Major Project Brief 1 Name: Stephen Colin Nuttall Pathway: Illustration Date: 13/01/11 Project Name: Satirical Illustrations
Background
- I am interested in editorial illustrations; particularly the political and social side of satirical illustration. This is something that I wish to pursue in the future on completion of my degree.
- The satirical illustration is not as abundant and prevalent as it once was which I feel is a loss to many newspapers & magazines.
- My approach to illustration needs to be refined; I feel that this project would be suitable for me to do this.
Brief
- I will create 7/10 illustrations based on topical news stories from the past year. These stories will be political and social in content; and I will be contacting different newspapers & magazines with regards to working with them or for them; and also try and get a live brief to work on.
- There will be investigation into the satirical illustrators of the past (i.e. Ralph Steadman, Giles, Punch Magazine, Goya, etc.). And research into the history of illustration looking at the original practice to modern day production.
- I will refine my approach to illustration and create roughs before proceeding with final images. These final images will be refined and high impact illustrations (1/2 colours; thought of space and shapes to have focus for the viewer).
- I will research the newspapers & magazines that are still using satirical illustrations in them (i.e. Economist, Daily Mail, Observer, etc...). I will contact these publications and arrange meetings with their Art Directors to view my portfolio.
Client
- The project is self-initiated; but I will be contacting different publications about work and working on live briefs.
Competitors / Context
- The majority of satirical illustrators create cartoon-esque drawings depicting an abstract scenario based on current affairs.
- Their target audience is the art directors at the broadsheets and current affair magazines; the art director’s audience is the people purchasing these publications.
- The competition will come from other satirical illustrators whom I will research and contact from the beginning of the project.
Target Audience
- My target audience initially will be to grab the attention of the art directors of the different publications I will be contacting.
- The viewer (of artwork & publication) will have an interest in current affairs, politics and social economics. They will be interested in the article (writing/story/journalism) and then want to see the artwork which will give the viewer a satirical view of the foresaid article.
- I will continue to contact art directors and gain valuable feedback regarding my work.
Deliverables
- 7/10 illustrations in context with story.
- A live brief illustration project.
- 3 art director meetings.
- A job.
Links & Books & Precedents
- Practitioners – Ralph Steadman, Giles, Richard Doyle, Steve Brodner, Jerry Miller, Goya, etc...
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl An enormous, angry rhinoceros that has escaped from London Zoo has eaten James’s parents. And it gets worse! James is packed off to live with his two really horrible aunts, Sponge and Spiker. Poor James is miserable, until something peculiar happens and James finds himself on the most wonderful and extraordinary journey he could ever imagine … James and the Giant Peach will be fifty in 2011. First published in 1961 it has become one of the most loved of Roald Dahl’s stories, appealing to readers of all ages. Dahl was a master of language and of making up words. His stories are full of fabulous visual twists and turns. Students are invited to design a whole new cover look for this iconic title, reinventing it for a new generation of readers, encouraging children (and adults) to revisit it and ensuring that it remains an integral part of childhood for the next fifty years. Your cover design needs to include all the cover copy as supplied and be designed to the specified design template (B format, 198mm high x 129mm wide, spine 12mm wide). What the judges are looking for: We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market of both children (to pick up and buy for themselves) and adults (to buy for children). While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover needs to be able to work on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting. The winning design will need to: have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief be competently executed with strong use of typography appeal to the broadest possible audience for the book show a good understanding of the marketplace have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against be able to sit on the shelves of a supermarket as easily as it sits on those of more upmarket bookshops such as Waterstone’
1. DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES The closing date for entries is 5 p.m. on Friday 15 April 2011. This site will accept entries from Monday 17 January 2011. 2. ELIGIBILITY To be eligible for the 2011 competition, you must be a student on any year of an Art or Design course at HND or degree level. The competition is open to international students and to MA students. The competition is not open to students on an Art Foundation course. There can be only one named entrant per entry. 3. DESIGNS You are permitted to enter designs for both the Penguin Adult Prize and the Puffin Children’s Prize. You may not enter more than one design for each category. 4. SUBMISSIONS All entries must be submitted digitally via an online link which will be made available on this site from Monday 17 January 2011. Entries must supplied in the following format: PDF 300ppi CMYK 5mm bleed Ideally colour managed to ISO Coated 39 or ISO Uncoated 29 (optional) Trim and crop marks to be included
Hard-copy entries will not be accepted. 5. CONDITIONS OF ENTRY Closing date for receipt of entries is 5 p.m. on Friday 15 April 2011. No purchase necessary to enter the competition. This competition is open to students of any year of an Art or Design course at HND or degree level, international students and to MA students. This competition is not open to students on an Art Foundation course or employees of Penguin, their families, agents and anyone else connected with this competition. No responsibility can be accepted for incorrectly uploaded entries. Entries via agents or third parties are invalid. All correctly completed entries will be forwarded to a judging panel made up of the Penguin Art Directors, the Penguin General Managing Director and guest judges for the Penguin Adult Prize and the Puffin Art Director, Puffin Managing Director and guest judges for the Puffin Children’s Prize, who will select a shortlist of entries for each category. The shortlist will be announced on this website by 18 May 2011. The shortlisted entrants will be notified in writing by 18 May 2011 and invited to resubmit their entry following feedback and further art direction from the Penguin/Puffin Art Directors. The closing date for the shortlisted entrants’ resubmissions is 1 June 2011. Shortlisted entrants will be required to provide the following submissions for each design entry: An A3 board showing the full jacket to scale 1:1. The design mocked-up on a book (which Penguin will supply). A short, typewritten text (max. 50—100 words only) submitted as a Word document, explaining the concept for your design. An A3 board demonstrating the development of the thought process from the original research to the final concept. A high resolution PDF and Jpeg of the front cover and full cover design on CD. The sender must prepay all shipping costs, insurance, customs duties and handling fees for all entries. The Promoter accepts no responsibility for the loss of or damage to any portfolios or other cases in which shortlisted entrants may send their resubmissions. A first-, second- and third-prize winner will be selected from each category for the Penguin Adult Prize and the Puffin Children’s Prize. The winners will be the designs which, in the opinion of the judges, best fulfil the brief from all entries received. The first-prize winner of the Penguin Adult Prize will receive a six-week work placement in the Penguin Design Studio and a cash prize of £1,000. The first-prize winner of the Puffin Children’s Prize will receive a four-week work placement in the Puffin Design Studio and a cash prize of £1,000. The second-prize winners of the Penguin Adult Prize and Puffin Children’s Prize will each receive a cash prize of £350. The third-prize winners of the Penguin Adult Prize and Puffin Children’s Prize will each receive a cash prize of £250. The prizes are non-transferable and no cash alternative will be offered to the first-prize winners. However, if, at the sole discretion of the judges, none of the entries in either or both categories is of a sufficiently high standard to merit the awards, no prizes, or only second and third prizes, may be awarded. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in June 2011. The winners’ details will be made available after the awards ceremony on this website. Events may occur that render the design competition itself or the awarding of the prizes impossible due to reasons beyond the control of Penguin. Penguin may, at its absolute discretion, vary or amend the promotion, and the winners agree that no liability shall attach itself to Penguin, provided that any prize shall not be of lesser value than the one advertised. The decision of the judges is final and correspondence will be entered into only at the absolute discretion of Penguin. The winners agree to take part in reasonable post-event publicity and to the use of their names and photographs in such publicity. All entrants hereby license to Penguin the use of their entry for display on any Penguin-owned website and for display in a physical exhibition. Appropriate credits will be given to each item displayed, but Penguin shall not be under an obligation to hold such exhibitions, or to include every entry if it does. Each entrant warrants to Penguin that his/her entry is original, and made without the inclusion of material owned by any third party. Entries will not be returned to entrants. Penguin will use any data submitted by entrants only for the purposes of running the competition, unless otherwise stated in the entry details. By entering this competition, all entrants consent to the use of their personal data by Penguin for the purposes of the administration of this competition and any other purposes to which the entrant has consented. It is a condition of entry that all entrants abide by the rules of the design competition. Promoter: Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL. Write to us at: Penguin Design Award 80 Strand London WC2R 0RL Email us at: mail@penguindesignaward.co.uk
James Henry Trotter, four years old, lives with his loving parents in a pretty and bright cottage by the sea in the south of England. James's world is turned upside down when, while on a shopping trip in London, his mother and father are eaten by a rhinoceros that had escaped from the zoo. James is forced to go and live with his two horrible aunts, Spiker and Sponge, who live in a high, desolate hill near the white cliffs of Dover. For three years Spiker and Sponge physically and verbally abuse James, not allowing him to venture beyond the hill or play with other children. Around the house James is treated as a drudge, beaten for hardly any reason, improperly fed, and forced to sleep on bare floorboards in the attic.
One summer afternoon when he is crying in the bushes, James stumbles across a strange little man, who, mysteriously, knows all about James's plight and gives him a sack of tiny glowing-green crocodile tongues. The man promises that if James mixes the contents of the sack with a jug of water and ten hairs from his own head, the result will be a magic potion which, when drunk, will bring him happiness and great adventures. On the way back to the house, James trips and spills the sack onto the peach tree outside his home, which had previously never given fruit. The tree becomes enchanted through the tongues, and begins to blossom; indeed a certain peach grows to the size of a large house. The aunts discover this and make money off the giant peach while keeping James locked away. At night the aunts shove James outside to collect rubbish from the crowd, but instead he curiously ventures inside a juicy, fleshy tunnel which leads to the hollow stone in the middle of the cavernous fruit. Entering the stone, James discovers a band of rag-tag anthropomorphic insects, also transformed by the magic of the green tongues.
James quickly befriends the insect inhabitants of the peach, who become central to the plot and James' companions in his adventure. The insects loathe the aunts and their hilltop home as much as James, and they were waiting for him to join them so they can escape together. The Centipede bites through the stem of the peach with his powerful jaws, releasing it from the tree, and it begins to roll down the hill, squashing Spiker and Sponge flat in its wake. Inside the stone the inhabitants cheer as they feel the peach rolling over the aunts. The peach rolls through villages, houses, and a famous chocolate factory before falling off the cliffs and into the sea. The peach floats in the English channel, but quickly drifts away from civilization and into the expanses of the Atlantic Ocean. Hours later, not far from the Azores, the peach is attacked by a swarm of hundreds of sharks. Using the blind Earthworm as bait, the ever resourceful James and the other inhabitants of the peach lure over five hundred seagulls to the peach from the nearby islands. The seagulls are then tied to the broken stem of the fruit using spiderwebs from the Spider and strings of white silk from the Silkworm. The mass of seagulls does indeed lift the giant peach into the air and away from the sharks, although the peach is badly damaged in the incident.
As the seagulls strain to get away from the giant peach, they merely carry it higher and higher, and the seagulls take the giant peach great distances. The Centipede entertains with ribald dirges to Sponge and Spiker, but in his excitement he falls off the peach into the ocean and has to be rescued by James. That night, thousands of feet in the air, the giant peach floats through mountain-like, moonlit clouds. There the inhabitants of the peach see a group of magical ghost-like figures living within the clouds, "Cloud-Men", who control the weather. As the Cloud-Men gather up the cloud in their hands to form hailstones and snowballs to throw down to the world below, the loud-mouthed Centipede berates the Cloud-Men for making snowy weather in the summertime. Angered, an army of Cloud-Men appear from the cloud and pelt the giant peach with hail so fiercely and powerfully that the peach is severely damaged, with entire chunks taken out of it, and the giant fruit begins leaking its peach juice. All of this shrinks the peach somewhat, although because it is now lighter the seagulls are able to pull it quicker through the air. As the seagulls strain to get away from the Cloud-Men, the giant peach smashes through an unfinished rainbow the Cloud-Men were preparing for dawn, infuriating them even further. One Cloud-Man almost gets on the peach by climbing down the silken strings tied to the stem, but James asks the Centipede to bite through some of the strings. When he does a single freed seagull, to which the Cloud-Man is hanging from, is enough the carry him away from the peach as Cloud-Men are weightless.
As the sun rises, the inhabitants of the giant peach see glimmering skyscrapers peeking above the clouds, and a sprawling urban city far below them. The inhabitants of Manhattan see the giant peach suspended in the air by a swarm of hundreds of seagull, and panic, believing it to be a floating, orange-coloured, spherical nuclear bomb. The military, police, fire and rescue services are all called out, and people begin running to air raid shelters and the New York Subway, believing the city is about to be destroyed. A huge passenger airplane flies past the giant peach, almost hitting it, and severing the silken strings between the seagulls and the peach. The seagulls free, the peach begins to fall to the ground, but it is saved when it is impaled upon the spike at the top of the Empire State Building. The people on the observation deck at first believe the inhabitants of the giant peach to be monsters or Martians, but when James appears from within the skewered peach and explains his story, the people hail James and his insect friends as heroes. They are given a welcoming home parade, and James gets what he wanted for three long years - playmates in the form of millions of potential new childhood friends. The skewered, battered remains of the giant peach are brought down to the streets by steeplejacks, where its delicious flesh is eaten up by ten thousand children, all now James's friends. Meanwhile, the peach's other former residents, the anthropomorphic insects, all go on to find very interesting futures in the world of humans...
In the last chapter of the book, it is revealed that the giant hollowed-out stone which had once been at the center of the peach is now a mansion located in Central Park. James Henry Trotter lives out the rest of his life in the giant peach stone, which becomes an open tourist attraction and the ever-friendly James has all the friends he has ever wanted. Occasionally one of his friends visits: the Old-Green-Grasshopper would pop by and rest in the armchair by the fire with a brandy, or the Ladybug would pop in for a cup of tea and a gossip, or the Centipede to show off a new batch of particularly elegant boots that he had just acquired. Always imaginative and creative, James becomes a successful author, writing his story in James and the Giant Peach - "the book you have just read!"
