Writing a Brief: Hollie Chastain's "Daydreaming" (2010)

Hollie Chastain-Daydreaming

I largely fictionalised the context for this illustration (to my knowledge T.E.D. Magazine doesn't even exist), since as far as I know the piece was produced as a stand-alone artwork, and I regret if I missed the point of the exercise...but I thought that if I was going to invent a brief I may as well go all the way. I loosely structured the brief on the first one I found via google: this one.

Clients - T.E.D. Magazine 

Overview

A magazine is being developed to align with with the Technology, Entertainment, Design series of talks, dedicated to "Ideas Worth Spreading". The publishers are asking for a broad range of art to match the creative and open-minded aspirations of the organisation.

This brief is for a splash image, opening an article that will expand on the themes presented Sir Ken Robinson in his talk: Do Schools Kill Creativity? (youtube link)

  

Usage

Similar to publications like New Scientist magazine, the illustration will take up most of one "standard" size (8 3/8" X 10 3/4") page, with the article beginning on the facing page. The publication is aimed at a sophisticated, design-conscious audience with an interest in authentic expression. Subtlety is a watchword; we're looking for potent, suggestive expression rather than a didactic editorial approach. Ideally the illustration will be visually rich, with elements that reward a second look, but not dominated by intense colours or excessive detail. 

 We'd like you to evoke, in a classroom environment, the dangers of a rigid, academically regimented school system and the benefits that creativity can bring to education. In this case we're not focusing on characters or a concrete setting-or even on a strictly defined narrative of opposition-but on the 'feeling' of school, and the idea of imagination conflicting with achievement, in the narrow way we define it in schools. It's important to show children in the illustration and frame imagination, new ideas and creativity as positive forces that conflict with conventional educational practices. 

We're looking for an image that will evoke childhood both through real media techniques and a sense of place, and show us a child's view of school, but not through naive or childlike rendering. We're hoping you can bring in elements of collage and found textural elements, materials and media that wouldn't look entirely out of place in a primary or secondary school classroom, to highlight the gap between the world of the classroom-- flat, faded, precise and monochrome--and the world of the imagination--having depth or volume, abstract and vivid.