Enterprise - Lecture 2 (Ideas and opportunities)

The battle of the brains - Perfectly formed and individually owned... the human brain is overpowering the traditional methods of production, raw materials hard labour and capital.

Ideas dont mean anything, they have to be backed up with hard evidence. 

what is the difference between an idea and an opportunity

anyone can have an idea while doing the most stupid task, you need to be able to find out if its just hair brained scheme or a real opportunity. this lecture will help us find out if these are an opportunity or a waste of time.

two types of idea. 

for an idea to become a opportunity you need to think of the background checks on everything to do with it all, for example if the idea was "lets run a fund raising event in millennium square in Leeds"

straight away there are some problems that come with this, these being...

who's permission do we need
how much will it cost

what other events are on that night or will compete with it

what time of year

whats the weather

what kind of utilities will it be

will we have toilets

will we have electricity 
supply and demand 

all of these then need to be answered so that you can see how much of an opportunity this really is, or is it more of a weak idea which really wont take off. this can then be answered by the PEST theory.

PEST stands for... 

Politics

Economics

Sociological Factors

Technology

Politics - who owns this space and what permission do we need

Economics - how much will it cost and what kind of price will people pay or should it be free

Sociological Factors - what kind of facilities can we offer, what do we need to offer for people to come, they will probably want, good weather, good music, toilet facilities and be able to park. 

Technology - what utilities will be available and what electrical can be received and what lighting will be available.

you can apply a PEST analysis to any project that you do, the best way in which you can do this is to apply the PEST analysis to a customers or B2B supply and demand. To be able to do this you need to find out 

Which other company's are supplying this service, then you are able to judge if you are able to to do this for a better price and which other services you can provide to make your demand become higher and thus creating a better service for the general public.

Enterprise Seminar (part 1)

Today we are going to work out how much we need to earn to make a living...




Basics


Rent - monthly x12 

Council tax is based on the property, so the more desirable the property is the more you pay, typical council tax for a nice area on average would be £1200, (however students don't pay council tax) 


Electricity and gas are monthly then x12, this ranges on which supplier you come from and also how much you actually use, eg. if you go over your limit etc
Your looking at around £1000 for the year


Water an be payed on a monthly basis or on a yearly basis, the average payment cost for the year of water is around £500 


repairs - if you rent out a flat then you need to be able to pay for damages which are your fault.


management fee's - this is if you buy the apartment so you have to pay to help with the up keep of your area that you live in, e.g. hovering the stairs, mowing the lawn, basically the simple jobs and your the one who's money pays for the cleaners. 


Furnishings - this is if you buy general items just to make your apartment  seem fresh and keep it looking clean, such as if you made a trip to ikea so that you can refurbish the look on the inside 


Food Shopping


Supermarket - this is the basic shop which makes the meals for you, this is your weekly cost of food then x52 so you can work out your monthly cost for the whole year


Corner shop - this is how much you generally go to the shop to pick up some milk or daft bits and bobs which you need to make the main meals work.


Dinner Snack - how often you go out for a sandwich or a pasty which you can then have over dinner or something which you just fancy


Takeaway - How often do you get a takeaway in and then work out a weekly price then x52




Health Plan


health cost - this is your general well being, this covers everything for about an average of £12 pounds a month 


Safety and security needs


home contents insurance - this is something which covers everything that you own and this isn't that much for the year, but it will cover everything in your house and this will then make sure that your covered and if you get robbed or any damage is done then you have everything covered and made sure its all safe and ok. 


pension contribution - this is normally about 3% of your annual costs






This below is the form in which i filled out below and this then worked out the full cost of how much i will need to live and how much i need to cover my basic overheads, it shows up here that i need around £22,000 a year to live on average, this then can be rounded up to £25,000 to play it say, so any job which pays out for me on a average around £25,000 to £30,000 a year would cover the costs rather nicely and make sure i have a comfortable way of living.

Who am I ... Who are they?

This list below is of all the possible client groups who create graphic design ranging from production to communication, out of this list i will then select one group that reflects my ambitions as a designer and then i will identify a few points on this group...

Music Industry

Retail

Web Design

Print Designer

Editorial

Press Advertising 

Illustration 

Photography

Packaging Design

Business Branding

Publishing

Education

Marketing 

New Media 

Promotions

Corporate ID and Branding

The group in which my 'current' ambitions lay has to be 'Editorial' I've then been asked these questions

What skills / interests do you have and how they relate to the needs of your client group?

I have a very OCD way of living, everything in my life has to be organised and it always has to be perfectly neat, my room is always spotless and everything has a place to be kept, this relates to the way in which editorial has to have a cleanly placed, the windows have to be removed and also the text and images have to look right otherwise it can turn out to be a massive mess, these aspects of editorial design greatly effect promotion and the price at which the piece of editorial can be sold at. 

Other Sections of editorial that are similar to my skills and interests is what is created at the end of it all, Ive always been a massive collector of magazines and books and this product is what is created most likely when it comes down to the editorial aspect of things, this can be drawn right back to when i was being taught graphic design in secondary school as i had to create a front cover for a magazine and instead i ended up creating a 15 page magazine with a front and back cover, i also created a stand in which this could all be stood. 

What skills are needed and what skills do you want to develop?

Some of the skills that are needed for editorial designers have to be precision, an eye for accuracy and defiantly a love for technology and media, these have to be crucial to being able to create some decent editorial design. To be able to go about and create strong design you must have skills when it comes to placement of text and image on the page and also where you are going to promote or how you plan to promote for that reason. All these little sections add up and create a excellent graphic / editorial designer.

The skills which i would want to be able to increase cant really be specified down to a certain one as i want to progress in all areas, however there are some which are more important to me in this general area. First being Layout, there are things which people create that can be really simple such as some simple helvetica text in the centre of a black circle and it looks really good, where when i try to do things like that it looks rubbish and doesn't work as well as others, maybe this is down to the way that i place the text in the centre of the circle, but more likely as it wasnt my fresh idea myself.

The second skill which id love to improve on would be to learn how to create all the styles of booklets made so that i am able to create things such as magazines and booklets to a high standard so that i can use this method to create a strong outlet to get my name out there into the design industry. This could then lead to the perfect way to promote myself hence getting me more work and creating the circle which will lead and boost my future career. This would then lead to me learning the best way to promote myself and also where to place and sell my designs to get the best known from this. 

Finally the third skill which i would like to learn would be how to make all the layouts that i create look different and interesting, there are some designers work which is strong in every piece they do, this will come down to practice but it can still be made from other reasons and other ways of getting around it, there has to be some way of looking at work and just feeling what looks good and what doesn't, ill use my context blog to look into this style of work and how i can progress as a designer.

What are your professional/creative aims and how do they relate to the needs of the client group?

My current professional and creative aims would be too make sure that i make it in a large design agency which can be found to do massive brief which will be seen publicly around the world. This would be excellent to get my name out there, this clearly relates to the needs of the client group through there whole industry would be my passion, me wanting to get my name out there would be the way in which i would create the best work i possibly could handle and then they would be able to use this to get there publications and editorial designs seen around the world. 

There products which they would want to create would hopefully stretch my limits and make me really struggle and progress as a designer, the only way i will be able to do this is to make sure that i put in the hard effort now and this will open up so many more possibilities for me in the near future. 

Summerising...

Editorial is currently my ideal job, as i love type and how it can be used on its own without image to make the a piece of design which really links into the whole way of look at what goes on out in the current world, it can be used to show a political value, portray a message or simply look pretty. 

There are so many possibilities that are still yet to be created, the slightest change in kerning on a world of the leading between lines and this will change the whole outlook on what your trying to create. Not only does the design look right however, if you are doing this free lance you then need to start to look into the way in which you are going to Promote your design, where will you place it too make it seen and finally the product itself will clearly effect all of these but so will the price, If the price is too large no one will pay this. 

These are all challenging parts of a career which really interest me and make me want to learn more about it, Hopefully through second year we will get more chances to experiment with this and see what goes on in that sort of industry. I will even try to get industry work and freelance briefs in this line of work as well to really see what i think of it and how i would suit that industry as a quick brief in a university studio does not give me a real insight into how much i would enjoy it out in the real world. 

Enterprise - Lecture 1 (How to get yourself "out there")

Design Council 

They carry out all major research for their local areas so that they can then display what effects that area the most so they can make a change and adjust to fix these problems. 

(These above are created to show the stats, these are basically info-graphics) 

What is marketing? ... It is the process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers requirements profitability. 

What are the marketing roles?

1. Identify customers needs to develop new products. 

2. Develop a pricing strategy, work out your rate and try to make them beat your opponents whilst still covering your overheads and costings and leaving you money to play with 

3. Promote to a target market, to do this pick three things your best at and specialise in these so that people can find you and then be able to find you easiest.

4. Identify the distribution returns, find where to promote yourself to be the best found and make it so its not hard work for someone to find you or you may lose out on business.

5. Add Value, always offer more than the customers expects, even something as simple as flowers makes them feel special and can get you the customer services again. 

6. Monitor your performance, this allows you to see where you went good and what you did bad, it also lets you track to make sure your beating your competitors.

Value Proposition

- Short

- Be specific 

- Use your customers language 

- Pass the "gut feeling test"

(make them feel excited to work with you and make them feel like it was a great experience that they want to do again)

ALWAYS COLLECT TESTIMONIALS FROM WORK YOU DO FOR OTHER PEOPLE, THIS WAY IT GIVES PEOPLE THE CHANCE TO TELL YOU WHAT YOU DID WELL AND WHAT YOU DID BADLY AND IT LETS YOU IMPROVE ON YOURSELF.




make sure you work out how much a job is going to cost before you start doing the work, so that you can see if the money that they are paying you is actually worth what you think it is, you don't want to think your getting payed 50 quid to do something to then find out that you need to spend 40 quid on travelling. 




NEGOTIATE, and close the deal 


confidence and getting a contract come hand in hand, if you ask someone to increase there rates and your still cheaper then real professionals then you will easy get the money you ask for, if not then they will give you a chance to increase if slightly ... every little helps. 




THE FOUR P'S 


Product
Place
Price
Promotion 


(these are crucial to being a successful graphic designer) 






ACTION 1 - sell something unique 
make sure you look different, point of differentiation so something that no one else with have, thus making that customer have to come to you for the work. 


ACTION 2 - Promote, promote, promote
Get your name out there, if no one knows of you and haven't heard of your name you wont be used, make sure they can find you and get in touch with you. 


ACTION 3 - Showcase yourself
people buy from people they know about, on your blog put a background story about yourself so people feel like they personally know you and feel comfortable in your presence. 








P.T BARNUM

This is P.T. Barnum, this guy is someone who moulded the way that you can see and think about the publishing and how he got his name out there so that you can se what you want to see. The three points above are all related back to this very moment and how he changed the way in which it was known. 

Why Am I Here - What do I want to Learn?

Identify and explain 5 reasons why you chose to study on this programme.
1. High reputation for being the best design course in the UK
2. Excellent structure to the course which makes all three years link together and work best for me.
3. Tutors always there to help you out when you need it, so you never have to wait for support. 
4. Excellent facilities to create the work which you need, such as mac suites, and the printing dungeon.
5. Tons of students who are around in the studios all the time to help pass judgement on your designs 




Identify and explain 5 things that you want to learn during your time on the programme.
1. The ins and outs of Editorial and Type design. 
2. To learn how image and Type can work with each other and what makes which stronger. 
3. To increase my skills and knowledge overall in graphic design.
4. To build relations and learn how to get myself out there in industry.
5. How to build a strong portfolio and learn how to work free-lance / industry. 




Identify and explain 5 skills that you think are your strengths.
1. Typography, ive had alot of experience with this in the past and i think that i know a fair basic from things like baselines and what looks visually pleasing to widows which need to be removed to make it look nicer and more smooth on a DPS. 
2. Presentations, as i have confidence enough to stand and say what i think in a original and confident way which suits me best.
3. Working in group scenarios, i think im good at this due to me not wanting to let the rest of the team down, so i will put in one hundred and ten percent effort so that i can best help them and make the project the best it possibly can be cause i don't want their grades to be effected by me.
4. I think my time management has been strongly increased, ive managed to be note down what i need to do and where i need to do it, this still is a strength which im working on but i think it has been so strongly increased that it deserves a place in my top five.
5. Illustrator is a strength which i have got increasingly better on and now i have the skills to be able to really work with it and make the most of what i plan to do with the rest of my work, this has helped when paying attention in the inductions on the mac's with Mike. These have taught me alot and will set me up when planning. 



Identify and explain 5 things that you want to improve.
1. My knowledge of reading briefs and understanding what they say when they use there graphic design terminology so that i can better understand what needs to be done and how i plan to do it. 
2. Gathering motivation, when i get working i get a right little sesh on however i struggle to get started and i also can be easily distracted so i need to find a way to separate myself from these distractions.
3. Photoshop, my skills here are rather weak and it would be good to be able to increase these so that im able to create better styles of fancy effects so my work is more design and concept crazy. 
4. Organising my work so that im able to be more categorised and create a easier working pace so i know what needs to be where.
5. My illustrating style, so i am able to create a  sketchy style of drawing which i can then link into my work and make it work with the type that i place there. 



Identify and explain 5 ways that you will evaluate your progress.
1. Blog, so i can have a back dated blog to read on
2. Diary. 
3. Crits.
4. Student Piers.
5. Tutor feedback. 




Identify 5 questions that you want to find the answer to.
1. how many types of graphic design is there out there?
2. What are my chances of scoring a decent design job that will pay forty thousand a year plus?
3. What do i want to do when i leave this place, what style of graphic design i want to get myself into?
4. How often do we get visits from professionals which give us a chance to be able to make contacts with them ? 
5. Whats better to get IMAC or a MacBook?

Module Submission Form.

End of Module - Self Evaluation.