Study Task 3

Personal SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Drawing

Analogue/ handmade aesthetic

Atmosphere

Expressive

General knowledge

Musicality


Weaknesses

Lazy

Poor time management

Bad with technology

Reluctant to use social media/inability to use social media effectively

Not particularly approachable

Easily Distracted


Opportunities

Print fairs

Resurgence of popularity of analogue mediums

Talking to Practitioners

University facilities readily available at the moment 


Threats

Plagarism

Missing things which could be beneficial

Failing to promote myself as effectively as possible

Losing out to competition

Missing deadlines



Roman Muradov- SWOT and PEST

SWOT

Strengths

Strong and identifiable visual aesthetic (largely based in jazz age aesthetics)

Style translates well across numerous formats/themes (handmade, digital, print, drawn, animation, narrative etc.)

Technical skill and images imbued with character 

Extensive client list/connections

Experience in many fields

Frequent editorial commissions ensures consistent work


Weaknessnes

Lots of competition in the editorial/publishing fields

Personal work (to sell) deals with very niche themes/subjects and is a tad self indulgent, to the point where there is a risk of creating a very exclusive, small market. 


Opportunities

Due to the diverse range of formats he has applied to his work (handmade, digital, print, drawn, animation, narrative etc.) he is a valid candidate for any number of professional opportunities.

I can see his work as being appropriate to subjects catering to all age ranges.

Experience and skill has led to a teaching job (both an online subscription based service- 'Skill Share', and students at the California College of the Arts (illustration 3 and his own course exploring the relationship between drawing and writing)


Threats

He is very established now, so he probably doesn't face many threats that will impact him very heavily, but when he was starting out and up until now there will have been the challenge of sticking out in a market which is very full/saturated. (editorial/ publishing)

As he grows more successful it may become harder to juggle the more in demand jobs such as teaching and high profile commissioned jobs with personal output.  



PEST 

Political 

Doesn't have a strong political focus in his personal output, although his politics will be inherently imbued within it. This may provoke similar thoughts in his audience, people who read/buy his personal work but the chances are they have similar interests/ views to him.

The fact that he gets so much editorial work means a large amount of this will be tied up with politics in some way. 

He may have to base part of his decisions to work with various clients on whether he agrees with their politics v.s. whether its a really good/well payed job and if other clients who are in opposition will see his work for certain clients and decide they don't want him to work with them anymore. (e.g. if he regularly works with a more left wing publication but then takes a job with a more right wing client will the regular work stop?)


Economic

Illustration work can be inconsistent and although he is now very established, he will have had to keep adjusting the value of his work/ prices etc as he developed depending on his level of success at any one time, having to strike a balance between making a living and not putting potential clients off with prices.

people may use in house illustrators/ design teams a lot of the time because it's cheaper. 


Social

Editorial work obviously exhibits a range of social implications as it is so heavily involved with social issues. There is an expectation that an illustrator will demonstrate an active understanding of the information relevant to the work.

There is a risk concerning illustrators that their work will become unfashionable, particularly if they have relied on trends to dictate the aesthetics of their work. Although this seems unlikely to be a major factor for Muradov as he has a very distinctive, unique tone of voice which hasn't ever been based on popular trends. 


Technological

Muradov's work, whilst initially based in analogue practices, is definitely not limited to them and he has managed to keep his practice very up to date with technological advances, finding appropriate ways to incorporate Photoshop and Illustrator (Adobe suites) in a way which doesn't compromise the visual language he has honed up until this point.