Session Feedback with Jane

Todays tutorial with Jane was a catch up session to go over again what we needed to have done by this point and what the rest of the module holds.

Topics covered:-

- presentation - has to be 8 mins long, the last 2 mins are for Q&A on the presentation and business - we should be coming up with action plans and organising our own group progress meetings to keep on top of the work load and progress further. We've already begun these meetings but we haven't been making full use of the action plan method so this is something we will incorporate into our group at each meeting - we went over the content of the presentation and what key things should be mentioned such as SWOT, PEST and 4_'s along with anything else that is needed for the presentation

other topics:-

- skills and services

- target audience

- self promotion

- competition

- financial considerations

- location

After this we reviewed the grading criteria and how the presentations run just to give us a heads up.

In response to this we had a meeting straight after the tutorial to go over a few things and talk about some of the topics discussed in more detail, specific to our group.

Notes from meeting:

- look up Re: companies to ensure its available

- look up leeds branding - investigate what they offer and how we can differ and compete with them

- need to find a niche

- audience

- picking up freelance work now to build a financial base for when we take the business live

- this would build a client base

- availability of college facilities and affordability

- students on other course such as fashion and photography may need work doing and this builds on a networking level to gain more contacts for specific fields of work ing certain jobs, for example, photography for an editorial layout of publication

- personal assets - what we can give to the business that we have already at this point

- LOCATION - this is the main obstacle at the moment as it may define a lot of the above

ACTION PLAN - 17/01/2012

We've made a list of potential places that we could set up a business, we listed Manchester, Leeds, London, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Liverpool, Birmingham and Warrington. The plan is that we each pick two to go away and research further covering these specific topics:-

- competitors in the area

- collaborators

- networking opportunities

- cost of rent of the building

- costs of hot desking/ meeting room hire/ flexible working

- SWOT analysis

- living arrangements

- transport

- educational opportunities

The second task we have set for the action plan is to go over our own personal assets that we can bring to the company to help kick start it and reduce the overhead costing for out first year or two. This could be:-

- computers

- software

- tablets

- printers

- phones

- books

- televisions/alternative monitors

- furniture if necessary

The next group meeting will be the day before our next tutorial Monday the 23rd 

Logo Reconstruction

The logo needed some work, as it was made clear in our meeting with jane cause the logo which we already had was really negative apprently, as the arrow was pointing down over, this coult imply that we were based down south or it could also mean that it was a negative thing for our clients and that we were not aiming to go up. these were among many other connotations

These below are our previous logos which we had.

Then these are the changes which charlie made whilst i give some visual imput as he already had the vectored documents onto his computer, this was something that i think was the main concept of the logo and with the changes made to them so that the arrows could point upwards we believe this could work alot stronger now, making our company look alot more posotive!

This below was our favorite, the arrow was now changed to point north which is most likely where we will be placed, also the 3 dots after the word Re have been placed there for a option that we can now have our slogan after this, i think that this is the best possible outcome for what we wanted to happen with out logo, and this works a hell of alot better now

Colour choices.

the colours were a massive section for us and we had some problems choosing which to go for cause we wanted to look fresh, new and innovative but this was rather hard to do with something that your whole group was wanting different, we decided to go with the center one in the end as we though that was a clear, clean compromise between the three options that we managed to whittle down.

Reflection of OUGD201

http://m-edwards1013-dp.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/outcome-final-images.html

I feel the concept for this project was strong but the execution was very poor and the grades reflect that (2:2) i feel that if given the chance to go back and adjust how i would create this i could do a much stronger job now and i would be able to make a stronger outcome that would achieve a much higher grade. 

I learnt a lot from the print module and i don't feel my grades reflect what i learnt from them 

Press Ad's

these are some press AD designs that i managed to create using the logo that our enterprise group have created. i want to just get the general layout nailed and then im able to try and figure the rest out from there, ill propose these ideas to the rest of the group and see what they come back with so i am then able to progress further with these designs.

Enterprise meeting with Jane : what to do next?

We had an enterprise meeting with JAne today and she went over some things that we need to get sorted and how we want things to work out for us to achieve the best possible outcome for the grades. 


Some of the things that we covered are as follows...




- the length of time that we need to do our presentation (8-10 minutes)
- Include SWOT, PEST, 4PS in our designs. 
- Potentially need a tag line.
- Give your company a twist to make it stronger and ahead of its competitors.
- Look to make sure that "re:" isn't branded anywhere else around the places that we are going to set up




The meeting after our meeting with Jane...


Location:


- Leeds (lisa)
- Manchester (charlie)
- London (charlie)
- Liverpool (claudia)
- Newcastle (marty)
- Sheffield (marty)
- Huddersfield (lisa)
- Warrington (claudia)


these are some of the places that we are going to look into and see what we can find when trying to relocate and find a place to start our own business




Financial Considerations:


Start up costs... Where can we get this from... Loans... Art council... Government 






Next steps with our business: 


With the two areas which we selected above look for the following...


Other business's: see who't out there so we can collaborate, see who the competitors are and see what networking opportunities are there for us to snatch up.


Location: look at hot desking, meeting rooms for hire (flexible working) 


Cost of living: see what pricing is like on rooms to rent out and see what other sort of things we can find 


Transport costings: Taxis, Bus, Train, Parking 

What is a Creative CV?

When producing a creative cv i need to answer some important questions


What is a Creative CV?
Who are you writing it for?
Who needs to read it?
Who will actually read it?
What do they need to know?
What do they want to know?


All of these are questions which will be answered when it comes to looking into my CV and how i want to put these together. This will become a way of working to put things together so that i can see how i want it to be laid out overall on the final outcome. Below is a list of companies i plan to email about their work and their companies. 


1 - Two Times Elliot   -   hello@2xelliot.com   -   +44(0)203 214 3313
Great Western Studios
Studio 112
65 Alfred road
London
W2 5EU


2 - Atelier Martino&Jana  -  geral@martinojanadesign.com  -  (+351) 226 000 589
Rua do Passeio Alegre

146

4150 - 571 Porto

Portugal

3 - Face   -   hello@designbyface.com   -   +52 (81) 8356 1001

Vasconcelos 204-B

2nd floor

Bosques del Valle

San Pedro Garza Garcia NL

66250 Mexico

4 - Andreas Hibder   -   info@accentgraphe.ch   -   +41 61 303 24 44

Andreas Hidber

Art Director

St. Johanns-Vorstadt 17

CH-4056 Basel

Switzerland

5 - Matias Corea   -   matias at behance.com   -   646 - 918 - 7738

532 Broadway

Fl 7

New York

 NY 10012

6 - BigBiteCreative   -   hello@bigbitecreative.com   -   01642 924660
Boho One
Bridge Street West
The Boho Zone
Middlesbrough
TS2 1AE


7 - Eighty8 Design   -   info@eighty8design.co.uk   -   01642 384657
Eighty8 Design
Victoria Building
Victoria Road
Middlesbrough
TS1 3BA


8 - TubbyPhunk   -   studio@tubbyphunk.com   -   07855 332 386
Unit 8A
The Multi Media Exchange
Corporation Road
Middlesbrough
TS1 5RF


9 - Michael Scaife   -   info@michaelscaife.com   -   +44 (0) 7870873022
Michael Scaife, 
38 Gypsy Lane,
Marton, 
Middlesbrough, 
TS7 8NG


10 - Works   -   +44 (0)113 244 1334
The Works LTD
Cedan House
102 Kirstall Road 
Leeds
LS3 1JA
United Kingdom



This task states
"Once you have identified your audience produce a creative cv that you can mail and email to your selected list. This should include your own contact details, a short personal statement, information about your practical skills, creative skills and interests as well as your professional experience, personal qualities and information about what makes you distinct from any other designer."


However i have not been able to get a creative cv which i would be happy to send out to creative industries, i will email the above however and begin to social network with them. Below i will post what i have achieved so far in terms of a CV, its a very pitiful effort as it was created when i were in first year, this will clearly be improved. 

Trying to keep organised...

Trying to organise so that i'm able to make the most of how i need everything to be completed on time, i'm making massive amounts of spreadsheets and notes in my handbook so that i can see what i need to get done and how i'm going to go about them 


Ive posted dates by them so that I'm also able then to see which are most important and then i can plan accordingly. Since doing this its seemed a lot easier to keep on top of the design work and there has not been as much last minute rushing as there normally would.

Design Strategy & Presentation

This next section needs to be completed as a group as "four heads are better than one" this should be something that you can create using a range of different answers and then picking the ones which you think best answer the brief.

You need to look at how you want things to turn out in the end for the 8 - 10 minute presentation, this is something that can be created using a range of variations but this will be decided later in the week. 

• What skills and services do you have to offer?
• Who is your target market?
• Who is your competition and how will you compete?
• What are your costs, charges and financial considerations?
• How will you structure your studio?
• Who will be responsible for what?
• How will you promote your services? To who? Using what media?

Below are the answers to the above statements and this will conclude how this is all going to be overall 

Enterprise Lecture 6 - Dont just get a job...

Disclaimer - for the expression "start a business" 


- Become a freelance designer
- Start a collective with other designers 


Johnny Cupcakes*


Issues: 


- If you start a business you have to be passionate about it!
- Do what you love
- Start a business when your a student or employed, that way you wont be left stranded and penny less
- Dont do it alone
- Write a business plan
- Do the research 
- Register the business name 
- Get professional Help 
- Get legal and tax issues right from the start, cause you don't want surprise costings getting you at the end




What is a business plan?


[insert image here]




In Short


What you going to do 
Value propersistion 
What resources are needed 
How much would it cost to get started
How will you pay for it 
Target consumers




Why do you need a target plan... 


- To focus your efforts 
- Set some clear objectives 
- Enable track growth
- To raise fianance awareness
- Attract collabratives 




Where to get a business plan


- A high street bank 
- The arts council

Enterprise group meeting 2...

This was the second of our meetings to then choose what we wanted to get done for the overall project. this consisted of talking about the task that was just set where we have to create a Press AD and how we want everything to look overall. 


We decided that before monday we needed to get the following completed...


- Get a few worksheets done for what we thought would be the best way possible to create a Press AD 
- Upload all the work that we have created so far to our blogs 
- Do more research into what we want to achieve and where we would like to be when we are professionals

Proposed Position Statement

Ambitions 

I have high ambitions for when i finish university, i would love to be able to get out of the UK and travel about and find some work which i think could really push my limits out in the big bad world, this would range from some placements maybe in New York to Austraillia, these could all be achieved if i am to get my head down and commit to the course with 200% and get the grades and the knowledge that i need to be able to do this 


This could be a big change for me and i think it could really set me out to be different from the rest of the designers. My work will increase at a dramatic rate and i hope this will always be the case as my work should only ever be changing to meet with the times and continue to be fresh and innovative so that i can get a real sense of what i need to do too keep up with the times.  




Skills
i can offer a range of skills to the creative world, this would range from a series of adobe based programs to the possible outcome of having a editorial or design based way of thinking about things. this could then be implemented in any way that is necessary so that the work can be created for the clients/employers 




Area of creative interest 
My main area of creative interest would have to be through the use of editorial and layout based work, this has always been what has caught my attention with its clean design style which communicates what it needs to and offers a bulk of text for the audience to read




Competition
There will be plenty of competition out there for me to compete with, this is what i am hoping will keep me on my feet and keep me striving to continue down the road of wanting to get this done and making the most of the work  




Collaborations
Colloaborations have always been a strong point of mine, i feel that when i have someone else working with me, i am able to bounce ideas and generate more ideas from using there ideas as key points along the way, this for me is something i enjoy and would like to improve upon




Location
Location is a strong factor for me at the current moment but when i am looking for a job i will be willing to move anywhere that the right job pops up so that i can get a head start without having to be fussy and messing the employers around




How am i Unique 
I think that ium unique in the style that my imagination is very vivid and i often think up of random stories in my head, this shows that im creative and have a varied way of thinking that not many people can do when it comes down to designing something that needs to be that slight part different




What ways is there to get myself known
I will use blogs, Internet sites, social networking, mail shots, anything that is needed to get my name out there and getting me meeting as many professionals as possible so that im able to really get to terms with how they work and let them know that i am here and i want to work in there industry along side them




How have i improved
I believe my work has improved alot since i started with the work load when i first came into university, if you were too look at my work from when i was in secondary school to now, you would see a clear understanding into what i can achieve in the time given, this can only increase as my designer career continues 




What i plan to do next  
Once i leave university i plan to try get a job from the social networks that i have built up and continue to work for a company and develop my skills further and this will then lead to weather or not i am able to move up the ladder of command in that company or if i need to move onto the next one 

PROPOSED POSITION STATEMENT

These are 10 short statements which i think for each of the sections which i have discussed over the previous 4 tasks...


Ambitions 

I have high ambitions for when i finish university, i would love to be able to get out of the UK and travel about and find some work which i think could really push my limits out in the big bad world, this would range from some placements maybe in New York to Austraillia, these could all be achieved if i am to get my head down and commit to the course with 200% and get the grades and the knowledge that i need to be able to do this 

This could be a big change for me and i think it could really set me out to be different from the rest of the designers. My work will increase at a dramatic rate and i hope this will always be the case as my work should only ever be changing to meet with the times and continue to be fresh and innovative so that i can get a real sense of what i need to do too keep up with the times. 


Skills
i can offer a range of skills to the creative world, this would range from a series of adobe based programs to the possible outcome of having a editorial or design based way of thinking about things. this could then be implemented in any way that is necessary so that the work can be created for the clients/employers 


Area of creative interest 
My main area of creative interest would have to be through the use of editorial and layout based work, this has always been what has caught my attention with its clean design style which communicates what it needs to and offers a bulk of text for the audience to read


Competition
There will be plenty of competition out there for me to compete with, this is what i am hoping will keep me on my feet and keep me striving to continue down the road of wanting to get this done and making the most of the work 


Collaborations
Colloaborations have always been a strong point of mine, i feel that when i have someone else working with me, i am able to bounce ideas and generate more ideas from using there ideas as key points along the way, this for me is something i enjoy and would like to improve upon


Location
Location is a strong factor for me at the current moment but when i am looking for a job i will be willing to move anywhere that the right job pops up so that i can get a head start without having to be fussy and messing the employers around


How am i Unique 
I think that ium unique in the style that my imagination is very vivid and i often think up of random stories in my head, this shows that im creative and have a varied way of thinking that not many people can do when it comes down to designing something that needs to be that slight part different


What ways is there to get myself known
I will use blogs, Internet sites, social networking, mail shots, anything that is needed to get my name out there and getting me meeting as many professionals as possible so that im able to really get to terms with how they work and let them know that i am here and i want to work in there industry along side them


How have i improved
I believe my work has improved alot since i started with the work load when i first came into university, if you were too look at my work from when i was in secondary school to now, you would see a clear understanding into what i can achieve in the time given, this can only increase as my designer career continues


What i plan to do next 
Once i leave university i plan to try get a job from the social networks that i have built up and continue to work for a company and develop my skills further and this will then lead to weather or not i am able to move up the ladder of command in that company or if i need to move onto the next one