Portfolio Visit: Evolve

At the Teen Market I was approached by the owner of a new shop in Stockport Called Evolve, he asked if he could look at my designs and wanted to take a few samples to sell on the shop floor. I asked the owner why he was attracted to my style off clothing and he replied by saying that they were unique and different and had the right feel that he was going for, for his shop. I also asked him which T-shirt design he liked the most and he couldn't choose as he mentioned that their's variety and a personal style with all of them. I asked the Evolve owner why he thought Curbkid would fit in well with his style of shop and the reply was that he liked the idea that the T-shirts are one of a kind, had a personal appeal and finally they match the type of vibe he is going for. My clothing is now shown with the Evolve shop in Stockport and is displayed to be purchased in the front window which is great, when I leave Uni i plan to approach more shops and grow the clothing line.

Change of style

When starting my animation I decided that the character appearances would be in the style of 'South Park' as I thought it would be easy to animate but after looking at the characters I decided that they weren't looking Urban enough and didn't fit the style I was going for. I went off the South Park as I wanted to draw in the style I was more familiar with, and wanted the character to look more gritty and urban. I want my character to look rough and ready which gives the character a urban/ street look which will match the rapping style. This new style of animation will require more time but will suit my animation and I feel it will look and have a better feel to match the Rap theme.

Portfolio Visit: Sarah-Rose

My sister gave me the information of a Lady who owns a small animation firm called 'The Picture', so I went on a portfolio visit to show my digital work. I showed her all my moving image video's and asked her what she thought, she began by talking about the E4 advert saying it made her laugh, she commented on the fact it was original and matched the look and funness of the E4 style, she questioned my Salad Cream advert and its quality which I know is poor having not recorded it in HD, she gathered the story line behind it and thought it was a good piece minus the quality. She said I had tried my hand at various techniques which is great to see with student work as your still discovering your own style. I also showed her my final uni project rough animation and she commented on the fact she wasn't a rap fan, however she liked the style with the black and white mixing live pictures and cartoon, she kept saying 'Street Style' which was the look I was after.

The Fashion Network Recruitment Fare - Portfolio Visit

On the deadline day morning I went for my last portfolio visits at a student recruitment fare in Manchester, I took along my huge A1 folder with my designs and Tshirts loaded inside and went around the stalls that high named brands were set up camp on.  I visited 'Elvis & Jesus', 'Ringspun', 'SRG Apparel' and 'Red Alert'.  The feedback I had was really positive from these companies,  they were pleasantly surprised that I wasn't from a fashion course and they could see that within my designs.  Elvis and Jesus really loved the logo and the link with the characters face, they loved the simplicity of it.  Ringspun wern't keen on the designs for their label but enjoyed the boldness of the text designs and said "Witty Tshirt comments are always popular, you cant go wrong with them"

All in all it was a great experience to go and visit these companies, I handed out business cards and companies also asked for them which was positive.  Fashion and designing Tshirts is definately where I want to be in the future.

Teen Market

While sitting in Uni I was approached by my tutor who suggested I became involved in a teen market being held in Stockport. This was an opportunity for me to create new T-Shirt designs and make some money.  I had sew on the labels to 100 new t-shirts and sell them which gave me an in site to running my own stall and shop and gave me the experience I needed to interact with the public and get the Curbkid name out there. This gave me inspiration and new ideas for the line, I also got interest from a number of people and was asked if I made female clothes which I am now looking to start doing in the future.

Self-promotion

I am combining my Clothing Line with my animation as a self-promotion tool, as it will be a video that I can post on my website for the public to view and get a feel for my style, and the character will be wearing the clothing iv'e actually designed. Therefore my animation is being created for a purpose and will be used after my Uni deadline.

T-shirt Process

As I have a passion for my Clothing Line (Curbkid Clothing) I thought it would be a good idea to combine the two. I had to come up with T-shirt ideas so I sat down and came up with a number of sketches then scanned them into my computer edited them so that they fitted an A3 sheet and took them to a lady who backed them onto a screen print for me so I could then print onto my t-shirts. After this I had to make them unique so I added all the Curbkid Labelling and sewed on the logo.

Getting Rappers

To make my animation happen I needed Rappers who were willing to write and record music for me to put into my story line. I asked 2 of my close friends to write some lyrics and record them to add to animation, we spent a few hours working on the verses and the style in which they were going to rap, after this we working on trying to make their voices sound like they weren't underwater this involved using a programme called 'fruity loops' and experimenting with different effects. I also included a guitar player called Matty which included dimension and effect to the animation. I also used some of my own work and included my own rapping style into the piece and created a calibration with all three artist's.

The Voice

After starting my animation a new television show called 'The Voice' aired on BBC where artist's had to Battle against each other to get through to the live shows. I feel that the Battle aspect of this show really worked as it was something different and gave a lot of viewers who may not have known much about rapping a little education on the style of singing, and it helped to give it a modern vibe a fresh look. I enjoyed the fact they were paired up with members of their own team to battle to the same song and their mentor had a judge the best singer.

Choosing Rap for my animation

After receiving my brief for my final Uni project, I found it difficult to decide on a topic I would enjoy creating an animation for, after a long thought process I decided to base this on my passion for rap and try and change peoples perspectives and bring it an urban vibe. The reason for choosing Rap is purely for the fact I enjoy listening and creating rap pieces, by myself and with friends. I want to create a animation based on a young person who is interested in Rap and wants to enter a battle but is nervous and needs to find inspiration so he goes out and run's into a number of rappers and gets the confidence to enter the battle. The purpose of this story line is to try and inspire people to pursue their dreams and find inspiration by going out and listening to other people.

Battle Leagues

After having surgery I spent 2 weeks stuck at home browsing the internet I came across a two-on-two Rap Battle league (the USA vs. UK) after watching these battles I started to notice which Rappers I enjoyed listening too and came across a number of Battle Leagues in different countries. The main Battle Leagues I follow are 'King of the Dot' which started as an Canadian League and has soon become popular all over the world. 'Don't Flop' which is the English Battle League however I prefer watching 'King of the Dot' as it is more organised and you win bigger better prizes (usually large amounts of money) also I feel that with the Canadian battle league I know the artist's and their characteristics whereas the English League is a little of over the place and unorganised and I don't feel as if I know them.

8 Mile

Rap became more popular after Eminem brought rap battle's into cinemas, this is when I first became interested and was first introduced to rapping, history and techniques behind the style of genre. This film inspired me as it explores opportunities for youths to make something of themselves and find away out to succeed also I liked the fact that they could get things of their chests and basically humiliate each other without being threatened from other gang members.

The film also showed White people that they were aloud and becoming accepted into the rapping community, after the film aired more and more white people were rapping and expressing their feelings through this style of music and eventually it became a global thing and youth around the world were rapping and entering battles.

Rap History

The rapping culture originated from New York City where African-Americans and Latino youths would attend block parties where incorporated DJs would play popular genres of music, this lead to the youth's to use turntable techniques to create a backing track for them to rap too.

They would battle against each other and feed of each others weaknesses to gain a MC status and move up along the scale to become the best. battles started on the streets but have slowly become a ticket event where each artist takes part in a number of rounds and until a winner is decided and they move onto the next round.

Overtime more artists and young musicians have became more interested in the rapping style and its becoming more popular.