OUGD502 Module Evaluation

This module has been very challenging in the fact of time management as I have had multiple projects on the go all at once, a number of them being outside of uni projects. However, I believe that my time has been managed very well as I have not been late submitting a brief, and I also haven’t been stressing towards the end of each brief as I have managed to mostly keep on top of the work load. 

A thing I enjoyed about this module was contacting different design studios, some all the way across the world. This is a really great way to let other designers know you exist, but to also show respect to the designers for the portfolio of work. This is a project I am going to continue over the summer and probably also in third year, as the questions I will ask I genuinely want to know the answers to, and it is also a good way of interacting and getting your name out into the industry. 

A thing I didn’t particularly enjoy about this project was not getting emails back from design studios or designers. It’s understandable that the design studios will be incredibly busy, however it’s also a little insulting to think that I’m not worth their time. 

I think a strength of this module was my research. John had previously mentioned that you shouldn’t email too many design studios as all of the emails would look a little bit like spam, so it was really useful to research into different design studios prior to emailing them. A design studio that I particularly wanted a reply from was Farrow Studios, however it’s understandable that they didn’t reply as they are a huge firm and are very busy at the moment designing record sleeves for National Record Day. 

A weakness of this project was probably the number of emails that I sent out. I sent a number of emails out to five different design firms and only ended up getting one reply. I think if I had been a bit more willing to send more emails, I would’ve been able to create a number of different creative reports. This would’ve looked really successful in my portfolio, which is just another reason I plan to carry on emailing different studios and interviewing them. 

I think another strength of this module was the study task Taking Care of Business. Cameron has a very different design style to my own, however we met in the middle and I feel the group as a whole worked successfully. I think our presentation was also very successful as we covered a lot of points and we researched in great detail about things that we would definitely need for a design studio, such as furniture and general costings for software. 

A weakness of Taking Care of Business was probably the lack of time put into the presentation by everyone involved. Everyone contributed, however the presentation was solely put together by myself and Cameron as the other members were busy during the time we put aside to complete the project. This is okay, however, as this is what it would be like in industry - not every member would be available at all points to contribute. 

I think my presentation went really well and I think it was obvious that my confidence has definitely improved since last year. My main downfall with the presentation was the fact I really struggle to talk fluently without a script, and with a script I often find myself reading straight from it. I did try to stop this from happening in this presentation, however compared to the other peoples presentation that I saw, I think this was my downfall as most of the other students can easily talk about their work and their progress from the top of their heads. 

Overall, however, I believe this module went very smoothly and successfully and I am definitely going to carry on being immersive in the Leeds art scene, and potentially the art scene in Hull. I am also going to carry on pushing my development with different analogue techniques other than digital printing. 

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Feedback (Study Task One)

This is the feedback the for Taking Care of Business study task.

Good idea denoting an ‘E’ for each member. Pity Izzie was missing, but ‘hey ho’ that is the foundation of any business, ‘Poop’ happens and it was well overcome as no one knew or realised anyway.

It is a common situation in business anyway, not everyone is available all the time…who feeds the cat back at the office and answers the telephone?

Good share breakdown to gain parity and the recognition of the safer option of a Limited company. Really good tone of voice as a business, could have had more consideration of intonation and pace for effect. Interesting use of the Manifesto and your policies.

All in all a very good presentation, cohesive and comprehensive. The use of collaborative practice and having ‘friends’ is good as it illustrates an awareness of the diversity of briefs and the potential need to collaborate with other ‘strengths’.

Costings were considered and a good hourly rate of £89 per hour is realistic as a start up and makes it slightly easier to raise prices incrementally as you grow. 

I loved the ‘7 deadly sins’ and a creative platform that demonstrates a sense of identity too. Costings and research was directed and considered to add a ‘realistic’ element and a feeling of viability too.

Well done and you can build on this if you feel like it?

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 Taking Care of Business - Planning the Presentation (Study Task One)

Planning the presentation was probably the most difficult part about this whole project, as we wanted to include everything that we possibly could, however we want to keep the presentation at around 10 minutes. Below are the plans I created from looking at previous presentations from the previous year.

I then created our own presentation plan based on the previous presentations we had seen from previous years.

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Costings (Study Task One)

As a group, we all decided upon and researched what each aspect that we would need to create a successful business would cost. We considered the start up costs, the monthly costs and the yearly costs. This doesn't include what we would have to charge or the wages we would be taking from the business. These prices would probably change a fair bit as they are only estimates, and especially would change as the business would be starting up as it would most likely be quite difficult to get work in the beginning without self-promotion/decent marketing.

Start up costs:

Studio deposit: #100 first year
Studio rent: #3000
5x Mac Mini's" #4645
5x Monitors: #600
5x Adobe CC: #3912
A3 Printer/Scanner: #200
Lightbox: #40
Studio stationary: #400
Furniture: #600
WeTransfer Plus: #90
Marketing: #1000
Insurance: #400
Domain Name #20

Total:#15007

Monthly Costs:

Studio rent: #250
Internet & phone: #50
Electricity: #200

Total: #500

Yearly Costs:

WeTransfer Plus: #90
Insurance: #400
Domain name: #20
5x Adobe CC: #3912

Total: #4422

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Funding Research (Study Task One)

After discussion, we have all decided that each member would put forward #1000 towards to business when the business would be starting up. We decided this as we thought it was a reasonable amount considering the fact that each member would be in debt due to being a student and living away from home as we each are, even though we all have jobs. We looked into business grants and decided we could probably apply for a business grant of up to #5000, and could also apply for a loan of up to #10000 for a business start up. This would leave us with #20,000, of which we should have enough to start up and run the business for at least a year without going into debt, as ideally we would only need around #12000-15000 to start the business. We decided we would need #20000 as we would like to have a safety blanket for the business incase it is slow in the first couple of months.

Izzie also contacted her old college which is closing down, in which they have a lot of screen printing equipment that they are not allowed to sell. Izzie contacted them in the hope that they would be able to donate, or at least discount the equipment to us, as there is a member in the group that is from the college. This would be really beneficial to our business as screen printing beds and equipment are really expensive, and it would take a huge chunk out of our money if we had to purchase them. Izzie has emailed the college, however they have yet to reply.

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Possible Clients (Study Task One)

For our possible clients, we decided to create a list that would be for our first and second year of business. We decided this as, when we are more experienced within the industry, we would really like to work with a lot of clients, whether that is really famous clients such as Nike or if it is even the government. However, for the first year or two of business, we have quite a realistic idea of what type of clients we would like to work with. These are listed as follows:

• Local Business
• Commercial organisations
• Cafe's
• Bars and pubs
• Restaurants
• Food companies
• Art galleries and museums
• Event spaces
• Live music
• Venues
• Recording artists/studios
• Artists/creatives
• Practitioners
• Charities

We have settled upon this list of organisations as we think that it is the most realistic; the chances are, as the studio is based in Leeds, that all of these would all be local, AKA within the Yorkshire/Lancashire area. 

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Our Services (Study Task One)

Within our business, we have all come up with a list of services we offer, these can be seen below:

• Art direction
• Concept development
• Idea generation
• creative print solutions
• Screen printing
• Printed material design
• Graphic design
• Illustration
• Branding and visual identity
• Logo design
• Editorial design
• Digital design
• Web design
• Packaging design
• Signage and way finding
• Typography

We have decided these are the main specifications that we will offer, as we feel that it covers a very varied category within design. It covers branding, editorial and pretty much everything. We think noting that these are the paths we will cover is key, as it makes it obvious to our possible target clients that anything they want, we will be able to produce. As we cover such a wide range of specifications, we think it will open up the opportunity to work with very varied clients also, and not just stick with clients, for example, within retail - we could vary from cafes to social networking sites with no hassle.

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Studio Spaces (Study Task One)

We decided to research into studio spaces. Cameron found this poster in uni that we found very helpful with finding out about studio spaces that we have never heard of before. Although this was quite helpful, the only gem on this sheet was Patrick Studios.

Duke Studios

Duke studios is quite an expensive design studio, however it is very light and airy which is a plus, as I tend to struggle to work when the room has fake lighting. It's close to the city centre and it is well known within the design industry of having a lot of great designers and artists working within it. Duke studios would be a great place to work as there would be a lot of opportunities for networking, and it is also based above Leeds Art Gallery, meaning there would be a lot of famous artists coming through its doors, and therefore it would be great exposure; for example Joan Cornella. The main problem with this studio is the price; it is very expensive for the limited space available, and it wouldn't be enough space for all of our equipment at a low budget. As we would be a starter company, we would like to keep the price to a minimum, however Duke Studios is very expensive considering the fact it is made out of wood. 

Patrick Studios

Patrick Studios seems like the perfect place to hold our own studios! It is incredibly cheap, ranging from #90-250 per week. The studios (from images) look huge and would definitely be enough space to host a screen printing area and also general desk space. It would definitely be beneficial to have a huge space as it means we could all be very experimental and do as our business intends; not work like most design studios work, and do a lot of analogue and experimental prints. This studio space is also really great as it is based in the centre of Leeds City Centre, meaning that travel wouldn't be involved within the costs of the business as it is within walking distance. This building is great, the only downside that we have found out is the fact that it doesn't come with any furniture. However, we have worked out that it would cost around #600 to get all of the furniture that we need, meaning the bigger upfront payment would work out a lot cheaper than paying for a studio that already comes with furniture; it also means that if we were to ever work out of our own homes, we would already own all of the furniture and wouldn't have to purchase it all then.

The Corn Exchange

Personally, I had the idea to set up our business inside of The Corn Exchange. I had this idea as all of the shops within The Corn Exchange seem very welcoming, local and friendly. I thought it would be a really obscure and yet successful idea to start a business within The Corn Exchange as it would mean that a lot of people would find out about our business and they would also have a bigger opportunity to visit us. I had the idea of setting up a studio that would also double up as a print fair/shop. There would constantly be prints available to purchase for passersby, and we would also work within the shop. The only limit to this idea would be the spacing; the shops within The Corn Exchange are very small, meaning we wouldn't be able to get screen printing equipment in there, and we would also basically be limited to digital prints. The idea, however, I think was very strong, and once our business gets off the ground, it would be an ideal place to set up a shop/part-time studio.

In the end, we decided the most beneficial place to set up a design studio would be at Patrick Studios. We decided this as it was the place that gave us the most space, meaning we would be able to fit a lot of screen printing equipment and other analogue print methods in it. It would also give us all a lot more space in general and it is central in Leeds, meaning it is a local and easy place to reach.

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Collateral (Study Task One)

To try out our colour scheme and logo design myself, I decided that I would create a letterhead. This can be seen below. I think it's very effective as it is coherent with the other designs so far, and it is also bold and would stand out on the recipients desk. The back of the letter can also be seen below. This would be pricey to print, however I think it would be worth it as it would also double up as a poster design, and therefore is self promotion for our studio.

I also decided to design a business card for myself that would be sent with the letter. This follows the same rules; the colour scheme, typeface and header font. I think it's simple but successful, and it would be cheap to reproduce in bulk.

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Website Development (Study Task One)

Originally, I had a quick go at designing a website flat. I designed this before we had come up with a colour scheme and before we had assigned the role of web designer to James. Personally, I think the website I designed is very simple, although really successful as it showcases our portfolio really successfully. If it were to be used, it would need to be changed to add the colour scheme, however it won't be as I'm not great at designing websites and I don't need to anymore - it would be unnecessary work.

We gave the task of developing a web design to James, as it is something he is passionate about and I personally really dislike designing website flats. The website James designed is very relevant as it follows the colour scheme that we have assigned to our business. It also uses the typeface Bluu Next and Apercu, which we will use on our presentations sides, so is therefore fluent in that aspect too.

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Colour Scheme (Study Task One)

We found a magazine called 'Tunica', for which we instantly fell in love with the colour scheme. We thought we would use the same colour scheme for our studio as a whole, and also include the obscure shapes. Below is our colour scheme.

We think our colour scheme would work really effectively, as we have chosen five colours that work really well together, and each of them represents each member. On top of this, we would also use the colour black, however. The colour scheme will be used on the website design and general collateral that we are going to create for our business.

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Similar Design Studios (Study Task One)

Rabbit Hole Agency

Rabbit Hole Agency is a design studio based in Leeds. It's quite similar to our business, in the way that their designs are very obscure and stand out from the crowd - something we would hope from our own designs. This design studio is also a multidisciplinary, similar to our own. In the past, they have had a lot of clients, including Coldplay, Deadmau5 and Lost Village Festival. Their logo design is very obscure, however very successful and pleasing to look at.

HORT

HORT is a design studio based in Berlin. Their design work is, similar to Rabbit Agency, very obscure and their website is very difficult to navigate, however fits perfectly with their aesthetic. Their logo type stands out, which is something that we wanted our own to do.

Print Club London

Print Club London was established in 2007. It is run by two members: Fred Higginson and Kate Higginson. This studio is similar to our own studio as it specialises in screen prints. Although our studio won't specialise solely in this, I believe it gives us quite a good edge as there aren't any studios in leeds that will have the screen printing equipment, and therefore we would have the edge as we wouldn't have to outsource all of our prints - meaning it would be cheaper for the client, and the client would also have full control of what would happen to the prints.

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - The letter 'e' (Study Task One)

As the letter 'e's in Screeeeen represent each member as an individual, we wanted to somehow get this across within a design. We decided that each of us would go away and create their own design within the letterform. We would them put them all together. Depending on if it's successful, we could potentially use this as the logo. Below are the letter 'e's that I created. My preferable colourscheme is the one with red and blue, as I think it's really bold and expressive, but also simplistic so reiterates the fact that I enjoy doing branding and identity - as logo design is mainly successful if it's simple and easily recognisable.

OUGD502 Taking Care of Business - Logo Development (Study Task One)

We found a typeface called 'Bluu Next' which we all thought really represented us as designers. The typeface is quite geometrical, however legible and slick, and very different from my go to typefaces, which are usually Helvetica, Apercu or Futura. This typeface only works as a title font, however it's really successful and in the end we decided to use this for our main logo.

Before we decided to just use the type as a logo, however, I had begun designing some logo ideas. These can be seen below. As the typeface is geometrical, Cameron had the idea of using a very simple logo design with the typeface - a simple outline of a square. I think this was very successful and could definitely be used as bullet points on the website.

I then got rid of the 'e's. I did this because the e's make up the business and basically are the most important part of the business as they represent us as individuals. I thought by getting rid of the letters, it might symbolise to the client the importance of each of us, and how they need us to work with them to be complete.

I tried to design the letter 'e' to represent us quite obscurely within a black out box. I thought this was successful as it isn't too obvious that it's the letter 'e' and is quite obscure yet successful, similar to our method of design.

I then tried a simple outline of a box. This was unsuccessful as it's too simplistic and doesn't portray any kind of message in my opinion.

I really liked the idea of getting rid of the 'e's, and tried it a different way. This way, you know that the 'e's are supposed to be there, and I think it's a lot more legible to read as the mind puts in the 'e's without thinking. 

Finally, I decided to use a shadow effect on the word 'screen'. I thought this was effective as it symbolises the fact that we work on both digital and analogue screens. I think it also symbolises the screen printing process as a whole - as it looks like how a screen looks when the print has been altered slightly below the screen.

All of my designs, however, are void as we decided the best thing to do would to just use the word screeeeen as a logo. This can be seen below. I think it's the most effective design as it's simple, and I don't think our logo design needs to be complex as we are not complex people, we just have a passion for what we do - it's straight to the point, recognisable and legible.