So far my only issue is having a portfolio that actually has content. I am pretty much finished all of my deliverables. I found an issue the other day when trying to save my first deliverable. I have apparently saved over the .psd with a flattened version by mistake, which has made me inconsolable. I suppose I will have to work around this issue.

Since most of my other courses are pretty much done, all I have to do is scoop up my best work and throw it in my portfolio, making sure my book looks good.

For my portfolio, since I am poor and need to save all my money (cheepskate in denial), I am trying to get around using a typical portfolio that costs way too much money. I have my website portfolio, which I will probably use most of the time. The actual book portfolio is more of an accessory for when I come in for an interview, which I want it to look nice, but I also don't want to spend too much on it. If I ever wish to re-brand, I want to make that transition relatively easy for myself. I have decided maybe having a clear cover with a landing page proceeded by the contents of the portfolio.

My current approach is spoofing Batman posters. I did the movie poster idea because they are striking and extremely effective in selling a concept. I love good movie posters, and always go and see a film if the poster looks really awesome. The Dark Knight trilogy did this extremely well; and of course, they are my favourite movies.

The concept is a progressive approach to revealing my skills and potential to work for a film company. I made the posters so that they could almost mistakenly be taken for a movie poster, but on closer examination you realize it is advertising a designer/illustrator (me). I listed the programs I am efficient in and my website url, and I'm planning to incorporate some contact information somewhere.

After I talked with Nancy, I have a better understanding of what I need to change. Need some consistency with the typography at least so they all tie together nicely, only slightly changing the logo, changing the name, and keeping everything in the same place.

I need to fix some of the type so it's more like the Dark Knight Rises poster, and perhaps just keep the name to "Catbat" instead of "the Dark Artist". 

Deliverable 1: most abstract

Deliverable 2: less abstract, but still no face seen

Delivarable 3: comic book style character, even less abstract

Deliverable 4: "Leave behind". Most striking piece, and most realistic character finally revealed. (artist utility belt included)

Deliverable 5 "Thank you poster"

Business card

For the business card, I will move "Illustrator, graphic designer, concept artist" up and give more leading, then move caitlinbateson.com underneath it.

My new strategy map indicating my new steps.
Each deliverable is a step not only displaying my art skills, my knowledge of lighting, anatomy, lines, perspective, colour, etc, but also showing my design process with drawing, layout and graphic design.
The narrative will focus on me, a student, trying to prepare to become a “Designer”. My character will be the only fully illustrated piece in the comic, battling the evil villain Design Problem. Over the course of the deliverables, I will progress, me being the only character fully illustrated, and each portion of the comic everything becomes more finalized until the final deliverable, where it is all fully illustrated. I am not sure if I will do them like movie promotional posters or if they will be comic strips, but I will see what I realistically have time to do and what makes more sense.
The first deliverable is a leave behind card/booklet. It will show logo, have an illustration and show the first steps of my design process, the basic "skeleton" of the drawing.

The second portion will be a mail in. I will show more in-depth illustration, including more character progression and line art.

After I have mailed in as an interest in them to be able to combat this common foe, I will send in a 2nd mail in, when they are hiring or after I've applied for a job. It will be a follow-up mail-in, showing Catbat is now a strong superhero ready to use her art skills to fight Design Problem. Intro to myself more as a designer, where I am now, and how I can benefit my target company. Deliverables will be flatly coloured.

When I get the interview, I will bring my printed book Portfolio, my business card and a leave-behind. The illustrations are now full and complete, showing the progression the character has come to and solved the problem, defeated the villain, etc. If I don't get to the interview, I will skip the fourth deliverable, or if the interview goes either good or bad, and send in the fifth deliverable.

The fifth deliverable is a mailed-in, one panel thank you card showing my future possibilities and showing that I am happy no matter where the road of life takes me. On the back I will have a business card attached, contact information, website address, etc in case they want to contact me.

I have no current pictures of my deliverables, but I will update this post with them in the next day or so.

So after some discussion and uncertainty, and a bit of brainstorming, I have completely changed my idea. The first realization of my error was the fact I was trying to play safe; none of the choices I made even remotely represented who I felt about myself. They felt unnatural and dull and I was completely uninspired, struggling to make things just for the sake of having content to hand in and show today.

After thinking about my choice of name and logo, a Batman spoof to be a Catbat I chose as a representation of the irony of my last name actually meaning "Son of Bat" and the fact I love comics, Batman being one of my favourites and somewhat relative (I can only wish I had an awesome Batcave...) I realized that my solution was staring me in the face the entire time: MAKE A COMIC!

Now with my solution in sight, I have to make a comic about myself. I am going to be the main character, where I will express my design process, creativity and personality to employers. The comic will be in parts: a student-leave behind, a thank you to the company, why I'd like to work with them, why I should work with them, etc. It start off as unfinished, showing my perspective grids, sketches, anatomy and storyboarding abilities and progressing to a finalized piece of illustrated artwork. I was thinking to perhaps have myself as the only finished figure in the comic to start, just to symbolize myself as a creative individual changing and influencing the world around her, while also at the same time showing my creative process.

For story narratives, I was considering having a few references to the Batman comics, like an Artcave instead of a Batcave, the Joker, the Riddler, etc, as The Design Problems. I haven't figured out specific villain names yet, I think they will be more suggestive than active in the comic, but it's their symbology as design problems where I will have to use my skill-set to solve them that is the most important.

My "superpowers" will be my digital and traditional art skills, a pencil & sketchbook, Wacom pen & tablet and my preferred drawing program of choice (PS). I will perhaps have them all kept in some kind of utility belt, like what Batman has, except this time it's an artist apron.

I will still keep my business cards, website and print portfolio, but I will make them a lot more in the same style, making sure each element works the same.

I will update this post later with a new narrative arc showing my steps to hopefully get hired where I want to work.

As I start to prepare to finally throw together my portfolio, I've been having a lot of issues with my chosen route to introduce myself to employers. I want to be noticed, but I have an immense social fear (due to my social anxiety) of coming off either stupid, egocentric, or pushy and thinking that I'm better than I really am. I am extremely quiet and reserved, rather indecisive, I don't really like judgement, I perceive and more than I judge things. Though, I do have a really big fear that is the main source of my social anxiety and that is the fear of being judged or looking stupid. I fear sending emails to people, always thinking the worst of what they might say and assuming they won't help me, and I've found my irrational fear is probably stupider than how I look to other people. I will get nowhere if I don't push myself, but it feels a little unnatural for me to send random emails out to companies to introduce myself as an artist, as much as I wan't to be out-there and known.

I've revised a few of my logos from last week, I've looked at perhaps changing some of the logos around, fixing the text, making some aspects of the CatBat bigger, like the ears, whiskers and paws so it was more apparently a cat and less like the Batman logo. I made a regular business card, illustration on the back, logo on the front.

And the logos as the bats on their own (to be cut out like bats, but I think the traditional square business cards work most effectively)

For my main portfolio, I came up with a basic layout of how I want my imagery presented. I want to show the main piece, with the adjacent piece showing the process of how I got there. I don't have all the pieces complete yet, so I filled in where they're going to go with grey boxes.

Apart from my portfolio layout and the logos/business cards, I have also been working on a website layout for the portfolio site I am making in Alanna's Digi class.

I decided to start with my business card; a logo and something that could be universal. I like comics, and drawing Bat from my last name "Bateson" (ironic that my family crest has bat wings? haha) and Cat from my first name, I came up with BatCat. I was researching cool business cards and got inspired by a ninja star business card, so I figured why not a Batarang? Batman is one of my favourite comic book characters and the Bat-identity fits well with me, so I figured this would be a fun and playful way to get an employer's attention. I thought it would be fun to steer away from the bindings of traditional business cards and do something of my own that not only expresses my passions in life, my personality, and my work, but is also unconventional and unexpected. I plan to perhaps on the back (the blank grey image) to overlay some of my illustration as a preview to what I can do. Some concerns right now are how this idea can be implemented into my portfolio website and in the emails I wish to send to potential employers, and it feels to me that perhaps I need a heaver weight type for the smaller writing, as it becomes a little hard to read at the size I want to print them, looking back.

Here is an example WITH an illustration on the back. I think perhaps I would like to make each sort of unique, with a different piece of art on the back.

Some more examples with different art pieces: