Task 5.

One. 

Portfolio - Build a strong portfolio of work of which I think represents me as a designer.

Two.

Brand - design a logo for myself of which intrigues people and is remembered over others. 

Three. 

Promote - promote myself and make myself known by designers and design agencies to work with and alongside on briefs.

Four. 

Find where my target audience is and find out what others in that area are and are not doing and work to provide a new aspect of design. 

Five.

Clients - Make a good relationship with clients to build a good reputation to meet more clients.

Six.

Adapting - The design industry is forever changing so you need to keep up to date and also be different to competitors.

Seven.

Software - learn as much as i can about as many different software programs as i can and see me needing to use in the future. 

Eight.

Time - Be as time efficient for clients as possible to ensure that the response to their brief has been fulfilled to its utmost in the time available. 

Nine.

Designers - Although other designers are competition, you can learn a lot from working alongside a company/designer whom in your opinion may be doing things right or wrong.

Ten. 

Competition - make sure you are working up to and beyond their standard. Giving what they offer alongside something unique to yourself. 

Task 4 (i dont know why but 'underlined' is stuck on!) 

Who am I competing against? What do they offer? What makes me better? What makes me different?

Jason Naylor

Jason Naylor works and lives in New York, he is a successful designer and has worked for a number of clients such as: 

MAC makeup company

German Vogue

McQueen

He is a graphic designer of whom has skills in both typography, illustration and photography.

Although i would love to work for some of the clients Naylor has our work is fairly different in that his work both personal and for few clients is illustration led, of which i am not really a fan of. My work is fairly more clean cut using photography and type not hand drawn designs. 

Task 3.

What do they want to hear?
Clients want to hear what your best offer is, what you can give them and how you can relate to and create what they are asking for.

What should you say to them? 
I would be completely honest and never agree to something that I would not think could be achievable. At the same time I would work hard to achieve as much as i could to my full potential for a client.

How will i communicate with them?
I think it is very important to keep a strong communication with the client so you both have a clear understanding of what is going to be achieved and are both reading from the same page. Giving both sides the confidence in getting the work done to its highest standard.

Summary

To promote myself I would firstly need to get people's attention, make people notice who I am and what i do. Basically to initially promote oneself, attend designers events, networking events and run a blog so once you have met people and they are interested there is then somewhere for those people to go and grow interest. There are many ways to create interest, such as using the social media, write articles, advertise yourself. Also Facebook and social network sites are huge now a perfect way to be known. I also would create a strong portfolio of work of which I thought represented me as a designer to take around to show others. Also once you do get a client make sure you are giving them the best of your ability and efficiently. Once you do have clients keep contact and ask for feedback of which you can then use to improve your service. People speak so make sure each and every client is looked after and has a good word to say about you in conversation.

Task 2.


I have found that there are a few companies/employers of whom i would like to work for and seem to be quite successful with a list of clients. I think if i would want to work like this or for these companies Manchester would definitely be a strong possibility.

One studio in particular that caught my eye was:

Local: Raw Design Studio Manchester
Raw Design Studio

I like how they are quite a versatile design company that not only has typographic work yet works closely with photography, layouts and illustration of which means they have a wider target audience. If i was to work within this company I would find my strengths in type and photography, and also enjoy being able to use both in my designs.

National: The Designers Republic
The Designers Republic

I would love to work for/in The Designers Republic as they have a strong catalogue of clients from quite prestigious places. I would also like to work with type and layout within this company and also use my photography to benefit designs in such things as magazine layouts.

European: PI6
PI6

pi6 is based in Athens Greece, when looking through the website I found that a lot of their work was layout and type driven of which i would love to work in. It was also very different, each piece of work was different yet worked, also there was a very good relationship between type, layout and photography of which i like to have in my designs.

Transnational: Two Points
Two Points

Two Points is a design company based in Barcelona, Spain. Works in Graphic Design using illustration, type, layout and photography in their work.  The main style of their work seems to be layout and type also poster design used in exhibitions/events of which I think i would enjoy doing. As i do like print and having your work finely printed to have your design on paper.

They have done work for clients in Germany, Hong Kong, Madrid and locally.

PEST analysis: Political, Economical, Social, Technoligical

Task one.

There are many client groups of which either use graphic design for production, distribution, promotion and or communication of their products such as: 

Retail

Food 

Music

Television

Charities

Businesses

Travelling

Cosmetics

Gaming

The main client groups i would associate myself with or aim for are:

Editorial 

Magazines

Layout & Type

Retail

Fashion

Photography

Promotion

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

I believe my skills are listening to a client and understanding what they are asking for and adapting that to designs and therefore making the client happy with the final product. Also keeping in contact with the client and letting them know the progression of the design and therefore they have confidence in the service they are getting. I also have skills in photography of which i would like to bring to my targeted clients such as magazine layouts and fashion to incorporate into layout designs saving the client money and time looking for a photographer. I also work well in a group welcome others ideas and try and use the strengths from each individual to make the end product the best it could be. 

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

Skills needed in the client groups i would like to go into are such thing as a wide software knowledge, versatility in design, the knowledge of their clients and who that group target market is. You also need to have a wide knowledge of what can be done (in a creative aspect) work closely to the printers and use their facilities to their full potential. 

I would like to develop my software knowledge as there is always more too learn, you can never know enough about how to do something. 

I would also like to meet other designers, make contacts and also learn from experience to understand more about the environment i would like to go into. 

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

My aims have grown and grown as i have learnt more and more about the industry. At this point I am aiming very high. I would like to have worked my way up through the graphic design industry networking and act like a sponge and soak up all knowledge and understanding of which i can then build on to work for a successful layout/magazine. Allowing me to not only design the layout but also use my skills/passion for photography in my job. I would be very happy if I had built strong contacts within the industry which then allowed me to work freelance and had produced work for happy clients and had a continuous stream of work. 

Summary

My skills are working with the client to produce a product of which they are happy with and keeping the communication between the client and I, giving the client the confidence that the design will be up to a high standard and what they want from me. I also have skills in photography, therefore I can produce a layout along with the imagery a client may need in promotion or layouts for magazines. Saving the client having to look for another individual. I would like to build upon my software skills as there is always more to learn. Also work closer to the printers to widen my creative opportunities when designing for print. In the future I hope to have gained a lot more industry knowledge, make contacts of which we could benefit each other to help the clients have the best service they could hope for. I also want to discover my target market in depth, learn what they want from a graphic designer/photographer and adapt myself and be different to what is already out there, bring something new to the table, alongside earning profitably.

Evaluation.

Through this module I have definitely gained a lot of knowledge of what print processes and techniques are available to me, along with the opportunities when designing the printer can provide, also the restrictions of a printer and the problems that may arise when printing. Through understanding the print process it allows you to prepare your work for print and know what can be printed and what can not and why, so you can amend it. Also when on the visit to the printers they definitely recommend going into the printers way before your deadline to see what they can do and how/if your design ideas would be possible to print at the printers. I have also learnt a lot about Illustrator and Indesign, just the small little things such as creating packaging from scratch on Illustrator of which I wasn't very confident doing.

The strengths in my work I think is the way in which I have responded to the initial idea of what is good, relating the work I have done to the hospice so it would and could actually be used. Also throughout this project I have solely worked on indesign for layout and also illustrator for my packaging. These programs are definitely not my strong point yet I have learnt a lot through forcing myself to use them. I also have gained a lot of knowledge of different techniques such as flocking, laser cutting, screen printing of which I will remember when creating and designing in the future.

My weaknesses within this project is understanding how the techniques and things work yet not trying some of them out. I would have liked to have tried a lot more techniques such as flocking and more screen printing techniques as then I could have broadened my designs and ideas of what I could have created.

If I was going to do this module again I would most definitely spend slightly less time hooked on researching into my chosen idea and looked more into the creative aspect sooner and tried more of a variety of techniques. I would have also like to do more things in screen printing and learn more about the techniques I can do in there. However through this project I have learnt how to do these techniques now I can go on and try them in a future projects and gain confidence in creating these things.

Through this module I have definitely gained a lot and have learnt a lot about printing and all the different techniques of which has really interested me and I would like to continue learning more into print and design for print.

http://www.pho-ku.com/
I really like this website & the work. I like the little things such as the noises as you click on different parts of the website to get your attention to look deeper into the website. Then i love all the work on the website, mainly the type and layout.

PPD session.

Portfolio:

-no more than 8-10 pieces in your portfolio

-what do you want it to look like?

- keep it to a minimum

Tips from John:

-visit the studio of which you think you might like to do a placement first to see if one: you like it, two: its what you thought it would be and three: get yourself known and get the opportunity to ask for a placement whilst being there.

-have honest/relevant reason why you like the person's work to be ready for the question: 'so why would you want to work here?'

-speak directly to the creative director as your placement application can get lost, or people may just not inform the director of what you have asked.

-always have questions to ask.

-be persistent, shy people don't get anywhere and don't get known.

-don't be shy to ask for a placement, if you do not ask you don't get the opportunity.

- keep contact with your customers.

-ask customers for feedback so you can improve.

-think about your customer, if they ask for something and there may be a better option tell them! But do not promise something you can't do.

-work for a few studios before you go freelance(if that's what you want) to gain experience and how things work and don't work of which you could improve on. Also to make contacts.

-remember that you will be talking to normal people, don't kiss arse, and don't talk about graphics all the time make general conversation to get your personality across.

1. What do you want to achieve this academic year?
This academic year i would like to gain the professionalism needed to be able to contact a design agency confidently with my level of work. I would also like to achieve the highest standard i have done through university this year and learn everything I can from each opportunity.

2. What do you want to have achieved by the end of the course?
By the end of this course i would like to be able to leave with opportunities of jobs, and have a strong portfolio matched to which type of industry I would like to go into. I would also like to be comfortably confident in talking with working professionals and have hopefully met some other designers of which I could work with. I would also like to have created a strong visual identity of which i would have liked to have been made known to well known agencies.

3.What would you want to achieve in your career?
I would like to have achieved a continuous flow of jobs, possibly starting by working at design companies to understand and gain more knowledge of the industry, then move up within the agency always delivering well, and also learning more and networking and making good contacts. Then later i would possibly like to have my own design company depending on where I am as i would quite like to work internationally not just in the UK.

Lecture 5 - 01.10.10
10 steps to a future you

1. Proactivity

do something before it happens.
be informed about who you are doing work for and offer them other ideas that you think may benefit them and they might also want.

always be informed as people will like a proactive business.

2. Project

develop a vision of your future and create a statement of which you can work to. Extend the statement so you are always focussed on a goal to achieve.

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans" - John Lennon

3. Provide

-clear explanations to people talking in their language, no one will listen if its technical terminology.
-when talking to the customer talk about benefits for them rather than processes and what you have done in the past.
THINK-who are you talking to.
CREATE - clear messages.
INSPIRE - people with your creativity.

ask people what services they want and work to that.

4. Prioritise

-first things first
-keep a proper balance
-stick to your personal mission

5.Presents

THINK - win/win - offer something for free to the customer that will benefit you x10
seek outcomes and relationships that are mutually beneficial

-do a favour to gain a favour

A Pre-conventional person
"I want..why should I?..nobody listens"
Dependant.

A Conventional person
"I would be happy to..i understand"
Independant

A Post-conventional person
"We can..together..mutual benefit..long term"
Inter-dependant

6.Pause

-pause to listen, give all your attention, give yourself to the moment
-empathise, put yourself in someone else's shoes
-don't re-iterate or interpret - just listen
-do you really know how they feel or are you just saying how you feel?

seek first to understand: then be understood

7. Proven

consistency
integrity
reliability

always deliver quality & keep the level of produce at that same standard to become a reliable company.

8. Partner

synergy multiplies your talent

work with other experts outside of your field to achieve more.

ie Everest expeditions - one person may have the idea and may want to do it, but there would have been a huge team of people to make this possible.

you could achieve a lot more working with others

9. Pit stop

-sharpen up - get new stuff
-rest - re-new & revitalise
-explore - challenge & excite

take time to get back up to date.

10. Propel yourself

-extinguish your fears
-exude confidence
-instil faith

it's too easy to say no & miss the opportunity!

What is industrial experience?

-visiting an up and running design agency to gain knowledge
-gaining the understanding of the industry and how it works
-learning the way in which the industry works and how you can contribute to it
-to experience practice in real situations with real clients
-possibly gain contacts or links to the industry

What can i learn from industrial experience?

-which kind of industry i would fit into/make a contribution to
-how I would work within the industry
-develop a professional working manner
-learn how to interact with the customers
-how to advertise your skills and capabilities
-possibly how not to do something
-gain contacts
-what they do well and what they do not of which you could improve upon
-what they do not do that you could give the customer

What form/format could industrial experience take?

-placements at a design company
-networking events' gain contacts and make yourself known to others
-visiting studios and agencies
-talking to working professionals


What are your concerns about industrial experience?

-where in the industry would i fit in/make a contribution to
-not certain i am good enough for the industry
-huge competition for one job
-pressure behind the job
-not thick skinned enough

Tutorial Prep - What areas of industry are you interested in?

Bunch London
27 Phipp Street
First Floor
London EC2A 4NP
United Kingdom

Telephone
+44 (0)20 7168 2539

Street View

Tutorial Prep - What areas of the industry are you interested in?

Kiosk based in Sheffield - i like their style of work because of the play between type and photography. I also like some of the layout work they do for books. Also it seems they have a fair few contacts whom they have worked for.

Kiosk
The Site Gallery
Brown Street
Sheffield S1 2BS, UK

Email: info@letskiosk.com
Skype™: +44 (0)208 144 5908

David Bailey
Creative Director
Mobile: +44 (0)7989 901 462
Email: david@letskiosk.com
Skype/AIM: davidkiosk

Tutorial Prep - What areas of industry are you interested in?

I LOVE DUST .. 
www.ilovedust.com

i love dust is a design company in the east of London  specialising in creative solutions from graphic design and illustration to animation. This would be one of the companies i would be interested in working for/in. I like how they both do work with layout and photography and still have the packaging and illustration aspect of design also.

Lecture 4 - 18.10.10
How to successfully promote yourself in 6 easy steps

Method one - Get their attention.

-memorable business card
-advertising
-events
-radio interviews
-write articles
-run a blog
-exploit social media
-publicity

Method two - Build their interest

-website
-catalogue
-exhibitions
-portfolio
-information packs
carry a portfolio around with you to show people

Method three - Convince them

-artist statement, don't write about your technical abilities or boasst tell people what you can do for them and your target audience.
-recommendations
-testimonials
-awards
-community engagement
-professional bodies
-charity events
ask for feedback from your clients to see how they thought you did or how they think you could do better.

Method four - Make an irresistible offer

-find out everything about your client & match your skills to them.
-value proposition
-pricing strategies
-packaging
-try before you buy
-recommendations
-differentiations - able to tell someone how you are different to everyone else doing it - Know your competition!

Method five - Close the sale

-convenience for your customer
-buy it now
-right place right time, always be prepared
-delivery
-personal selling don't say.. "i'm JUST..."
-interactive website
ask the customer questions..
-would you like anything else to be added?
-have i missed anything out?

Method six - Re-inforce

- after you have given your service to someone keep in contact will 'loyal' customer offers etc.
-advertising
-public relations
-longevity
-merchandising
-maintaining contacts
-building relations

Method 7 - do nothing!

Lecture 3 - 11.10.10

Value.

What are you worth?

Drucker - "both invention and entrepeneurship demand creativity"

Mihaly - "creativity is the act of seeing things that everyone around us sees while making connections that no-one else has made"

Kotler - C - creating.

C - communicating

D - delivery

V - value

T - to a target market

P - profit.

Where is the money?

the greatest amount of money & biggest market potential is in:

. food industry

. housing

. utilities

. medicine

. transport

. construction

. insurances

. water

. new technologies

Physiological needs: these needs will bring the biggest market because they are the essentials that everyone needs in life, and can't live without, so will always be in the industry.

47% of an average households income in spent on housing & food.

Value Proposition

Overall aim/mission: the thoughts & ideas of what you want to do.

Specific aim: how they wants to do something: educate, inform etc.

Objectives: how they are going to do it specifically.

An example would be..

Overall aim: I want to give lucy a 21st birthday she will always remember.

Specific aim: It has to be different stand out from others, can't be average & i want people to be able to take things home.

Objectives: The party will be at .. At 9 o'clock, with this and this and will last till 2 and then everyone will go to O2 academy afterwards in a mini bus.

Enterprise

Lecture 2 - 04.10.10

Ideas and Opportunities

The right time/opportunity -

-making of the concorde because there was a DEMAND.

-computers in commercial use 1950's

-silicon chip 1961

-internet invented 1969

-fibre optic cables 1970

All made at the right time as there was a demand for them. The public was in need of those things.

P.E.S.T - Political Economical Social Technological

Are you aware of change?

Do you have an informed opinion on it?

Be interested in your market.

Look at: Trade laws, Tax breaks, Human rights, Legislation.

Aware of new technology?

Look at: Work life balance, Ageism, Debt recovery..

How do all these things affect what you are doing? Or how could you benefit the people involved in these things?

You NEED to be informed & know what you are talking about.

What kind of creative are you?

Evolutionary Revolutionary

Manager Opportunist

Cautious Risk Taker

Are you a...?

Owner Worker - someone who works alone, creates one of pieces, such as an artist or craftsman

Owner Manager - someone who works in a group, all have different things they do within the group and all work together to make something work.

Owner Entrepeneur - such as an interior designer. You come up with the idea and the vision and you bring people in such as builders, plumbers etc to do the work that you want.

Where do opportunities come from?

-Trends

-Technical Development

- Political Change

- Economic Boom/Slump

- Human Need

- Problems

- Research

Answer the problems people have and what they want from you.

Technical Push - idea pushed forward by new technology.

Market Pull - idea asked for by the public - a demand for the product.

Make useful contacts.

Project Manager skills:

1. define the problem

2. build confidence

3. problem solving

4. risk analysis

5. physical resources

6. planning

7. human resources

8. quality control

ALWAYS COMMUNICATE.

- Skills - technical processes

-Aptitudes - team working? entrepenuers don't do it alone.

- Predisposition - what capabilities do you have? what do you like to do? how do you want to work?

Asses your competitors

- how many are there?

- how well are they doing?

- what do they do well?

- what could you improve on?

getsetforbusiness.com

Always look at DEMAND.

-where is it?

- what is it?

- who is your target market?

How do you affect:

You - your lifestyle.

Customer - how will it benefit them? what will they get from you.

Planet

Stakeholders

Enterprise Seminar

27.09.10

Maslow's Hierachy of Needs

In this seminar we worked out how much we needed each year to live of nicely the way we want to in the future so to look at how much we would need to earn.

To do this we wrote out everything we spent money on & totalled it up.

With this we then took of £6449 for the tax.

Divided it by 5

Then added this onto the total we started with which gave us the amount we would need to earn to live how we wanted to including tax

Enterprise

Lecture one - 27.09.10.

designcoucil.org

87% of jobs are given to smaller companies.

"Identify, anticipate and satisfy customer requirements profitably"

1. identify customer needs.

2. develop pricing strategies.

3. promote products to target market.

4. identify distribution

5. add value to your product through customer benefits.

6. monitor the performance of the product.

- always ask for feedback from customers so you can improve.

- look at what could be wrong with your product and answer that.

- bring personality to your business & be genuine. Focus on the little details & make sure you are remembered.

- find connections, make an address book of people you could either learn from or work with.

To sell yourself in a minute:

1. make it short

2. be specific - be honest, straight to the point and well mannered.

3. use customer language, don't try and impress by using wild terminology.

4. pass the gut feeling test

5. be equipped - business card.

personality: say something different, not friendly & hard working etc

interests: say something relevant

values: working for a charity?

Keep feedback.

Networking: tell them about yourself & ask them what they do. Start a conversation which is relevant.

Networking events: galleries, craft fairs, art markets.

Seth Godin - makreting books.

Service organisation: make the effort to give the customer the best service you can, make a questionaire for those to fill out to help you improve.

Product Price Place Promotion

- the service you offer

- relative price - what it means to someone

- best location

- marketing methods, Value.

Look at the target market and adapt to it! & be different!!