Portfolio Visit at Taylor O'Brien

Today I had a portfolio visit at Taylor O'Brien in Manchester's Northern Quarter. 

I researched before my visit and was apprehensive as most of the work they do appeared to be digital. I didn't know if my hand crafted style would appeal but I received great feedback!

I gained an insight into industry and how tight the deadlines are in reality, sometimes with a 24 hour turnaround! This could be a problem with my process of working. I cut elements from paper, suspend them and photograph the pieces as a whole to get my final image. I was advised that the problem I could face would be clients changing things last minute and my work (once finished) is not very flexible. Helen O'Brien suggested that book covers, cards and other commissions with a longer time period to create images would be suitable. I do not like to  photoshop my work but I think maybe learning some new skills on the computer would also be handy!

Helen suggested I contact a few people that she knows that specialise in events and exhibitions, as they use set design at such functions and my work could appeal on a much larger scale, which is great because my next urge is to create much bigger artworks using a similar style to the one I have now. 

In the meantime I will be continuing to contact illustrators that work in a similar way to myself for advice on the problems I may face and how they work around them. I will also ask what sort of clients and jobs they get. I have researched other artists that predominantly work with paper and found that an artist called 'Zoe Bradley' does some exquisite shop window display for the likes of 'Tiffany & co' along with other high end brands. 'Lord Whitney' were commissioned to do the 'Just So Festival' and they create lots of lovely 3d pieces for the entire event. I think there are many avenues I could go down and research and contacting people within industry is going to be key in finding my path!