Creating an Identity

New companies to look at

Whilst on placement at Gratterpalm I was informed of a few other companies that I may be interested in securing placements with, Live & Breathe, Propaganda and Elmwood (which i've already heard a lot about :)). and YESSSS they are all in Leeds :) my fears of having to move away are disappearing!


LIVE & BREATHE
http://www.liveandbreathe.co.uk/

PROPAGANDA
http://www.propaganda.co.uk/

ELMWOOD
http://elmwood.com/

New pdf

Open publication - Free publishing - More industry

My notes for the presentation

1

I started this year with great enthusiasm, ready to explore who I am as a designer and where i see myself heading. these were questions that seemed impossible to answer so early on. My goals for this year were to experiment more, become better with time management and organizational skills, take advantage of all the college's facilities, focus my practice and produce a sampler of professional work in which to contact and secure a work placement. Which appeared very daunting tasks. 

2

In Design for print i learnt a lot about how i work best. I need to make sure i work with structured briefs as self initiated briefs are too broad and i easily get lost in them, unfortunately this is what happened. I lost a lot of confidence as i became confused on where my project was heading and spent too much time thinking and worrying about the fact that this was actually going towards my degree that i stopped designing altogether and started to question my place on the course.

On a positive note i learnt so much valuable information and my understanding of designing for print and the industry greatly improved throughout the module, I can now design work to industry standard and it really pushed me to work digitally and make full use of the printing facilities in both traditional and digital. This was definately an experimental module for me, playing with colour, stock and printing methods and explored my interests in packaging.

3

Designing for screen was something i had been dreading as i'm poor at getting to grips with new software and the thought of after effects scared me to death. So i was extrememly suprised with how quickly i picked it up and by focussing my idea, creating a constant theme and ..... the visual outcome was really strong and appeared so professional that i got some great feedback and even got myself some freelance work through it to design a title and credit sequence for a small independant film! This was such a confidence boost, something that i really needed at this point in the yr. 

I quickly grew to love my new and improved time management and organisational skills as they were so important for this project and is usually something i usually lack because i was so engaged with the project and knew what i was working towards it was a lot more enjoyable as i had time to experiment more and tweak designs to create a more professional look. I would definately work again with after effects as i found it so refreshing to think and design in a new way.

4

By the time we reached the collaborative brief i was really ready to get stuck into a structured live brief, i had been researching a lot of studios by this point and had become very passionate with the idea of designing for retail, unfortunately i  had not yet had any experience with it and really wanted to explore this through this module. Me and Alice chose to colllaborate together as we both wanted the same thing from this project, to get some experience in designing for retail, have fun being playful and create a professional piece of work for our portfolio, this was more important to us than winning the competition and it definately payed off. Our skills and ways of working complimented each other so well and it was a stress free enjoyable project, i learnt a lot from working with Alice and got to grips with blogging daily and seeing how much work was achievable in such a short time.

Me and Alice both reminiss a lot about how successful this project was and how we'd like to collaborate again in the third year.

5

Heading into the final project prouduct, range and distribution i was extremely focused on the type of design i wished to persue and wanted to explore design for retail further looking mainly at packaging but also pushing a brand through a retail environment from pos to instore graphics and promotional media. This is the way in which i want to work into the third year and hopefully into a job. Again i selected a brief looking at retail but this time delving into the food sector to broaden my understanding of this disclipline and again allowing me to create a professional piece of work to add to my portfolio and gain more experience.

After working with Alice i felt much more confident to approach this type of brief on my own and by following a similar structure, it really helped me to create a strong range of designs and again this was another project i felt fully engaged with, it didn't seem an effort to design as i was so focused and passionate about designing for this discipline. 

6

More software to learn!!! Again i got to grips with the basics quite quickly producing a simple yet effective website that was easy to use. I followed these skills over to the website for the organic pantry too and this will definately prove to be vaulauble new skills as i come to design my own website throughout the summer. 

7

So who am i..... i can now confidentally say i wish to persue a career in designing for retail, looking mainly at packaging, pos and instore graphics but continuing this through to lookbooks, fashion editorials and websites, it would be my dream to work for the fashion and retail sector and be on the creative team for a retail store. Looking back over the year i cannot believe how much i have improved and would now say i am a designer, i have a wider range of skills on software meaning the ability to cover all disciplines effectively, i have focused my design practice and achieved a professional standard of working and would confidentally approach companies with a broader understanding of the industry. 

I have also discovered how important it is in my work to create an experience for the consumer, whether this be by creating creating a theme throughout a retail store or packaging that the consumer can interact with it is always something i have strived to do without even realising, its that personal touch that i stamp on my work, to give something back to the customer, for them to take away with. This has had a great effect on my ideas for dissertation and i have decided to investigate the way retail stores create an experience for the consumer through instore graphics and the physcological effects it has on the consumer. This will not only run along side and reflect my design practice but support my ambitions and fuel a greater understanding of the industry i wish to break into.

9

Securing a work placement over the summer is very important to me as it would prove extremely benificial for gaining experience and hopefully getting my name out there. Throughout the year i have collated lists of contacts which started out very broad but i soon found where my interests lie and therefore began focussing the type of studios i was researching. Looking mainly at companies that work for the retail and fashion sectors, it really spurred me on in my design practice and i quickly became very passionate about the work i was producing.

Over the last year i have made 3 close contacts, in Grattapalm, Vast Agency and which i am currently persueing to secure work placement with. Grattapalm would prove the most beneficial as they design for retail although working as the Vast Agency would give me a great insight into a graphic design studio and give me the opportunity to work with both stylists, art directors and designers.

It took me a while to create a sampler of work as I wanted to include my most recent projects as these were directed at the correct discipline and would show my experience within designing for retail but with a few tweaks i will have a pdf i am proud of. Through the summer i am going to continue with designing an identity for myself including business cards and a website to promote myself and get into the industry, these are things i will need if i am to persue work placement.

I also have some small freelance projects to work with over the summer, including working as an art director within a collaboration with a photographer and also after effects work mentioned earlier for a small independent film. I also plan on keeping my eyes peeled for any competition briefs that might pop up, like the e4 ident and polaroid glasses as these would be great pieces to pop in my portfolio and give me more experience and keep me designing so that i will return to year 3 more focussed than ever.

Presentation Pdf

Open publication - Free publishing - More ppd

New Pdf including latest work

Open publication - Free publishing - More pdf


I want to view one single page at a time instead, change colour, look at changing dimensions.

Contacting Vast

Previous opportunities for work placement, they'll probably be looking for summer placements for 2011 in the following weeks, need to get in touch with Joe to do the once over on my Pdf before contacting them.

Already contacted Joe through a friend through Facebook for his work email address and a quick reminder of who I am, we met briefly a year ago through a friend and talked ALOT about graphic design, my work, his job and typography so hopefully he remembers how passionate I was.

Looking back at last year presentation

Following on from last yr things i wanted to improve were
-time management skills
-use workshops more effectively
-experiment more
-keep up with blogging everyday
-become more aware of the industry
-work placement next yr
-focus my design practice
-make my work more professional

Contacts!!

I created a new contact, Craig from InchPunch design through one of my friends after speaking to him about my degree course he spoke of a friend that might be able to help me with a placement opportunity. One to look into!

Enterprise Evaluation

The Enterprise and Innovation module has given me a good insight and understanding into my future and business opportunites. It is easy to run along with the degree programme and forget that we are in a little bubble and there is a huge design world out there waiting for us. This module has allowed me to build confidence and awareness of the realities of working as a Graphic Designer and the huge competition that is out there and has gave me the ability to be more employable against my graduate collegues.

I found the tasks quite difficult as to source what weaknesses companies had and compare myself to these companies as we are in opposite ends of our design path. Although they linked with the lecture well and backed up what I had already learnt I found it difficult to apply these. Also the written side of this course has always been a downfall of mine therefore I didn't enjoy the written summaries for the tasks.

For the final aspect of the module we sourced a group together based on our joint interests in the area of design in which we'd like to work in and then looked at our skills base and specialisms were very broad therefore enabling us to create a multi-disciplinary design studio which is the type of studio I would like to work for. Our group presentation came together well in the end but was a struggle to find time for us all to meet due to optional modules crossing over and the mass of holidays/ bank holidays etc. Although our meetings were very productive and we managed to get a lot done. I took on the role of sorting all the finances, legal side and resources for our studio and found it difficult to access information without actually setting up a real company. Luckily my relatives have a lot of experience of setting up their own companies which they could then direct me where to access the right information. A lot of websites needed and information on legal services were provided by Bridget in the lectures and this proved to be highly useful within the work i needed for the presentation.

This Module has definately gave me a few pointers in how to set up my own business or just get myself out there into the design world. I really enjoyed learning about other companies and how they started up, I think its given us all a lot of hope to where we could end up.

Presentation

Open publication - Free publishing - More cavasso

My Notes Slide 4 & 9

END OF YR 3 -GOALS

By this time we will have a well established company with a strong, constant client list. We will be known for being the face or emerging creative talents and renowned for our fresh, next level outlook on projects.

We will now be able to:
-Raise wages possibly up by £2500 each
-Look at increasing percentage of pension contributions
-Sell shares in our business allowing us to expand.
-Look at expanding to larger premises (we could do this in the same building)
-Look at expanding throughout another city
-Take on interns and placements with a possible vacancy for a fresh young designer to help us increase workload we can take on.




Because of large profits made in this business we can now look at doing self-initiated briefs on large scale to represent and market our brand. This would give us the chance to be as creative as we like and get press coverage which will boost our name further!

Costs

YEAR 1

Start up costs = £22,352.81
based on (rounded numbers):
-£10000 computers
-£8000 software
-£1500 furniture
-£500 research

Total overheads for Year 1
-£43372.86
If we take out a loan of £50,000 from the bank this will cover overheads for year 1, the overhead includes a 10% loan repayment

our total employment costs are £146,800 based on each earning £30,000 salary and a 5% pension plan and a 9% NI contribution (this will increase with the rise of salary)

we will work 210 days annually, 8 hrs a day.
which means our daily rate each is £214.48
which means our hourly rate each is £26.81


To break even in year one we will need to earn £180,000 approx to cover costs.
Our Year 1 annual turnover would be £199,991.81

If we raise our hourly rate to £29.76 then we can get a Gross Profit Margin of 11%
Which gives us a profit of £19,000 for year 1.


YEAR 2


Overheads drop dramitically due to no start up equipment.
Which means our hourly rate drops to £23.65 each
If we keep the rate the same as year one it means we have added a GPM of 26% for year 2
Which gives us a profit of £41,000


YEAR 3


Increase GPM to 35% by raising hourly rate by £3
- we will be well established by now so this will be ok
Profit for year 3 = £60,000

Our Calculations

Our estimations for our salary are based on the calculations we did for our cost of living... mine was £21,632.60 but this was based on living local to Leeds and sharing with my partner. We have chosen a salary of £30,000 based on the fact we will be paying London prices and also can charge more because we are in London.

Working it out!
Based on start us costs researched. Equipment and resources needed... these are our first calculations.

Refined calculations after more research and talk with group for spending in year 1.

Budget for marketing in year 1

Needs to be lots of marketing in year 1, to get our name out there and get money coming in ASAP!

Business Cards-
Mailouts-
Website-
Blog- FREE
Design Week-
Metro-


Budget £5000 for year 1


This will drop considerally in following years as we want to keep a lighter yet constant marketing strategy to keep us fresh and never forgotten.

Working out GPM

I found a GPM calculator on a solicitors website...

Phone Business Plan

Books and mags

We will already have quite a lot of books to bring each, but keeping up to date with the design world is a must therefore we will take out annual subscriptions to graphic journals such as:
-Creative Review
-Idn
-Grafik

Aswell as design news weekly

Also we will probably buy 1 book per month, usually £40-£50 but could get a lot cheaper on amazon.

My estimate for books and magazines subcriptions per year is:

Extras

Midrange A3 scanner £250

Lightbox £200

Graphics Tablet £50

Digital SLR £469.98

Rough Idea of Office Furniture costs

 

d3 office supplies give you an account manager that helps you to figure out what you really need and a budget to suit you. each year they will also review your order and cancel anything you do not need. Unfortunately they do not have an online shopping service so i can't check prices!

4 linking tables so we can save on space and work together as a team

 

A comfortable supporting swivel chair.

Do we need a meeting table if the office already has one downstairs?

This could be used to layout work and get the team together to discuss work.

Also any crafting work.

4 x normal basic chairs for around small work table

 

 Storage systems for graphic journals and books

Stationary Cupboard

An everyday printer

I've gone for an all in one, fax, scan, printer, copier.

 


 Saving a huge discount on this printer, suits all of our needs. Ink cartridges can be baught for under £50.