Sunday 31 January 2016

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Final Presentation & Script (Study Task One)

Cameron and myself took it upon ourselves to create and write the presentation slides. Personally, I think we've done a really great job as I think we've included everything important, however I don't think the presentation will be boring as the general concept and subject of our business is quite interesting. We also wrote the script for the presentation. Both of these tasks were time consuming and took us a number of days to get the presentation and script to our liking.


Slide 1: Introduction to presentation
Hi, we are Screeeeen, a creative collective based in the heart of Leeds ‐ CAMERON 



Slide 2: Introduction to members & specialisms ‐ talk briefly about what your individual skills and interests are
Amelia: Branding & identity Cameron: Editorial & print Izzie: Analogue printing James: Editorial design
Tom: Typography & branding 



Slide 3: Our manifesto ‐ JAMES
Screen is a multidisciplinary creative collective based in the heart of Leeds. We represent a range of cultures, styles and disciplines. Our work will aim to challenge conventions within contemporary visual culture.
We offer clients a full package from concept development to final distribution and everything inbetween. 


Slide 4: Our seven deadly sins
We came up with the concept of having our own seven deadly sins that could act as our manifesto to make it a little less dry and representative of our personalities. They are:
L u s t : W e l u s t o v e r g o r g e o u s , w i t t y a n d w e l l p r o d u c e d p r i n t , b e c a u s e l e t ’ s b e h o n e s t , a n y t h i n g t h a t has been created by someone getting their hands covered in ink is a good thing. ‐ CAM
G l u t t o n y : W e h a v e a m a s s i v e a p p e t i t e f o r i n s p i r a t i o n , m e a n i n g w e h a v e t o b e c o n s t a n t l y o n t h e lookout for our next source of visual pleasure. We adopt a very free and open approach to research, idea generation and concept development. ‐ AMELIA
Greed: We are not single minded in our creative vision or design process, allowing us to extract ideas from anywhere and everywhere. You could say this is greedy. We like to think of it as being eclectic. IZZIE
Sloth: We are dedicated to producing work that challenges the conventions of contemporary visual communication. In order to do the well, we take our time. We don’t enjoy rushing work that really excites us. ‐ TOM
Wrath: We get very angry when we aren’t being creative, because we don’t know how else to spend our days. ‐ JAMES
Envy: We don’t envy much, because we love doing what we do! ‐ CAM
Pride: We are proud to be so diverse. Each member of the Screeeeen is an individual with unique stances and perspectives on creativity, which is what makes us so exciting as a collective. ‐ AMELIA 


Slide 5: What makes us unique? ‐ IZZIE
We have varied interests and skillsets. We take things off the digital screen and put it onto a silk screen, and we have a strong and wide interest in all things design.


Slide 6: Legal structure TOM
We’re a limited company, meaning that we’re all equal partners owning 20% of the business each and protects us from personal liability. 


Slide 7: Where to find us ‐ CAM
Screeeeen can be found within Patrick Studios in the centre of Leeds. Home of East Street Arts, this unique environment addresses the need for structured support outside of academic institutions and fosters an ethos of professional development. We will operate from Monday to Friday 9‐6 and will have flexible weekends.
Slide 8: Studio culture
We’re fun, collaborative, experimental and interdisciplinary. We aim to put some time aside one day a week to work on self‐directed projects. 


Slide 8: Studio culture
We’re fun, collaborative, experimental and interdisciplinary. We aim to put some time aside one day a week to work on self‐directed projects. 


Slide 9: Funding ‐ AMELIA
We each plan to put forward £1000 to fund the start up costs. We would apply for a £5000 small business grant and a maximum loan of £1000 from a small business start up loan. This is a conscious decision to keep our borrowed funds to a reasonable level. 


Slide 10: Start up costs ‐ JAMES
We’ve researched into various costings and have come up with this rough estimate for the start up costs. The first years rent would be £3000, 5 mac minis and monitors would cost £5245. We would have to put money in for furniture as the studio space doesn’t come with any, but this would be the most cost effective thing to do as we have contacts that could help us get cheap furniture. We would design our own branding and identity, but the reason we have put the price at £1000 is for printing and distribution. 



Slide 11: Operating costs & Slide 12: Hourly rates ‐ AMELIA
Monthly, we would be spending around £500 on the up keep of the studio it’s self. The yearly total costs would amount to roughly £10,422. Additional project costs, travel expenses, materials, researching and so on would be dependant on the brief and the specific client. In order to cover these expenses, we would need to charge £89 per hour, which has been rounded up to £100, meaning the extra money could go back into the up keep of the business. Therefore, we would expect to be earning around £4,005 per studio member a day. This would be achievable as we would in theory have multiple briefs on the go at once. We believe our target hourly rate is reasonable in todays current climate and in relation to ourselves as young professionals. This would also allow us to sustain the business in the first two years without going under. 


Slide 13: Ideal clientele ‐ TOM
Our ideal clientele is as follows: local businesses, commercial organisations, cafes and bars, pubs and restaurants, food companies, art galleries and museums, events spaces, live music venues, recording artists, other artists and creative practitioners and charities. Initially, we would target local companies and organisations to make a name for our self in Leeds. We believe this is a good starting point, and would obviously hope to expand our clientele nationally and internationally as our business progresses. 


Slide 14: Identity ‐ IZZIE
Our colour palette is directly influenced by the cover design of the latest issue of Tunica magazine, a publication that we all find exciting and inspiring. We have used five colours to represent the five different creative team members in Screeeeen. We chose to use Bluu Next as our main header typeface as it is highly contemporary and we were drawn to its geometric appearance and boldness. To compliment this we opted for Apercu as our body copy typeface, as we feel that it contrasts well against the angular nature of Bluu Next. Its equally contemporary and is popular amongst young creatives at the moment. Our colour palette is consistent within our self promotion, such as the website design and a leaflet/poster design. The leaflet/poster is very cheap to reproduce and therefore is a cost effective way to get our name out there. It acts as a casual self promotion pack. 



Slide 15: Promotion & Slide 16: Collateral ‐ JAMES
For the web design and the poster/leaflet design, we decided to follow a theme of using abstract shapes that follow our colour scheme. The shapes represent our interest in being expressive and experimental. We each have a personalised business card which features the individual members custom made ‘e’, adding personality and uniqueness. This is also self promotion for the monthly ‘e’ on our website. 


Slide 17: The monthly ‘e’ ‐ IZZIE
We had the idea of creating a monthly competition in which other designers, friends, fans and clients have the opportunity to submit their own designs in order to have their artwork featured on the ‘screeeeen’ website. The competition would be the same every month; to design their own letter ‘e’, similar to we have done. This would be promotional as competitors would submit their designs through instagram and would have to use the hashtag ‘screeeeen’. This would not only promote our instagram account, but it would also mean users are more likely to go and browse on the website, meaning we would get a lot more exposure online. 


Slide 18: Potential friends ‐ CAM
We would be open to working collaboratively with other agencies, such as Rabbit Hole Agency, Print Club London and HORT. We feel these studios have a similar ethos to us and share similar attitudes towards graphic design and visual communication. They are mainly located in the UK which would allow to communicate easily in person and via the internet. 


Slide 19: Potential foes ‐
We see our main competition as being similarly sized set ups in the Leeds area, ideally, however, we would be looking to collaborate and be friends with more studios rather than being competitive. We also think that our studio would be different to other studios, as we bring other design skills and ideas to the table. 


Slide 20: Our competitive edge ‐ AMELIA
Our competitive edge to other design studios is that each individual brings a different background within design. Our studio would also stand out as we have our own screen printing equipment and we will be based in the very centre of the city, and therefore very easy to locate. The studio is very spacious, and therefore this would give us the potential to hold a lot of events, such as exhibitions and print fairs. 


Slide 21: Services we offer ‐ TOM
Our main skills and passions are in art direction and concept development as well as creative printing solutions. Collectively we are able to offer many more services which increases our competitive edge and would hopefully entice a diverse range of clients to work with us. 


Slide 22: Future goals ‐ JAMES
Expand the studio into a more permanent space Compete with larger, successful studios

Make lots of money
Work internationally
To have fun in what we do 



Slide 23: Contact details ‐ CAM
You can find us at Patrick Studios
Feel free to call our studio line or drop us an email Or get in touch on social media using @screeeeen 



Slide 24: Thanks for listening ‐ ALL 




OUGD502 Creative Report - Gorilla Studio, Manchester (Studio Brief One)

Gorilla Studio is a studio based in Manchester. Although their website doesn't work at the moment, I managed to find a lot of their work on Google. Their style is quite quirky and interesting to look at. Although I can't read about the concept for each of the designs below, I believe there definitely will be a strong concept as the design is obscure.




OUGD502 Creative Report - Nine Sixty, Manchester (Studio Brief One)

Nine Sixty is a design studio in Manchester. Their manifesto says 'design is quite simply our passion. From branding and print to making things look beautiful on screen, this is what we live and breathe. Whether you're starting out or in need of a rebrand, we can help you really stand out.' I think their manifesto is really successful as it's straight to the point and it gets across the passion and love of graphic design that this studio has. Not only do they do a lot of branding and identity, they also focus a lot on digital design for web. This is something I don't particularly enjoy, however I do enjoy the branding side and I think all of their work on their online portfolio is very beautiful and conceptual. 





OUGD502 Creative Report - Instruct Studio, Manchester (Studio Brief One)

Instruct is communications studio based in Manchester that works within architecture, media and culture. They say that they are unique in the fact that they are purposefully a small company, that aims to tackle big problems for large and small organisations. I found out about this studio before I came to uni and I really like their work as it's very colourful and bold. All of their work has a concept as well, which I think is key within their design as it makes all of their work varied and different.




Monday 25 January 2016

OUGD502 Creative Report - Robot-Food, Leeds (Studio Brief One)

Robot-Food is a design agency based in Leeds that specialises in branding and identity. A lot of their work is very colourful and bold, which I really like about it/ They also use a lot of illustration and geometric shapes within their packaging design which makes the packaging stand out a lot from other designs. This would be another good design studio to email as they are local and there is therefore more of a chance that I could do a face to face interview, but failing that I think they may reply to an email as both myself and this company is based in Leeds.





OUGD502 Creative Report - Catalogue, Leeds (Studio Brief One)

Catalogue is another design studio that I found online, based in Leeds. I couldn't find out too much about them as their website is currently under construction, however I am going to keep checking back as it says that it will be ready to view in early 2016. I did, however, find a link to what I assume is their own magazine entitled 'Library'. This link can be found HERE. The magazine is very slick and there has obviously been a very strategic placing of images, as it's quite a post modern style, however it's really beautiful to look at. The website as a whole was quite frustrating, as I personally wanted to buy all of the magazines that they have produced, however they only seem to have online viewings and not actual physical copies available, even though there is an option to add things to a cart. However, there is an option to send them an email, which is the perfect excuse for them to reply to me, as I do want to purchase copies of all of their magazines, but I would also like to interview them for this project. 

OUGD502 Creative Report - Rabbit Hole Agency, Leeds (Studio Brief One)

I found this agency by looking online for local design studios, and I instantly fell in love with their style of design. It's very quirky and quite different to something that I would usually create, however it's definitely a style that I would like to experiment with in the near future. I really enjoyed all of the work from this design agency that I could find online, and I have now followed them on social media. I think I will email this design agency and try to get an interview, whether it be in person or online, as I have found their work really inspiring. 

OUGD502 Creative Report - Teabag Digital, Leeds (Studio Brief One)

Teabag Digital is a design studio based in Leeds, that mainly create websites for companies. I really like their design, especially for Red's BBQ, however personally, after being set a task to create a website for a musician of my choice, have come to the conclusion that I don't want to specialise in web design, as I really struggled to create the website for this task. However, the task wasn't a complete write off as I did, in the end, really like my final design. I don't think I'll message this particular design studio as they solely focus on web design, which is something that doesn't really interest me too much.





OUGD502 Creative Report - Hungry Sandwich Club, Leeds (Studio Brief One)

The Hungry Sandwich Club is a design studio based in Leeds. They have come into university to talk to us and I often see them around Leeds. They are a really interesting design studio as they generally focus on very slick, clean illustrations. Last year they came into uni to do a project with us in which we were asked to design a map for Leeds Indie Food Festival. Their illustrations are really inspiring as they are very minimal, which is something I would like to work on within my own design. Over summer, I plan to do a summer challenge whereby I have to create an illustration a day. It would've been really good to do this over the whole of second year, however I just haven't found the time. I think, however, this will be an aim for my third and final year at LCA. 



OUGD502 Creative Report - Alphabet Studio, Leeds (Studio Brief One)

Alphabet is a design studio based in Leeds. Their designs are often very colourful and slick. A lot of their work is locally based, such as they helped brand the new bar called Headrow House and they have also branded a company called 'Leeds Juicery'. Their logo is very memorable as it is just typography, however it is conceptual as it shows what they stand for - simplicity. This is definitely a studio that I will consider getting into contact with as I have been following them for a while on Twitter and I really like all of their work, and also because I think their style of work is very similar to my own - I find it a lot easier to create good design if the project is driven by a concept. 

As the design studio is a local studio, it would also be really interesting to see if I could get a summer internship to work with them and get some experience in the live industry. 



Friday 22 January 2016

OUGD502 Design Strategy Presentation - Leeds Christmas Print Fair at Munro House (Studio Brief Two)

I found out on Twitter about Munro House doing a Christmas fair that sold prints and I was instantly interested. As I have exhibited at the exhibition in the past, I emailed over to see if I could take part and sell some of my own prints. The fair was really interesting as it featured lots of stalls, some selling prints and others selling bread and cakes. There was also a raffle and lots of people drinking and having a good time and it really got me in the spirit of things. Another contributor to the fair thats work I really enjoyed was Anthony Cameron. His website can be found here. His work was quite similar to my own contribution, in the way that it focused on geometric shapes and prints. 


Although I didn't manage to sell many prints, I think this was a really beneficial event to take part in, as I had printed lots of business cards and lots of people picked them up, meaning I have got my name out there and it's a small step in the right direction.