I am an imaginative illustrator with a passion for story telling and print based illustration.
Final Year Project
Music is My Voice
Music has been a part of my life since I was 9 years old, and the music societies at Loughborough have also been a huge part of my University experience. For my final project, I wanted to create something that honoured this, and as I have a passion for storytelling through book design, particularly children’s book illustration, I chose to enter into the MacMillan Prize for Illustration. The brief required creating a new children’s book, and the concept behind mine was to inspire children to want to learn music. I had so much fun creating this work, and my hope is that it sparks the same love for music that I was lucky enough to feel from such a young age.
For the competition, I created a storyboard and submitted 4 fully illustrated spreads. After the deadline I continued to work on the project so that I could finish illustrating all of the spreads. Each illustration was created by hand, using a combination of traditional mark making with paints, pastels and crayons, and digital collage using Procreate.
The story follows a young boy who has lost his voice, learning to find it through music. He discovers a trumpet, which he starts to play and subsequently unlocks the magical world of music, where a variety of characters show him how they communicate using instruments and song. I wanted the narrative to be story focused as opposed to educational, as the main purpose is to inspire and try to capture the joy that playing music can have.
Each double page spread was created in Procreate and then the layout was designed and compiled in Adobe InDesign, where I was able to add and adjust the typography for the text.
For the endpaper pages, I chose to design a collaged instrument silhouette pattern. I wanted these pages to be cohesive with the visual language of the whole book, however to also have their own unique motifs to set them apart as being separate to the story.
Sex Education Conversation
For my final year first semester practical project, I chose to create an illustrated zine with the aim of providing a sex eduction resource for young people ages 16-18. I identified that the sex education curriculum has been acknowledged to be severely inadequate and that there are not many resources out there for young people to turn to, especially through schools. I wanted to tackle this issue by creating a zine that would be advertised in school and accessed privately by young people online, which discusses many of the topics within sex education that are often not taught.
For the content of the zine, I conducted a survey of adults in their early 20s, asking what they wished they had learnt in sex education, what things they wished they had known sooner, and what they could tell their younger selves.
From this, I was able to identify some key areas to focus the project towards, and also extracted some direct quotes to use, which made the tone of voice a lot more personable and reassuring.
For the visual language of the zine, I created the illustrations digitally using Procreate, and I explored primarily pattern design and illustrated typography. I used some innuendo imagery, with the aim of making the zine approachable to young people, and not too serious.
For each spread of the zine, I formatted the pages using InDesign, where I inserted columns and bigger chunks of copy text.
For a few of the typographical pages, I developed a visual language where each letter was a different colour/style and included small illustrative details. I really enjoyed the freedom of creating typography in this way and it is definitely something I would like to pursue further in the future. All of the illustrated typography for the project was drawn using Procreate.
Within the project, I explored illustrated typography which is something I really enjoyed creating. I experimented with different compositions and styles of type throughout the zine, in order to break up some of the copy.
The zine would be accessed through an installation in school bathrooms, which would include QR codes to signpost young people to the full resource online. I wanted to keep the zine separate to schools and ensure that young people have the power to choose what content they would like to view, and be able to do so from the comfort of their own phones.
Awards
- Watercolour illustration exhibited in the Ashbourne Summer Arts Exhibition.
- EPQ award, designed and illustrated a children’s book about endangered animals.
- Young Enterprise, Illustrator for a team project creating a ‘Rainy Days’ activity book for kids.
Work Experience
1 week work experience opportunity at JCB
Summer 2018
Shadowing the graphic design team, learning how they use Photoshop and what type of projects they are involved with, such as promotional material and printed books. Working in the industrial design team, using CAD programmes.
LSU Classical Media Representative
April 2020- April 2022
Creating promotional material for concerts and events, including posters, social media posts and programmes.
Responsible for running the society’s social media pages, ensuring they were up to date, had new visual content and regular posts for rehearsals and events. Being a part of the committee and supporting the society in any other ways necessary.
Etsy Shop
2020 – present
Running an online shop, producing, packaging and posting prints of handmade illustrations. Creating other materials for the shop, including hand made cards, earrings and crochet coasters.
Freelance Work
2022 – present
Completing freelance commission work including watercolour pet portraits, illustrations and character designs.
Visionary Thinkers
Visionary Creators
Visionary Makers