Self evaluation

Generation Press

We had a talk in studio 3 today with Generation Press, it was great seeing first hand one of the graduates from our course doing so well and enjoying it too. we got given a lovely print with foiling of a poppy logo as its remembrance day. 

We got given some great advice and I enjoyed looking at their work and taking it all in.

Study Task 2

Where are they- How will they find me?

• Where are my potential clients/employers located?
• What media do my potential clients/employers use?
• What do you need to communicate and how does it match what your clients/employer need?

As I want to work for a small creative studio or launch my own it is had to narrow my clients down to a particular group. I am also interested in branding and promotion, which can cover a range of different companies and clients. My PEST analysis will vary on where I end up being based, as for example the clients that I would find in Leeds would very much differ to the ones in London.

As I mentioned in the previous task, I want to work a lot with branding and promotion. This factor taken into consideration as well as the fact that I want to be working in a small studio made up of no more than four designers, my client base would more than likely be small businesses and companies who are willing to pay the price for good quality design as opposed to what they would get from a large corporate graphic design company.
I have decided that I would like to be based in Leeds, as it is a great place for creatives and I have already started to build up some contacts here. It would make no sense to uproot and go back to London, as there is a lot of competition and a small creative studio would get overshadowed by the many larger companies based there.

These things taken into consideration, my clients would be small businesses and companies based in Leeds, mainly one off stores or businesses that are just starting up or looking to expand.
Although it seems that in the digital age it would make more sense to be a digital designer, I feel that design for print is something I am good at and more of a specialist subject that clients would come direct to me for.

To promote myself and my fellow designers as a studio I prefer the idea getting out there and meeting people to build up a client base as opposed to advertising in magazines for example. I feel that this would give us personality and people would rather go to a studio they have a relationship with rather than one they have no idea about the people behind it. This would all be done by networking, making the most of the many creative events held in Leeds and perhaps having our own. We would also of course have a website and business cards to hand out.

I have decided to do my PEST analysis on Leeds College of Art. They use numerous different ways to promote themselves including the college prospectus. One of the past college prospectus' was designed by graphic design graduates that formed the design studio Catalogue. This is evidence that the college is more than willing to go to their graduates to design their promotional material, therefore it is both a practical and realistic aim.

I am going to use this table as an outline that I have found on google.

Political

The current government has made a massive difference to higher education. With tuition fees rising it is to be expected that the amount of applicants will drop. However the tuition fee change has only had a small effect on the graphic design course. Each year the number of applicants has been rising, but instead of dropping, this year it has been on par to last year.

In todays society it seems that higher education is always encouraged, but the government change favours the rich over the poor, giving them more opportunity for a good education.

If the government were to change, the likelihood would be that the tuition fees would go back to normal. They wouldn't be able to raise them further without their being an uproar following the recent student protests.

Economic

The college doesn't have much room for growth without buying more space. The current buildings are quite small and normally the course are over applied for. However their is not much need for the college to expand, as that is one of the qualities of a specialist college. The college would not go global, although it is with the open university which allows your degree to be recognised internationally. Labor  costs, disposable income etc most of which will probably be funded by the government as it is an educational business. The rest is covered by the students tuition fees, payed by the students and the government.

Social-Cultural

As the government changes more and more people are going straight into apprenticeships rather than going to university. This means that we could probably predict a drop in applicants, therefore less people paying tuition fees. This could also mean less demand for the individual courses, decreasing the quality and high standard of the students enrolled which in turn will lower the reputation of the courses and the college.

Technological

As technology progresses the college can only get better. In some universities it may mean that they need less staff. However being a creative college, staff will always be needed to teach creative thinking. Although this is good and increases the appeal of the college, it could also increase the cost of running it. However, the majority of the courses rely on technological progression, so using up to date equipment and keeping on top of this is key.

Study Task 1

Who am I?- Who are they?


All possible client groups that I can think of, although there are so many subcategories I could go on forever.

• Music 
• Retail
• Publishing
• Education
• Film 
• Medical and pharmaceutical 
• Leisure industry
• Tourism
• Sales and marketing/advertising
• Charity
• Technology
• Art and design
• Food and health
• Beauty and cosmetic
• Television
• Government and council 

I realise that my interests within graphic design will evolve and change as I progress on this course, but currently I can see myself working primarily with type as image. This could work across various different client groups. 

The particular client group that I can see myself working with is perhaps retail and promotional graphic design. I love print based design and working in this field would allow me to work across a range of different medias encouraging me to spread my wings and experiment with different forms of design media. I think that retail is broad and open to many different forms of promotion, and I feel that I am good at thinking of new and innovative ideas to promote a brand.

Brand identity is also something that I am interested in and working with retail graphics would allow me to work closely to the branding itself and keeping it consistent is key. All design work would have to keep true to the label.

Producing such material would also sometimes allow me to incorporate my illustrative skills and to use type with image, which are both things that I am massively interested in.

As I have mentioned before I am aware that as my skills and knowledge develop before graduating my aims could change, but I think that it would be very beneficial to work in a small group of creatives as this would allow us to feed off of each others strengths. Working in this kind of environment would allow us to cover a broad range of graphic design including for example promotional material and retail graphics.

Today we had our first session with Jane and John. I found it really helpful and was given some great advice. The main thing I got from this was that we were told to aim high. This got me thinking back to the GBH talk that I went to. I was really interested in their work and the thought did cross my mind about asking for a placement, but I thought I'd be shooting too high. However one of the main things we were told today is aim high and early. So I am going to email them enquiring about placements.
Another thing we were told is that if we don't get a placement, then be persistent and ask for live briefs, for advice, say you like certain projects. Also email people, not just the company and use their names its more likely to be read this way.

So things to do:

• Email Jason Gregory and Mark Bonner at GBH
• Make some business cards
• Start looking at creative C.V.s 
• Start looking at companies that I would like to have a placement at, in Leeds and London