This blog is now full please use the link below to go to my new blog for PPD and Enterprise
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Tomorrow, Friday the 14th of January, I will be attending the Standpoint Gallery in London to see the Reverting to type exhibition.
"Reverting To Type opens next week at London's Standpoint Gallery and will feature new work by a host of letterpress practitioners from around the world, including Black Stone Press (Canada), IMPO$T (Australia), Prensa La Libertad (Argentina), Yee Haw! Industries (USA), and London-based Mr Smith (the star of our latest CRTV studio-visit film). Here's a sneaky peak at some of the work..."
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Task Five
Proposed position statement
Write ten short but informative statements that identify your distinctive 'Positioning' as a graphic designer. Your statements should consider your ambitions, skills and areas of creative interest in relation to the market, your clients, competition and possible collaborators and should be based on the information that you have collected in response to the set tasks.
I want to be able to work confidently in software i know and i new software i will learn.
I want to develop existing skills and new skills.
I want to have a strong, memorable portfolio.
My creative interests lie in print, packaging, type, image and layout.
I want to create my own identity.
I want to continue learning through every aspect of my career.
I want to be open minded about my work and work of others.
I would like to have a broad range of clients.
I want to come up with and develop good ideas.
I want to enjoy myself and have fun with my work.
I want to develop existing skills and new skills.
I want to have a strong, memorable portfolio.
My creative interests lie in print, packaging, type, image and layout.
I want to create my own identity.
I want to continue learning through every aspect of my career.
I want to be open minded about my work and work of others.
I would like to have a broad range of clients.
I want to come up with and develop good ideas.
I want to enjoy myself and have fun with my work.
Task Four
Who else is out there- How good are they?
Based on the principles that have been introduced in lecture 4 of the enterprise module and your responses to the previous tasks, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the three practitioners or design agencies as objectively as you can.
Who am I competing against?
Look at my competitors, How many are there, how well are they doing, what do they do well, what could I improve on
What do they offer?
Strengths
What can I learn from the things they do well
What makes me better?
Weaknesses, what are they not good at
What makes me different?
Internal environment- My skills, my resources, my lifestyle
Micro environment- My network of friends and associates, competitors and other practitioners, my suppliers, my local community, stakeholders
What opportunities for your own practise have revealed themselves to you as a result of this analysis and evaluation?
SWOT
Based on the principles that have been introduced in lecture 4 of the enterprise module and your responses to the previous tasks, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the three practitioners or design agencies as objectively as you can.
Who am I competing against?
Look at my competitors, How many are there, how well are they doing, what do they do well, what could I improve on
What do they offer?
Strengths
What can I learn from the things they do well
What makes me better?
Weaknesses, what are they not good at
What makes me different?
Internal environment- My skills, my resources, my lifestyle
Micro environment- My network of friends and associates, competitors and other practitioners, my suppliers, my local community, stakeholders
I have looked at various studios in Manchester and applied the SWOT analysis to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Some of teacake designs strengths include concept design, identity, publications, posters, flyers, press advertisement and web design.
One weakness is that all their work in their portfolio is print based work. They have collaborated with design studios such as creative spark therefore the opportunity for me to work with them may arise, although their collaboration may be a threat to me.
Creative spark are a branding and digital agency.
Their strengths are that they have won various awards such as The Chip Shop award for best stationary design, the fresh award for best use of illustration and the DADI award for best in house website.
A weakness of theirs is that the website is packed with different things but is quite hard to navigate.
They work with mainly branding and web design whereas I can offer more print work and publications.
Some threats to me are that they have strong, well known clients, they offer a specialist service and are fully established.
Hemisphere are a design and marketing consultancy.
They have 21 years of experience, a good reputation and are nationally recognised.
Their website is quite dull and corporate and doesn't appear to be very fun.
Opportunities for me will be that I will have fresh, more creative ideas and I will be forward thinking and playful with my designs.
Threats to me will be that hemisphere have satisfied and loyal customers, they are well known and nationally recognised.
SWOT
Task Three
How will I promote myself?
Based on the principles that have been introduced so far in the Enterprise module and your findings in the previous tasks, evaluate the most suitable marketing methodologies for your own practice and the most effective methods to reach your potential customers.
What do they want to hear an what should i say to them?
That I can:
Identify customer needs to develop new products
Develop pricing strategies
Promote products to a target market
Identify distribution networks
Add value to my product through customer benefits
Monitor the performance of the product
How will I communicate with them?
I will communicate with them using their language.
I will be confident.
Show them my work, portfolios, emails, website/blog
Based on the principles that have been introduced so far in the Enterprise module and your findings in the previous tasks, evaluate the most suitable marketing methodologies for your own practice and the most effective methods to reach your potential customers.
What do they want to hear an what should i say to them?
That I can:
Identify customer needs to develop new products
Develop pricing strategies
Promote products to a target market
Identify distribution networks
Add value to my product through customer benefits
Monitor the performance of the product
How will I communicate with them?
I will communicate with them using their language.
I will be confident.
Show them my work, portfolios, emails, website/blog
Task Two
Based on the principles that have introduced so far in the Enterprise module, as well as the previous tasks, investigate, analyse and critically evaluate where your potential clients are located
Identify four examples of your selected client group, 1 for each of the following profiles
Local: Opposite cafe
National: BB's coffee
European: Costa
Transnational: Starbucks
Political
VAT increase, national and local
European and transnational- VAT is less than in the UK, greater population therefore applies to more people. More money in larger countries.
Economical
European and transnational- Exchange rate may affect graphic design when conducting business abroad.
Local and national- Recession mean people are spending less money
European, transnational, local and national- Sustainability, the green issue, using less packaging.
Social factors
European and transnational- May want local designers rather than overseas, this would be less expensive for them.
Local- Student market, they will affected by holidays and lose customers.
Technological
European and transnational- Skype and email allows us to work with them overseas. This saves costs.
Analyse and compare these examples in relation to Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (PEST analysis) factors that affect their use of graphic design, choice of designer and trends that will influence their decisions regarding graphic design.
Identify four examples of your selected client group, 1 for each of the following profiles
Local: Opposite cafe
National: BB's coffee
European: Costa
Transnational: Starbucks
Political
VAT increase, national and local
European and transnational- VAT is less than in the UK, greater population therefore applies to more people. More money in larger countries.
Economical
European and transnational- Exchange rate may affect graphic design when conducting business abroad.
Local and national- Recession mean people are spending less money
European, transnational, local and national- Sustainability, the green issue, using less packaging.
Social factors
European and transnational- May want local designers rather than overseas, this would be less expensive for them.
Local- Student market, they will affected by holidays and lose customers.
Technological
European and transnational- Skype and email allows us to work with them overseas. This saves costs.
Analyse and compare these examples in relation to Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (PEST analysis) factors that affect their use of graphic design, choice of designer and trends that will influence their decisions regarding graphic design.
Task One
Write a list of all the possible client groups that use graphic design in the development, production, distribution, promotion and/or communication of their services.
Music industry
Publishing
Advertising
Education
Government
Charities
Homeware
Fashion
Gaming
T.V
Businesses
Retail
Sports companies
Journalism
Films
Cosmetic companies
transport
Identify one client group that reflects your current ambitions within the graphic design area
My skills and how they relate to the needs of my client group
Packaging
Promotion
Design for screen
Publications
Typography
Layout
Layouts using InDesign to create page spreads
Readability of certain types for certain pieces of work, what works and what doesn't. Hierarchy of a piece on type on a page, weight of a font and spacing in between each letter.
Understanding of colour. Colour for print and for screen.
Skills i need to develop
I have basic knowledge in software such as Illustrator but would like to further skills, the same with Photoshop as this is software i constantly use. I have basic skills in Adobe after effects also which we are using at the moment. I would like to become a lot better with this software as i am enjoying it.
After christmas we will be doing the typo module which is going to help with my work a lot. We have touched on some of the basics already.
Developing ideas by hand drawings, sketches which can then be further developed on the computer.
My professional/creative aims
Professional looking packaging. In the past module i enjoyed making packaging a lot. I love work that has clearly had a lot of thought and work put into it. Different clever packaging that you will remember when you see it.
Creating and developing ideas so they are original and different.
Create a professional portfolio
Develope a varied list of contacts
Price, product, place, promotion
Product being my work- Graphic design
Place, Currently Leeds. I am from a small town so i think i will want and need to stay in a big city. I am not really too fussed where.
Promotion- My blog, soon a portfolio with my best work, a website, business cards, contacts
Price- After paying bills everyday living cost hopefully still be earning a good wage
Music industry
Publishing
Advertising
Education
Government
Charities
Homeware
Fashion
Gaming
T.V
Businesses
Retail
Sports companies
Journalism
Films
Cosmetic companies
transport
Identify one client group that reflects your current ambitions within the graphic design area
My skills and how they relate to the needs of my client group
Packaging
Promotion
Design for screen
Design for print
BrandingPublications
Typography
Layout
Layouts using InDesign to create page spreads
Readability of certain types for certain pieces of work, what works and what doesn't. Hierarchy of a piece on type on a page, weight of a font and spacing in between each letter.
Understanding of colour. Colour for print and for screen.
Skills i need to develop
I have basic knowledge in software such as Illustrator but would like to further skills, the same with Photoshop as this is software i constantly use. I have basic skills in Adobe after effects also which we are using at the moment. I would like to become a lot better with this software as i am enjoying it.
After christmas we will be doing the typo module which is going to help with my work a lot. We have touched on some of the basics already.
Developing ideas by hand drawings, sketches which can then be further developed on the computer.
My professional/creative aims
Professional looking packaging. In the past module i enjoyed making packaging a lot. I love work that has clearly had a lot of thought and work put into it. Different clever packaging that you will remember when you see it.
Creating and developing ideas so they are original and different.
Create a professional portfolio
Develope a varied list of contacts
Price, product, place, promotion
Product being my work- Graphic design
Place, Currently Leeds. I am from a small town so i think i will want and need to stay in a big city. I am not really too fussed where.
Promotion- My blog, soon a portfolio with my best work, a website, business cards, contacts
Price- After paying bills everyday living cost hopefully still be earning a good wage