Final portfolio

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This is my final portfolio (at least in layout) but some of the photos need changing and editing to make them a bit more consistent. Ultimately I'm happy with the layout.

The logo I had on the front was just too much and I prefer it with understated green stripes a lot more.

les morts boards

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I thought I'd post the boards for Les Morts here, because they're of interest in terms of strategy. They propose guerilla and viral advertising as a cheap and clever way of promoting mine and Daisy's business, plus show all of the branding, logos and designs I've been working with as part of the company.

End Of Year Show proposals

These are a few potential layouts for the end of year show based on feedback from Lorenzo in terms of what they should contain. All prints are at least A1, except some that are drops. They are based on the Les Morts stuff, because I want t use the space at the end of year show to promote this company.

Pop-up failure

OK, so we didn't sell anything at the pop-up shop. I'd be worried if I didn't know there were several factors tat made sales incredibly unlikely anyway: The location meant very little passing trade, plus it was tooked in a corner that hardly anyone was aware of. Most of the clientele were students and unwilling to spend much on anything in the shop. Only cheap items did well.

EXIT event

I went to the exit event this evening to see what it was about. It was difficult to apply any of the things that were there specifically on my case. It was mostly for people that were planning on staying Leeds, obviously I wasn't as I have to move home and ake on more responsibiltiy as a parent.

I did spend a lot of time with Jonathan Smith from Glue Marketing, who gave me a lot of sage advice and encouragement. He basically recommended that setting up my own business was a good thing. He recommended that I come up with a name for the business rather than just using my own name. This is something to take on board and perhaps something that I will take up as I start collaborating and working with friends form the North East.

One Nine Four

I visited One Nine Four in Gateshead yesterday which was very insightful. Colin, the owner of the business started One Nine Four on his own to try and create a more professional vibe to attract clients.

He applied for a space in 'the shed' a projects in gateshead that gives spaces to creatives for free. It was really advantageous to him and allowed him to build a business with relatively few overheads. His business is growing and he's looking for placements, so I said I'd send a pdf over in the next couple of weeks. I'm hopeful that this is a real opportunity to get a placement over summer, I really got on with him and his studio environment and vibe is really positive and relaxed whilst sill ebing really dedicated and hard-working. I think that the course here has drilled a mentality into me that means I'd work really well here, so I'm not sure if I'll get this sorted by the time it comes to PPD hand in, but I'll post what happens on here anyway!

Les Morts trial run

Myself and Daisy made the decision to trial the Ouija t-shirt and the brand at the pop-up shop. We've had a lot of compliments and interest in buying what we're selling on facebook.

Unfortunatley the pop-up shop is in a bad location and I'm not sure the clientele are likely to spend £20. (that's another point, looking at all the shops online and the quality of our t-shirts, we're going to sell them at £25 outside of the pop-up shop, but we've had to reduce the price for the shop).

Thankfully, if they don't do well, no one is going to know, it's not publicised, and therefore we can just go away and plan better.

Actual Pain

http://www.actualpain.org/

This company do a similar thing to what we do, but their t-shirts aren't handmade or uniquely designed like the ones Daisy produces, they're sold at £25 so I think thats a fair price to go with.

Other designer alternative t-shirts range from £20-£30, so this is a good median price to take:

Obey retail at a similar price

http://www.urbanindustry.co.uk/products/search.asp?key=obey

reel 8 are a bit more pricey, but you know a strong design at £25 isn't going to make them seem less classy than rebel 8 at all:

http://www.urbanindustry.co.uk/products/product.asp?func=show&id=15620

Aborted visit studio one nine four

So today I was supposed to go to one nine four, and I did, but they forgot and were out to a client meeting.

Colin rang me full fo apologies and was really lovely and we're going to do it in 2 weeks when I return to Newcastle again, so it should all be ok!

Visit to RAW

I visited raw yesterday in Manchester. They're a pretty big design agency with a still smallish staff (7). I spent about an hour and a half there with Tom who does most of the liaising with the students.

I got some really useful advice from him in terms of my own practice. I said that I was having trouble getting responses from studios and he told me the best thing you can do is send emails that show some character, rather than really formal emails, because they get thousands of those a month. I think this is something I need to bare in mind, because whilst my emails are individually tailored, they are quite formal and standardised to a point.

In terms of breaking into the industry, Tom said it was mostly luck. Raw's big break came when they were found using a google search by someone in the NHS. I think this is insane and really lucky. It really puts a human character to a huge organisation.

Anyway, it was a really useful visit with some stuff for my design practice too.

Letterhead an compliment slips

Compliments slip and letterheads.

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Open publication - Free publishing

Stationery

I decided to simplify my CV, still using the green lines to tie it in together with my brand, the content is also similarly to the point and character-filled, but it's just toned down a bit:

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I think this works much better as a CV. It's still functional and is nicely laid out but it still gets across the character that I want it to.

Costing to make t-shirts

OK, so this is costing to make t-shirts, it's going to be helpful for when myself and Daisy leave and have a lot more time to devote to properly setting up the business.

Manufacture of t-shirts: £6

Prints £50 set up and £2 a t-shirt (from factory 4)

labels 50p a t-shirt when ordering 100.

Costing roughly £9 a tee in batches of 100. Meaning a £900 fee to set up a small amount of base stock. We can use the money from selling the tees to buy more batches.

Design strategy presentation

Here are the slides for my design strategy presentation.

I basically focused on what I was going to do next and why. At the moment my plan is to freelance and to set up the clothing company 'les morts' over summer. I need to return to Newcastle in order to take on more reposnsibility as a father, which has essentially been put on hold as this course runs through.

So I've basically presented all of the things I'd done in terms of research for it.

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

I think it went alright, but the problems I found were, that I hadn't really analysed what I'd learned so far, or rather I didn't mention it and I think I lost a lot of marks for that. Another problem was that I ran under time, so I lost some marks for that too.

Answers from Music

Here are the responses from Craig at Music to the questions I sent over:

What would you say is the overall design philosophy of Music?

Communicating relevant ideas in an original and honest way.

How did you start getting clients in the beginnings of Music, particularly in regards to a promotional strategy?

We Didn't have a strategy. The company started with a few kind clients that gave Music work. The biggest promotional piece we've done to date was for our book Stuff We Really Like which was a new business push to attract like minded clients…

QUOTE: The book was born of necessity. As a new studio with no work to show people, peers, or potential clients that we even existed we needed something to present to people to announce that we were in fact a business. And as with setting up a business, certain questions are inevitably asked—Who are we? What type work do we want to do? And who would we like to do it for? And it was this self-interrogation that prompted and formed the book: we know who we are, we know the things that get us going, what we like, enjoy and love. And we want to work with like-minded people who share our joys.

Is there a particular sector that you get a lot of clients from?

Not in particular. You'd think music but it doesn't work out like that. We tend to get work from all places. We care more about the people we work with rather than the kind of work or brand (for example). So if you follow a person around as they move jobs (again for example) then you'll work on different kinds of work in different sectors.

If so, has this been constant, or does where the work come from change frequently?

What is the project you're most proud of working on?

Every single one. Every job you do contains a bit of you in it and you lose a certain part of yourself when jobs go horribly bad, but that's the way.

And what was the most difficult design situation?

There have been many. Mostly they are political problems.

Do you find yourself fighting the client for what you know will work often? Or is there a certain level of trust placed in Music these days?

Depends on the client and the relationship with them. Sometimes clients just get you and trust you, sometimes you have to build that over time. Sometimes people want things doing in their own way and get us in to do that—but this is something we don't want to do. That gets tough.

Do you have a particular process when responding to briefs?

We try to gain insight into everything that we do. Making something look good just isn't enough, you have to really solve the problem otherwise it becomes arbitrary and pointless. Everything has to have a purpose and a meaning relevant to the cause.

Your work uses a variety of disciplines, do you have people in house that can do a variety of things, or are you big on using freelancers?

We work with people that are right for the job. We not technically Designers that can only do Design. The way in which we think is what makes us Music and so we use the right production people to make things happen.

When sending work to print, do you use a particular printer? If so, is there any motivation behind using them?

We use a lot of printers. Some printers are good. Some are great. Some are cheap. Some are not that good but they try. It depends on what you want the job to be.

I think these answers have been really helpful in terms of the finer details of how a design studio work. I think their philosophy is one that should be applied to all designers, where execution of ideas comes entirely out of the concept, and everything links back to that concept.

The Prince's Trust

i emailed the Prince's Trust, an organisation that helps young people set up businesses to find out how to get onto their programme. They sent me this email with a list of dates attached to it. Basically, once I've attended one of these meeting s the process can begin, including courses and potentially funding, which would be useful.

"Thank you for enquiring about the Enterprise Programme.

The Enterprise Programme helps young people to explore and test their ideas, write plans and start their own businesses or achieve alternative goals in education, training or work.

The programme delivers support in four stages:

· Information session – an hour long session to find out about the support on offer and the expectations that The Trust has of the people who take part in the programme.

· Explore Enterprise course – four consecutive days to learn about topics relevant to planning and running a business, to ‘feel’ what running a business would be like and to consider whether self-employment is the right option.

· One to one sessions – to help think through, choose and plan your next step. For young people needing financial support to test their ideas, Will it Work grants can sometimes be made available.

· Mentoring and financial support – to help achieve your chosen next step. For young people entering a job, education or training, this might be a mentor to help write a CV or college application. For young people going on to start a business, this is a business mentor for two years, a range of discounted and free support offers and maybe money to help start their business.


An average ‘journey’ through the programme takes three to six months. Please also note that participation in the programme does not guarantee that start-up funding will be awarded. Applications for start-up funding are assessed in relation to a number of factors including perceived risk, business viability and individual need.

Please find enclosed information session dates and venues. If you would like to book a place at one of these sessions, please telephone 0191 4973210 or email gateshead@princes-trust.org.uk.

We look forward to hearing from you soon,"

I emailed back and asked to be booked into a slot on Friday 8th July 2011, hopefully this will bring a step closer to both les morts clothing and setting up as a freelancer.

Les Morts

After talking with long time collaborator Daisy from the fashion course here, we've decided that we want to set up a clothing company called 'Les Morts' that deals with garment and print design o do with the occult, mysterious etc. I'm going to try and work the branding into the FMP if I can. I'll post the results on here either way.

Portfolio designs

Using my business card as inspiration I've had a few stabs at a portfolio but I'm really unhappy with the type on the front of it still:

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Open publication - Free publishing

Mini-portfolio

proposal for a mini-portfolio that might be sent via email mostly, but I could also print a few.

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CV

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Final design:

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I like this and it works with my branding a lot. It's quite brash but it shows a lot of personality so I think it should work quite nicely.

Business Cards arrived!

I got my business cards from e-printing today! They took forever to arrive but it was worth it, as you can see. I'm really happy with them. Now to finalise my portfolio/mailable portfolio and I've got a full promotional package going on!

Creating a website layout

Craig knows a bit about web design and he's going to help build my website. here is the progression of my mock-up so he knows what he's creating

Business Card

After my portfolio surgery, I decided that it was important to rebrand myself and start developing that side of things. I wanted my logo to be more to do with my name than it has been in the past. It took a lot of shit to get to the kind of thing I thought was appropriate and the final thing and it's layout on a business card suits me down to the ground. I'm really happy with it and I'm looking to take it into my website etc.

Portfolio Surgery- Plus Minus

Ok so recently I had a portfolio surgery with Tom Eales of studio plus/minus. I couldn't help bt feel a little ambiguous as to how much he could help me with what I was doing. I was utterly wrong. I haven't got my portolio on here because I threw it together really quickly and it didn't represent me very well. The work, a lot of it good, wasn't photographed well and thats something I need to work on, and although he was very positive about my work, he said the same thing. The angles and lighting need working on. I know a few photography students so I might exchange some shots of my work for some graphic design work.


This design is something I threw together and isn't considered, however the little details like the spacing in this hyphen need to be carefully considered. Every design agency/designer can spot these problems instantly and in that instant you lose some class as a professional.


He also said to make sure that things that went live are made clear that they went live because this makes you stand out a lot more.




Again he pointed out spacing issues and the problems with my photography, too dark and too yellow etc.


He said to limit the amount of words you use, they're not going to be willing to read it all so get straight to the point. He also gave me ome advice on the kinds of lenses and apparatus I should be using to photograph my work, so that's something to consider when I work with a photographer.


On the page for DSW brief he pointed out that the business card close up needs to be more readable so thats something to re-photograph. Also the angle is really dodgy, too slanted.


Some advice on what to do about the wording here.




Again he thinks I should emphasise that this product has gone to shelves, which I didn't do. This will again let me stand out.

All in all, the surgery was incredibly useful, the attention to detail and the amount of words I used being particularly helpful advice. He also gave me some help on rephotographing my work which will be highly useful.