Stereohype, a London based graphic art label and online boutique, held their annual button badge competition for a new series of designs to be added to their growing collection. These designs were inspired by my love of both lowbrow art and food. I created these illustrations with ink and watercolor. The bacon and egg skull became one of their new single button design winners.
Buttons available for purchase at stereohype.com
The East Coast Gaming Conference held their annual t-shirt contest for their 2019 event and this is the design I submitted. I took inspiration from the 80s and used bright, vibrant colors and an older television. No copyrighted images could be utilized so I decided put the focus on gamers as a community rather than any one console or company. The rules outlined that only four colors could be used so I went with a simple color scheme. The name of the conference as well as the abbreviation “ECGC” were also to be featured in the design.
I drew out the illustration by hand before vectoring the image using Illustrator. I colored the illustration using Photoshop. The East Coast Gaming Conference font was supplied.
Jerry’s Artarama needed artwork for a promotional giveaway that was being shared on the company’s Facebook page. The artwork needed to use the advertised canvas boards as well as adhere to company standards and showcase other featured products.
I created a painting for them to use as well as helped to ‘stage’ the photo. The painting was made using acrylic gouache on textured canvas board.
As of March 2019, This illustration was chosen as the second place winner for the Wake Technical Community College’s Northern Campus mural!
Wake Technical Community College’s North Campus was looking for submission’s for a mural to be hung in the student lounge. I chose to go with something that represented North Carolina so I went with a lighthouse. I wanted to emulate a sunset so I chose a warmer color palette. I also knew that I wanted to do a postcard design so I went with a font that was reminiscent of old postcards and added in a white border.
AIGA Raleigh, the Raleigh chapter of the professional association for design, worked together with HP Graphic Arts to collect over 100 greeting cards for patients at St. Jude’s Childrens’ Research Hospital. These illustrations were created to be child-friendly but encompass a wide audience. Emphasis was placed on illustration and typography.
I was tasked with creating a flyer that would be given to Artsplosure sponsors with information on the First Night event. The front half was to contain infographics breaking down demographics, costs, etc. while the back would be a collage of images from the event.
When it comes to Social Media Management, there are a variety of sites and techniques that can be utilized to best meet the end goal. Depending on your area of interest, you might find certain sites more valuable than others. This week I decided to interview Leo Flounoy, videogame streamer for PrideStark Gaming, to get his take.
I asked Leo about the social media channels he used related to his interests (gaming and gaming related content/media) and he responded with: “Mostly Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! Reddit is another great source, but I find that utilizing connections between those three I mentioned before tend to lead me everything else. I’m always following new pages just to make sure I get all the info possible”.
Leo spends on average somewhere around 20-30 hours each week on his Social Media Marketing depending on the responsiveness of their users. If it’s a particularly busy week, Leo commented, “They’ll hit you up ALL hours of the night so sometimes you have a SLEW of things to tend to as soon as you wake up!”. This definitely shows that many social media campaigns need to account for the schedule of their users,especially what times of day they’re the most active.
When asked about how he engaged his visitors to participate and share his content, Leo answered, “I believe that when it comes to engaging visitors to participate, it’s so important that they feel like they’re part of the community you’re trying to build! We as people direct questions, pay attention to trends and push those things further! Combining that with community events and giveaways that are incentives for sharing and participation and people are much more likely to play a major part in things when they know there’s something in it for them too”.
I continued by asking Leo how this engagement benefited both him and the company. Leo expressed that visitors that are introduced to fun and new content would be more likely to return in the future. “Happy Visitors are directly related to the number of Return Visitors a site or group has. Talking to your user base on a regular basis through posts, responses and polls keep you directly informed on the overall consensus regarding the company!”.
On the flip side, I also asked how this engagement could be seen as useful for his target audience. Leo had these key points to say, “One of the major things an audience wants is to feel close to your group or company. They want to feel like their thoughts and work are important to YOU and that YOU are paying attention to what they’re saying in hopes that it might help shape an already good product (hence the large user base) into something even BETTER and along the lines of what they want!”
As you can see, active social media engagement is useful for both the Social Media Marketer and the user base. Content that is thoughtful, creative, and fun will be more likely to keep visitors interested and eager to see more. Being open with your audience and responding to useful feedback is another way to make sure your social media channels are thriving.
What other tips and tricks have you seen in regards to social media campaigns and how do you think they vary across different interests?
For more about PrideStark Gaming and Leo’s contributions, check him out on Twitter at Twitter.com/CptGamesTKirk and Instagram at Instagram.com/djreimei/
I came across an interesting article, “The Impact of Technology on Art” on Artthou.co.uk (URL: http://www.artthou.co.uk/notes/technology-on-art) and it got me thinking about how much art and technology work together.
There is no question that art and technology now coexist in a way that was unimaginable decades ago. For many, advancing technology was seen as something rooted in math and science and the creative fields were largely reduced to physical means. In 2018, it’s easy to see how technology has had a positive impact on many creative fields from art, to music, to photography.
Rather than replace the artist or limit one’s creative scope, technology has opened up options for artists that weren’t available before. As stated in the article, David Hockney was able to use the IPad Pro to create stunning images where, previously, he used oil paint. With emerging and new technology, artists are given the ability to try out new techniques and hone their skills for a new environment. I see art and technology as both ever-changing and both working interdependently will produce some amazing results.
