For the Spring 2022 cohort, students at Jarrow School explored the breadth of the illustration industry. Three online photography projects were chosen, Once Upon a Time, Bold & Brave and Cars & Crypto – all of which showcased different skillsets and themes from 3D design to comic books to social media campaigns. Let’s take a look.
Project 1: Once Upon a Time
Mentored By: Helen Turner – Illustration Mentor
Project Contributors: Lindsey Birney – Director of Mr Wolf, Andy Waugh – Illustrator, Chloe Green – Festival Director of Thought Bubble Festival
The Brief:
The words ‘once upon a time’ will instantly transport you into a world of princes, princesses, little girls with red hoods, ferocious wolves, horrible stepparents, fairy godmothers and all sorts of weird and wonderful characters. Fairy tales form a huge part of childhood and have been retold and embellished since the 17th Century.
There is a clear format to most fairy tales – the heroes and villains are clearly defined, and it almost always ends in a happily ever after. However, there is a trend to reinvent the classics. A lot of the well-known stories are being adapted and retold all over the world. It is heritage reinvented.
Students researched the weird and wonderful world of fairy tales exploring format, characters, and role reversal. They looked at influential illustrators and effective comic/ graphic novel formats and production. Then, they used the processes of a professional illustrator to generate ideas. They brainstormed their given fairy tale section and created thumbnail sketches to explore the concept, narrative, pacing and layout. They also considered illustration styles. After completing the tasks and challenges, they created their final illustrations for their assigned story.
Project Results:
Please view the final results of Neve Connolly’s work from Jarrow School.
Project 2: Bold & Brave
Mentored By: Jodie Lightning – Founder of Oh Lightning
Project Contributors: Jayne Hughes – Illustrator
The Brief:
Body acceptance refers to asserting that all people deserve to have a positive relationship with their body, regardless of how society and popular culture view ideal shape, size, and appearance. The movement has grown to be a popular topic of conversation and campaigns in recent years, challenging the norms, and encouraging individuals to ditch filters and embrace their imperfections.
Social media has become a powerful tool for creating conversations and promoting acceptance. The community of body-positive and body-neutral social media influencers has particularly flourished during the last few years, encouraging the next generation to follow in their footsteps through relatable, transparent content.
Considering the growth in the movement, students were invited to join in. In this project, students used illustration as a tool to communicate their acceptance and what they value as part of a social media campaign, #boldandbrave.
Specifically, they worked towards creating two illustrated pieces (one statement and one visual). This was an opportunity to reflect on what makes them who they are and express that through visual storytelling.
Project Results:
Please view the final results of the student’s work from Jarrow School.
Amber Nicholson
Charlotte Rowan-Melia
Project 3: Cars & Crypto
Mentored By: Ben Brown – Animator, Megan Savage – Senior Creative Strategist at TICE, Freelance Creator
The Brief:
The difference between living online and offline is blurring. As a result, customers are now beginning to show off their digital assets and identities in what we know as the ‘metaverse’. There has been increasing investment in the virtual economy, which allows people to signal status with their digital collectables.
An industry that is currently thriving in this space is the motor industry. One example is CryptoMotors, the world’s first 100% digital automaker. They create blockchain power virtual vehicles which can be driven and traded across games and virtual worlds, targeting design-focused car collectors in the fashion space.
In this project, students were tasked to choose a character of their choice and design an NFT car if that character were to enter the metaverse. They were tasked to illustrate the structure and materials of the car, then place it on a background of their choice using 3D software, Blender.
Project Results:
Please view the final results of the students’ work from Jarrow School.
What did the students think of their TICE experience?
Please tell us your chosen project and why you chose this one:
“My project was Bold and Brave, I chose this project as it made me look into the bigger picture of body shaming and how to feel motivated about being confident in your own body.” Amber, Jarrow School.
What do you feel you have personally achieved in completing this project?
“I think I have gotten better at relating back to a brief and created a inspirational piece”. Charlotte, Jarrow School.
What do you think you will take away from doing this project?
“I will definitely take this to make people aware of how people may be feeling about their self, and to be more kind and to be confident.” Amber, Jarrow School.
“Don’t think you cant do it, don’t ever give up” Thomas, Jarrow School.
And finally…
Thank you and well done, not only to the students but to the teachers at Jarrow School. A big thank you to the companies that have supported and contributed to this project and to the TICE team that plugged away at the project week after week.
To the students – we hope you have enjoyed this project, we hope in years to come that you can proudly present an industry written project you did and quite frankly smashed. Well done and congratulations from everyone here at TICE.