Art direction and freelance

Loukia Kyriakidou is a freelance artist and art director. She has been a self-employed artist since she graduated from her degree in computer animation in 2010. An art director’s role, is to oversee the visuals for the game and dictate which direction to take any of the art for the game in.

Art direction begins with setting the style for the game, considering the feeling, the intention, and the function of the game as well as the platform that the game will be released on. It is also important to ensure that the game is accessible to all people. After the style is set, you must hold the visions. You are the person who knows what everything is supposed to look like and must be confident in the final product. You must decide and affirm that all the pieces will come together, and they will fit! To summarise, an art director maintains the confidence in the bigger picture as well as closely watching the development of the smaller pieces.

Loukia Kyriakidou’s day to day as an Art Director:

• Making decisions for visuals

• Feedback

• Ensuring Consistency

• Meetings

• Recruitment

• Emails

During semester two of year two, I was the team leader for the game development of Anima Mundi. Although my role did not include art direction specifically, it was still my job to oversee all team members work and help to maintain the consistency and quality of the design and artwork that was being created. I enjoyed being the team leader and communicating with members of the team, giving them a sense of direction, and organising the development of our project. Art direction as a job sounds exciting to me and this lecture was beneficial to me as I was able to learn the ins and outs of this role.

Advice on building yourself:

Set Goals: Know what you are working towards so you know where to push your skills and who you should be reaching out to.

Work on your craft: Personal projects and art pieces become opportunities to push yourself and develop your skills.

Network: Post all your work (twitter and Instagram) and connect with people online. Create a portfolio on either Art Station or on a personal website. Make sure it is clear, between skill and projects. Go to any events you can and push yourself to talk to people there. Go out on socials with these people (within the industry). Getting to know them and developing relationships will help your career. Get to know people before asking for favours.

Know what you are worth:Meeting people and comparing your skill level to peers will help to establish how much you should be charging for your work.

Make your own luck: Do not rely on being good at your craft and just expect good things to happen to you. Networking and making your own luck are essential if you want to get work.

Working on my craft is something I need to get into the habit of doing more often. I work incredibly hard on my university set projects, but I don’t think I spend enough time working on personal projects. Kyriakidou conveyed how these personal projects become opportunities to push yourself and develop, and so I am going to start actively working on starting some personal projects to enhance myself and my portfolio.

The advice given by Kyriakidou has also been helpful in making me realise how important networking is. She expressed that most of her freelance work opportunities come through recommendations that are made from people she has established personal and professional relationships with.

Networking and showcasing my own work to share what I am doing and connect with more artists and designers, is something I need to greatly improve upon. I have always had some anxieties about posting my own work and engaging with other creators whether it is in person or online. But I am starting to become a lot more confident in myself and my ability so I’m now more than ready to start building an audience and creating an accessible public portfolio.

To conclude on this reflection post, this lecture provided by Loukia Kyriakidou has provided me with actions to take to ensure secure employment after graduation. These actions will enhance my portfolio, allow me to develop an online community, and open myself up to exciting opportunities.

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