Exe 5.1: Your own work

Brief: For this Exercise we were asked to review all the work we've produced thus far and choose one image to create a product/artefact using this image.

This exercise filled me with excitement because it prompted me to think about the work I have produced beyond simply using it as course work.

On reflection I would however have liked to have spent more time researching different suppliers and looking a little further into the images I have produced in order to create a bit of a gallery of images to choose from.

This aside, I decided quite promptly on using the collage dog that I created for exe in section 4 i.e.: image distortion. I was deciding between using the black and white version of the coloured collage.

 

As I live in Kemp Town in Brighton which is FULLL of wonderful dogs of all shapes, sizes and styles, I decided to make the product specific to Kemp Town.  

I had HUGE ideas of creating little espresso cups with the image all around it ....or an apron...or cushion cover...or a wallet....OR....ahhhhhh price! I quickly realised that price definitely puts limitations on what could be produced! Also because I only wanted a one or a few items the price was generally higher and the cost of postage definitely surprised me especially when most of the websites seemed to actually be produced in the USA. What I also found was that producing 3-D objects like cups/mugs meant that on the cheaper/more available websites, the image looked a little like it had been stuck on like a home-made photo-mug and finally some companies/websites are much easier to use then others which certainly influenced what I could actually produce. 

In the end I opted for creating coasters as they were 2 dimensional and within my budget. I looked at a few suppliers and opted for the company photo box in the end and decided on using the collage dog in the end. 

Chosen one for coaster

 I made up the term Kemptonian...which I hope that people would understand! I then trialled backgrounds turquoise and a lavender-grey and finally decided on the lavender-grey.

Next step was deciding on a product…that was very much linked to the price I was willing to spend. Again unfortunately I also didn’t want to order too many of my chosen product at this stage because I wanted to see if it would work 1^st therefore had to go with companies that charge more per unit but you can buy less and therefore spend less to start off with. 

Using these companies was a challenge at times because their systems aren’t really designed to work with images outside of photographs and therefor this limited what could be done when using pixelmator files to include text as well. Zazzle.co.uk was the easiest to use and I was happiest with the product but you only find out when you are ‘checking out’ that they are simply a co.uk name based in the USA so suddenly there’s a hefty postage charge and a 2 week wait.  

I decided to make a coaster because it was still 2d and reasonably priced. Amazon looks the cheapest on paper but only deals with photographs so needless to say I reached a compromise with Photobox.  

Photobox: £14.99 for 4

Café press: £8 for each coaster + £8 postage

Zazzle.co.uk: All items posted from the USA. £8.75/coaster Plus £15 for postage!

Amazon: £2.95/coaster but only able to use photographs not JPEG. 

I looked at Society 6 as they are geared to artists work but I am not a member so that proved difficult and they are also based in the USA. 

Final Coasters

The product is quite fun but of course there are limitations for example, the same image would be printed on each of the 4 coasters. I was quite happy with the quality of the printing and the product itself but think if this was a product to be sold you it would look better with one or more other characters.  From an image perspective I think perhaps a small shadow or horizon line to stop the dog from looking like he is floating. Also having spoken to a friend of mine she preferred the text on the turquoise version and the fact that the dog-character was standing on the word as the font appeared more genteel and she felt the character was like a little gentleman-dog, but agreed with the lavender background. I think she might be on to something....

On the whole I found this a very interesting exercise! Firstly it made me realise that I can and actually should start thinking about considering taking some images to the next level and as I build up a portfolio, thanks to this course, I have some work to fall back on or some ideas to fall back on. Also it pressed home how important researching suppliers is and of course if I was looking to sell I would need to ensure that not only did I cover my costs but that I made a prophet and there’s only so much one is prepared to pay for items like coasters etc. Needless to say this was a great 1^st introduction and quite exciting to see my image on a little coaster even if it wasn’t 100% right.