtxHnYLuJJr3Tm5jp0piw.png" width="467" /></figure><h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="487a">Part III follows.</h4>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-62400119387530993842023-05-02T12:41:00.003+01:002023-05-02T12:47:58.875+01:00Artomotive Adventures: Painting a Pao! / ‘Take On Me’<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSwq_cxbo5EF1tBGuNXZvcnAXusAOSJdIBAOJNMeGaf7RD_w16fnOwDKWo3wqEtvB1c-bsrSweAs02RXwwmlm0UCER_zFD0l6-OZOjdbgEfdouuB7JZgpJEzF-5aVIACkShR6nT6JbiwjKexi0G3K8SA795Tbb2KuGv324CJRoI-ZrxAE4/s3024/IMG_4602.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSwq_cxbo5EF1tBGuNXZvcnAXusAOSJdIBAOJNMeGaf7RD_w16fnOwDKWo3wqEtvB1c-bsrSweAs02RXwwmlm0UCER_zFD0l6-OZOjdbgEfdouuB7JZgpJEzF-5aVIACkShR6nT6JbiwjKexi0G3K8SA795Tbb2KuGv324CJRoI-ZrxAE4/w640-h640/IMG_4602.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></p><p><b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">With a rolling canvas in front of us, and a long weekend, why wouldn't we do it twice?</span></b></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">This much-loved Nissan Pao, at the end of its life and destined to be recycled for parts, was re-imagined this time as a vehicular extra in A-ha's phenomenal hit record, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_On_Me" target="_blank">Take On Me</a>.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeSbURcHQbfJTcqGRLwUC5HEkvfbZnSfgEXZqWAuv1qX6yAltL2j9iGPqNXZYdb05jTu8IjH0MZRiiw8jyzX0z9e3ctfX7CUxfSJzu4i2ATpNWgdQJOEERdIjjjiV0R-BKkZoqG6IUFn_n3UA-gSUtIDfEVz4tJGjezH9ffOS8BOzdfw-X/s1414/a-ha-take-on-me-video-375797396.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img border="0" data-original-height="795" data-original-width="1414" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeSbURcHQbfJTcqGRLwUC5HEkvfbZnSfgEXZqWAuv1qX6yAltL2j9iGPqNXZYdb05jTu8IjH0MZRiiw8jyzX0z9e3ctfX7CUxfSJzu4i2ATpNWgdQJOEERdIjjjiV0R-BKkZoqG6IUFn_n3UA-gSUtIDfEVz4tJGjezH9ffOS8BOzdfw-X/w640-h360/a-ha-take-on-me-video-375797396.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #444444;">The superb, revolutionary video made with 3000+ rotoscoped drawings.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-kerning: none;"></span></div><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Alice;">We used snow white </span><a href="https://www.montanacolors.com/en/" style="font-family: Alice;" target="_blank">Montana spray paint </a><span style="font-family: Alice;">(A LOT OF IT!) and </span><a href="https://www.posca.com" style="font-family: Alice;" target="_blank">Posca pens</a><span style="font-family: Alice;">.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">With an 80s theme still firmly in mind (because I WAS an 80s girl and don't think I ever quite left the decade behind!) we whited-out the Vaporwave car, and I applied an homage to the 3000 or so rotoscoped pencil sketches used in the iconic, groundbreaking <a href="aha take on me" target="_blank">1985 video</a> (they took months to do that, but we had a couple of days!)</span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">I couldn't actually use pencil or charcoal on the smooth surface of the car, even painted in aerosol white, so went for a near-simulation with specially-mixed graphitey colours in chunky Posca markers.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(27, 37, 45); color: #444444; font-family: Alice; font-size: 16px;">We'd love to have used the original track on our film but couldn't afford the licensing - I did ask for a price and got one<i> fully </i>and fairly<i> </i>in line with the track's legendary status - so we went with something that had a similar vibe and pace. Sorry Morten. Yours would have been better...</span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">(Did you know the song was released twice? The first time it didn't 'take' - <a href="https://youtu.be/liq-seNVvrM" target="_blank">here's that version</a>, in case you're </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(27, 37, 45);">interested.)</span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Alice;"><span style="color: #444444;">Watch the film of our process <b><a href="https://vimeo.com/822955099" target="_blank">here</a>. </b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Alice;"><span style="color: #444444;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/822955099" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1920" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7bsxFdFsNW_6pAe3M68abVKZrmPFTDkbPXByVXVMReM-o2Nobe4cWn_Tsg6GdBayMeYqJSjmbepLEP8ITjsQEKY_o3nfmQGtOWNGJtlsH-q2D3fjnWG0DFittDPvfZJQpi7LGyILzDGQARm-qmq85O7b41CBB-UsktNALxW8xgbVkxAf/w640-h354/Screenshot%202023-05-02%20at%2012.27.55.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0ILZj9Ftp2B6bfXTNOoFIWE9GT46Os0GU2_HC_GEIieR-ScGK75Z35Xv9BC2JTb5R8h9KxWNowLu6si-a_-ZaGuA8JMBtNVd0VGb2Xqoc6MOd0wGKi0oRwTflEiQ-rzQcD2YP9VYSgsbwE-ZRQ2JJaPWqewgbx2rfK5Hc41cEavICwVdQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0ILZj9Ftp2B6bfXTNOoFIWE9GT46Os0GU2_HC_GEIieR-ScGK75Z35Xv9BC2JTb5R8h9KxWNowLu6si-a_-ZaGuA8JMBtNVd0VGb2Xqoc6MOd0wGKi0oRwTflEiQ-rzQcD2YP9VYSgsbwE-ZRQ2JJaPWqewgbx2rfK5Hc41cEavICwVdQ=w640-h640" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(27, 37, 45); color: #1b252d; font-family: Alice; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><p></p></div>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-91907793450927174902023-05-01T13:15:00.006+01:002023-05-01T13:51:01.304+01:00Artomotive Adventures: Painting a Pao! / 'Vaporwave'<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRM6FWCUF6zz63oiuhbeMLbXO7F_TfLXB3nIeorIrnI9g4ayO0YEap-Y5ouwd7jkrRt2OXTBfsxJp1lrOAGaZMiNqEweNPrlQNkXRz-Zxepi0Jn987-q7lUq9uQKAqoKyW2gNe8YHJYtZ-tIOo6gVcx6_PXK-nk8-rYyMhHqZuyoQ9gCU9/s3024/IMG_4105.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRM6FWCUF6zz63oiuhbeMLbXO7F_TfLXB3nIeorIrnI9g4ayO0YEap-Y5ouwd7jkrRt2OXTBfsxJp1lrOAGaZMiNqEweNPrlQNkXRz-Zxepi0Jn987-q7lUq9uQKAqoKyW2gNe8YHJYtZ-tIOo6gVcx6_PXK-nk8-rYyMhHqZuyoQ9gCU9/w640-h640/IMG_4105.JPG" width="640" /></a></p><p><b><span style="color: #f01fb1;">What do you do when a car comes your way that's not gonna make it? Well, you can paint on it!</span></b></p><p>I've painted a few 'things' - <a href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2013/10/the-wall.html" target="_blank">office walls</a>, advertising hoardings, <a href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2013/09/drew-is.html" target="_blank">giant sunflowers</a>, <a href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2017/06/bring-paint.html" target="_blank">brick walls</a>; I've customised speakers, radios, <a href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2011/03/ludicrous.html" target="_blank">baseball caps</a>, <a href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2012/03/shoes.html" target="_blank">shoes</a> - there are bound to be more I've forgotten - and <a href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2017/06/inkymoles-motors.html" target="_blank">bits of cars</a>, but never a <i>whole</i> car.</p><p>The information superhighway is awash these days with cars clothed in glittering wraps, mad paint jobs and stickers, and over the years illustrators and graffiti artists have been called upon to apply their art to corporate advertising pieces in the form of a high-end vehicle parked up somewhere painfully cool and covered in someone's skilz.</p><p>Well; this wasn't that - this was a 'let's have a go' weekend adventure while we had the car at our disposal! Our <a href="https://motors.inkymole.com" target="_blank">other business</a> is parts and accessories for the iconic and rare <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Pao" target="_blank">Nissan Pao</a> (of which we have <a href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2021/02/the-worlds-fastest-and-most-powerful.html" target="_blank">two</a>) and buying and breaking ('parting-out') dead ones, so that others may ride again. Before this one met its organ-donor fate, it got fancy.</p><p>I knew I wanted it to be a vapourware/synthwave inspired thing, as I listen to a LOT of that stuff and, being an arty teenager in the 80s I lived through <i>all </i>of those sounds and looks For Real - and drew them, on my pencil cases, exercise books, tapes and homework. And it tied in with another project running parallel, so an easy choice.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="3f8e">And, against the backdrop of the noisy bilge pump of (ironically ⬆️) synthesised pictures made with AI, we’ve been feeling more desire than ever to make things that are physical and real, wonky and textured, even. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="71ce">And in rolls a canvas on wheels!</p><p>The car was sketched out on my iPad and painted with two boxes of Montana spray paint from GraffHQ, after a semi-thorough masking. I'm an amateur when it comes to spray paints, having only ever used them twice before (<a href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2015/08/seven-stories.html" target="_blank">this mural</a> at the <a href="https://www.sevenstories.org.uk" target="_blank">National Centre for Children's Books</a>, and <a href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2017/06/bring-paint.html" target="_blank">this wall</a> at <a href="https://www.bringthepaint.co.uk" target="_blank">Bring The Paint </a>festival in Leicester) but chucked myself in after the obligatory nervous pacing and dithering. That first stroke of the nozzle, brush or nib is always the hardest.</p><p>We had the use of the paint oven at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UncleKeithsPaintshop" target="_blank">Uncle Keith's Paint Shop</a> for just the weekend, so we couldn't go as detailed as we wanted to and ended up leaving the boot uncovered, but that didn't matter because we were about to paint it all out and start again anyway...</p><p>Watch the film <a href="https://vimeo.com/822664309" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #ff00fe;">here</span></b></a>!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/822664309" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="2464" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlXxMMwlvNCJ1Uhq2M_WlirjKUOx7zwj2Vh-x9A4_GzZfMVNapQ7unIUS0PJj74W16b5L8zZ2qlCp5OtFI5bakTIkJtaUpE1ql0kS-Qw4-ZT25ZkJe1hC7dqiY7C2imjsXWWnygj-SLqWE_AFkDajA_yqTr_-GaMeY2CBZARnFpEtyoja/w640-h360/Screenshot%202023-05-01%20at%2013.40.41.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px;"><b>This article’s been a long time in the making.</b></span></p><h2 class="acd abr yz ak abs mm ace mn mq mr acf ms mv abd acg ach na abh aci acj nf abl ack acl nk acm bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3bad" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 24px; margin: 2.37em 0px -0.31em;">Not being able to ‘get to it’ has hassled me for ages but, as I finally get my assorted notes and thoughts assembled, I realise that quite unintentionally, the right time is <span class="acn" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: inherit;">now.</span></h2><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx aco pz zz aba acp qc abc abd acq abf abg abh acr abj abk abl acs abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b092" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I’m writing about AI. Of course I am. Not only am I expected to have an opinion on it, as an artist (I do), but every man and his hamster knows about AI and moreover,<em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> also</em> has an opinion on it. This is no bad thing; but you know that something’s ‘made it’ into the public consciousness when you’re asked to talk about it live on local radio; literally ‘the man in the street’ invited to share their thoughts on the matter, before switching to Sarah on the mic.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2012" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">But more on that later.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="bf65" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">In 2015 I began to play with <a class="ax ho" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeepDream" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Google’s DeepDream</a>. Our mate <a class="ax ho" href="https://www.djfood.org/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Kev</a> told us about it. You had to input a picture and wait for it to render — a long enough wait that you could go away and do something else, like have dinner and sleep, as opposed to Midjourney’s amphetamine-rush of fired-out images made in moments. In fact, facebook tells me I uploaded it on 30th July, and got the result on 2nd August:<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />So this was my first AI picture, and it’s a horrifying belter:</p><figure class="acv acw acx acy yk acz lp lq paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="lp lq acu" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 640px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 640px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/format:webp/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 1280w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 640px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg 1280w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="480" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/1*weqJjD5rPkPgjco5TLoNlQ.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 640px;" width="640" /></picture></div><figcaption class="rh ie yc lp lq adc add ak b bk af ah" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;">Kev, Sarah and Leigh, after 3 days Deepdreaming.</figcaption></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="db6b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">We laughed and pulled faces at it and then I forgot about it, and about AI for the most part other than following a few scientists on tumblr who were doing silly and very funny things with <a class="ax ho" href="https://www.tumblr.com/aiweirdness" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">neural networks</a>; getting them to write recipes, for example (generating the bewilderingly unappetising meal equivalent of what you see above) and poems. I would chortle at their painfully awful but nearly-there attempts, helplessly projecting human concepts like ‘trying really hard’ onto what I knew was <em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;">not </em>an earnest seven year old, but early machine learning.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8804" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">A bit later I got to try out <a class="ax ho" href="https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop/neural-filter.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Adobe’s Neural Filters</a> in a new PS update. I shoved a picture of my face into it and played with the sliders that deployed artificial intelligence to change expressions and age. The results were deliberately awful, because I knew I would never actually use them, so I went to extremes and pinged them off to family for Whatsapp LOLs. Regardless; the very gentlest of alarm bells was ringing. If <em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;">I</em> can change a face to this extent so easily, what’s to stop someone else changing a face for nefarious purposes?</p><div class="acv acw acx acy yk n cq" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin-top: 56px;"><figure class="ade acz adf adg adh adi adj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 340.625px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 340.625px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 509px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1018/format:webp/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 1018w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 509px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1018/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg 1018w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="1222" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1852/1*QcuaReHUK2FHVDdbFoAktg.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 340.625px;" width="509" /></picture></div></figure><figure class="ade acz ado adg adh adi adj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 329.375px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 329.375px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 492px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:984/format:webp/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 984w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 492px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:984/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png 984w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="1242" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1820/1*jVWWcVYeeGIlg3-peW_faw.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 329.375px;" width="492" /></picture></div></figure></div><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a502" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><strong class="nm gi" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Fast forward to 2022. </strong>Our mate Kev Again — featured previously after his mauling by DeepDream — mentioned an AI programme he’d been using to create pictures. He was having rather a lot of fun with it, and I had a go myself. Hm, I thought, yeah, it’s quite fun! (“<a class="ax ho" href="http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/465/530/7d0.jpg" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank"><em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pin all the things</em></a><em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;">”</em>.) But I couldn’t <em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;">really</em> see how I might use it in my work, even if I’d wanted to, and besides, my contracts for client work are pretty much 85% a giant sign held aloft that says <em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Thou Shalt Not Submit Any Work That Might Ever Have Had Anything To Do With Anyone Else Ever.</em></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b0dc" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">So, <a class="ax ho" href="https://nightcafe.studio/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">NightCafé Studio</a> was also just a toy, then, and I forgot about that as well. Besides, at that very moment we were too busy getting excited about NFTs to think about artificial intelligence (more on THAT later, too).</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="516f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><strong class="nm gi" style="box-sizing: inherit;">And then;</strong> out of the blue I got an invite to beta test an app called DALL*E, which made artificially generated pictures. As you might be able to tell by now, I’m never one to back away from the thrill of a new piece of kit or technology, especially one so apparently BRAND new that it isn’t even out yet, so I seized the day. I asked it rather predictably at first to make a picture of <em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;">‘a night-time street scene in an 8bit art style’,</em> because I was deep into my vaporwave playlists that week. And it did. Not bad, so long as you don’t want to print it at any sort of acceptable resolution or pass it off as your best work:</p><figure class="acv acw acx acy yk acz lp lq paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lp lq adp" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1000px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="698" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*MIiE2yH_PtkI68K9dUQ0vA.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></picture></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f313" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I did it again; this time, <em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;">‘shopping for pens and ink in a haunted pen shop in the style of Aubrey Beardsley’. </em>Hm; it made a decent fist of that too. In fact, I liked them quite a lot. They had a certain charm.</p><div class="acv acw acx acy yk n cq" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin-top: 56px;"><figure class="ade acz adq adg adh adi adj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 219.515625px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 219.515625px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 333px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:666/format:webp/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 666w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 333px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:666/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png 666w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="1520" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:3024/1*v8hAGl_gbQn_fvNCi7P3Rw.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 219.515625px;" width="333" /></picture></div></figure><figure class="ade acz adr adg adh adi adj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 220.703125px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 220.703125px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 335px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:670/format:webp/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 670w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 335px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:670/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png 670w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="1024" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:2048/1*HpvSU4O9341aF8p5SaqixA.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 220.703125px;" width="335" /></picture></div></figure><figure class="ade acz ads adg adh adi adj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 219.78125px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 219.78125px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 334px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:668/format:webp/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 668w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 334px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:668/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png 668w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="1510" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:3008/1*PWe2T6t6jrzaSz9tbqCOsw.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 219.78125px;" width="334" /></picture></div></figure></div><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e684" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">After a great deal of messing about, I realised I should <em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;">really </em>have a look at whether it could reproduce anything that looked ‘like me’ — I don’t mean ‘a portrait’, though that’s happened since (it didn’t work very well). I wanted to know if the system could produce work that looked like mine. For the first time, I got the barest inkling — pun entirely inktentional - of the theory of a notion of an idea of a suspicion that this might, at some point, <em class="act" style="box-sizing: inherit;">perhaps </em>be a threat.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Let’s go in with possibly THE most widely-known of my pieces of work, I thought. Let’s ask it for a cover for <a class="ax ho" href="https://www.inkymole.com/classic-literature" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">To Kill A Mockingbird</a>. I could see from the results exactly what it had been trained on — I could even name some of the illustrators — but nothing was usable beyond rough concept sketches or layouts, with useless lettering.</p><div class="acv acw acx acy yk n cq" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin-top: 56px;"><figure class="ade acz adt adg adh adi adj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 335px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 335px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 500px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1000/format:webp/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 1000w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 500px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1000/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png 1000w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="1024" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:2048/1*jlIM4flIJJPL5yAz8k6h_g.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 335px;" width="500" /></picture></div></figure><figure class="ade acz adt adg adh adi adj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 335px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 335px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 500px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1000/format:webp/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 1000w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 500px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1000/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png 1000w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="1024" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:2048/1*UbwBj2oAW-n1WPhDQS20ig.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 335px;" width="500" /></picture></div></figure></div><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7892" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I then asked for ink drawings of Christmas iconography — I thought I’d try some old and very mainstream work that’s been out there a long time. And it made some alarmingly naturalistic looking stuff. Immediately I was put in mind of all the times I’d been ripped off in the very early days of doing hand-lettering, by people and companies who should know better but were seeing hand-drawn type for the first time (we’re talking late 90s and early 00s) and weren’t thinking that lettering was capable of being plagiarised as well as images.</p><div class="acv acw acx acy yk n cq" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin-top: 56px;"><figure class="ade acz adu adg adh adi adj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 220px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 220px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 334px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:668/format:webp/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 668w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 334px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:668/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png 668w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="1024" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:2048/1*-FIYRTxHll56wn--A7e7QA.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 220px;" width="334" /></picture></div></figure><figure class="ade acz adu adg adh adi adj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 220px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 220px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 334px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:668/format:webp/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 668w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 334px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:668/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png 668w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="1024" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:2048/1*O7DiVMG-U5Bvqh1ceHe6KA.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 220px;" width="334" /></picture></div></figure><figure class="ade acz adu adg adh adi adj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 220px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 220px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 334px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:668/format:webp/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 668w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 334px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:668/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png 668w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="1024" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:2048/1*50PRzk0XinRaEEvFDbGVrw.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 220px;" width="334" /></picture></div><figcaption class="rh ie yc lp lq adc add ak b bk af ah adv bx adw adx" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: calc(-50% - 8px); line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; position: relative; text-align: center; transform: translateX(-50%); width: 660px;">…hmmm.</figcaption></figure></div><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0d69" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Despite the minor shudder, I kept on. I asked it to make words with ink. Totally illegible, though the energy was kind of there. Then logos. Then ink bottles. The cross hatching. Then illustrations for <a class="ax ho" href="https://www.inkymole.com/only-if-you-dare" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">horror stories for kids</a>…in black and white. Then landscapes in ink. And on it went.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0fc5" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">It did them all, with its only stumbling block being that lettering was entirely unusable and hands were snigger-at-the-screen terrible. This was still only about a year ago, but even at that point a tiny but chilling voice was whispering Banksy’s ‘<a class="ax ho" href="https://banksyexplained.com/laugh-now-2006/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Laugh Now</a>’ into my brain.</p><figure class="acv acw acx acy yk acz lp lq paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="lp lq ady" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 512px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 512px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1024/format:webp/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 1024w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 512px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1024/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png 1024w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="512" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1024/1*KJFU5HIvmGHlNnYH0kWJmA.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 512px;" width="512" /></picture></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="98ab" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><strong class="nm gi" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Over the course of the rest of the year I kept on playing</strong>. Kev Again was integrating AI into his image-making, and nicely so. Hands continued to be grim. But humans in my creative orbit began to make uneasy noises. I love tech, especially the sort that enriches my work and my process — whether the ancient Adana, my 80s Gocco printers or the latest Adobe feature, and I’ll be damned if I’ll be threatened by any of it; try it, learn it, and find out how I can deploy it. Another thing in the pencil case. But…but.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9de6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><strong class="nm gi" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Never mind.</strong> On with the work. As well as playing with AI I was simultaneously immersing myself in the Web3 world, buying crypto, building an NFT collection and spending sometimes too much time in Discord because such things, just like Apple Pencils, Photoshop and magical things before them, are always just the next step in how we make, share and sell things. Nothing phased me — peak excitement was reached when minting a <a class="ax ho" href="https://www.fearcity.io/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">hotly-anticipated NFT</a> after getting a whitelist spot. WAGMI! It was later stolen, but…yep, more on that later.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="db2d" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Around summertime I dove into Holly Herndon’s <a class="ax ho" href="https://spawning.ai/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Spawning</a> project. A lifelong lover of electronic sounds, I knew her records and was enthralled by her conjoined-twin Ai+Holly progeny. At the same time, she and her colleagues had developed <a class="ax ho" href="https://haveibeentrained.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Have I Been Trained?</a>, a site which claims to allow artists to choose whether or not their images can be scraped for use by Stable Diffusion, MJ and OpenAi. I thought long and hard about what to click, yes or no. Did I want my images included in any large image training model? In what feels like a lifetime ago, I had a rather generalised feeling at the time that I didn’t want to be *excluded* from the world of AI, so clicked ‘Yes’. But that wasn’t actually what was being asked, and by the time I understood the specifics of the question some time later and went back to change it to a ‘No’, the site had inverted its system to one where, rather than choosing to opt in or out, you had to manually seek out any images of yours in the system, and ask for them to be excluded one by one (that’s still the system they’re using today).</p><figure class="acv acw acx acy yk acz lp lq paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lp lq adz" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 3976px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="487" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*xccOZ5_mSbraPD0lFp0O9g.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></picture></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7d99" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><strong class="nm gi" style="box-sizing: inherit;">I carried on.</strong> Towards the end of the year the world of commissioned work began to feel distinctly odd, with subtle but long-in-the-making shifts in modus operandi, their origins in the pandemic, finally manifesting in the way that work was coming in (awkwardly, unpredictably) and being managed (slowly and painfully). I began to see colleagues talk publicly about work being ‘weird’, and turnover being down. Against this landscape, my social media feeds began to fill up with people excitedly spewing out picture after picture made mainly in Midjourney, some calling themselves…artists. I, businesslike as ever, shut down the usual quarterly roundup of IP violations on Redbubble and Etsy, annoyed by the usual brazen help-yourself attitudes to artists’ work in the public domain — something which feels quaint now — and continued to stay abreast of the NFT world despite a sobering wallet theft, a gifted NFT stuck in cyberspace and a shady ‘buy it back’ deal with an anonymous stranger.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5c9f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">In the run up to Christmas I was busy with the <a class="ax ho" href="https://inkymole.medium.com/in-spite-of-it-all-life-is-beautiful-3624855efd7" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit;">annual seasonal promotion</a>, the demands of the daily <a class="ax ho" href="https://www.inkymole.com/the-inkvent-project" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Inkvent project</a> and <a class="ax ho" href="https://www.inkymole.com/advertising" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">assorted client jobs</a>. I didn’t ‘play’ with AI again until the new year, using it to generate some atmospheric 80s-style pieces as refs to try and capture the vibe of some upcoming illustration work, and to experiment with layouts for a looming book project. We used MJ to make targets for my Dad’s shooting practice — zombies who may or may not look like certain politicians, all OK because of course they weren’t real people — and introduced my Mum to AI, whose first Midjourney piece was a beautiful Japan-inspired coastal landscape rendered in ‘ink’. She was fascinated, and loved the process — “I can put away my paints now’”, she said. “So can I”, I said, trying not to let inherited gallows humour extinguish her lovely anticipation.</p><figure class="acv acw acx acy yk acz lp lq paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lp lq aea" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1024px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="700" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*0Yi6gbwE1ViDApCxVJqbwA.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></picture></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4660" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I made a part-AI-part-Photoshop-part-Procreate leaving card for a mate, and used it to help make a silly birthday card for my sister. It was useful for generating some demographically accurate reference figures for an artwork I was making. And I did some more of those 80s experiments. I even started an Instagram page to capture the best ones. Kev Again continued to deploy AI subtly and successfully in his design work, and although I still hadn’t found where AI might ‘fit’ into my work, I still felt like it was a friend rather than a foe.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1b06" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><strong class="nm gi" style="box-sizing: inherit;">And then</strong>…and then. I joined the Midjourney facebook page, and at the same time, people calling themselves ‘professional prompters’ (to a great deal of derision and hilarity) and ‘AI artists’ began writing about how ‘real artists’ had somehow been gatekeeping, hiding secrets and lying about how long it took to create work. Look! many of them said; it IS easy after all! How dare those artists charge so much to do this!</p><figure class="acv acw acx acy yk acz lp lq paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lp lq aea" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1024px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="700" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*o48RjsYrGrIOYjkt3r1OmQ.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></picture></div></div><figcaption class="rh ie yc lp lq adc add ak b bk af ah" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;">I love this picture. She’s beautiful. I made her. Or did I? I didn’t. I asked a machine to make her, in quite a lot of detail. I worked with a machine. Or did the machine work with me?</figcaption></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0c77" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Almost overnight, the world seemed flooded with articles about AI: the threats, the warnings, rabid defence of it, declarative statements against, over-confident opinions thrown in all directions. People fought to defend their use of AI, to explain why human artists didn’t deserve to keep working, and others outlined how the world could never be without human-made objects and pictures. My stateside agency had begun to talk about it in their newsreels, and my Medium feed was suddenly full of tediously repetitive articles loudly telling me how to generate five-figure sums with a ChatGPT side-hustle. How to generate pictures in Midjourney and flog them back to people via Adobe Stock. How to bypass concerns about copyright to make AI pictures to print and sell on Etsy…oh, yeah, Etsy. Back to that old chestnut.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="da14" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I talked about AI at length with my agency’s boss, collected opinions and followed <a class="ax ho" href="https://www.instagram.com/stevedmcdonald/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">real-world artists creating beautiful work </a>using AI as one of their tools, trying to keep healthy, future-positive role models in my line of sight. I remained determined to be neither for nor against AI, neither scared nor cultishly absorbed by it. And despite wanting to pontificate in the public domain many times, I held off writing about it, not wanting to add another voice to the clattering hubris of prompters calling themselves artists, and artists throwing shade on users; the world did not need another article wanting to sound knowledgable and finite.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zv zw yz nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc abd abe abf abg abh abi abj abk abl abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4be0" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><strong class="nm gi" style="box-sizing: inherit;">So I didn’t, until a single tweet brought me to the BBC’s attention.</strong></p><figure class="acv acw acx acy yk acz lp lq paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="adk adl bx adm bl adn" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="lp lq aeb" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1182px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png 1400w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bl ada adb c" height="286" loading="lazy" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*zTU7iMi8BNvskBx_hfvm2w.png" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="700" /></picture></div></div></figure><blockquote class="aec aed aee" style="box-shadow: rgb(41, 41, 41) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;"><p class="zv zw act nm b zx zy pz zz aba abb qc abc aef abe abf abg aeg abi abj abk aeh abm abn abo abp ka bo" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="89cb" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Chapter 2, in which I talk about my research with regard to AI + copyright + IP, follows.</p></blockquote>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-745977017243663792023-02-23T15:43:00.005+00:002023-02-23T15:47:10.917+00:00The future looks bookish.<p><span style="font-family: Alice;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDy4wnFpRPDID7zhCBCs7uUTqKuK1soAIVEqz-JaJ-NPfiQvDqF8e-V9_XRI1MPjnbU1eriL5ALEKeT7Nx4l95wBPui-SnhyZwTyDao_GkG57mpJ0mRb2xGAAgmq34FXpmYeW3Mhb29UB5g2hN-_RHlQmxlW2NnysY7-JgBCSvVUYssW3-/s600/FRANTIC-BOOKS!.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDy4wnFpRPDID7zhCBCs7uUTqKuK1soAIVEqz-JaJ-NPfiQvDqF8e-V9_XRI1MPjnbU1eriL5ALEKeT7Nx4l95wBPui-SnhyZwTyDao_GkG57mpJ0mRb2xGAAgmq34FXpmYeW3Mhb29UB5g2hN-_RHlQmxlW2NnysY7-JgBCSvVUYssW3-/w640-h640/FRANTIC-BOOKS!.gif" width="640" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-family: Alice;"><b><br /></b></span><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">I recently received this email from David Shelley at </span><span style="color: #e69138;">Hachette Publishing,</span> along with many other contributors to the book industry, and am sharing it here as it contains some beautifully positive, useful and curious insights into the landscape of books right now, as we move away from a pandemic into a different set of 'challenging' circumstances.</span></b></span></div><p><span style="font-family: Alice;">As you will know, I love books - buying, reading, designing and illustrating them - and people sometimes ask me whether 'books are dead', or on the decline; the rather simplistic assumption being that digital advances have somehow pushed paper books off the shelf.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Alice;">One of the loveliest highlights is learning that things are actually rather good in the book world. Not fabulously, sunnily glowing, but productively optimistic, fuelled by a return to reading courtesy of pandemic-enforced hibernation, and a significant growth in the numbers of younger readers.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Alice;">It's long, but well worth the read if, like me, you're a bit soul-tired of bad news, sad endings, scary AI stories and financial and political developments which feel at best threatening, and at their worst (usually at around 3am), malevolent. </span><span style="font-family: Alice;">Take some joy from David's words as he talks about the growth in reading, strong book sales in Ukraine, Tik-Tokers' love for books - and an uptick in the manufacture of book cases!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Alice;">(I also noted excitedly that </span><span style="font-family: Alice;">Hachette have bought <b><a href="https://www.paperblanks.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Paperblanks</span></a>,</b> whose delicious, bejewelled notebooks I have bought for years. Having not seen them around recently, I'm glad to hear they're still going to be there for my fevered collector's hands.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Alice;">Enjoy this chunk of gently uplifting news. It has been lightly edited for brevity.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Alice;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"><b>Dear authors, translators and illustrators,</b></span></div></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;">I’m writing at the end of another eventful year to give an annual update on the current books market, to share some information about what’s happening at Hachette, and thoughts about what 2023 might hold for book publishing. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice;"><u><span style="font-size: 11pt;">REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL</span></u></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;">As I think it’s important to find reasons to be cheerful right now, I thought I’d start with a few pieces of positive information about the overall state of the books market. Firstly, the data to the end of October shows that <b><span style="color: #e69138;">print book sales in the UK slightly increased in 2022 on 2021</span></b> – which was already a buoyant year for sales. Our figures show that audiobook sales have also shown some growth, and that <span class="m_-1263988431842446691spelle">ebook</span> sales have remained steady.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;">Given the economic challenges in the UK, this is extremely heartening to see. There is a truism that<b> <span style="color: #e69138;">two products are more able to withstand recessions than most – books and chocolate, because both are affordable luxuries that repay investment with great pleasure</span>. </b>For the hours of enjoyment that one gets from books and the depth of their emotional impact, I think they are terrific value for money compared to many other forms of entertainment (gaming, cinema, TV), and this year’s robust sales bear this out.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;">It is even better to see because, as has been well-documented, there was a boom in reading during lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. The fact that<b> <span style="color: #e69138;">the market has remained strong</span></b> – and a long way up on the pre-Covid sales of 2019 - suggests that even after lockdowns had ended, people have kept up the reading habit. Looking back in history, there is precedent for this: there was a marked and permanent jump up in sales of novels after the Second World War as it was a habit that many acquired during that time. The hope is that these readers acquired during the Covid era will remain with us in the future.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;">In terms of trends in the market, the other thing to feel hopeful about is the <b><span style="color: #e69138;">boom in younger readers.</span> </b>We are seeing TikTok as an incredibly strong driver of book recommendations and sales, and much of this market is made up of teenagers and twentysomethings. Their preference is predominantly for physical books, and there is great focus from this market on the production values of books and an emphasis on collectability. One nice side-effect is <span style="color: #e69138;"><b>a boom in the production of bookcases</b></span> after gradual decline in previous years; many teenagers now have a large collection of books and want to display them. Plus there has been a real rise in the popularity of subscription boxes, where readers get a book every month; it feels like another testament to the power of curation, and how much people like having a book chosen for them.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;">Some key themes in fiction include novels that feature or combine romance, fantasy, suspense and that have inclusion at their heart. It’s always hard to generalise but a lot of the bestsellers recommended on TikTok feature worlds and experiences that are different to the reader’s own.<span style="color: #e69138;"> </span><b><span style="color: #e69138;">I think we’re also seeing a (welcome) dissolving of borders between genres.</span> </b>Research has long shown that readers often don’t read within narrow genre parameters – <span class="m_-1263988431842446691spelle">ie</span> wouldn’t categorise themselves as a ‘crime reader’ or ‘science fiction reader’ and that seems to be more true than ever for younger readers now who are more influenced by story and character than genre. As someone who used to work as an editor predominantly within a genre (crime) and was frequently annoyed by the way this was used by those outside it to compartmentalise or reduce the impact of it, I couldn’t be more pleased to see this largely artificial industry system start to crumble.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;">In non-fiction we have seen a real rise in our specialist publishing. Even though the internet holds information on every conceivable subject, <b><span style="color: #e69138;">people are increasingly turning to books to give them trusted, fact-checked and detailed information on a particular issue</span></b> that they are invested in. One example of this is the success of our Jessica Kingsley list, which is the world’s leading publisher in the fields of autism, arts therapies and gender diversity and sold more books than ever in 2022.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;">One other very positive phenomenon is <b><span style="color: #e69138;">the continued rise of independent bookshops</span></b>, not just in the UK but also in India, Australia and other key markets. The rise of ethical consumerism and localism seems to have grown during 2020-21 and we are seeing more consumers who want to buy their books from local and independent retailers. It’s something we’re keen on here as the hand-selling independent booksellers do can often launch an author’s career, and it’s why we’re proud to work with the Booksellers Association and to be the official sponsor of Independent Bookshops Week which had its biggest and best year yet in 2022.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: Alice;"><u><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The Future</span></u></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;">I think it would be probably be reckless right now to try to predict what even the near future will hold for our industry as things are changing so fast. But the things we are gearing up for in 2023 are a continuation of the supply chain and consumer confidence challenges I mentioned earlier – none of these look set to get any better in the immediate future – yet also, I hope, a <b><span style="color: #e69138;">continued recognition that books are a vital way of getting through difficult times.</span></b> Thinking about the books published across our lists, they variously provide escapism and entertainment; an educational route towards success; a means to help improve health, wellbeing or life satisfaction; a deep dive into complex issues that cannot be adequately covered in a social media post or newspaper article; a route into other people’s psychology; a source of joy for adults and children alike; and a vision for a better future.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;">Lastly, I just wanted to share one interesting export sales statistic with you, which is that we have observed that <b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">book sales in Ukraine were at exactly the same level</span> <span style="color: #f1c232;">in 2022 as in 2021</span> –</b> this is in addition to various charitable books contributions. I think this is a striking testament to the bravery and tenacity of Ukrainian booksellers, a number of whom came to the Frankfurt Book fair and whom we met with there, and to the enduring power of books.</span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 14.666667px;">All my best,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 14.666667px;">David.</span></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Alice; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div></blockquote>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-24497670031062816072023-02-23T14:59:00.002+00:002023-02-23T15:06:46.946+00:00Avon Called!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0jtFElJqXh5HXcW5QeSC4FNxCJqkrJTNqhZ29SjvhNmw9TMqxUBPD1n6YDhvY6YxMS4k-sa_Q0RopGjWqDs1M8zMItGw2EJwAq-JJJ_oPThbPh2QLsK51HVU-OHHvR4CT0p1oMBEdokQO8ZYwIYwpuMgYw5SYgUYyPKowCeADrA5kDZo3/s1080/JPG_Eve%20Become_AvonOn_Backgrounds3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0jtFElJqXh5HXcW5QeSC4FNxCJqkrJTNqhZ29SjvhNmw9TMqxUBPD1n6YDhvY6YxMS4k-sa_Q0RopGjWqDs1M8zMItGw2EJwAq-JJJ_oPThbPh2QLsK51HVU-OHHvR4CT0p1oMBEdokQO8ZYwIYwpuMgYw5SYgUYyPKowCeADrA5kDZo3/w640-h640/JPG_Eve%20Become_AvonOn_Backgrounds3.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Alice; font-size: medium;">Cosmetics, jewellery and perfume mail order behemoth Avon asked me to create illustrations that worked with and around the model for their new fragrance range last year, in a campaign which has just gone live.</span></b></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><b>The 'Eve Become' quartet of fragrances consists of Truth, Privé, Confidence and Eve; each created to reflect a different aspect of the wearer. Taking their cue from womanhood and everything the word can mean, and </b><b>presented in beautiful, contemporary glass bottles, </b><b>the scents offer alternative vibes depending on your mood on the day. </b><b>The company needed a collection of images that spoke to the changeable nature of </b><b>femininity. </b></span></h4><p><span style="font-family: Alice;"><span style="color: #444444;">Working with UK-based One Production, I went to London on the day that the PM resigned - <i>definitel</i>y the topic of the day while we had our introductions - to be present at the campaign's photo shoot. Peering 'behind the curtain' of the hours-long process was a thrilling treat - I've been on site for all sorts of ad and photography-based things, but not a shoot quite like this. A<span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">fter a coffee or two I got to work sketching live on my iPad as the models went through their day, having makeup applied, hair tweaked and clothing pulled into place around them (with two very appealing dogs to entertain us in between takes - see below).</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444;">Those girls were impressively professional - young, skilled and infinitely patient!</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">Surrounded by a team that included photographer, stylist, lighting team, director, photo editor and a catering and logistics squad, I wove my way in and out of the action Procreating spontaneous sketches. Not intended to form part of the final ads, these were made to capture a vibe that would inform the work later, back in the studio:</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiChbfHuXgi3HiPX8eqBYmBtmPuli3jctv4reybLYi4FJsSvdjUB7hhqih2jXU3mtpJSCncJA_VVV6rVuum3uyuot8Pn2bk_1L82hqjfpeUmIiWCH2GSEVHNFrm55g2MH3e88pVInuExWMpfHMUGzUsIh-JhKOBYlLKo8YxF8Rl4T7rJeCP/s1402/Screenshot%202023-02-22%20at%2023.26.16.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1402" data-original-width="1270" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiChbfHuXgi3HiPX8eqBYmBtmPuli3jctv4reybLYi4FJsSvdjUB7hhqih2jXU3mtpJSCncJA_VVV6rVuum3uyuot8Pn2bk_1L82hqjfpeUmIiWCH2GSEVHNFrm55g2MH3e88pVInuExWMpfHMUGzUsIh-JhKOBYlLKo8YxF8Rl4T7rJeCP/w581-h640/Screenshot%202023-02-22%20at%2023.26.16.png" width="581" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI_fwKwLB_MXN7ElB8ZrxG0EGN9k8Q8Hh3p1FYtErF37gV4vgfwIb2bp9OE4QaN2wU9dWFbNikfLpUqzG5oI_ppZ15iXD4juna1tUFvKq2euCIw2W6vOIdZULfa30hza721KfLAdaQaHl14bLp1RaKL91hkD-59DncSn1QMHQEy4BfiXZx/s4032/IMG_7530.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI_fwKwLB_MXN7ElB8ZrxG0EGN9k8Q8Hh3p1FYtErF37gV4vgfwIb2bp9OE4QaN2wU9dWFbNikfLpUqzG5oI_ppZ15iXD4juna1tUFvKq2euCIw2W6vOIdZULfa30hza721KfLAdaQaHl14bLp1RaKL91hkD-59DncSn1QMHQEy4BfiXZx/w480-h640/IMG_7530.JPG" width="480" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFxDw2zO60Z4fAMeT3YYT-XJh6IdUnADhRtwhQEAZ9zXg0EmYvnwbiBsqzqneSSXawRFvmo1tkygrxoAHuEf5n7Vbs50Vz24_NY4dP9i7EphBCL-koTZTKOIFO42QYlM3nyY3Ek5YoXrZ9rX3tqezsCZfTVRhD7oYIxr5fWvfPvzjeTdUZ/s4032/IMG_7519.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFxDw2zO60Z4fAMeT3YYT-XJh6IdUnADhRtwhQEAZ9zXg0EmYvnwbiBsqzqneSSXawRFvmo1tkygrxoAHuEf5n7Vbs50Vz24_NY4dP9i7EphBCL-koTZTKOIFO42QYlM3nyY3Ek5YoXrZ9rX3tqezsCZfTVRhD7oYIxr5fWvfPvzjeTdUZ/w480-h640/IMG_7519.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">(Her name was Margeaux, and she was enormous!)</span></div><span style="font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJP1oG4ZdsVppREtrwN9jQTvH_aGNC-Eef6U9qnpZ_UIamRDGETqAPRuVkxMM-JIre40kijTqpdM_AtV4Z8VjXAXsKmOn9sMnPs2XOSw-JHvI13ihGkkHNLbLIg-rTs3CVRmFtUWxM5mMbbJoqCEuGg_MtW0fA2ToE4cHNXbY1ca8S7tGP/s4032/IMG_7526.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJP1oG4ZdsVppREtrwN9jQTvH_aGNC-Eef6U9qnpZ_UIamRDGETqAPRuVkxMM-JIre40kijTqpdM_AtV4Z8VjXAXsKmOn9sMnPs2XOSw-JHvI13ihGkkHNLbLIg-rTs3CVRmFtUWxM5mMbbJoqCEuGg_MtW0fA2ToE4cHNXbY1ca8S7tGP/w480-h640/IMG_7526.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhnzwPB-iScQN9oD2mmZpkkmwMmcnYcFBU1GtfrW5uBHe2iXRP1e-sbK3MvUKj7fvQIF6Onb91fS2f2crESG5SdsIFQPWONkemvtm_vp6x5HJ2tiCjHtvIwwgO7I9ZabZWvXFjLRBDUJjdjnzzzOEI7ohO5VYrFbKX4STszMCR-l5aanI0/s2148/Avon%20Sketch2-22%20at%2023.28.17.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2148" data-original-width="1518" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhnzwPB-iScQN9oD2mmZpkkmwMmcnYcFBU1GtfrW5uBHe2iXRP1e-sbK3MvUKj7fvQIF6Onb91fS2f2crESG5SdsIFQPWONkemvtm_vp6x5HJ2tiCjHtvIwwgO7I9ZabZWvXFjLRBDUJjdjnzzzOEI7ohO5VYrFbKX4STszMCR-l5aanI0/w452-h640/Avon%20Sketch2-22%20at%2023.28.17.png" width="452" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyvuyUhVryZdha9BjqXYDNYOeqxo5-l3BpUhGaxQz0u1jBTF0pdG-frqXxV_dBJ4bN6O6hl5QPdFWcnS2rDK90IFlDl4QY0MP2gLlZmCeL03tYRY5sC39ONwfThnB03koYxiWfM-7WJQcHCmnL0uJwMAF_zprDNpA0TYYA77rgQohHmSyI/s2150/Avon%20Sketch2-22%20at%2023.28.59.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2150" data-original-width="1514" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyvuyUhVryZdha9BjqXYDNYOeqxo5-l3BpUhGaxQz0u1jBTF0pdG-frqXxV_dBJ4bN6O6hl5QPdFWcnS2rDK90IFlDl4QY0MP2gLlZmCeL03tYRY5sC39ONwfThnB03koYxiWfM-7WJQcHCmnL0uJwMAF_zprDNpA0TYYA77rgQohHmSyI/w450-h640/Avon%20Sketch2-22%20at%2023.28.59.png" width="450" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhu7g3cR6ob5C3swVwe8a48j7oQKdkVn-RYxqmHrwPIdsbq13FtH7gwGbrw2E6u3nS4VAHN-sldZPEO-mxgT20QGH_H2pCRaHPk6-IPj87E9wSlhx1KaY4oceXbRqU-YbSeEUZNQVzljtLzbpCny8h7YlitjJL9pd9zDeyaIyzwollodkX/s2130/Avon%20Sketch2-22%20at%2023.29.51.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2130" data-original-width="1508" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhu7g3cR6ob5C3swVwe8a48j7oQKdkVn-RYxqmHrwPIdsbq13FtH7gwGbrw2E6u3nS4VAHN-sldZPEO-mxgT20QGH_H2pCRaHPk6-IPj87E9wSlhx1KaY4oceXbRqU-YbSeEUZNQVzljtLzbpCny8h7YlitjJL9pd9zDeyaIyzwollodkX/w454-h640/Avon%20Sketch2-22%20at%2023.29.51.png" width="454" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBqJ5IaAkNP6MIbUlRjRYYpUFzFX17_ephcvQjHA9TsLwyhFISidlhkRf2YUOEHIQXTjAyLFMWmq3QY-huMf5z1x7yuD_IEAp5JNl8VQVL6Xyi2GUK-JMd2c2PRA7R1N2rovtML3T8iNOO4VgcdqSqC-dllJvDAntcpfkza_tgBxc6RtHB/s2714/Avon%20Sketch2-22%20at%2023.30.31.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1914" data-original-width="2714" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBqJ5IaAkNP6MIbUlRjRYYpUFzFX17_ephcvQjHA9TsLwyhFISidlhkRf2YUOEHIQXTjAyLFMWmq3QY-huMf5z1x7yuD_IEAp5JNl8VQVL6Xyi2GUK-JMd2c2PRA7R1N2rovtML3T8iNOO4VgcdqSqC-dllJvDAntcpfkza_tgBxc6RtHB/w640-h452/Avon%20Sketch2-22%20at%2023.30.31.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwmaz2IWQiBB_vgqWw75vhVz9XnutJBz3vXGqX0tCqQfcTREESQRFVFlnyro2_EUXGwklhG4fffpQc' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">Back in the office week or so later, the selected photos were sent over to me and the work began. We'd already explored some ideas - two sets of suggested looks, one digital and one ink-made - so we had an array of looks to base the final pieces on. Here are some of the analogue tests:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1V6e4DrlwVmxy_TWFy14WJlRkFsYMnZuB1KgRci-iMAnJ-KbSEFIz9hepnDcsdS3UK5wUHwUIVSCcw2gy8KUVwa2Ndtx8CV5_IPo19uly0MgfBgNjpcSspiV3HvFwWmRCQOKXmrbg6i-KJ0i9dLxcnVvQIJNHGkPrTjp6-odE26-8gD_g/s2169/Eve_Confidence_Analogue-Marker.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2169" data-original-width="1500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1V6e4DrlwVmxy_TWFy14WJlRkFsYMnZuB1KgRci-iMAnJ-KbSEFIz9hepnDcsdS3UK5wUHwUIVSCcw2gy8KUVwa2Ndtx8CV5_IPo19uly0MgfBgNjpcSspiV3HvFwWmRCQOKXmrbg6i-KJ0i9dLxcnVvQIJNHGkPrTjp6-odE26-8gD_g/w442-h640/Eve_Confidence_Analogue-Marker.jpg" width="442" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidRt_aCYF6RdY8UTZBhzGbjiWS89v-zNp1AL2zZiuKBjNqF0REGJujQsXfDVciKBact-9GgVKgyW3QIJddVG0Br2t_mTIEMcgcJc5D8LMeF3ClxRWrY-fthNx97sg4mf1H9b1bAkoREkOk3L-8Y0zNrZIXju0CNAlt0Hw_WfNei5Jt-NcK/s2245/Eve_Truth_Analogue-Ink-II.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2245" data-original-width="1500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidRt_aCYF6RdY8UTZBhzGbjiWS89v-zNp1AL2zZiuKBjNqF0REGJujQsXfDVciKBact-9GgVKgyW3QIJddVG0Br2t_mTIEMcgcJc5D8LMeF3ClxRWrY-fthNx97sg4mf1H9b1bAkoREkOk3L-8Y0zNrZIXju0CNAlt0Hw_WfNei5Jt-NcK/w428-h640/Eve_Truth_Analogue-Ink-II.jpg" width="428" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmDnhTBSa0Hbcq-dfLdZ2kRpIudULaJHmCJpuc8YsItlIZ0qJ4XUz-LN-RhVUuS0fOdGh_wxCPzGm8WV1JFJuzfbMqGUR5m4yeY6LLMB4xfs3tl45xbvjUIaNar1VWnXaCsQtf6dANIfZTfOuzxLo9TfMSI0O09SA14GLWqX-48CeRWN2L/s2244/Eve_Become_Analogue_Ink-III.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2244" data-original-width="1500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmDnhTBSa0Hbcq-dfLdZ2kRpIudULaJHmCJpuc8YsItlIZ0qJ4XUz-LN-RhVUuS0fOdGh_wxCPzGm8WV1JFJuzfbMqGUR5m4yeY6LLMB4xfs3tl45xbvjUIaNar1VWnXaCsQtf6dANIfZTfOuzxLo9TfMSI0O09SA14GLWqX-48CeRWN2L/w428-h640/Eve_Become_Analogue_Ink-III.jpg" width="428" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">And here's a handful of the digital pieces. These ones I absolutely loved, because they're very much in the realm of the kind of work I'm really into at the moment - free, energetic, and with a delightful amount of spontaneity!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjLNoKVWH8dOgkDwGpiJczLYwtsqGyCq0_BF3UuYQJ6TBWbQg3BuMnPqetEOqWByppbJX34Yx9gf0se43eP-feGlxMdrVY0rbFnGOmoTxJUUYQU3dOJ9oeV6UXiHJVo8AkM0I4mSbrVCdtusENqw5-HqmwM2P3hIfHzA2c6zQTY82EyoVW/s1304/Eve_Confidence_Painterly.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1304" data-original-width="862" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjLNoKVWH8dOgkDwGpiJczLYwtsqGyCq0_BF3UuYQJ6TBWbQg3BuMnPqetEOqWByppbJX34Yx9gf0se43eP-feGlxMdrVY0rbFnGOmoTxJUUYQU3dOJ9oeV6UXiHJVo8AkM0I4mSbrVCdtusENqw5-HqmwM2P3hIfHzA2c6zQTY82EyoVW/w424-h640/Eve_Confidence_Painterly.jpg" width="424" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmF-dL0qBugKqXhFSi4cwWCcQ_fDBcB_SKFbd2sojAxArgOvVaQ8nQOaT3oH2yylW4VFuQF39uNwOaXdQ7OxB1mc8lQTCjXdRDKzgDMDSAQk6JOi-HlACrT2waitdUZAW6MrJAoCTccs6NvtAuLuYsMehWpJsNxLSbTpapHrIFGkjzsi_y/s1753/Eve_Become_Graphic-Too.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1310" data-original-width="1753" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmF-dL0qBugKqXhFSi4cwWCcQ_fDBcB_SKFbd2sojAxArgOvVaQ8nQOaT3oH2yylW4VFuQF39uNwOaXdQ7OxB1mc8lQTCjXdRDKzgDMDSAQk6JOi-HlACrT2waitdUZAW6MrJAoCTccs6NvtAuLuYsMehWpJsNxLSbTpapHrIFGkjzsi_y/w640-h478/Eve_Become_Graphic-Too.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinmM7BAYBmtZdDZuesa1ofvcXp2cKsCR2bp2H1kzPYzYJP3CxwXtfwMXCIkmxCeFpul1ga2sAMRNvEymN4tgZoiGX3N8FDddoEUlpbEXTCbMIfq-LEJ5ljHEhg-s9GZuDcNjFvvuyC2nm2romacg1dCTxW1uU8vsZ5N8yCZeCyBI8Rm2tS/s1307/Eve_Become_Spray.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1307" data-original-width="866" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinmM7BAYBmtZdDZuesa1ofvcXp2cKsCR2bp2H1kzPYzYJP3CxwXtfwMXCIkmxCeFpul1ga2sAMRNvEymN4tgZoiGX3N8FDddoEUlpbEXTCbMIfq-LEJ5ljHEhg-s9GZuDcNjFvvuyC2nm2romacg1dCTxW1uU8vsZ5N8yCZeCyBI8Rm2tS/w424-h640/Eve_Become_Spray.jpg" width="424" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtmd6tMJGi2kyfIgRnLwr4TMO23MaoAqC4Lr4cjk9z_HyYqSI6A3BoAIhAzGyNSPn-16JmWaJ789t39MOs6GMDIPbNUQ9rNyimu42qz2R8IoDiAHRMVY-ZWGGy7rKwLZB2Lp9cR8wj-n2778qhzFGYaZsa7VgtaB-bwGSV0u3_ILXVm2tJ/s1304/Eve_Confidence_Graphic-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1304" data-original-width="901" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtmd6tMJGi2kyfIgRnLwr4TMO23MaoAqC4Lr4cjk9z_HyYqSI6A3BoAIhAzGyNSPn-16JmWaJ789t39MOs6GMDIPbNUQ9rNyimu42qz2R8IoDiAHRMVY-ZWGGy7rKwLZB2Lp9cR8wj-n2778qhzFGYaZsa7VgtaB-bwGSV0u3_ILXVm2tJ/w442-h640/Eve_Confidence_Graphic-1.jpg" width="442" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZiMmVT3VBvfdBkgk8I_xeEWOacO6_Hzq3_7kI0SC6lXua1g2JfHsNmFzXjvU6OCCVjXWxM0i3GIT2dLPZYiPTb4dBlwX3MKrBTWCQdCa_vZi2Tjn-iysnIcLMz1mMHLd43eBX2NrWK0tbASSokun58hjkdNtRO1V-PgnmnAxMacXkF_K/s1309/Eve_Prive%CC%81_Painterly.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1309" data-original-width="905" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZiMmVT3VBvfdBkgk8I_xeEWOacO6_Hzq3_7kI0SC6lXua1g2JfHsNmFzXjvU6OCCVjXWxM0i3GIT2dLPZYiPTb4dBlwX3MKrBTWCQdCa_vZi2Tjn-iysnIcLMz1mMHLd43eBX2NrWK0tbASSokun58hjkdNtRO1V-PgnmnAxMacXkF_K/w442-h640/Eve_Prive%CC%81_Painterly.jpg" width="442" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9zXKiYWfnphsSHzVHrwzmnlRUAEQsk-0Vj67N6WeIAxVkV28EVsFVIfGqpuShV9R7re1PhDElklYq10FwmtUm7CaQksQmXeFA_N0zYbO3PYiiPcwBAEiw-v_Pw1rmZ_3sQ_UOZ0NY6yNb8br6ry19SMuIKiNvd7n3QJCd1TxKRsJQEpt/s1308/Eve_Truth_MeMeMe.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1308" data-original-width="868" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9zXKiYWfnphsSHzVHrwzmnlRUAEQsk-0Vj67N6WeIAxVkV28EVsFVIfGqpuShV9R7re1PhDElklYq10FwmtUm7CaQksQmXeFA_N0zYbO3PYiiPcwBAEiw-v_Pw1rmZ_3sQ_UOZ0NY6yNb8br6ry19SMuIKiNvd7n3QJCd1TxKRsJQEpt/w424-h640/Eve_Truth_MeMeMe.jpg" width="424" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIhLYgxWrhQjZYJkTbC2ZsAyGGLuMPgVDLwGhSlxPEub9uOs0p5yskKOq9r5pfX9S7esobbmgwv-o2Oumpisd-AWUeJuWIqFhM9PWzWUBXh8vG0GubtYcXAUU4-323YgbHpFjMXeZ8T6CEJL3S96rXRUJaq2bgdn87Tf_JpwQQbFhVRR7U/s1308/Eve_Truth_TRUTH.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1308" data-original-width="905" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIhLYgxWrhQjZYJkTbC2ZsAyGGLuMPgVDLwGhSlxPEub9uOs0p5yskKOq9r5pfX9S7esobbmgwv-o2Oumpisd-AWUeJuWIqFhM9PWzWUBXh8vG0GubtYcXAUU4-323YgbHpFjMXeZ8T6CEJL3S96rXRUJaq2bgdn87Tf_JpwQQbFhVRR7U/w442-h640/Eve_Truth_TRUTH.jpg" width="442" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">One of the things I'd offered to do as part of this job - in fact, something I offer all my clients now - is capture the process of making the work. This is a brilliant thing to do for two reasons; first, the client gets to see the process, which can not only help to shape the final outcome but can be really useful for communicating how long something might take, and what's involved in adjustments, and second, small snippets of film can add incredible value when it comes to social media and passing those 'peeks behind the curtain' into the client's audience and customers. So the pieces for this campaign were captured at almost every stage, in closeup, for integration into the final ads:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyLa2byJhL1l0I8vi-4SDH7fFqkWFLbgWw99gSVpD8m7PYXv9aEZ608QFPW7uZKTyGwUgrkjgTZbas' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeoc89BwArd4kmmdywXI1hPNGm8Cvb3jWxJvU7oK6nB8hERjQpzCUR5SWdli9Bth65Suv6s78DAAZkRTtmZdFgN7V2XNMQSaxFkBmzMkThjW8Fbl06ep-TOQAAvcaZYhMUfOX17MOQoF_wKK6UuxHOYyjxQ25yE8syoMusHWWN_KcMj2DZ/s1546/Avon%20Film%20Tests2-23%20at%2013.22.03.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1004" data-original-width="1546" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeoc89BwArd4kmmdywXI1hPNGm8Cvb3jWxJvU7oK6nB8hERjQpzCUR5SWdli9Bth65Suv6s78DAAZkRTtmZdFgN7V2XNMQSaxFkBmzMkThjW8Fbl06ep-TOQAAvcaZYhMUfOX17MOQoF_wKK6UuxHOYyjxQ25yE8syoMusHWWN_KcMj2DZ/w640-h416/Avon%20Film%20Tests2-23%20at%2013.22.03.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwwu10PLvQJ0vLDd-dh3RqutDbIOGs4fD1FX9JjmnrrY87qcRhueTiOCc4fNenL_itFWh2RKtahzOEWTg437WcrIcwd5eZsLfvTCVs2zpG-ldTJ8qedPib2s9ggP8t9Nf4wRiwrs9tNCDIh7JyDcUrUXzY8_qBmPhsJzsKsQBufUe8CCY/s705/Avon%20Film%20Tests2-23%20at%2013.21.30.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="705" height="538" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwwu10PLvQJ0vLDd-dh3RqutDbIOGs4fD1FX9JjmnrrY87qcRhueTiOCc4fNenL_itFWh2RKtahzOEWTg437WcrIcwd5eZsLfvTCVs2zpG-ldTJ8qedPib2s9ggP8t9Nf4wRiwrs9tNCDIh7JyDcUrUXzY8_qBmPhsJzsKsQBufUe8CCY/w640-h538/Avon%20Film%20Tests2-23%20at%2013.21.30.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_UwDT8GgNO22W2vLWU1HCcHYWTgGvJTJg4LTtn2Gi65-3p_mAxbW0Gbu2xn8BQ4uzOihwItJEtqNDv817dRtnw-ZCEmDpeRKeZV3c8kefxdj70PIvb5gKqxENwDyONyB9Qucve1tmXi-KWg92R0QWGzmBDqvXD-PIWWDyQcBLk2Xc_tHq/s1765/Avon%20Film%20Tests2-23%20at%2013.22.24.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="963" data-original-width="1765" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_UwDT8GgNO22W2vLWU1HCcHYWTgGvJTJg4LTtn2Gi65-3p_mAxbW0Gbu2xn8BQ4uzOihwItJEtqNDv817dRtnw-ZCEmDpeRKeZV3c8kefxdj70PIvb5gKqxENwDyONyB9Qucve1tmXi-KWg92R0QWGzmBDqvXD-PIWWDyQcBLk2Xc_tHq/w640-h350/Avon%20Film%20Tests2-23%20at%2013.22.24.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0AVTCCK2lXxvq8BtY29vRiHAOrT7GwC4UrUw9LQJ3DDU3GPExDjlP1_GTGSAvc5yCXjwEya8Z_Ogtf1vftc-ZzxtKnKm8r2obc4BlqWXpfgnZzHkpnRdAgUDmVeCsRp2jjarDWuYnR9CqDoV-sqKEN9Zw3MSyv6p4FUsNxqYGvOJh5way/s1791/Avon%20Film%20Tests2-23%20at%2013.22.54.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="1791" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0AVTCCK2lXxvq8BtY29vRiHAOrT7GwC4UrUw9LQJ3DDU3GPExDjlP1_GTGSAvc5yCXjwEya8Z_Ogtf1vftc-ZzxtKnKm8r2obc4BlqWXpfgnZzHkpnRdAgUDmVeCsRp2jjarDWuYnR9CqDoV-sqKEN9Zw3MSyv6p4FUsNxqYGvOJh5way/w640-h356/Avon%20Film%20Tests2-23%20at%2013.22.54.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj617AC2l_TBegN9Lud6PqIIF0PFNCo52lKnacH_wrxvyT26InRJmIzNIl8IAK9bLXi9KCKV2kmOwx_i7-KfopDYnPFDtaRUDhd4D3z45O3OgNB36LIBT7a77nh1sXXbCPpqc8YzRnCBIgBrWyouqPGcBJyWpGFSgatqOHXUisi1_qTqgHz/s1778/Avon%20Film%20Tests2-23%20at%2013.23.25.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="963" data-original-width="1778" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj617AC2l_TBegN9Lud6PqIIF0PFNCo52lKnacH_wrxvyT26InRJmIzNIl8IAK9bLXi9KCKV2kmOwx_i7-KfopDYnPFDtaRUDhd4D3z45O3OgNB36LIBT7a77nh1sXXbCPpqc8YzRnCBIgBrWyouqPGcBJyWpGFSgatqOHXUisi1_qTqgHz/w640-h346/Avon%20Film%20Tests2-23%20at%2013.23.25.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">The process of developing final pieces was a delightful sequence of back and forth between myself, art director Rich Gent and the Avon creative team, wrestling with the edges of ink, line quality, and just how organic the art should be. In the end, the final pieces were a mix of real sloppy ink on paper and digital work - maybe you can see which is which, maybe you can't!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBEa4MDJ5irjuWsES5EBqHWp0rjr4kdmcAMlFvaw20pngAYbc1PodzRlGwmSafbjMENqo9skj7Mj6s1h9TGFDkgqSeMblSLg2ZVdv1Xfw5KA-tO8XhCDfxTz3LpWABI-u8JEnF7XoYnkMykLWbq9Msy-GzCzKvu5wBlME2XomLF7PSpGfH/s3250/EVE-BECOME-LAYOUT-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2187" data-original-width="3250" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBEa4MDJ5irjuWsES5EBqHWp0rjr4kdmcAMlFvaw20pngAYbc1PodzRlGwmSafbjMENqo9skj7Mj6s1h9TGFDkgqSeMblSLg2ZVdv1Xfw5KA-tO8XhCDfxTz3LpWABI-u8JEnF7XoYnkMykLWbq9Msy-GzCzKvu5wBlME2XomLF7PSpGfH/w640-h430/EVE-BECOME-LAYOUT-1.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Lygvw6WZKcUFFgwP4f5TVsjhrtY574YUvbtAzxnjzBcBms6MU8q2gFZVHf7TJgSQJyaUX3AgA7RuUCVomAw7oqIYm2zs4lfPXMoJpZMrq82ub0lDaGe5aWmQRfy1bYRFe3KDLIkJgO6qgnwNhrkWb7AoxChgNnKyjRGDiv68Y9WPlden/s3242/EVE-BECOME-LAYOUT.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2196" data-original-width="3242" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Lygvw6WZKcUFFgwP4f5TVsjhrtY574YUvbtAzxnjzBcBms6MU8q2gFZVHf7TJgSQJyaUX3AgA7RuUCVomAw7oqIYm2zs4lfPXMoJpZMrq82ub0lDaGe5aWmQRfy1bYRFe3KDLIkJgO6qgnwNhrkWb7AoxChgNnKyjRGDiv68Y9WPlden/w640-h434/EVE-BECOME-LAYOUT.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnHzhFnCUH-655hpi3xmnj9dSac3PV1OH7o_Ox4_pkNbL2XlJ0tU4aSmRRc3Wz6Qfo1obAoYUYS6W6ikGUvlUrJCRbrF9JipQ3mv19GCCx9lFaNw6a0m1ps1sscsxr34fywgxMIN4EJ7anvrvU8Zg5z-t0oljQNG5Y6uxYJZr43I6C1Uq-/s3237/EVE-CONFIDENT-LAYOUT.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2204" data-original-width="3237" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnHzhFnCUH-655hpi3xmnj9dSac3PV1OH7o_Ox4_pkNbL2XlJ0tU4aSmRRc3Wz6Qfo1obAoYUYS6W6ikGUvlUrJCRbrF9JipQ3mv19GCCx9lFaNw6a0m1ps1sscsxr34fywgxMIN4EJ7anvrvU8Zg5z-t0oljQNG5Y6uxYJZr43I6C1Uq-/w640-h436/EVE-CONFIDENT-LAYOUT.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyEtneSaZJ1HrGGfTce5S584xrI7i40UPIEjFqp0Z3LUHj48ehlZLmwpDo89zqPnBvx238WU_-fzilKvBSnHzKykDKGxEvpRovmdet8fSPWd9LeTwebXf6E5hXpFYIJhei3rU0isOp4lMzNDZr2FeLv5neJvpKVtuj2Kg5JJ9VYcS5VRF_/s3250/EVE-PRIVE-LAYOUT.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2192" data-original-width="3250" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyEtneSaZJ1HrGGfTce5S584xrI7i40UPIEjFqp0Z3LUHj48ehlZLmwpDo89zqPnBvx238WU_-fzilKvBSnHzKykDKGxEvpRovmdet8fSPWd9LeTwebXf6E5hXpFYIJhei3rU0isOp4lMzNDZr2FeLv5neJvpKVtuj2Kg5JJ9VYcS5VRF_/w640-h432/EVE-PRIVE-LAYOUT.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz3gW919wMEjhadaAman9AAh5GMALpV9I92eqGe4hTliZDeLBKON8WJ-f-o1NEh5P8Yqws0ERtHem6J_bl5nAoQLUmbX1QqUqWkAydCXdRxJDfn8a0dOeICWdoUsYO_-0dmXvsOOu4sICyp0Xv2i6enKPsmRZZSmVb9ysAIMPm1hApz_2i/s3254/EVE-TRUTH-LAYOUT.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2187" data-original-width="3254" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz3gW919wMEjhadaAman9AAh5GMALpV9I92eqGe4hTliZDeLBKON8WJ-f-o1NEh5P8Yqws0ERtHem6J_bl5nAoQLUmbX1QqUqWkAydCXdRxJDfn8a0dOeICWdoUsYO_-0dmXvsOOu4sICyp0Xv2i6enKPsmRZZSmVb9ysAIMPm1hApz_2i/w640-h430/EVE-TRUTH-LAYOUT.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPXALpJypV4mjrP2jCycOfzZ0cLytO_dOluiA9jHLIygvkVsNNFhKSHrvRVxiHV2nZKzWWMK-iXVjsR6guL9_EyZUMGpXf0Ce2y-Z5WElfTp9vZpvCTtXqMMjCxDJH6RvfeWVEyIaqnF-gwDehk4wgeDPhreQPaV6Ea4SirWVsnuGgFiL/s1080/JPG_Eve%20Become_AvonOn_Backgrounds2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPXALpJypV4mjrP2jCycOfzZ0cLytO_dOluiA9jHLIygvkVsNNFhKSHrvRVxiHV2nZKzWWMK-iXVjsR6guL9_EyZUMGpXf0Ce2y-Z5WElfTp9vZpvCTtXqMMjCxDJH6RvfeWVEyIaqnF-gwDehk4wgeDPhreQPaV6Ea4SirWVsnuGgFiL/w640-h640/JPG_Eve%20Become_AvonOn_Backgrounds2.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlgk7K7bYDhar4zVoDgjJiKJg0JBWTXJN5ZE8__rOckCSt2SDsGxotpRx8UtWgpEg9tFGotUcGKVu1emq8WeWQwRcgxFao79ZF5cXF6WpPfxg3QfJNU0NDKm11lQTPEyyasDY09CzE2Yo1IrnS_gL2OlQxwtWHawvy64F_vEJUZqgr1xzU/s200/Avon-Thumbnail-Social-Video-6s-1x1.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlgk7K7bYDhar4zVoDgjJiKJg0JBWTXJN5ZE8__rOckCSt2SDsGxotpRx8UtWgpEg9tFGotUcGKVu1emq8WeWQwRcgxFao79ZF5cXF6WpPfxg3QfJNU0NDKm11lQTPEyyasDY09CzE2Yo1IrnS_gL2OlQxwtWHawvy64F_vEJUZqgr1xzU/w400-h400/Avon-Thumbnail-Social-Video-6s-1x1.gif" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">This little gif was a tidy example of how the team blended my</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;">live capture with video and stills from the shoot.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidHZH7YCpW31O_2OIzfzwOQMB6jxmW8sEuUp2lu_EnvagwFLnPydR8TeRG5W78xSE4eGIjJ2kLHM4EQiQ6tgYUHgyRr_OzD9eWCXuu9rg9puZM2V_Pb9YvkLrSLSPuFroVTd3tENSRawo5ouzu5FD2jXJBogISby6q32uut9niZfjhu7r1/s600/Eve-Become_Bottle-GIF-600.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidHZH7YCpW31O_2OIzfzwOQMB6jxmW8sEuUp2lu_EnvagwFLnPydR8TeRG5W78xSE4eGIjJ2kLHM4EQiQ6tgYUHgyRr_OzD9eWCXuu9rg9puZM2V_Pb9YvkLrSLSPuFroVTd3tENSRawo5ouzu5FD2jXJBogISby6q32uut9niZfjhu7r1/s16000/Eve-Become_Bottle-GIF-600.gif" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><b>Thanks to Rich, Lottie, Lesley and Melanie for involving me, and to my agents at CIA through whom the job arrived. It's become one of my favourite jobs ever!</b></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Alice;"><br /></span></div><br />Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-44480376654157580032023-01-18T19:08:00.004+00:002023-01-18T22:48:51.488+00:00"I can't imagine a life without music."<div><span style="font-size: x-large;">Gordon Hayes, owner of Nervous Records, the longest-serving record shop in Hinckley, died on Monday, and a town is in mourning.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><b>Gordon was our friend, and was thought of as a friend by most of our small Midlands town, it seems. </b>With sparkling blue eyes behind spectacles gently channelling those of his idol John Lennon, he wielded the exuberance and sparkle of someone much younger than his date of birth might suggest; sharp of wit, firm in his beliefs, he was unfiltered in his kindness and generosity.</div><div><br /></div><div>So far this sounds like the kind of write-up that would have him cringing, batting it away with a checked shirt sleeve while offering you a cup of tea. I can hear this distinctive voice tutting and laughing as I'm sitting here grappling for phrases that don't succumb to cliché. You can hear that gentle voice in <a href="https://www.fosse107.co.uk/news/local-news/tributes-pour-in-for-legendary-nervous-records-owner/?fbclid=IwAR1MhQkmx448FfFqMy2OM3bB-tNKK00NRBEt2EpymwdSzonS8dIHURVSPTs" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">this</span></a> interview.</div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4b__-Mg3ctmbeWZyOB2hZ-YmpP5Sg6aIEKYWgUhF6eCo6uLZpvqux2NNZmKA2yfp56WeHMSAf9m9eC6-bgv-I9wPasMcE6nHk3lVEqHFgeHkQ6JCEwjX7QrWJ9eaqEZl6-ZjgZB_vA1CEy55zbpmegLViIh2SwJfx_TYgs9fIjCCjwxVG/s810/26141618_2016-04-15_Feature-Gordon-Hayes-owner-ofJPG.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="810" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4b__-Mg3ctmbeWZyOB2hZ-YmpP5Sg6aIEKYWgUhF6eCo6uLZpvqux2NNZmKA2yfp56WeHMSAf9m9eC6-bgv-I9wPasMcE6nHk3lVEqHFgeHkQ6JCEwjX7QrWJ9eaqEZl6-ZjgZB_vA1CEy55zbpmegLViIh2SwJfx_TYgs9fIjCCjwxVG/w640-h426/26141618_2016-04-15_Feature-Gordon-Hayes-owner-ofJPG.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table>I grew up next door to Gordon's Dad, Eric, who lived at No. 4 Hays Lane. It was decades before I was corrected in my belief that the lane was named after Eric; it wasn't, as Gordon pointed out one day, because <i>his </i>'Hayes' has an 'E' in it. Gordon would arrive at No. 4 in a rocker's jacket with long hair, cool specs, looking grown-up and dramatic, and I would watch as this elongated, slim 'youth' wandered up the drive. That's Gordon, my Mum and Dad would say.</div><div><br /></div><div>He opened his shop in the 70s, and its history is the subject of <a href="http://charleswren.co.uk/project/peace-love-and-vinyl/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">this documentary</span></a>. And although the shop's breathtaking longevity is impressive in itself, surviving recessions, streaming, online shopping and pandemics, this blog is about the man who ran it.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMF2NQvhRLjwEDamE3fwgagXfErznGejegCLI6vqlSPypfuEin7tJxQHqUczZnl3e_cc1O2rVJc5w8ACE9PCKm_YWDyz1JHkVhba-3Zi-WKeCBE2MgzQsYp1_lIg4YnUJAw0JgzJkeBf6cgfaFacgEZ9EBLW2YQ5WvrmEGIriZybHRiXc/s75/Gordon-Red-Dink.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" height="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMF2NQvhRLjwEDamE3fwgagXfErznGejegCLI6vqlSPypfuEin7tJxQHqUczZnl3e_cc1O2rVJc5w8ACE9PCKm_YWDyz1JHkVhba-3Zi-WKeCBE2MgzQsYp1_lIg4YnUJAw0JgzJkeBf6cgfaFacgEZ9EBLW2YQ5WvrmEGIriZybHRiXc/s1600/Gordon-Red-Dink.jpg" width="75" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>He bought our records, we bought his; he ordered in the rare things for us. We sold him records, he sold our 45rpm adapters during the years that we made them. He bought our vegan solid chocolate eggs and we drank tea. There were all the conversations in the Co-op; the joy over their vegan doughnuts, when such things were still a distant fantasy for us. His horror when it closed down - how far was he going to have to walk now! I still refer to brussels sprouts the same way as him, my fellow sprout-lover— ‘little cabbages’. I even designed him a new shop logo once; I think he used it on paper, but it never made it to the shopfront (why would it, when his hand-rendered type stands as bold and clear today as the day it went up?)</div><div><br /></div><div>And he was our biggest cheerleader when we released a 12" with <a href="https://strangefamousrecords.com/artists/sage-francis/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">Sage Francis</span></a>:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEGGUturXwiqrI3aDJr3-FcxFada7JUJmu_IlqhDRCei2lNVlTLcUNFyeatbVzXjapcHBZ4jqz7KKTm4iDwQR3v78m6_TO7QO2ih_Jh_ajTgz8to7BXxi7aaxQQ_Cp9gS6bGkiupWBn3Mf9x7aj8wtRDRv8VhkQcRi12hX8ClU3Mr5rBT/s3264/IMG_0919.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEGGUturXwiqrI3aDJr3-FcxFada7JUJmu_IlqhDRCei2lNVlTLcUNFyeatbVzXjapcHBZ4jqz7KKTm4iDwQR3v78m6_TO7QO2ih_Jh_ajTgz8to7BXxi7aaxQQ_Cp9gS6bGkiupWBn3Mf9x7aj8wtRDRv8VhkQcRi12hX8ClU3Mr5rBT/w480-h640/IMG_0919.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Gordon came to our gallery events and surprised me with his never-diminishing interest in my work. I worried I was boring him if I went off on a work chat, but he was always curious. Maybe I was still the art-school teenager in his eyes; the one that would have walked into his shop asking for awkward records when I could easily have sought them from the 'other' record shop - the one I didn't like to go in, because the staff could be aloof and they never had what I wanted.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBo2kminLfAzUPFYeGtkocSC37jgVcA9Yl0vV50xIoxhgBn9lvRYEtdY3IXF91RtkuMasy7yAU2ikH_RaKjT0oppabry9R5iAKKzA_g0hh9dj0m6WvOq9CmCzPD8azcs0ydi-yPYPLaYUDKoygfMJbGFjP68FFpV6UIqmbYvaFqOFwBh_b/s3888/Gordon%20@%20Buddy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="2592" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBo2kminLfAzUPFYeGtkocSC37jgVcA9Yl0vV50xIoxhgBn9lvRYEtdY3IXF91RtkuMasy7yAU2ikH_RaKjT0oppabry9R5iAKKzA_g0hh9dj0m6WvOq9CmCzPD8azcs0ydi-yPYPLaYUDKoygfMJbGFjP68FFpV6UIqmbYvaFqOFwBh_b/w426-h640/Gordon%20@%20Buddy.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5DApYi3_IJUKUbuXY3PiqlfvWijBYDOzOGlF1zlj1QrnGjqSWDEKFnxTjqwsyZIYMiVVPypPZIx6qcB_lH6irANk54PpZcfcaRuO1Vvm645HuovFUKjR7yIyvTFk2jTDG71z9Z9EqR_d9T_yBgBqPOYcP6OiGxXDsrg-fv6WO7I-X_rh5/s3888/Gordon%20@%20Buddy%20Too.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2592" data-original-width="3888" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5DApYi3_IJUKUbuXY3PiqlfvWijBYDOzOGlF1zlj1QrnGjqSWDEKFnxTjqwsyZIYMiVVPypPZIx6qcB_lH6irANk54PpZcfcaRuO1Vvm645HuovFUKjR7yIyvTFk2jTDG71z9Z9EqR_d9T_yBgBqPOYcP6OiGxXDsrg-fv6WO7I-X_rh5/w400-h266/Gordon%20@%20Buddy%20Too.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Speaking of work, his DIY ethic was front and centre, and a significant contributor to our own modus operandi. Of particular charm were Gordon's hand-drawn shop signs. Long ago established as a way to save cash, his beautiful, almost casually-calligraphic letters were called upon to write every sale board and every poster. He somehow managed to master kerning and justification without resort to digital means - no small achievement. The little stars too; check out the little stars!</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjypWD9Mb7U_9l1c5V7eZkbxWoLQCVWeFRWNyNeCaOyUR0jGCAQ6YXMscfTlWmX4aQEFMxZDVDeI53VNEK653zWlbQLQavmxeq67pv-kqKQWM6rDPliL9fYWji6EvzRXlvYViA3V7614xoymfZ_-2Al4GUvWSRLolqaprluO7VwM2fU9AL6/s4032/IMG_2379.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjypWD9Mb7U_9l1c5V7eZkbxWoLQCVWeFRWNyNeCaOyUR0jGCAQ6YXMscfTlWmX4aQEFMxZDVDeI53VNEK653zWlbQLQavmxeq67pv-kqKQWM6rDPliL9fYWji6EvzRXlvYViA3V7614xoymfZ_-2Al4GUvWSRLolqaprluO7VwM2fU9AL6/w480-h640/IMG_2379.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">I was emailing him a week or so ago, as he'd sent me his annual home-produced birthday card - always funny. His last words to me were "Again, just the one at the back!" - I chuckled, but it wouldn't be funny here even if I tried to explain it. Gordon's desire to argue his point was strong and informed, but he was also a listener. His lapel badges and posters were a neat non-verbal heads-up to his stance on a way of life - which you could choose to engage with or not - and wherever you stood on the spectrum of those issues, he'd talk with you about them all. His influence was such that, having had to give up dairy in 1997 as an already non-meat eater, I was inspired to cut the remaining animal-based foods and products from my life, like Gordon. We continue to live that way today, and in further examples, we're able to reflect back on our music-buying and identify the things that came to us through the Nervous sphere of influence.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLxDkmBrs9vL8xmHBLoxW2wHYwJGOgLWj1MxtpGnYCWA-aWV-VeTcDmkf-ANcQ1dL1EcSYz1_x4NODVwGHBCQIfb-C55g1kM6zDSsmq0WwI4oX1i1dcgha6eukQux0HLsSYmQPY8WfpQ2SfBIH9Anb6ekpYqttAV5cQBbb5VydtiEWDopM/s75/Gordon-Red-Dink.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" height="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLxDkmBrs9vL8xmHBLoxW2wHYwJGOgLWj1MxtpGnYCWA-aWV-VeTcDmkf-ANcQ1dL1EcSYz1_x4NODVwGHBCQIfb-C55g1kM6zDSsmq0WwI4oX1i1dcgha6eukQux0HLsSYmQPY8WfpQ2SfBIH9Anb6ekpYqttAV5cQBbb5VydtiEWDopM/s1600/Gordon-Red-Dink.jpg" width="75" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>In the hours after the news of his death was made public,</b> Gordon’s many customers began deploying the word 'legend' - and when I looked it up, I realised it wasn't a lazy superlative; it actually fitted like the proverbial Smiths' Hand In Glove:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div><div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_3XTi2pjvduqYVRMSDJ2aOSnKnoU5WgMYukwXcPw8payERAUfx2uFKTDKNEjaqiRay1Ly7L7MBO_ld8gDVU5jbAWoISRKJi0lqbU4DOg2kBPeSJE8QcuQE9zPmz3GJE7oLAdxNxQKNpAU5usACStPxh98btK5LYP-rQjKfSMs5Bq3AYI/s978/IMG_2384.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="978" height="65" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_3XTi2pjvduqYVRMSDJ2aOSnKnoU5WgMYukwXcPw8payERAUfx2uFKTDKNEjaqiRay1Ly7L7MBO_ld8gDVU5jbAWoISRKJi0lqbU4DOg2kBPeSJE8QcuQE9zPmz3GJE7oLAdxNxQKNpAU5usACStPxh98btK5LYP-rQjKfSMs5Bq3AYI/s320/IMG_2384.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>His legendary status came from his humility, his wealth of knowledge, his ethical stance, his humour and warm welcome. There’s more, but they’re all quality traits in a human. His existence on earth spanned seven decades, so not only did he possess a musical knowledge that was empirical and encyclopaedic, he had a customer base that was multi-generational: people all over the area knew him, but so did their Grandpas, their Mums, Aunties, siblings - and then their children. The poet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Wakefield" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">Buddy Wakefield</span></a>, seen with Gordon in the photograph above, said "truly humble people don't use the word humble"; Gordon's humility first and foremost seemed to shape everything else he did and was.</div><div><br /></div><div>He's gone. But someone on Facebook said that they thought Gordon "was just always going to be there" - and in all the ways that truly matter, he will be.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIxm7dBl2UN2DfqHa4pquV1ymEQ11tvq9Ggdc42ySOz23e0fL3nJMUfwrJsl32_4vTNTCPyC1YWFf45WqYGr6p1rccx2htDCXCFNZJDrkIAD6ZajZEAyv1S_tKYzaKXeTyuiMVXW6J6jKgPAt81EGO74x2X0zLja8qefioPi24aZWPCZEK/s2048/Gordon%20@%20Shop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1153" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIxm7dBl2UN2DfqHa4pquV1ymEQ11tvq9Ggdc42ySOz23e0fL3nJMUfwrJsl32_4vTNTCPyC1YWFf45WqYGr6p1rccx2htDCXCFNZJDrkIAD6ZajZEAyv1S_tKYzaKXeTyuiMVXW6J6jKgPAt81EGO74x2X0zLja8qefioPi24aZWPCZEK/w640-h360/Gordon%20@%20Shop.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTpvsJ6dJsWEYfga8o2ubST8mR47qV9zvnWY_vczPnuZNbgQw8EW4_CnP_5kt_FLE5lInD09LNxS9GIqLJVG8qgPmWdaksvemyvhcSXKh-yl_qMbWH8qvebfVXikUVCGEyF0kgunRC3vmM6KH_wSzlvCIEM7ntSPJ-vTaBey5G_qKdYAu9/s3024/IMG_2397.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTpvsJ6dJsWEYfga8o2ubST8mR47qV9zvnWY_vczPnuZNbgQw8EW4_CnP_5kt_FLE5lInD09LNxS9GIqLJVG8qgPmWdaksvemyvhcSXKh-yl_qMbWH8qvebfVXikUVCGEyF0kgunRC3vmM6KH_wSzlvCIEM7ntSPJ-vTaBey5G_qKdYAu9/w640-h640/IMG_2397.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxzZzOMgZNQM87NlKsyuwdeS2BLFOZLgUnxRYURhPUG9xVINcAEpzOJD_IOF7pgNkDw8VJQvdNfB3434c1JfqXep_q_SSq4OwJmEtoigjXNXE8loKoJUGNrFoinf6dx-x45Utbb5TvC3qsLmhPT1cRsAgGYKpJ7a69DZU0oflQBX011369/s4032/IMG_2403.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxzZzOMgZNQM87NlKsyuwdeS2BLFOZLgUnxRYURhPUG9xVINcAEpzOJD_IOF7pgNkDw8VJQvdNfB3434c1JfqXep_q_SSq4OwJmEtoigjXNXE8loKoJUGNrFoinf6dx-x45Utbb5TvC3qsLmhPT1cRsAgGYKpJ7a69DZU0oflQBX011369/w480-h640/IMG_2403.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">~ The growing collection of tributes outside Gordon's shop today, 18th January 2023. ~</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1yMVCvCwQkyXtmm63TmHTvlQWXmVCq4Bs2CaUIcZr-EeYdbCsrdAbxWRm6a5duye_q5yJ-BCpM-s08qTh_HDoISSt_yqiXZpjCRjeTi7Seq23Ky_jqazdBaIxQLps0iLkssYSUJT_uEitqG-EuixHS8GOp6gqo2AihqBZvN8KpeUxj6x/s75/Gordon-Red-Dink.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" height="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1yMVCvCwQkyXtmm63TmHTvlQWXmVCq4Bs2CaUIcZr-EeYdbCsrdAbxWRm6a5duye_q5yJ-BCpM-s08qTh_HDoISSt_yqiXZpjCRjeTi7Seq23Ky_jqazdBaIxQLps0iLkssYSUJT_uEitqG-EuixHS8GOp6gqo2AihqBZvN8KpeUxj6x/s1600/Gordon-Red-Dink.jpg" width="75" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;"><span><b>Photos:</b> First (</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 20); color: #141414; letter-spacing: -0.07px; text-indent: 20px;">Will Johnston/Leicester Mercury) </span><span>and last photo of Gordon </span><span>borrowed from The Hinckley Times </span><span>where I briefly worked as a typesetter of obituaries for a while. All other photographs are my own.</span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;"><span><br /></span></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><br />Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-51605269862208767502023-01-18T14:45:00.004+00:002023-01-18T14:45:47.386+00:00The Annual Fist Fight.<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I've just seen someone talking about a website called </span><a href="https://myfutureself.com/help/about/" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); font-size: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">My Future Self</span></b></a><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> where you write to yourself privately and check back in later - either much later, or just a few months. The potential for encouraging, moving, sorrowful or grateful readings years later is all there, and it seized my imagination in the moment. What a novel idea, I thought.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-size: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />But then I remembered I've been writing myself a letter every single year for the past 16, 17, 18 years - I can't remember how long, as I don't always keep the letters. I do it once a year, and I always do it as I'm taking the Christmas tree down, filing the letter in a sealed envelope deep in the decorations box. Then, when it's time for the decs to be put out once again, the letter is there, and I'm able to review where I was - and see where I am, in comparison.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">Every single time I forget a letter's going to be in there, then I laugh at my own surprise, and then I see it and I put off reading it because I'm a sombre little sod with </span><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capricorn_(astrology)" target="_blank"><span style="color: #b45f06;">a leaning to the saturnine</span></a></b><span style="color: #0f1419;">, </span></span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">especially at the turning of the year when Christmas is over and I've a whole year yawning out before me. No-one reads this letter, and I wholeheartedly don't want them to; I can't bear the idea. It's addressed to Moley, because that's what Leigh calls me and it's what I feel is most purely and entirely Me. And usually, in that moment, I'm feeling a bit</span> </span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">small and mammalian</span> <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">with trouble seeing into the distance.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Moley's usually a bit sad, and the letter's always long and a bit rushed, because I write it between dusting and wrapping up decorations. I never thought I did journaling - I react to the word with the cynical lip-curl of a teenager who thinks All That Stuff Is Bollocks (which is a cringingly obvious sign I probably should be doing some of it) - but I realise this is what <i>this is</i>, albeit with entries a year apart.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">What do learn when I read these letters? </span></span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, I learn that I <i>love</i> to moan it all out onto the paper. All the things I can't say to anyone. I am very cross with myself, often. I definitely swear a lot and I stay angry about things. not exactly grudges, but if I spot something that seems to be afflicting me fro one year to the next, I can see that I get really f*cking angry about it. I like to take it all out on myself. I like to take it out on others, too. I like to choose a different sparkling fountain pen ink to do it with, the glitter gel pens of the same eye-rolling teenager much in evidence. And I also see that the struggle is real when it comes to giving gratitude: these letters have shown me year on year that I can only see the things that aren't sorted, that weren't done, and that still need work.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">Work itself, actually, isn't mentioned that much - a significant book publication or project might get a nod, but that's not what this is about; I have </span><a href="http://inkstagram.ink" style="white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Instagram</span></b></a><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> (for now) to show me chronology of professional high points. When it comes down to it, my assessment of the success of the year hinges on three things, and is seen through the prism of those: my relationships, my health, my mind, and </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); white-space: pre-wrap;">the stuff I<i> didn't </i>do.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">I still have a lip-curling teen reaction to the idea of journaling, of </span><a href="https://jvns.ca/blog/brag-documents/#template" style="white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">brag documents</span></b></a><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">; I'm not comfortable with end of year round-ups of my achievements on social media (though we do that privately, making coffee and going over the previous year's wall planner before we put it away) but I wonder if I need to rethink my approach. Because left to my own devices, left to my own blank page, I only fill it with ire. And the amount of stuff to be grateful for, and celebrate</span>, is actually overwhelming.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="color: #0f1419;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"Beating yourself up is never a fair fight"</i> - <a href="https://andreagibson.org" target="_blank"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Andrea Gibson</span></a></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><div> </div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="color: #0f1419;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0RlR9IL_QYO7RYP2u5USdL9TMALYrIBN6Df4uLUH7L1TPd1SfN30HI_m8wxDdVsGoRZ-JBuaeqSxjml5WakgrRy389JSd8s9dJzwgbHYFJlaQ43RisUEkLJYosEIOOXFotxNiUKiJ6FDFA0L2oLXDFqxW7B_anA-MfuB8aZl9jLI7bMzm/s1024/B4AD257F-DBF0-45F8-AFBD-00A3E713FF8F_1_105_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0RlR9IL_QYO7RYP2u5USdL9TMALYrIBN6Df4uLUH7L1TPd1SfN30HI_m8wxDdVsGoRZ-JBuaeqSxjml5WakgrRy389JSd8s9dJzwgbHYFJlaQ43RisUEkLJYosEIOOXFotxNiUKiJ6FDFA0L2oLXDFqxW7B_anA-MfuB8aZl9jLI7bMzm/w480-h640/B4AD257F-DBF0-45F8-AFBD-00A3E713FF8F_1_105_c.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.idlesband.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">Line by IDLES.</span></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="color: #0f1419;"><br /></span></span></span></div>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-36395200767312562172023-01-05T18:42:00.000+00:002023-01-05T18:42:01.520+00:00In Spite Of It All, Life Is Beautiful.<div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAhL8L5bZ-oPiA1-GndsJlwXTpCNHQMedrgVtmJYgs2BxQiAE_-2QlPfGldeBVKyL1wA9DR2mGvQjdS5WSUdIBgcJJmlRJSYoG1Tc_UbZRfY2F6ruSOlzvXGUjyA4jfyu7kGPcMqhToc55hLqVFdVmVjV3SumGxTpvVa6r-wiCkCt5jMRj/s688/In-Spite-of-It-All-600px.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAhL8L5bZ-oPiA1-GndsJlwXTpCNHQMedrgVtmJYgs2BxQiAE_-2QlPfGldeBVKyL1wA9DR2mGvQjdS5WSUdIBgcJJmlRJSYoG1Tc_UbZRfY2F6ruSOlzvXGUjyA4jfyu7kGPcMqhToc55hLqVFdVmVjV3SumGxTpvVa6r-wiCkCt5jMRj/s16000/In-Spite-of-It-All-600px.gif" /></a></div><b style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">For 2022's Christmas project </b><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I decided, in a break from 20+ years of massive annual mailings, that I wouldn't post anything - Autumn's Royal Mail overwhelm, the cost of postage, workload and the strikes led me to that decision. Instead, I decided to make an animation instead, and make a very small print run for only those people I could physically hand a card to.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #050505;">As you may know if you've already seen my posts in December, I chose to illustrate this excellent line by the band </span><a href="https://www.idlesband.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #999999;">Idles</span></b></a><span style="color: #050505;">; it comes toward the end of their track 'The End', from their album Crawler. </span></span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The end of the year, with its political, social, economic and emotional landscape almost begging to be served a reminder of this line's sentiment, was the opportunity to deploy the words we've loved since hearing them hurled out from singer Joe Talbot's passionate jaws for the first time.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">They were printed in a single colour using one of my tiny Japanese Gocco printers, which use a system that's halfway <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>between a screen print and a rubber stamp. The Gocco can be notoriously difficult to get a good outcome from, but this one came out right first time and was the perfect printing machine for this style of work.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I've been using Goccos for almost 20 years now, and have made myriad projects with them.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">A relative of the Riso (it's actually </span></span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">made by Riso) the Gocco is a 1980s toy made for children, also used by adults and now something of a cult item, and is a gnarly, unpredictable and joyful little beast which uses small screens that are exposed with old-fashioned flash bulbs, similar to the kind you'd get with a separate flash unit on a 35mm camera. Battery-operated, the flash bulbs are single-use, as are the screws, so this is robustly </span><i style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</i><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a great environmental choice - but it is obsolete, with consumables hard to find (I collect them!) that would otherwise simply be landfilled - but I've already got an alternative screen solution lined up for when that day comes.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">A to-size original is printed by laser printer into white paper, which has to have a nice and deep, even toner application - this can alternatively be created to-scale using the carbon-based Gocco pens you can still find from time to time. A new screen slid into the holder, then placed under the plastic window where pressure is applied to the lid - this houses the batteries - and the popping flash bulbs expose the screen. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ink's then applied to the screen one colour at a time and built up once each colour dries.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those are the basics, anyway. There's</span> </span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">quite a bit more to it than that, but I'm going to save the detail for a </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">video I'm making</span> <span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">to accompany the still-sealed Gocco I have coming up for sale, if anyone is interested! I already have four...five is getting carried away...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I Gocco'd some envelopes too, and realised with horror that about 10 of our best chums were too far away to deliver by hand (I obviously didn't think it through all the way!) so <i>did</i> post a handful using these brilliant google-eyed fruit and veg stamps I'd saved for a rainy day - they must be 15 years old at least! But not the 1000 or so I would have posted in previous (aka 'pre-Covid') years.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #050505;">I loved how these turned out, and although I adore Christmas and every speck of glitter associated with it, I sent them to people with myriad religious views and attitudes to the season of Santa, so I made them gently non-Christmassy. For that reason I also printed a heap of extras, to put in the shop, as they carry a simple message of affirmation, without the tyranny of the toxic positivity trotted out from so many memes and home decorations. You can find them at </span><b><a href="http://shop.inkymole.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999;">shop.inkymole.com</span></a></b><span style="color: #050505;"> while stocks last.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwOI5zvGiMmhlzdcETD08wRmoTFyDIardzghThcXbv73BSOVkCn208_khh8V5glBy8hbjt_o279qmr2nhKwPbDyRi4flhwyA8H8jBUpRqyjoNVRyDQZs8UQn4cu9BixfT63iWxz3OFWTtMuGbnI32HX_X2OXCvneO1H5OtQfzSU-vSRFbF/s4032/IMG_1927.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwOI5zvGiMmhlzdcETD08wRmoTFyDIardzghThcXbv73BSOVkCn208_khh8V5glBy8hbjt_o279qmr2nhKwPbDyRi4flhwyA8H8jBUpRqyjoNVRyDQZs8UQn4cu9BixfT63iWxz3OFWTtMuGbnI32HX_X2OXCvneO1H5OtQfzSU-vSRFbF/w480-h640/IMG_1927.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #050505;"><br /></span></span></span></div></div>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-77298109587423159842022-11-21T15:14:00.003+00:002022-11-21T15:14:45.252+00:00Payment for freelancers: it needs to evolve. It really, really does.<p>I got quite upset the other day when I got the call to collect a repaired car. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="423c">It was my sister’s; I’d organised the repair in her absence, and I told the garage she’d settle the bill when she was back from her holiday. But of course, the garage, quite correctly, reminded me it couldn’t release the car without payment. So I paid.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b7b8">Then it hit me. In that moment, as I settled the bill, I wondered why is it that <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">I</em> am expected to release ready-to-use artwork and then wait weeks or months for payment, often long after the work’s actually been deployed by the client?</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="1912">I was staggered to grasp in that moment that in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">almost 30 years of working</strong> as a full time freelance illustrator running a limited company, the payment system hasn’t evolved. Every time I ask for a deposit, I’m looked at askance. Historically, too, suggesting it to an agent has them running scared — fearing that if <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">their </em>agency charges a deposit and the next one doesn’t, the client will simply go to that next one instead. There’s been the occasional downpayment, but in hundreds and hundreds of jobs, I can probably count those on my fingers.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="8073">It takes boldness to bring about change and I’ve felt like a lone voice for years, but I was overwhelmed that day by how different my financial machinations could look if work was paid for <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">on delivery</em> of artwork.</p><h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="6a5e">I can’t believe I’m still having this discussion, actually.</h4><p class="graf graf--p" name="1ad4"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">There’s hope.</strong> One client recently offered what they called their ‘new-style’ contract, nervous I wouldn’t like it — but it offered a third on signing the contract, a third on delivery of artwork, and the final third when the work was published. Now THAT sounded…evolved. Still not perfect, but thoughtful. And I couldn’t sign quick enough.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="84ba">I’ve three decades of managing a business with a traditionally difficult and unpredictable cashflow; I’m <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">good</em> at it. But I’d rather not have had to get good at managing a wildly fluctuating income, based not on a variable stream of work but on the unknowable due date of the payment for that work. I spend a lot of business hours managing money, and always have — hours that could be spent doing other things. And seriously; in all that time, despite the increases in speed at which work can be generated and sent, the immediacy of modern bank transfers, the myriad options for quick online payments, technological marvels and invoice management, the system for ‘talent-makes-work > bills client > client uses work > sits on payment’ hasn’t changed.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7c5d"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">And it really, really needs to.</strong></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7c5d"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHT3vZuwB0zg4weAHpvuQMOW5eg4AdcPPbB99-pUlGpa_MVb96rokRY_JMxOb0VXTzdYAB4FoWAFQe1lQhXI8YSXP1cacapvsKHxh9xSIx9QhE10NbqZJrgkwIi7t4ew7kkPev8n0Vmce8_xIIdRRs2sviZElUI2bNRpoZQG0v8EzR1p2S/s1458/Screenshot%202022-11-21%20at%2015.11.10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1408" data-original-width="1458" height="618" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHT3vZuwB0zg4weAHpvuQMOW5eg4AdcPPbB99-pUlGpa_MVb96rokRY_JMxOb0VXTzdYAB4FoWAFQe1lQhXI8YSXP1cacapvsKHxh9xSIx9QhE10NbqZJrgkwIi7t4ew7kkPev8n0Vmce8_xIIdRRs2sviZElUI2bNRpoZQG0v8EzR1p2S/w640-h618/Screenshot%202022-11-21%20at%2015.11.10.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><br /></strong><p></p>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-34648421698696479912022-10-20T17:45:00.001+01:002022-10-20T17:45:06.101+01:00Thank you Marcia Willett: all those books, and all those titles.<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>I might do all sorts of fancy stuff as part of this job, but I've always done simple lettering for book covers - hundreds of them, many of which I never post.</b></span></span></p><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505;">I love doing them though, especially this ongoing series for </span><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1qq9wsj xo1l8bm" href="https://marciawillett.co.uk" rel="nofollow" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank"><span class="xt0psk2" style="display: inline;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Marcia Willett</span></b><span style="color: var(--accent);">'s</span></span></a><span style="color: #050505;"> books, playing my small part in these massively bestselling books.</span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today, on the day her most recent book is published - </span><b style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/173664/marcia-willett" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Christmas At The Keep</span></a></b><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - I learn that she has died. She was amazingly prolific and adored by her readers, and I truly will miss working on her titles.</span></span></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXmX6R_SaOj0jeTfEjq2qgFGSsz7rNPZk5hrtHWvCWl42afJU39AqYCFpfyR3vzNGKupzB9i-b9LFfX6ao2tEPHlourFrAYj71GNPL9mChoc1zGdm_NTS4W-bZUY2RDFZX5NNvUYI0BjQUX9jjqK_52Kxsk-17Rm6WwTi6qlswjxIztZSR/s1860/Screenshot%202022-10-20%20at%2017.21.43.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1860" data-original-width="1814" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXmX6R_SaOj0jeTfEjq2qgFGSsz7rNPZk5hrtHWvCWl42afJU39AqYCFpfyR3vzNGKupzB9i-b9LFfX6ao2tEPHlourFrAYj71GNPL9mChoc1zGdm_NTS4W-bZUY2RDFZX5NNvUYI0BjQUX9jjqK_52Kxsk-17Rm6WwTi6qlswjxIztZSR/w624-h640/Screenshot%202022-10-20%20at%2017.21.43.png" width="624" /></a></div><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPvwWnMMh5bOQcgwyb3dknuVc9M-tAc1xhObqMBTMin0pABN_DE259m-uQaRr6SJaDZ6pTrX0mfYW54gjcQaSwkxBwNE1PxO1CuL_6FAF6VS1iUkBX-JALgW8g1ix-47T_Tmfgvwr3R0ODR9ugqI8DHibQi2_1fyxnbiQwZcdVf-wS5QmU/s2052/Screen%20Shot%202018-11-01%20at%2012.55.40.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2052" data-original-width="1336" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPvwWnMMh5bOQcgwyb3dknuVc9M-tAc1xhObqMBTMin0pABN_DE259m-uQaRr6SJaDZ6pTrX0mfYW54gjcQaSwkxBwNE1PxO1CuL_6FAF6VS1iUkBX-JALgW8g1ix-47T_Tmfgvwr3R0ODR9ugqI8DHibQi2_1fyxnbiQwZcdVf-wS5QmU/w417-h640/Screen%20Shot%202018-11-01%20at%2012.55.40.png" width="417" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1YXsNVickA-QsQceWOqUR5f95Xo6MA5O5qJYSm74tcUXO9dTiU-IC_qkiRyvfTnXc6FAbJJCMZLEls-v5czNqVH-pjvedsnT2i8z4AG9mBeQiJbxTby_7LOUMk4TQCGtSIIIifMrfHB7SOUdTyyEsZPFCjhlmJxSR7nTLnDjxn70d4y1Z/s500/9780552177207-jacket-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="321" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1YXsNVickA-QsQceWOqUR5f95Xo6MA5O5qJYSm74tcUXO9dTiU-IC_qkiRyvfTnXc6FAbJJCMZLEls-v5czNqVH-pjvedsnT2i8z4AG9mBeQiJbxTby_7LOUMk4TQCGtSIIIifMrfHB7SOUdTyyEsZPFCjhlmJxSR7nTLnDjxn70d4y1Z/w410-h640/9780552177207-jacket-large.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5b5oeAZ3YF2w70UDGGeThq0ea52ZN-n7x0owWk7xjQ_Y12WP4M1xhaChFVyGeE_i_7TBTY0fZNCPGHS1vtfkxaWR5Ih5Lk-WaJBUfvNhNs3kppC7LFkxe8ZW5s8tnoTeoOPs4szy9wFyiM0JJPu0mZ2elp06KK4waLzsGKvTH68q_Y2Qp/s2835/TheGardenHouse_9781787632264_Hardback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2835" data-original-width="1843" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5b5oeAZ3YF2w70UDGGeThq0ea52ZN-n7x0owWk7xjQ_Y12WP4M1xhaChFVyGeE_i_7TBTY0fZNCPGHS1vtfkxaWR5Ih5Lk-WaJBUfvNhNs3kppC7LFkxe8ZW5s8tnoTeoOPs4szy9wFyiM0JJPu0mZ2elp06KK4waLzsGKvTH68q_Y2Qp/w416-h640/TheGardenHouse_9781787632264_Hardback.jpg" width="416" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></span></span></div>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-35611167105163216342022-10-05T15:48:00.006+01:002022-10-05T15:48:55.821+01:00You’re too expensive, Sarah.<div class="separator"></div><p><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vqof4cYpab4/Yz2Yz6hIZUI/AAAAAAAAMSI/5GlCDBar2qgPgjPN2Fn-btqGsm97HP-DgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1972/Screenshot%2B2022-10-05%2Bat%2B15.40.07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1972" data-original-width="1594" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vqof4cYpab4/Yz2Yz6hIZUI/AAAAAAAAMSI/5GlCDBar2qgPgjPN2Fn-btqGsm97HP-DgCNcBGAsYHQ/w518-h640/Screenshot%2B2022-10-05%2Bat%2B15.40.07.png" width="518" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I've done LOADS of book covers - here are a few!</td></tr></tbody></table></strong><br /></p><p><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;">Here’s how a conversation went last week about a new book cover. </span></strong><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;">I’m posting it because it’s not the first of its type, and its tone bothered me.</span></strong></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5044"><span style="color: #444444;">It’s a neat encapsulation of the kind of conversation I’m having more and more, but I wonder if you, as reader, also see the client’s emphasis on <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">me</em> charging<em class="markup--em markup--p-em"> too much</em>, rather than the client offering too little.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b486"><span style="color: #444444;">Friendly and professional, it’s message <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">beneath</em> the words that I’m concerned about.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f942"><span style="color: #444444;">— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="4cb8"><span style="color: #444444;">I was taught from the very beginning that the client approaches the illustrator (or photographer, or designer), outlines what they would like doing, and asks for a quote or estimate. The artist then generates a proposed figure, often with a scope of work and terms, which the client may accept, reject, or negotiate on.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="03ad"><span style="color: #444444;">I don’t remember me ever telling my builder what he should charge for the job I’ve asked him to do, told my accountancy firm they should actually halve their bill, nor listened to an estimate from my car mechanic and told him that no, actually £200 is all I’ve got, so.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="0664"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em"><span style="color: #444444;">But almost thirty years into this industry, am I out of date with this line of thinking?</span></em></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="a2f0"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em"><span style="color: #444444;">In this climate is it a case of ‘take anything going’ and I should be grateful?</span></em></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f712"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em"><span style="color: #444444;">Are the days of determining your own fees gone, or am I right to adhere to a career-long policy of curating my own fee structure?</span></em></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7bc4"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em"><span style="color: #444444;">Could an AI system make this cover for zero pence instead, and should I therefore just be happy I was approached?</span></em></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="c914"><span style="color: #444444;">I want to know what you think!</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b9e5"><span style="color: #444444;">The conversation is lightly edited for anonymity and brevity (and none of the books in the picture above are related to this conversation, to be clear).</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="cd9f"><span style="color: #444444;">— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —</span></p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="4104"><strong class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong"><span style="color: #444444;">Client:</span></strong></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="af34"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>We’d like you to do this book cover. You’ve already worked on some covers for this author.<br />We will have a think about what the cover art should include but perhaps this brief summary already gives you some ideas. As the book is publishing in June we’d like to send you the art brief in early December and have the artwork for January 2023: you can let us know what is possible on your end. We can offer a fee of <strong class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong">£500.</strong></i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="3418"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>I look forward to hearing from you and hope that we will have the opportunity to work together.</i></span></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="1ee9"><span style="color: #444444;">Note that there’s no mention of whether that £500 is expected to cover a buy-out, any particular set of usages or geographical applications— so it can’t be assessed as appropriate or not by the artist.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="0968"><span style="color: #444444;">— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —</span></p><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="7971"><strong class="markup--strong markup--pullquote-strong"><span style="color: #444444;">Me:</span></strong></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="147e"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>Thanks very much for emailing. Nice to hear from you! I apologise for the delay as I was travelling for much of Wednesday and all day yesterday.</i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="1714"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>The book sounds wonderful and it would be great to keep the continuity by working on the cover for this author. I really enjoyed illustrating their previous books.</i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="dc72"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>My fees for book covers however are much higher than the one you propose, particularly for a wraparound. Industry standard rates have admittedly not kept pace with inflation terribly well, but still sit around the £1000-£2000 mark and for the US, in the region of $2000-$4500.</i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="8685"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>Let me know if your fee is a suggested ‘starter for ten’ on which we can negotiate, or whether that is all you have available for this. I would love to do it!</i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="60e0"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>All the best, Sarah.</i></span></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="f514"><span style="color: #444444;">Sounds positive and flexible — doesn’t it? Hm, maybe not!</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="0fef"><span style="color: #444444;">— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="e77c"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><span style="color: #444444;"><span> <span> </span></span>Client:</span></strong></p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="3200"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>We appreciate that you charge a higher rate and we are sorry but we cannot match this.</i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="999c"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>Thanks for getting back to me so swiftly and again, thank you for creating fantastic covers for [publisher’s name].</i></span></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="89c8"><span style="color: #444444;">I charge a higher rate than — than what? Their other artists? Than what they’re used to paying? Higher than the amount they think is fair? <br />OK; a little context might be required.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="6ace"><span style="color: #444444;">— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —</span></p><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="798f"><strong class="markup--strong markup--pullquote-strong"><span style="color: #444444;">Me:</span></strong></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="2c9a"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>Thanks for the reply!</i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="dd72"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>Just to give context for my email, [publisher] paid $3000 for their cover for [title of book by the same author] in 2018, and the bill for title modifications to the cover for [another book by the same author] was £100 in 2019. It was the same for similar title modifications to turn the cover of [book] into [different edition].</i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="2652"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>So £500 for a full wraparound cover is not an appropriate fee, and although I’m fully aware that someone else (perhaps, but not necessarily, a less experienced illustrator) might eagerly take this on, I’m almost thirty years into the industry and know how long a good wraparound cover takes, and I also know the experience and expertise I bring to my covers.</i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="075b"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>I do understand that you are a smaller-sized publisher, and I’m sorry it didn’t work out on this one, as I feel quite strongly about cover continuity for author series and presumably this one will look completely different.</i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="13eb"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>But I feel <span class="markup--em markup--pullquote-em">more </span>strongly about fees being structured properly, and I always take the trouble to expand upon a fee if it is ever rejected, so my clients know I’m coming from a place of careful consideration and experience, not greed or arbitrary figures.</i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote" name="118b"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>Thank you for reading!</i></span></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="7fdb"><span style="color: #444444;">With this reply I realised I’d leapt into defending my perfectly fair and appropriate fees (which I don’t need to) while also being rather firm in my stance. (The urge to defend or explain one’s fees is often something that needs to be kept in check!)</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="9f7c"><span style="color: #444444;">— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —</span></p><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="6ff3"><strong class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong"><span style="color: #444444;">Client:</span></strong></blockquote><blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote" name="8a15"><span style="color: #444444;">[. . . . . .]</span></blockquote><p class="graf graf--p" name="08a7"><span style="color: #444444;">And that’s where it ended. Fair enough, as there’s not a lot more for the client to say.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="e1fb"><span style="color: #444444;">— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="30bc"><span style="color: #444444;">But I’m interested to know what you think. This <b>upcoming 30-year anniversary</b> has had me reviewing a LOT of practises and habits, and there are more articles about these coming up.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7d69"><span style="color: #444444;">Because if I’m to spend another decade or two at the coalface, there are things that need reviewing, dismantling and, as a result, rebuilding, revamping or rejecting. And those things, along with the unavoidable creative review and reflection, will shape what the next chapter of this long and busy career looks like.</span></p>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-59287687874827265822022-05-10T15:46:00.004+01:002022-05-10T15:46:59.077+01:00Snowtrees: A collaboration with Dr. Ed Garland<div class="separator"><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="48ca" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><p class="graf graf--p" name="db34"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwv8hd50wHDHwZU1EBjkhi2dvrq6-WWHFZD_PCEQcI02hH23Gaz7MVhE_XGF3oQrBXoKZYpJc1ZpRhFp2uTT8wXec6hxmFDpG_rJx6qrpR_z2JvJXAcnwvkF8GKiLymOikyHwJwMh0Ic6VIrXcyMZegn8Mu1ILIWowORimEkqoTVjunJ0s/s860/SnowtreesBlackInkMoon_600px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwv8hd50wHDHwZU1EBjkhi2dvrq6-WWHFZD_PCEQcI02hH23Gaz7MVhE_XGF3oQrBXoKZYpJc1ZpRhFp2uTT8wXec6hxmFDpG_rJx6qrpR_z2JvJXAcnwvkF8GKiLymOikyHwJwMh0Ic6VIrXcyMZegn8Mu1ILIWowORimEkqoTVjunJ0s/s16000/SnowtreesBlackInkMoon_600px.jpg" /></a></div><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><br /></strong><p></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="db34"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Our friend and long-term Inkymole collaborator </strong><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.liminalresidency.co.uk/an-interview-with-ed-garland/" href="https://www.liminalresidency.co.uk/an-interview-with-ed-garland/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Ed Garland</strong></a><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"> is finally on Instagram, after moving away years ago and becoming Dr. Ed. This is good news.</strong></span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="26c3"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;">After meeting up with him for a weekend recently, I’ve been thinking of all the projects we worked on together. Obviously I hope there will be more now that his gruelling study schedule has eased off, but I wanted to share a few as they emerged at a time when social media was still new, and were therefore only seen by the people who received a copy, attended an exhibition, or were part of the project.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5766"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;">This is Snowtrees. We had just put up a big installation called <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.inkymole.com/thewitches" href="https://www.inkymole.com/thewitches" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">‘The Witches’</strong></a> in the repurposed church building of our regular clients <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.tbwamcr.com" href="https://www.tbwamcr.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TBWA\Manchester</strong></a>, for which Ed had written the words, and we were in the van on the M6 driving home, knackered and full of chips. I checked my email. It was mid-October and, thinking ahead, I’d asked Ed to write a piece for our annual Christmas mailing, which would take a different form every year. I would illustrate whatever he wrote. His story was in, and I read it; crying, because it was so beautiful and it was exactly what I’d hoped for. Even a little more than that, in fact.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="dee3"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;">I made a black and white ink illustration to go with it, indulging my longing for eerie stories to illustrate and my love of all things creepy and atmospheric. (Whenever the opportunity arose for some personal or promotional work, this is often the direction it would take). We had a 1000 copies printed to A3 in navy blue ink, foldable to A6 (sorry Kelly, who did all the folding). They were addressed individually and sealed with a tiny label, and it stood like a Christmas card with a snowflake-tree on one side, inspired by a duotone 1950s fold-out birthday card we’d had on the studio wall for years.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="a5c0"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;">And there it was. Ed will probably do the thing people often do when confronted with old work — shrugging off my praise, pointing out all the things that are ‘wrong’ with it, maybe even cringing a little— but I love this piece of writing, and more importantly, I love the creative response it triggered in me. Although I too can see things I would do differently now, I love the outcome.</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="a5c0"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;">I woke up under the Snowtrees in a cradle of roots. The branches dripped sunlit water around my head. I’d been told about this forest. “It attracts the wrong crowd”, I’d heard. I wasn’t convinced. I could hear wolves treading icy crackles somewhere almost close, and cold crept in where my coat didn’t meet my trousers. But I didn’t want to move. I was happy looking straight ahead at the branches tickling the sharp blue morning. Snowtrees had perfect fractal features at this time of year, and there wasn’t long to wait before they expired. Today or tomorrow they’d come apart all at once, in whispering white-gold explosions. </span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i><i>One tree becomes a thousand pale fragments, making a soft, deep cover for the ground. The whole forest bursts into a shimmering blizzard and then a freezing flatness. People witnessing this feel a release, as with fireworks and demolitions, and great distance is travelled to be within it. </i><i>I was, by some forgotten accident, in a prime position, if only it would happen before I got too cold. Sniffing and howling from the wolves now, and I thought about the tension my absence might be causing at home. They weren’t expecting me at any particular time, and the sun seemed to say I wasn’t worryingly late, yet. I could hear others arriving to watch. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i><i>“Any minute now, someday soon” we said, and wondered why anyone wouldn’t want to be here.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;">†</span></div><figcaption class="imageCaption"><br /></figcaption></figure></div><div class="separator"><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="907e" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; width: 261.328125px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3024" data-image-id="1*hyaiLJywu4fn5lec2Iq86w.jpeg" data-width="3024" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*hyaiLJywu4fn5lec2Iq86w.jpeg" style="text-align: left;" width="640" /></figure></div><div class="separator"><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="2f3e" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center; width: 261.328125px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3024" data-image-id="1*Gr0jmwc1X27pCk5J0TCqYg.jpeg" data-width="3024" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*Gr0jmwc1X27pCk5J0TCqYg.jpeg" width="640" /></figure></div><div class="separator"><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="f283" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; width: 359.296875px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1456" data-image-id="1*8WtIQfcyfbuyfa2JsI8BdA.png" data-width="1328" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*8WtIQfcyfbuyfa2JsI8BdA.png" width="584" /></figure></div><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="9368" style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="2151" data-image-id="1*kvDuICv0NYzVfhm3C-GEIw.jpeg" data-width="1500" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*kvDuICv0NYzVfhm3C-GEIw.jpeg" width="446" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="2199" style="text-align: center; width: 261.328125px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3024" data-image-id="1*tvaRJv2daHO4G3XsZULlZw.jpeg" data-width="3024" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*tvaRJv2daHO4G3XsZULlZw.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="8fbf" style="text-align: center; width: 261.328125px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3024" data-image-id="1*-DB_-M3mzEc92pZZZ-5qPw.jpeg" data-width="3024" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*-DB_-M3mzEc92pZZZ-5qPw.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="ad64" style="text-align: center; width: 261.328125px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3024" data-image-id="1*jYQv2__EXaAoWHqhigPOxA.jpeg" data-width="3024" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*jYQv2__EXaAoWHqhigPOxA.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRow is-partialWidth" name="907e" style="text-align: center; width: 261.328125px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3024" data-image-id="1*lR4udy1XigUoflwSY99Glg.jpeg" data-width="3024" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*lR4udy1XigUoflwSY99Glg.jpeg" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetRowContinue is-partialWidth" name="d181" style="width: 424.6875px;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1860" data-width="2006" /><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="left: -84.60099792480469%; width: 783.96875px;"><br /></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p graf--empty" name="8139"><br /></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-47191742730220349462022-05-04T16:09:00.002+01:002022-05-04T16:09:43.293+01:00“…but how long did it take you get your STYLE’?”<div class="separator"><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="9c85" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1550" data-image-id="1*2UW2V38UERGpf26kuTidww.jpeg" data-is-featured="true" data-width="1000" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*2UW2V38UERGpf26kuTidww.jpeg" width="413" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="9c85" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;">Created in paper and polystyrene for Arjo Wiggins Fine Papers, about 1997/8.</i></figure></div><p><b>I do a lot of talks and seminars for schools and colleges, and one of the questions I get asked the most is “how important is it to have a ‘style’?” — followed by “how long did it take you to get your<span class="markup--strong markup--h3-strong"> own style</span>”?</b></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="dc61">My answer to this is not straightforward. Have a quick scan down the sample images in this post — they’re all from the same period of about 7 years, from graduation onward. You can see what was going on; I’d graduated with a portfolio of wildly ambitious 3D work, built pieces for the stage, costumes and models as well as poster designs and storyboards and illustrations full of lettering and ink. I basically wanted to do <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Everything</strong> — and, I would pretty much go on to do that, but for a young illustrator starting out the resultant folio was what clients described as <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">‘exciting but confusing’.</em></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="bf8f">How would I get this (pre-internet) 3D work to them? It would all need photographing — would the client pay me for that? If they give me a brief, how do they know what they’ll get back — will it look like this, or this?</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="a01d"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="855" data-image-id="1*BPvnEaHcEvXzJixWXWUIWA.png" data-width="1238" height="442" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*BPvnEaHcEvXzJixWXWUIWA.png" width="640" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption"><i>A magazine editorial from about 1998/9. This one actually got me a LOT of work.</i></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="2b2a"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">I liked to build stuff,</strong> I loved to work on a large scale with pastel pencils (you can see an A0 example of that in the slides) AND with my inks, and I loved lettering (I won awards for it and was one of the earliest to posit hand lettering as a ‘thing’ you could commission in its own right — more on that in a separate blog) but I was also fascinated by digital; check out the work I did for the panto dames!</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="2bc0"><img class="graf-image" data-height="851" data-image-id="1*DeL7pdzRVNkelM3PgR9aZA.png" data-width="633" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*DeL7pdzRVNkelM3PgR9aZA.png" /><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Panto Dames! I did not know how to use layers properly.</i></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="f8ef">Clumsy but wildly energetic, I was quite literally laughing as I drew them; they were real panto dames. What made people like this image is the energy and the humour — those things eclipsed the lack of sophistication (and lack of Wacom tablet) in the rendering. I only had a mouse then, so you can see that the work here was created with an ink drawing which was then digitally coloured.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="192a"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="856" data-image-id="1*MLiMe7dR3olgOP7EzRgPVw.png" data-width="509" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*MLiMe7dR3olgOP7EzRgPVw.png" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;"><i>I don’t get horses, at all, but at one point found myself doing a monthly slot for Your Horse magazine. Woah there.</i></figcaption></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="f1b2"><img class="graf-image" data-height="856" data-image-id="1*Dm49JN9lvqhwY27_DG5tYw.png" data-width="1297" height="422" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Dm49JN9lvqhwY27_DG5tYw.png" width="640" /><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;"><i>And this was one of a series for a bestselling gardening magazine. I had about a week to do each one, and regular income was very welcome at that time! They looked the same as the flyers I was simultaneously creating for the pirate radio station I was working on.</i></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="616d">I went on to have multiple magazine series in that style, so I suppose it could be argued that was ‘a style’ for a while — but running simultaneously, I also illustrated a magazine column once a month with built, almost set-like pieces which were photographed, like this (yes, this one involved baking real bread; real baby clothes and a real self-made poppet doll. I ate none of them afterwards, and the illusatration actually lasted for years).</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="d033" style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="854" data-image-id="1*U8E8UkcXZA0qSZDWe6UufQ.png" data-width="730" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*U8E8UkcXZA0qSZDWe6UufQ.png" width="547" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="33fd" style="text-align: center;"><i>All of these images are very ‘me’, but it isn’t one style and it’s definitely not one medium.</i></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="758a">In fact, I’ve always viewed this multi-medium thing as a blessing, not a curse. It means I’ve been able to turn my hand to a vast array of opportunities that, had I favoured one style, medium or way of working at the exclusion of all others, I would not have been willing or able to tackle. It’s made me flexible, adaptable and, in a lot of cases, bold — the ‘sure, I can do that!’ approach (<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">say yes now, worry about it later</em>). A 15m mural in paint? <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Check.</em> A 3D piece to illustrate a spoken word poem? <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Check.</em> Detailed pen and ink drawings for a ghost story? <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Check.</em> Fast digital pieces for an urgent editorial? <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Check.</em> A set of animated GIFS? <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Check.</em></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5330">You get the idea.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ddc1">Some people use pseudonyms to identify their different styles — an example is <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.tobyleigh.com" href="http://www.tobyleigh.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Toby Leigh</a> who also works as Tobatron, or <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.mcdonaghillustration.com" href="https://www.mcdonaghillustration.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Tim McDonagh</a> who also works as <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://avril15.com" href="https://avril15.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Avril15</a>. Those identities exist to make sure you know which of their worlds you’re in, and that’s definitely something I’ve thought about over and over again — I even have the names worked out. But I’ve never actually done it…maybe I still will, though, and it could work for you, too, with careful consideration and enough work to hang under each banner — this is important, as clients will need to see that you’re well-versed and a ‘safe pair of hands’ in all of the styles or identities you put forward.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="232b"><div style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="855" data-image-id="1*0008AxbUsRcGA60DmGuU-g.png" data-width="852" height="640" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*0008AxbUsRcGA60DmGuU-g.png" width="638" /></div><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Personal work from a book project that I shelved. I might un-shelve it — though the artwork would look very different today! (the toddler in the picture is now a post-grad).</i></figcaption></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="528e" style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="806" data-image-id="1*fnYn0hid5lKmDV51clM65w.png" data-width="1466" height="352" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*fnYn0hid5lKmDV51clM65w.png" width="640" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="4a7d"><img class="graf-image" data-height="853" data-image-id="1*Jjl-a9BHvW6gXCy4VH67mw.png" data-width="1445" height="378" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Jjl-a9BHvW6gXCy4VH67mw.png" width="640" /><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="text-align: center;"><i>These two lettering pieces were created in an Edinburgh hotel room, in the middle of what felt like a little breakdown. I was creatively stuck, feeling at a dead end, and really upset, but was away for the week teaching degree students about illustration — so feeling like a massive fraud. My partner suggested combining some of the lettering I’d been doing for years with flowers and plants, and some of the darker stuff I liked to draw. Thank god he did; the work that nervously emerged that week saved me, and set me on the path for the next decade.</i></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="a471">Over time, my ways of working all combined to create a body of work that utilises several different media, but hangs together as a look which is definitely ‘mine’. And the ‘mine’ comes via the movement, the energy, the content and the vibe, rather than the equipment I used to make it.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="dede">So I say, DO NOT worry about ‘style’ — if you see someone who looks to have a really strong visual language or colour scheme or way of working, they’ve likely had a long time to develop that. Maybe they don’t actually HAVE other ways of working — maybe they can’t! — or maybe they just don’t feel comfortable offering more than one look. And what you probably won’t see are the mountains of work that led to what you see in front of you.</p>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-60049800569968357702022-03-11T13:00:00.001+00:002022-03-11T13:00:14.440+00:00Sleep gone to the devil? It’s horrible, but this is what’s been helping me.<p> <img alt="" class="dq hm hn" height="340" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1200/1*olYmFqSnXVVr7emYYE8Y0A.jpeg" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 600px;" width="600" /></p><figure class="eo eq hi hj hk hl ek el paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 40px auto 0px;"><figcaption class="ho hp em ek el hq hr cg b fh fi bw" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;">From ‘Only If You Dare’ - illustration by me, for Josh Allen’s book. I know just how this poor little lad feels! ©Sarah J. Coleman</figcaption></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="978e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Oh no...I'm awake.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="978e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">My sleep disruption began many months ago as a product of, I think, a combination of pandemic, work anxieties, and a major hormonal re-wiring (the whole dashboard out, y’know the kind).</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="48f7" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I would get to sleep just fine, but wakefulness would boot me out of my slumber every single night, always around 3am, and last anywhere from an hour to…the rest of the night.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ab35" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I’m my own boss, which means that <span class="iq" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">technically</span> I can ‘get up when I want’, but I really can’t; I still have a full 8+ hours of work every single day, clients depending on me, and the other, myriad responsibilities that come with running a small company. And the later I would get up, the worse I felt — physically and emotionally, since there’s still a stigma attached to ‘people who get up late’ — and the more I worried about the whole thing.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3fc4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I recently shared a couple of things on social media and in my regular newsreel which clearly rang a bell with a lot of people, so I’m sharing and expanding on those things here.</p><figure class="is it iu iv ew hl ek el paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="ek el ir" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 300px;"><img alt="" class="dq hm hn" height="305" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/600/1*nzC1Rziaxt2LC0vZ43RSZg.jpeg" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 300px;" width="300" /></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="75b2" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">So, the <span class="iq" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">causes </span>of waking up<span class="iq" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> </span>I couldn’t do an awful lot about, but I could control <span class="iq" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">how I felt</span> before I went to sleep, during wakefulness and during the day. I quickly established that late caffeine was one factor (after about 20 years of being completely caffeine free, I’d gradually discovered the joys of strong fresh-ground coffee again over lockdown). So no coffee after 2pm — 3m at a push. After that, all-decaf-everything.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c457" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The I worked out that I was eating too late at night — has to be before 8pm now — ideally at 7 — or I really am affected. Your poor body’s trying to digest when you should be asleep!</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8676" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">THEN I realised I was still on my phone answering email and messages late at night, sometimes actually in bed — in my book, that’s a a dirty habit, but one I found I’d slacked into (that’s why they call it ‘sleep hygiene’).</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4921" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">And finally, I clicked that I wasn’t getting enough fresh air during the day; I’m a lifelong gym-goer but it’s not the same as the outdoors and vitamin D, so I started walking. A LOT. Didn’t matter when — sometimes a ‘commute to work’ walk of a mile, sometimes a mid-afternoon one of 3 miles or more, sometimes one of those <span class="iq" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">plus</span> another mile just before bed, or just a tiny ten minute walk by itself last thing, if I really couldn’t manage to get out in the daytime. <a class="au iw" href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xlm-a0036577.pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank">Walking is famously underrated</a>, and it comes with the opportunity for thinking time, podcasts, checking out some new music, or just silence.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9c28" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="iq" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">And this bit is important:</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1c4a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I realised that when I was waking up (always around 3am) I was bothered and anxious — but I wasn’t waking up BECAUSE I was bothered and anxious, I was <span class="iq" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">anxious because I had found myself suddenly awake</span>. I changed my mindset (which took a little while) and flipped it around, so that when I would find myself awake, instead of going “ohhh nooooo I’m awake this is hell not this again I don’t want to be” I would blink a bit and go, “oh, ok! Looks like I’m awake. OK; no bother. We’ve been here before. You woke up because you were just a bit hot/thirsty/uncomfortable. Have a drink of water, shuffle about, maybe go for a wee, try again.”</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0648" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">And THAT last change has made the biggest difference. I don’t fret about it any more, and I remind myself that in the middle of the night, because you have no other distractions — even simple visual distractions like other people and your surroundings — your mind focuses entirely on what it’s worrying about, so those things seem HUGE and insurmountable.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9504" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">And they are not!</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="28a9" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">If I really, truly cannot get back to sleep, I get up and try to sleep somewhere else — one of the sofas, I’ve even tried the cool living room floor — or in extreme circumstances I go to my desk because I may as well be doing ‘something’. But I don’t set my expectation too high; doing any little job in the middle of the night is a bonus, but your aim is to get into bed and back to sleep.</p><figure class="is it iu iv ew hl ek el paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="ek el hh" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 600px;"><img alt="" class="dq hm hn" height="262" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1200/1*dHXasC4CDxH-xUD_LM0jBg.jpeg" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 600px;" width="600" /></div><figcaption class="ho hp em ek el hq hr cg b fh fi bw" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;">©Sarah J. Coleman</figcaption></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d3bd" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The other important realisation that unfolded over time was that a good night starts with a good evening.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c78d" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">These are the steps we take now, to make sure we give ourselves the best chance of sleeping, and staying asleep. These aren’t ads, by the way; they’re just what we use, and what we like. No-one has paid me to write this! (I don’t do that, before anyone else asks).</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="706b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">1. No caffeine</span> after 2pm.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />OK 3 at a push, but anything after that will probably cost you in the small hours!</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="edfa" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">2. A couple of hours before bed:<span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span><a class="au iw" href="https://www.vivolife.co.uk/products/magic-raw-hot-chocolate-with-reishi-mushroom" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">hot chocolate with reishi mushroom and ashwaganda</span></a>.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Both help the body to unwind and get ready for sleep. You don’t need to add sugar, but we add a dash of maple syrup.</p><figure class="is it iu iv ew hl ek el paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="iy iz cj ja dq jb" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 692px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="ek el ix" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 3024px;"><img alt="" class="dq hm hn" height="700" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*s5A4wX_orFdyOGezQ9NLYg.jpeg" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 692px;" width="700" /></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a2a6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">3. If hot chocolate’s too much for that time of night, we swear by <a class="au iw" href="https://www.pukkaherbs.com/uk/en/products/night-time-tea" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Pukka ‘Sleepy Tea’</span></a></p><figure class="is it iu iv ew hl ek el paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="iy iz cj ja dq jb" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 692px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="ek el ix" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 3024px;"><img alt="" class="dq hm hn" height="700" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*JprY50buZW1EWlEbN1qiNg.jpeg" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 692px;" width="700" /></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1562" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">4. About half an hour before bed<span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">: a </span><a class="au iw" href="https://zenstrabiohealth.com/products/lemello" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">couple of Lemellos</span>.</a><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />These little all-natural capsules take the edge off the white noise of anxiety and worries safely, and without any after/side effects (and no dependency issues).</p><figure class="is it iu iv ew hl ek el paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="iy iz cj ja dq jb" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 692px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="ek el ix" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 3024px;"><img alt="" class="dq hm hn" height="700" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*tqyajM333IQsIn3AC6q1Ig.jpeg" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 692px;" width="700" /></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c23b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">5. I’ll have my earphones next to me in bed</span> in case I wake up, and if I do I’ll listen to some <a class="au iw" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QneqUhCVtU" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">rain sounds</span></a><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>(very soothing, especially for someone like me who loves any tale beginning with ‘it was a dark and stormy night’) or do some <a class="au iw" href="https://soundcloud.com/user-191571796/find-your-way-home-meditation" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">breathing</span></a>.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a6a5" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">They both sound a bit clichéd, but there’s a reason for that — they work!</p><figure class="is it iu iv ew hl ek el paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="iy iz cj ja dq jb" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 692px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="ek el jc" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1125px;"><img alt="" class="dq hm hn" height="659" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*FIQQp8FEQOec7ySyVQohMw.jpeg" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 692px;" width="700" /></div></div></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b004" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Remember: this is just what’s worked for me, over two years or so of trial and error, </span>and changing one thing at a time then observing the result. Some of these might work for you too. They might not, but give them a go!</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph hs ht gk hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il im in io ip gd fd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ab6e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="hu gl" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Hope it helps.</span></p><figure class="is it iu iv ew hl ek el paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="iy iz cj ja dq jb" role="button" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 692px; z-index: auto;" tabindex="0"><div class="ek el jd" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 3469px;"><img alt="" class="dq hm hn" height="1000" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*_6P2Szwzk0i6_BPe8ffTtg.jpeg" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 692px;" width="700" /></div></div><figcaption class="ho hp em ek el hq hr cg b fh fi bw" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;">Sleeping…but awake...but OK with it, actually. ©Sarah J. Coleman</figcaption></figure>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-22084973398524960272022-03-02T20:29:00.003+00:002022-03-02T20:37:46.505+00:00If you're not driving a BMW by the time you're 24...<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrjGSEN-n19Ysj8Jc0DfcSx4FQ1da7PNc0o_nLvb1ubckGlRloEOffQ1s3k3yR_LMfZs8j-sjQGXTzHMwxohyMqvTs5uCleWjbdlcZz2phmB-TKDfvqDZZtJFTsHxvMqxmNjjaROKgNfRXUXjvpTcaHRhkxfptGxoKPR37hsb8iRK-Sg3Z=s2892" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2350" data-original-width="2892" height="522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrjGSEN-n19Ysj8Jc0DfcSx4FQ1da7PNc0o_nLvb1ubckGlRloEOffQ1s3k3yR_LMfZs8j-sjQGXTzHMwxohyMqvTs5uCleWjbdlcZz2phmB-TKDfvqDZZtJFTsHxvMqxmNjjaROKgNfRXUXjvpTcaHRhkxfptGxoKPR37hsb8iRK-Sg3Z=w640-h522" width="640" /></a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">~ Visual Communcation BA (Hons.) Class of</span><span style="font-size: small;"> 1993; BIAD's Gosta Green site ~</span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><b><br />My university tutor, colleague and leader of the degree course that set me on my path, <a href="http://linkedin.com/in/balvir-nandra-2378b013" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e06666;">Bal Nandra</span></a>, died on Monday morning. That's him leaning on the railings, big watch, big glasses.</b><p></p><p>I write this with still-surprised eyebrows, because it doesn't seem like enough time has passed for this to be a reality. I graduated from Birmingham Institute of Art and Design in 1993, with a first in Visual Communication, a special award for typographic innovation and a strange and ambitious portfolio that no-one really knew what to do with, filled with lettering, 3D sculptures, ink stuff and theatrical vigour. </p><p>Bal told me and my mate <a href="https://melanietomlinson.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #e06666;">Mel</span></b></a>, also on the course, that<i> 'illustrators don't get firsts'</i>. Naturally that triggered our silent <i>'Watch This'</i> response [read that in the Brummie accent we would both have had at the time; hers authentic, mine unconsciously adopted over the terms]. Actually, neither of us were that fussed about a grade, wanting to just do our best and find our direction, until at some point we were threatened (again by Bal) with the dangling carrot of <i>'if you keep this up ladies, you're on track for a first'. </i></p><p>No pressure then.</p><p>As well as the cold dread of being summoned to his office at the end of the studio for unknown misdemeanours or feedback was the gameshow-feel thrill of being late to a briefing (think Squid Game rather than Countdown) which Mel and I were, often. Sometimes because we had done the obligatory all-nighter to meet a deadline, sometimes because we were skip-diving for that precious mineral 'foamboard', chunks of which would be thrown with wanton disregard for its cost into the college bins, or scrap metals we could fashion our mad built things from.</p><p>Sometimes we were late because we were getting a toffee flapjack and more tea from the canteen. </p><p>And sometimes, we just hid because, being diligent students, it would be in<i> our </i>direction that any extra-curricular or industry briefs would come hurling, Exocet-style, into an already gruelling 26-briefs-in-one-term* schedule.</p><p>Bal was also the deliverer of sobering career advice. When he told us that we could consider ourselves failures if we weren't driving a BMW by the time we were 24, we simultaneously laughed in his face and trembled with horror; we knew that was a horrifically unlikely scenario for either of us. At 24, I had a yellow 2CV that my boyfriend had cheerfully passed onto me in lieu of a weed debt someone couldn't pay him, and Mel had a Micra. Both were sound motors, but not German, and not fast. When I picked Bal up in my BMW to go for cake and coffee with our other tutor <a href="https://www.magiclantern.org.uk/the-magic-lantern/pdfs/4010065a.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e06666;">Mike Simkin</span></a>, a <i>great</i> many years later, the joke was not lost on him. </p><p>He was funny and strict and stern, extremely ambitious for every one of us and, though we didn't really appreciate it at the time, highly successful in his field and incredibly well-respected as a designer in his own right. He kept up this work till the very end, continuing his relationship with his alma mater Ravensbourne College, and I know I channeled a little of his knowing-wink seriousness in my own teaching, as I went on to degree and higher ed teaching sessions over the years that followed.</p><p>Thanks Bal. </p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-size: 14px;">~ Balvir Singh Nandra / </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-size: 14px;">25th August 1951 – 28th February 2022 ~</span></b></span></p><p><i>*True story.</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5ZCPAZfE3sDR4pYWDcYtyZSDARr0MC2QQ9Iay-mJy25vypk0b5okb89VjWyRnP79PYAJA0rUosm4wYWyZLfyFuaqG5YqNa-zQi0tub_F4pJEVWbLZOU8h2km8iuzrh_VTPBXFv0pyntwU4VAMv2jMXEez2CbN7xEist8rdDc_Xw9VQLX3=s986" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="986" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5ZCPAZfE3sDR4pYWDcYtyZSDARr0MC2QQ9Iay-mJy25vypk0b5okb89VjWyRnP79PYAJA0rUosm4wYWyZLfyFuaqG5YqNa-zQi0tub_F4pJEVWbLZOU8h2km8iuzrh_VTPBXFv0pyntwU4VAMv2jMXEez2CbN7xEist8rdDc_Xw9VQLX3=s16000" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">~ Sarah, <i>not</i> about to look into the cost of a BMW, Spring 1993; grounds of BIAD's Gosta Green site ~</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-11806330902772918962022-01-11T13:01:00.008+00:002022-01-11T17:56:14.306+00:00To My Insurance Company.<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhob5HtLo45zZSrCTT8Q9gVuxlI2zJuIHiYlEuOcLVfnLwbIJXprXXeiMuoM_GHy_zega9788zMlhmdCg3g-bOPmrf5E5oQMlyHN2EbxFgLH_2CvAMYiqG9t4L-I9rQ1XQd_DIc_eDX0kkUVyRzsHFgLzCTBmn6UOGxpw6lqCR2xv83KOzU=s3264" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1608" data-original-width="3264" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhob5HtLo45zZSrCTT8Q9gVuxlI2zJuIHiYlEuOcLVfnLwbIJXprXXeiMuoM_GHy_zega9788zMlhmdCg3g-bOPmrf5E5oQMlyHN2EbxFgLH_2CvAMYiqG9t4L-I9rQ1XQd_DIc_eDX0kkUVyRzsHFgLzCTBmn6UOGxpw6lqCR2xv83KOzU=w640-h317" width="640" /></a></b></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">I've been engaged in a battle to renew my business insurance lately. It's gone on for an unbelievably long time, because I can't find anyone to insure us properly.</span></b></p></span></b><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When asked about the reasons why companies are - I'm going to say 'scared' - to insure my business, it seems to boil down to two things. </span></p><p>1) The majority of my work over the last ten years or so is for North American clients. This seems to <b>terrify them.</b></p><p>2) The insurers seem <b>hell bent on protecting the mythically vulnerable </b><i><b>from me</b> </i>- rather than the other way round, in a system that protects other people <i>from</i> being copied by me.</p><p>As most illustrators will know, we are most at risk from being ripped off by a third party - including large companies and startlingly high-profile corporations who ought to know better (we all know who I'm talking about, insert your own anecdote here) than we are at risk of plotting to rip them off, or each other.</p><div style="font-family: Garamond;">These things are new. Or maybe they only <i>seem</i> new; when I reflect on it, there's been a growing sense of anxiety in the voices of those I speak to every time I ring up for annual insurance. It explains why I've moved companies so often. It contextualises why I'm constantly getting new quotes, from fewer and fewer companies. And it reveals an increasingly protect-the-big-guys modus operandi; if a missed deadline means Acme PLC can't make their print date, if Josephine Bloggs thinks I've copied one of their images, if XYZ Corporation has to clean paint up off their floor on one of the astonishingly rare occasions I have to work on-site, <i>they're</i> protected - what I mean is, I'll get help from my insurance company to defend myself, as long as whoever I need to defend myself against is in the UK, of course.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">But as the explicit and very focussed questioning of each company I've spoken with has revealed, if I see someone using or copying my work commercially, their insurance policy affords me no protection.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">In a nut shell,<b> they don't have my back.</b></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><div>This might seem like moaning, but it is not. This is my business, built up over almost 30 years, and heavily, deeply invested in, year on year, not only materially, but emotionally and spiritually, and with an incalculable amount of hard work. When I hand over money to protect that investment, I expect more than my iPad and my paper stacks to be protected.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The reason this issue creeps beyond the scope of the mere mathematical technicality of insuring a few Apple devices and a load of inks against fire or theft is because it speaks to the much larger issue of copyright theft, and image and style misappropriation, an article about which I've been sketching out for months. Why are insurers more nervous about me stealing a company's work? Why is there a chilly gaping hole where there should be a policy that kicks in to help me take action the moment a serious IP theft is discovered and the infringer decides, for once, to fight back?</div><div><br /></div><div>No, really, it's OK; I've paid four figures for a 'comprehensive' insurance policy, but you sit back lads; I'll tackle that one myself, especially the new NFT 'company' who've decided to mint my work for their own profits (true story).</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, o<i>f course </i>it's my job and my responsibility to take all the available steps to make sure my work is 'protected', so that I don't need to take action against anyone. It's quite <i>literally</i> part of my job; reading the contracts; knowing what I'm signing; reading the NDAs. Use lo-res images online and watermark and make online images non-grabable if you must, but none of these things will protect an image from being misappropriated, whether that's reproduced through mimicry or used and applied wholesale. People who aren't so intimate with the subject will talk sympathetically but a little glibly about 'registering' the copyright of an image, but copyright is covered by the Berne Convention; the right to be identified as the creator of your own work at the point of creation, rather than as a result of 'registering' it in some way, is a human right.</div><div><br /></div><div>One or two companies said they <i>would</i> insure me to make a claim - but only if, like me, the infringing party was based in the UK. To date, I've had infringements in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Germany - and just one or two in the UK. And those are the ones I know about.</div><div><br /></div><div>So why isn't that taken into consideration when a company draws up an insurance policy for a creative business? Perhaps I'm being too picky; I can certainly be that. But it just feels like an absolute basic protection in the contemporary creative market.</div></div><div><b><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Here's the email I sent to the most recent insurance company I spoke with at length.</span></b><span style="font-family: Garamond;"> I was fed up with saying the same things, and I decided to write it down so they could actually address the problems within their policies.</span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">Whether they read it or not I have no idea; the courtesy of a response wasn't forthcoming.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">But I'm posting it here and sharing it in on order that other companies, who might actually offer positively evolved, customer-centric policies which are different from those I've dived into thus far, can talk to me if they see fit. </div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">And having learned during the course of my research that a great many illustrators have no insurance AT ALL, I'm hoping I'll hear from other creatives who have had the same problem, or are looking for insurance at the moment - and more helpfully, from people who have solved the issue with an appropriate policy.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">If you have thoughts or experiences that resonate, I welcome them. In the meantime, I have my pens pencils and hardware covered, but for now, I feel that the industry is set to either put this issue even further at arm's length, as it decides it's too 'Wild West' an issue to successfully navigate/monetise, or it will be forced to evolve in a fast-moving world of NFTs, social media and visibility, and in doing so recognise what the dark matter, the heavyweight inner core of any creative business that needs protecting actually <i>is</i> - its creations.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><span><br /></span></div><div><i style="font-family: Garamond;"><span>Some details in this email have been slightly changed for purposes of making the scenarios easily understood by the recipients who are outside the illustration industry, and to avoid identifying individuals. </span></i></div><div><i style="font-family: Garamond;"><span><br /></span></i></div><div><span><i style="font-family: Garamond;">If at times it sounds like I'm </i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i>explaining</i></span><i style="font-family: Garamond;"> what an </i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i>illustrator</i></span><i style="font-family: Garamond;"> is or does, it's </i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i>because</i></span><i style="font-family: Garamond;"> that's exactly what I've had to do. Many times over.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; text-align: center;">~ † ~</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="font-family: Garamond; text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="font-family: Garamond; text-align: left;">Dear Insurance Company Person,</div><div style="font-family: Garamond; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; text-align: left;">Thank you for forwarding the documents for the policy you propose for my business, after speaking with me on the phone for forty minutes yesterday. I'm unable to accept it, because it does not cover my needs.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; text-align: left;">What’s quite bewildering at the moment is that, after almost 30 years in this trade - and I mean, wholeheartedly, professionally immersed in nothing but this trade, on a worldwide scale - I’m finding an increasing reluctance to insure me and my business. For over 20 of those years I’ve worked with American and Canadian clients, and clients elsewhere in the world, and historically it’s never been ‘a problem’ nor subject to any additional questioning or clauses.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">Over the last 4-5 years I’ve seen a creeping nervousness around that, and I do not see a reason why this would be. I don’t know of a single case of an illustrator being sued - for any reason - other than by another illustrator in cases of blatant copying. This happens - there was a case a few years ago of two American illustrators fighting it out over alleged copying, but it was eventually resolved without resort to legal means, which remains the preferred way of resolving such things. </div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">What I <i>don’t </i>see reflected in your policy, but <i>do</i> see happening around me frequently, is cases of the illustrator having to fight a case of having their own work infringed by companies - both small and large.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">To cite one example, a couple of years ago the large high street chain **redacted but named in the email** copied a colleague’s very distinctive work; that colleague had to fight that case of (very blatant) copying, and that colleague 'dealt with it satisfactorily' and got the work withdrawn. It was 'cut and dried’. </div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">There are myriad examples of large clothing companies helping themselves to artists’ work online, without permission.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">I myself have had to deal with over 60 copyright infringements of my work by other people to date - and I have dealt with them, successfully, without ever having to resort to legal means, because I know the business inside out and I know copyright - as it applies to my trade - inside out.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">The only recent example I know of which speaks to the kind of scenario that form the basis of this particular fear from insurance companies, is this. A very, very well-known British high street chain hired a design agency (standard practice) for a campaign that involved an illustrator creating a ‘friendly monster’ for a Christmas campaign. They would have briefed the illustrator closely for such a high profile campaign, and the resulting monster, once it hit the internet, was immediately recognised as a close copy of a long-existing famous character illustrated by an equally famous illustrator.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">The illustrator whose work had been copied, although within his rights to pursue the case, was maturely philosophical, resolving the issue with humour and grace:</div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #fef9f5; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif;"> "</span><span style="background-color: #fef9f5; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif;">Talk of legal action has flooded my Facebook feeds, but I won’t be pursuing that. Instead, I hope that advertising agencies and the big companies they work for, take care to credit creative people whose work they might reference. We have the finest children’s book writers and illustrators in the world – their work should be cherished and credited properly."</span> </span></i></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote><div style="font-family: Garamond;">The key issue though is even if legal action had been taken, it would have been the design agency hired by the company who was challenged, NOT the illustrator, as the design agency was responsible for the creative direction taken.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">(In this case the illustrator, who was relatively inexperienced and no doubt very excited to have received the commission, was unlikely to have questioned their commissioner’s art direction.)</div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">But if that illustrator <i>had </i>chosen to pursue a legal route (and presuming he has insured his business) he should surely have been able to do that with the backing and confidence of his insurers, to whom he had paid money to protect that business, the IP in which forms the<i> substance </i>of the business in a far more meaningful way than his easily-replaced pens and pencils.</p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Such cases are not common. But m</span><span style="font-family: Garamond;">y point is that what I am way, way more at risk of having MY copyright infringed, than I am at risk of infringing someone else’s - my job is to create original images, and I have created thousands of them.</span></p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">The other scenario an insurer might be fearful of, and one that has been posited to me many times now, is an illustrator delivering work late, and thus triggering a sequence of damaging events such as missed print deadlines. But I have never heard of this happening; when deadlines are running close, they are modified, or the work is adapted to suit the timescale, or, in some cases, a client can choose to go with an other artist or buy stock imagery to meet their deadline - there is always a way forward, and I know because I have been involved in some extremely high profile jobs with their attendant deadlines, budgets and pressures, and successfully carried out every one of them.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">I’m not suggesting that legal challenges never come up, but the emphasis on a client suing an illustrator suggests a fundamental lack of understanding of the job of an illustrator and the industry at large. And this fear of legal challenges seems to be infiltrating the insurance industry, <i>even those pitching themselves as specialists to the creative industries.</i></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">I can’t go with your policy as it’s not right for me, but I welcome the opportunity to highlight why that is, and why the thinking underpinning the policy feels flawed, and outdated.</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">All the best,</div><div style="font-family: Garamond;">Sarah.</div></blockquote></blockquote><div style="font-family: Garamond; text-align: center;">~ † ~</div><div style="font-family: Garamond; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8H-L0QotnaYmWyLUkBhy05lpVqULkco9qnrdTAb9oZPbEm-AuCs6ELyVY4mKovl5tMPF2S90XJyck2iqEQLZzHpq0QsGRbLHZfI0iXdsNu7W3Qic-a4FUH0seOmR16pVntjmj-TnPjY6AI0jLvG2M_bnodrCMgIVzmZCCKRdYmvma8oDI=s3264" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8H-L0QotnaYmWyLUkBhy05lpVqULkco9qnrdTAb9oZPbEm-AuCs6ELyVY4mKovl5tMPF2S90XJyck2iqEQLZzHpq0QsGRbLHZfI0iXdsNu7W3Qic-a4FUH0seOmR16pVntjmj-TnPjY6AI0jLvG2M_bnodrCMgIVzmZCCKRdYmvma8oDI=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="font-family: Garamond; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-1507682259288080152021-07-08T16:47:00.003+01:002021-07-08T16:47:46.359+01:00 Why you should always pre-order a book you fancy.<p><b><span style="color: #444444;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-etVgdWdaCGs/YOcV_0Qb-CI/AAAAAAAAMNY/NxsZtLAiF6U3dmoJRaNWEO26b5NNaCZXwCLcBGAsYHQ/s862/Only-If-You-Dare-Cover_3D_800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="788" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-etVgdWdaCGs/YOcV_0Qb-CI/AAAAAAAAMNY/NxsZtLAiF6U3dmoJRaNWEO26b5NNaCZXwCLcBGAsYHQ/w585-h640/Only-If-You-Dare-Cover_3D_800.jpg" width="585" /></a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></b></div><b><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><p><b><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">When I’ve totally invested in a book via my illustrations, I want that book to do well. Not only for myself, because of course I’ll be earning a modest royalty on each sale and that is a part of how I earn</span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond;">a living, but because I want any author I’ve worked with to be rewarded for what will often be years of hard, dedicated work - and years, quite probably, of building up to starting it, planning, thinking, dreaming (these are the people who didn't <i>just dream </i>about it - they did it!)</span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></span></span></b></p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2KffU3bbkGA/YOcb3evJoGI/AAAAAAAAMOM/Hz8S57NH6EsaYrR24tVEDJ5iRlGXjqodQCLcBGAsYHQ/s668/Book-Icon-7.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-To2oALaVqk8/YOcb2-j9I6I/AAAAAAAAMN8/Z-MeRhmnCFQlEpMs1Iw3ah8s7wfn2P4HACLcBGAsYHQ/s852/Book-Icon-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="852" height="117" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-To2oALaVqk8/YOcb2-j9I6I/AAAAAAAAMN8/Z-MeRhmnCFQlEpMs1Iw3ah8s7wfn2P4HACLcBGAsYHQ/w149-h117/Book-Icon-4.png" width="149" /></a></p></span></span></b><p></p><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">Contrary to how it might look on the chirpy and colourful bookcentric feeds of Twitter and the ‘Gram, books do not magically spring from nowhere, fully formed with glittering covers and</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">smiling, selfie-ready authors. By the time you see that part, the writer has spent years chipping away at a manuscript they didn’t necessarily have ANY idea would ever be published, months</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">honing it, weeks editing it, and the illustrator has spent weeks or months working on the illustrations to go with it - and all the sketching and roughs and versions that entails. Most of the time they'll have created</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"> a cover for the book too, which often actually comes before the insides are decorated.</span><br style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;" /><br style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;" /><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">A cover reveal happens some time before a book’s release, to introduce the book to the world in visual form and to remind you, if you didn’t know already or had forgotten, that its publication is</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">imminent. And again: by that time, the illustrator’s work on it will have been finished months before that moment.</span><br style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;" /><br style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;" /><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">And when all that's done, when the book's become 'a real object', a definite point on the horizon, authors and illustrators will encourage you to buy a copy of their book BEFORE it comes out, from the moment it’s made available to buy online. I know as a species we’re used to hitting ‘buy’ and getting</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">the new thing thrust in our hands pretty much the day after - or even the same day, if you use a certain grotesquely popular service - and it might be an odd concept, having to</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"> <i>wait </i>f</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">or the thing you’ve paid</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">for.</span><br style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;" /><br style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;" /><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">But that is exactly what an author and illustrator have done; just for much longer. They’ve made the investment, a substantial one at that, and they’re now waiting patiently, and probably quite</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">nervously, for the pay-off; the sales, the reviews, the readers receiving their book and enjoying it, and the opportunity to engage with the readers for whom they’ve laboured all this time.</span><br style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;" /><b><br style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;" /><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;">Here are the reasons why buying a book <i>before </i>publication is immeasurably important to, and massively appreciated by, authors and illustrators.</span></b></span><div><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></span><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2KffU3bbkGA/YOcb3evJoGI/AAAAAAAAMOM/Hz8S57NH6EsaYrR24tVEDJ5iRlGXjqodQCLcBGAsYHQ/s668/Book-Icon-7.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="539" height="134" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2KffU3bbkGA/YOcb3evJoGI/AAAAAAAAMOM/Hz8S57NH6EsaYrR24tVEDJ5iRlGXjqodQCLcBGAsYHQ/w108-h134/Book-Icon-7.png" width="108" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Pre-orders (or ‘pre-sales’) are<b> THE BIGGEST hint to booksellers that there’s interest in a book.</b> Bookshops used to have to use a combination of educated guess, their experience and previous sales by an author, to order in the stock of books they think they can sell. Not any more. Figures from pre-sales give them a vivid picture of what readers are anticipating - and they can order in stock of it, ready to meet demand. Books without pre-orders make it difficult to size up how many to order.</span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zRHNtbPhOKQ/YOcb2b03NQI/AAAAAAAAMN0/T474Z58qVsoqTKCQ7YFtT3wtdT1qGmp2gCLcBGAsYHQ/s694/Book-Icon-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="694" height="128" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zRHNtbPhOKQ/YOcb2b03NQI/AAAAAAAAMN0/T474Z58qVsoqTKCQ7YFtT3wtdT1qGmp2gCLcBGAsYHQ/w145-h128/Book-Icon-1.png" width="145" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"></div></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;">Similarly, <b>publishers need to know how many to print! </b>Obvious, when you think about it. Although an initial print run will have been agreed months before, or even at the time of contracts being signed, no publisher wants to under-print and not be able to meet demand - selling out straight away might be a flattering surprise for an author/illustrator, but they’d rather keep selling!</span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;">By the same token, they don’t want thousands of copies too many - buying the book you fancy as a pre-order puts the publisher one book closer to getting the quantities right.</span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GIZuh-84Cvs/YOcb2ar5D5I/AAAAAAAAMNw/47cED-yInfYjzp18r5tKiq-62ygHYW8dACLcBGAsYHQ/s928/Book-Icon-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="928" data-original-width="477" height="168" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GIZuh-84Cvs/YOcb2ar5D5I/AAAAAAAAMNw/47cED-yInfYjzp18r5tKiq-62ygHYW8dACLcBGAsYHQ/w86-h168/Book-Icon-2.png" width="86" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;">Book sellers will sometimes offer a book at a lower price prior to publication. </b><span style="text-align: left;">This is likely if it’s by an author/illustrator whose work has done well, or it’s a follow-up or one in a series. Obviously this is a 'nudge’, as it’s known in retail, but you save a couple of quid/dollars by buying it early!</span></div></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;" /></span><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YKW0GHfdgl0/YOcb2iCt4vI/AAAAAAAAMN4/9YLurLM7Vl0WSrK8FxPsuSzuYRbLoXEgACLcBGAsYHQ/s788/Book-Icon-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="788" height="125" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YKW0GHfdgl0/YOcb2iCt4vI/AAAAAAAAMN4/9YLurLM7Vl0WSrK8FxPsuSzuYRbLoXEgACLcBGAsYHQ/w132-h125/Book-Icon-3.png" width="132" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><b>Pre-orders create anticipation, excitement and momentum for the book.</b> An author/illustrator will be getting on The Promo Train for his or her book (nope; unless you’re on the boy-wizard level of popularity, book will NOT sell themselves) which means visiting schools and libraries, doing online talks and interviews, maybe some radio or even TV; their confidence will soar as a result of knowing that, by the time they hit the road for all this, the book is actually selling decent quantities already.</span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;">Which means an engaged and engaging speaker, who is excited and confident.</span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SXx-Wl11Qfw/YOcb22eHDpI/AAAAAAAAMOA/NbYD6UwYBk88aSoAHhG9Xop7Pf9M40Q8gCLcBGAsYHQ/s698/Book-Icon-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="514" height="135" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SXx-Wl11Qfw/YOcb22eHDpI/AAAAAAAAMOA/NbYD6UwYBk88aSoAHhG9Xop7Pf9M40Q8gCLcBGAsYHQ/w100-h135/Book-Icon-5.jpg" width="100" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;">When a book is in its pre-order stage, there’s <i>every </i>chance the author/illustrator is working on its follow-up (keeping in mind what I said above about the timescales of book-making). <b>Nothing says ‘keep going’ like good sales</b> on the one you’ve already done, that’s about to come out!</span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0QFlfn-PslQ/YOcb0XIzz8I/AAAAAAAAMNo/mxW_OLUfKbU2UU5rMXRxRKv4Js3xWdNwACLcBGAsYHQ/s378/Book-Icon-8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="306" height="149" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0QFlfn-PslQ/YOcb0XIzz8I/AAAAAAAAMNo/mxW_OLUfKbU2UU5rMXRxRKv4Js3xWdNwACLcBGAsYHQ/w120-h149/Book-Icon-8.png" width="120" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><b>WORD OF MOUTH.</b> If you’ve pre-ordered a book, it means you’re into it and excited about it - and that means you can tell other people about it, and they can pre-order it too. I mean yes, you can do that if you order it after publication, but there’s nothing quite like the gently teenage smugness of ‘psst...I know <i>this</i> is gonna be a good'un…and I get my copy <i>first.</i>'</span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2KffU3bbkGA/YOcb3evJoGI/AAAAAAAAMOM/Hz8S57NH6EsaYrR24tVEDJ5iRlGXjqodQCLcBGAsYHQ/s668/Book-Icon-7.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="539" height="134" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2KffU3bbkGA/YOcb3evJoGI/AAAAAAAAMOM/Hz8S57NH6EsaYrR24tVEDJ5iRlGXjqodQCLcBGAsYHQ/w108-h134/Book-Icon-7.png" width="108" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;">Finally, we author/illustrators HAVE IDEAS for stuff we want to do around the book - stuff we couldn’t put IN the book itself! A pre-order campaign allows us to make those things and offer them as <b>little creative nuggets of encouragement</b> to the potential readers. "Buy it now, rather than waiting till publication, and we’ll send you a bunch of swag!" In the case of Josh Allen and myself, that swag consisted of enamel badges, cards, a free illustrated story and signed art prints - for the book we’re currently promoting, that’s book plates, glow in the dark badges, signed art prints and more. Since the book launches those things stop, because, of course, we can’t offer them to every single buyer!</span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;">Think of it as not only your reward for having faith that what we’ve made will be ace, but your badge to show you’ve been inducted into our little gang of like-minded, book loving people.</span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #e69138;"><span>And what could be nice</span><span>r than t</span><span>hat?</span></span></b></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span><span style="color: #444444;">You can pre-order <b>'Only If You Dare'</b> by Josh Allen & Sarah J Coleman in the UK and the US </span><b><a href="https://www.inkymole.com/illustrated-books"><span style="color: #76a5af;">here.</span></a></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #444444;">And you can still get the some of the swag for</span><b><span style="color: #444444;"> Out To Get You, </span><a href="https://shop.inkymole.com/product/enamel-eyeball-badge" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">here.</span></a></b></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span><a href="http://shop.inkymole.com" imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5vDqjB5HZMA/YOcVq1qrcPI/AAAAAAAAMNQ/yzZx4qlo42YSvbUXuKTTwb3dGBv-OG9nwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/*All%2BThe%2BSwag%2B-%2Blying%2Bdown.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #e69138;"><a href="goog_939997639"><br /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15002944.post-90015035633114508932021-05-20T14:37:00.008+01:002021-05-21T15:39:37.593+01:00Fire, Pencils & Gold<p><b><span style="color: #444444;">We're doing a lot of re-organising and rethinking of the space we work in at the moment. It was subject to a massive redesign ten years ago but is starting to feel a bit stale (lockdown helped with that!) and this corner in particular has never been quite right.</span></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bLvH57lXR98/YKZT5P2131I/AAAAAAAAMJw/LWscbtFuBpQQArRTNwKWXae-t5YpZagKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_0443.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bLvH57lXR98/YKZT5P2131I/AAAAAAAAMJw/LWscbtFuBpQQArRTNwKWXae-t5YpZagKwCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0443.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><span><span style="color: #444444;">We've worked with </span><b><a href="https://www.spencerjenkins.co.uk" target="_blank"><span style="color: #7f6000;">Spencer Jenkins</span></a></b><span><span style="color: #444444;"> before on </span><b><a href="http://blog.inkymole.com/2017/07/the-joy-of-commissioning-your-mates.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #783f04;">projects around the studio and the house</span></a></b><span style="color: #444444;">, and when we realised it was shelving that we needed - for all the reference books, novels, catalogues and such, housed for years in repurposed wooden apple crates - we asked him. He loves wood, works in steel and willow, and creates natural forms and shapes which look simple and easy, but he'll pore over a line for for days on end, perfecting it.</span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #444444;">We'd been admirers of the work he's done in scorched larch, taking the wood and burning its surface till it reaches a deep, satisfying black. We chose chunky larch sections which were cut and planed to fit the totally asymmetrical and wobbly corners of the room (the studio is L-shaped).</span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qhEqLz732BY/YKZg5y6GYNI/AAAAAAAAMMw/5LOlpvKW3AkSxT7cnQQKaxlF6Ui_Y8GygCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_5706.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qhEqLz732BY/YKZg5y6GYNI/AAAAAAAAMMw/5LOlpvKW3AkSxT7cnQQKaxlF6Ui_Y8GygCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_5706.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kLbl-AYMOYk/YKZg59YYblI/AAAAAAAAMMs/bzd4NtNLHKEqY5D52u_dSDHYPAsttdV2wCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_5705.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kLbl-AYMOYk/YKZg59YYblI/AAAAAAAAMMs/bzd4NtNLHKEqY5D52u_dSDHYPAsttdV2wCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_5705.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7rgVgvp7mM4/YKZUKiEmfWI/AAAAAAAAMJ8/hXrGGogoPzETxV_ocsgN50GSvZQG9BcMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/IMG_3455.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="1512" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7rgVgvp7mM4/YKZUKiEmfWI/AAAAAAAAMJ8/hXrGGogoPzETxV_ocsgN50GSvZQG9BcMQCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_3455.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XwL07YwxNms/YKZUKvrvLKI/AAAAAAAAMJ4/wYsgDj2wMX45toQe6A-TuVi-vV3P8wqZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/IMG_3476.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XwL07YwxNms/YKZUKvrvLKI/AAAAAAAAMJ4/wYsgDj2wMX45toQe6A-TuVi-vV3P8wqZgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_3476.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">Once this was done - not a fast stage, it should be said, Spence is something of a perfectionist - the larch is burnt using a blowtorch and a steady hand. You can see the really gnarly, delicate-looking surface of the larch, which truly looks as if you've turned up to a house fire hours too late. And it smells like that too, if you get your nose right in there - an oddity exciting smell, proper 'charred'.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HcVCiOVgcDI/YKZUhHz2EfI/AAAAAAAAMKM/SYQV7AO-Hgkbf1eGYMxFJcrhoBseh7S0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/IMG_3513.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HcVCiOVgcDI/YKZUhHz2EfI/AAAAAAAAMKM/SYQV7AO-Hgkbf1eGYMxFJcrhoBseh7S0QCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_3513.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2pPbpnLY2k8/YKZVGHbNKKI/AAAAAAAAMKU/5Nmy3sXH65M6QQSJ7hNCe7dW1jxg-1V3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/IMG_3504.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2pPbpnLY2k8/YKZVGHbNKKI/AAAAAAAAMKU/5Nmy3sXH65M6QQSJ7hNCe7dW1jxg-1V3gCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_3504.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">After the charring, comes the vanishing - but sensitively done, so as not to obliterate the textures of the burning with a brutal slathering of shiny. Wet here, the varnish soaks in to 'fix' the burnt surface:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-skgyceb7qdU/YKZUhPJF8mI/AAAAAAAAMKI/IOhhtKcjt4ww0FMbswuXV9R8JVz_6w4GwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/IMG_3515.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-skgyceb7qdU/YKZUhPJF8mI/AAAAAAAAMKI/IOhhtKcjt4ww0FMbswuXV9R8JVz_6w4GwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_3515.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">Burnt only on the underside and the sides, leaving natural larch exposed on the surface where the books would sit, from here the shelves were brought to the studio where it was over to me. We'd come up with the idea of filling any natural cracks and splits with gold. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">Inspired by the Japanese art of </span><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi" target="_blank"><span style="color: #783f04;">kintsugi</span></a><span style="color: #444444;">, </span></b><span style="color: #444444;">mending precious time-served items with gold and honouring their long service rather than throwing them away or trying to hide the breaks, I first photographed the shelves placed in situ and drew lines as organically as I could over the edges, many times over, till I hand line that neither told a story nor suggested any deliberate sequence, taking my cue from Spencer himself and the notion of a totally random break or split: harder than I first thought! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">In fact, it took me two weeks to arrive at a set of 'cracks' I was happy with, and even then, I changed them as I worked. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">I tested the infill of gold with the samples that Spencer had made for us, in the process of assessing how much to burn into the wood, by Dremelling the splits in and applying both gold leaf and two gold acrylics. The idea was to fill with actual gold, via melting and pouring in, or alternatively using a rod that's melted in (NOT the correct technical term) but after research this proved both financially and technically very difficult to achieve without the input of a jeweller and specialist kit, so we decided on </span><b><a href="https://www.goldleafsupplies.co.uk/gold-metal-leaf/gold/gold-leaf-books/gold-leaf-loose/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #783f04;">23ct gold leaf</span></a></b><span style="color: #444444;"> - the quality of leaf above which no oxidisation takes place, and suitable for outdoor use as well as indoor.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NIW1sGBrLxQ/YKZYAI7A9pI/AAAAAAAAMKc/I57xZkAxZg0f7QxeLWhNfZUIoeFQQCZKgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_5837.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NIW1sGBrLxQ/YKZYAI7A9pI/AAAAAAAAMKc/I57xZkAxZg0f7QxeLWhNfZUIoeFQQCZKgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/IMG_5837.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yQTPyecz5UA/YKZYAReyKHI/AAAAAAAAMKg/DpzzKsHEDkgG9zFxee6np2SFVxe6yIIswCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_5841.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yQTPyecz5UA/YKZYAReyKHI/AAAAAAAAMKg/DpzzKsHEDkgG9zFxee6np2SFVxe6yIIswCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_5841.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">IN THE MEANTIME...the empty space where the old crate shelves were stacked was looking sad, so it was given a fresh coat of </span><b><a href="https://www.lakelandpaints.co.uk" target="_blank"><span style="color: #783f04;">ECOS white paint</span></a></b><span style="color: #444444;">, and I added a set of coloured pencils to it! I sketched them out on paper with felt tips in what felt like the right colours, squatting and holding them up against the corner, until they were right.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">Feeling like a big child it was massively freeing to paint something large-scale on the wall - we haven't done that for AGES - and I added some pencils which were sharp, a snapped one, a blunt one and some sharpened with a knife - like a real pencil collection.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YmPzV9kz53I/YKZZE1Xb9bI/AAAAAAAAMKs/jUdtSiaAGkMLr4sixFCCJ2e4MjoNLxB6gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_7613.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YmPzV9kz53I/YKZZE1Xb9bI/AAAAAAAAMKs/jUdtSiaAGkMLr4sixFCCJ2e4MjoNLxB6gCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_7613.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Htqv68EwU-0/YKZZfI1i1kI/AAAAAAAAMK4/ioXz_jF-Ir0Oy94kqwtnsO3GewOj2vb9QCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_5741.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Htqv68EwU-0/YKZZfI1i1kI/AAAAAAAAMK4/ioXz_jF-Ir0Oy94kqwtnsO3GewOj2vb9QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_5741.jpg" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8eFmWQwqs1A/YKZZfDQF3sI/AAAAAAAAMK8/f4kHpb3EMRAeO8wHgUZ-4SV7zLcl3wvZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_5740.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8eFmWQwqs1A/YKZZfDQF3sI/AAAAAAAAMK8/f4kHpb3EMRAeO8wHgUZ-4SV7zLcl3wvZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_5740.jpg" /></a></div></div></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZbsD4JE5450/YKZZfBkk6GI/AAAAAAAAMK0/-UWhCRCyxfwfbwjKL_XVG269Yj8IIQrbQCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_5738.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZbsD4JE5450/YKZZfBkk6GI/AAAAAAAAMK0/-UWhCRCyxfwfbwjKL_XVG269Yj8IIQrbQCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_5738.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">Once this was done it was time to gild. Gilding requires the surface to be smooth, sealed and dry, before a coat of size - a type of glue which doubles as a varnish, and remains sticky for a few hours - is applied, followed by the leaf itself. Every crack was Dremelled in, slowly and with a non-blinking steady hand, brushed clean with a stiff brush, and then sealed with a PVA solution. When dry, a layer of </span><span style="color: #783f04;"><a href="https://culturehustle.com/products/the-worlds-goldest-gold-metallic-acrylic-paint-by-stuart-semple-30ml" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Stuart Semple's 'Goldest Gold' acrylic</span></b></a> </span><span style="color: #444444;">was applied, chosen for being the truest, richest gold I've ever come across.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-38F8HF2yJaE/YKZgPRmv7bI/AAAAAAAAMMk/erzpG6BdZPc5QDaHK-c4DSQoK2teFssTgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_7616.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-38F8HF2yJaE/YKZgPRmv7bI/AAAAAAAAMMk/erzpG6BdZPc5QDaHK-c4DSQoK2teFssTgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/IMG_7616.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">The acrylic acts as a sealant, and ensured that should any area not be completely covered by the gold leaf, all you'll see is the convincingly-gold acrylic edge. I highly recommend his very special gold!</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eE1hvzDImDI/YKZa8l7hY7I/AAAAAAAAMLM/qUshIil7Om8em9BLbPzSWa73uuGGI1uHwCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/IMG_6979.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eE1hvzDImDI/YKZa8l7hY7I/AAAAAAAAMLM/qUshIil7Om8em9BLbPzSWa73uuGGI1uHwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/IMG_6979.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-86HoRo6BTBw/YKZa8sSvcYI/AAAAAAAAMLQ/WGmv-op6H0M_OeHQJtWr0Xrk-ZDoXSS-ACLcBGAsYHQ/s600/IMG_6978.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-86HoRo6BTBw/YKZa8sSvcYI/AAAAAAAAMLQ/WGmv-op6H0M_OeHQJtWr0Xrk-ZDoXSS-ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/IMG_6978.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">And then the gold leaf.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">A time-consuming process (if it wasn't already!) the leaf is applied with a dry brush over size applied anywhere from an our beforehand. As long as it's still sticky, you can start gilding. A little section of VERY flaky gold leaf is picked up on a dry brush, and pushed into the crack, tamped down carefully with the same dry brush - never with fingers.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">Despite a surprisingly modest spend on the 23ct gold, I ALMOST left the acrylic exposed, such was its goodness and glitter. here's the acrylic on the left, and some of the gilding on the right. There's just more...goldness to the gold leaf!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tkozDDsnE-w/YKZb8jkSlII/AAAAAAAAMLY/1NeOQejIC04_LsOfluH6-6DycFagho-WQCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_7413.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tkozDDsnE-w/YKZb8jkSlII/AAAAAAAAMLY/1NeOQejIC04_LsOfluH6-6DycFagho-WQCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_7413.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yq_54jjaloA/YKZdmkQdc8I/AAAAAAAAMMM/Oue-ucguF0sXmjXLGWaNAh1p9geJVoI6ACLcBGAsYHQ/s600/IMG_7368.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yq_54jjaloA/YKZdmkQdc8I/AAAAAAAAMMM/Oue-ucguF0sXmjXLGWaNAh1p9geJVoI6ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/IMG_7368.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TmFx5aGg6Jg/YKZdAUjWhwI/AAAAAAAAMLk/X9td-5iIrPw4gVbpCJ2eH4x4RXMwbvZ0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_7386.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TmFx5aGg6Jg/YKZdAUjWhwI/AAAAAAAAMLk/X9td-5iIrPw4gVbpCJ2eH4x4RXMwbvZ0QCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_7386.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dws1hpuPItzCEjhRgKjHdHRXY-ei3xZdryaTXAoWxPBb-8UxII8GW7BnJq7PCbCn2EzQYnXo6nmyjc' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2bFGLam0r7Q/YKZdA49QumI/AAAAAAAAMLs/B4yWleDmGegeXweIhCZbGuNqY9AkpZGIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_7394.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2bFGLam0r7Q/YKZdA49QumI/AAAAAAAAMLs/B4yWleDmGegeXweIhCZbGuNqY9AkpZGIQCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_7394.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxkK3emQ5qqI1PwJH6mEVX0chTU267Rj8EeB0txZO_YMjanRHRmvIsSdK_YDuCtKj0Xcua3zro7XAU' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Pnlo17Ev6o/YKZdBbRKcmI/AAAAAAAAMLw/Fj2Bfe1j-HMvF-kM7o5JnvpB00wKGqbhQCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_7407.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Pnlo17Ev6o/YKZdBbRKcmI/AAAAAAAAMLw/Fj2Bfe1j-HMvF-kM7o5JnvpB00wKGqbhQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_7407.jpg" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tuHXv5v-hbQ/YKZdB_ZFFsI/AAAAAAAAML0/xdUXL__yNm0IKdhNT191UprLDu2j7arhgCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_7411.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tuHXv5v-hbQ/YKZdB_ZFFsI/AAAAAAAAML0/xdUXL__yNm0IKdhNT191UprLDu2j7arhgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_7411.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">Finally, the completed shelves were fixed in place over the pencils, burnt, gold edges facing into the room, and the books have been making their way onto them this week; stylishly re-organised for the first time in years!</span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uj-M1LwbvFM/YKZeHJqiv_I/AAAAAAAAMMU/l_4CMAyWx2QSnFqUD2Q0UbPYvTMeH-YJACLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_7516.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uj-M1LwbvFM/YKZeHJqiv_I/AAAAAAAAMMU/l_4CMAyWx2QSnFqUD2Q0UbPYvTMeH-YJACLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_7516.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">We're grateful to Spence for his painstaking work, carried out in a distanced, awkward masks-and-googles-on way in the middle of a lockdown, and for the opportunity for another collaboration. The next project is already underway, and we already know there'll be more after that!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">You can explore more of Spencer's work on his </span><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/salixrobotspencerjenkins/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #783f04;">Instagram account</span></a><span style="color: #444444;">.</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pIzz2_CynyE/YKZfLdPbiVI/AAAAAAAAMMc/WuEGQp-fG3Ysd0F98KkLASfOgO18NaYKACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_7615.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pIzz2_CynyE/YKZfLdPbiVI/AAAAAAAAMMc/WuEGQp-fG3Ysd0F98KkLASfOgO18NaYKACLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_7615.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /><span><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></p>Sarah J Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12023898799415295499noreply@blogger.com0