Independent Leeds

Independent Leeds

In December David from Independent Leeds contacted me through my instagram after I tagged their page in a photo of my Virgin Media Communications Box. He asked if I would be interested in meeting up for a coffee and discussing whether or not I'd be interested in illustrating something for one of their upcoming issues. I replied promptly and we actually met up the next day to discuss the possibilities! I really enjoy meeting people face to face rather than over email / phone.

Meeting David was great, the more we spoke the more we realised we had in common, and I felt confident going forward with the project. He gave me pretty free reign on the entire thing, I told him about my dissertation topic of female zine culture and he seemed more than happy to let me write and illustrate a piece on that (but Leeds focused).

This brief was great as it taught me a lot of things;

- Communication between commissioner / client and myself

- Self initiated research and direction (reportage)

- To work to specifications

- Alter work in regards to feedback (though this was actually only applicable to adding a few things into the writing)

Seeing it in the flesh

I got a hold of the copy from David himself when we were both attending a one night exhibition of the Virgin Media communication boxes in Headingley. Both him and John were over the moon with the piece as a whole, and I've already received some great feedback via instagram from collectives and studios that read the piece. It was really great to see the piece in print too, and I feel rather accomplished. It's good to know that I can still do work that I'm passionate about, even in the commercial realm of illustration. It also got me thinking about doing more reportage / editorial pieces going forward? Reportage is something that I really enjoy, but feel I haven't really had the time to do this year. I'd love to do more going forward.