Dan Brown
Available

Dan Brown

IllustratorNottingham, United Kingdom
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Dan Brown
Available

Dan Brown

IllustratorNottingham, United Kingdom
About me
Hi, I'm a multi-disciplined illustrator and designer driven to turn my pen, paintbrush or creative suite at any design task. I recently met an old friend from school who said something which pretty much describes me to a tee “I can always remember you sat in class sketching looking zen and always asking the teacher questions”. I was always inquisitive and eager to learn while sketching ideas and diagrams to visually understand something and break down a problem, and no matter how hard the problem was I remained calm and tried to look at it from a different perspective or ask questions. I have spent 9 years in the leisure industry following the career chosen for me in fitness and leisure. But I remained creative and passionate for art and visual problem solving. And after years of being asked to do drawings and designs for friends and family and persuaded that there is an industry for creatives I decided to take a leap of faith and change careers. I have a strong work ethic and organizational skills and I always remain calm under pressure and meet deadlines. Working with a target and deadline driven NHS scheme these were essential skills. I have worked on the front line with customers from my very first job at Homebase and Gym staff for Gedling Borough Council and as a result have developed a high standard of customer service skills and being able to build a rapport with clients and generate repeat business. This has also been a benefit in my creative problem solving also, allowing me to communicate with clients, understand their needs and interpret their briefs with accuracy and compassion.
Projects
  • Wildlife Illustrated
    Wildlife IllustratedWildlife Illustrated is an ongoing project of a illustrative collection of British wildlife, both flora and fauna. I want it to be informative and advocate for the conservation of the British countryside and wildlife. 
  • Active Outdoors
    Active Outdoors Active Outdoors is a current project for promoting outdoor sports and activities using minimalist digital art style graphics in a series of poster designs which I carried on after being commissioned to do a minimal cyclist print for a Cycle repair shop owner’s office, using a hint of blue and yellow to match his cycling jersey hung on another wall. The designs are made to be able to stand alone for use on promotional material, posters, prints and t-shirts.
  • The Pale Blue Dot
    The Pale Blue Dot The Pale Blue Dot is my final university project. I wanted to portray an inspirational story and cover which inspire potential future scientists, engineers and innovators, while conveying the importance of the planet and our connection to nature. The story centres around a young girl who goes back to nature to find inspiration.  The Pale Blue Dot was my response to my final University brief, where we were asked to manage a self-directed project based on our passions and specialist area for our careers. I chose this as I got into the industry originally for graphic novels and book illustrations and wanted to create write and publish my own book. This gave me an opportunity to showcase my skills in sequential and narrative illustration and test unique methods of visual storytelling in different panel designs such as the hybridisation of certain images so that they read in sequence and tell a story. The other challenge was to create an eye-catching cover which would not be out of place at any high-street book or comic store and still capture the attention of viewers. For this I used imagery from two scenes in the comic and the overall metaphor to convey the message of “oneness” with nature and the universe, while being visually engaging. I used a limited but striking colour palette and careful composition to allow the viewers eye to follow the imagew hile leaving white space for the viewers’ eyes to rest. It also gave me the opportunity to work with magazine and book layouts using decorative and commercial techniques to create print ready productions.
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Work history
    Duty manager
    Nottingham, United KingdomFull Time
    As a leisure manager, it was my responsibility to supervise over staff and building activities. Promote the centre and its activies, as well as deliver fitness classes and other recreational activities. I also had to organise promotional events. other duties include. -advertising and promoting the club or centre to increase usage, which may include commissioning and considering market research; -maintaining high levels of customer care, often with a particular focus on avoiding loss of existing users; -prioritizing target activities and user groups (especially in local authority centres); -managing maintenance, insurance, repairs and cleaning; -recruiting, training and supervising staff, including managing staff rotas; -carrying out health and safety checks on the equipment and site; -handling complaints and incidents, e.g. accidents, emergencies or theft; -ensuring own and staff members' first aid training is up to date; -delivering some fitness training or coaching in sports activities -cashing-up and keeping stock records; -purchasing equipment and supplies; -using advanced management information (e.g. footfall, popularity of classes by hour) to improve provision and timetables and cope with fluctuations in demand;
    gp referral consultant
     - Nottingham, United KingdomFull Time
    To promote and run the gp referral scheme, help people referred by the GP to get back to health using community exercise class, nutrition advice and educational classes. We also had to run the gym as supervisors, signing up members, building relationships and retaining customers, cashing up and cash handling and locking/opening up the building. We had strict deadlines and targets to keep as the scheme was funded by the NHS. To meet these deadlines we had to be innovative, creative and be able to make and distribute promotional material as well as build client and supporters relationships.
Skills
  • Adobe Photoshop/indesign/illustrator
  • Adobe After Effects
  • Watercolour Illustration
  • Book Cover
  • Narrative
  • Storyboarding
  • Pressurised Environments
  • Time Management
  • Communciation
  • Client Rapport
Education
    BA (hons) Illustration
     - Derby, United Kingdom
    Working in creative studio based experiences to encourage you to become an innovative, unique, diverse, and professionally distinctive illustrator. Exploring all aspects of Illustration from visual problem solving, sequential image-making, characterisation, reportage and editorial illustration to 3d image making and animated giffs, gaining the communication skills to thrive in the professional world of contemporary Illustration. We were encouraged to challenge concepts, question, tell visual stories and produce innovative Illustration, responding to the ever changing trends and movements in literature, arts, culture and fashion. we were be introduced to the varied and evolving role of the illustrator as visual interpreter, storyteller, promoter, reporter, author, artist, director and entrepreneur.