Placement

I have a few studios that I have researched and really want to visit, this has informed me in what would be appropriate to send. As the majority of them are based around printing processes, screen printing in particular, I though that it would be a good idea to tell them all about InPress and the event we held. I have put together a pack of prints left over from the event and photographed it, so that I can email them a picture of what they can expect in the post. I spoke to John about this and he said sending them InPress' screen printed designs is very appropriate.

Business Cards

Today Jane showed a few of us her massive collection of business cards. I had great fun trawling through the lot of them, some were amazing... and some not so great, but either way it has given me a good idea of the kind of thing I want for my own and has set me off to start branding myself.

Previous graduate Anands business cards, printed by Generation press. Definitely one of my favourites, the layout, logo and printing considerations are all well thought out and executed effectively. Lovely!

My three favourite designs. All original and great looking, but judging by the materials and printing methods, I imagine very expensive to make.

K2 Screen and Generation Press

Today I had a tutorial with Fred and we discussed what kind of design I want to do and where I would like to look for placements. I mentioned that I looked at Loligo and really like the idea of working more with screen printing. I would like to learn more about printing processes, inks and stocks.
He mentioned K2 Screen, a screen printing company that deals a lot with big designers. Also a graduate from this course now works there.

http://www.k2screen.co.uk/

He also recommended looking at Generation Press where Anand works, another graduate from this course.

http://generationpress.co.uk/our-clients

InPress

Today I received a phone call from Alex, project manager of charity organisation SIFE. He would like to make an order of 30 screen printed hoodies. After discovering that the design consisted of multiple colours, I decided that this job is too complex to fulfil without a carousel. He also wanted a very cheap quote, which I was willing to provide if he would reduce the number of colours (he agreed on £3 a unit if he were to provide the hoodies) as he mentioned that he could make it worth our while.

It turns out that he is project manager for the CEO at Savvy marketing, an agency in Leeds with some big clients, including Adidas and Asda. He said he would be willing to pass on our details and we could get a lot of potential business from them. As I saw this as a good opportunity I agreed to do the print job at a discounted price, but providing that they are a two colour print as we just do not have the facilities. I have suggested that if he needs a more complex design then he would be better off digitally printing them. It would be a shame to lose this job, but being as helpful as I can may mean a new contact with more job potential in the future.

InPress

After discussing the Hyde park pub job with the rest of InPress I made a few calls and made some calculations, and following a discussion with Fred we passed on a quote of £800 for 4 t-shirt designs (10 screen printed of each, 10 of which we would print ourselves and 30 we would order from Calderscreenprint.co.uk to save on time), 2 A3 poster designs (8 printed) and 1 double sided A6 flyer design (500 printed). After costs we would earn £100 each, which considering the amount of time that we would be putting into this job is a very reasonable price. However the manager of Hyde park wasn't happy, so firstly we reduced the price to £700 by deciding that we would do all the screen printing ourselves to reduce costs. He was still not happy so after reducing it to £650 he still refused so we lost the job. It seems that he didn't take us seriously and thought that he could take advantage of us because we are still students. Although this seems to have been a waste of time, we are not going to let this deter us and are going to move on to other jobs, where people will treat us professionally.

PPD

Todays session with Fred.

Why do you need samples of work?
Why do you send samples of work?

• Demonstrate skills
• What you have to offer
• Showcase your work
• Showcase your personality
• Prove your CV content
• Demonstrate your professional knowledge
• Project management
• Problem solving
• Collaborative practice
• Unique selling point

What samples of work would you send to demonstrate those qualities?

• Collaborative work 
• Live briefs
• Competition briefs
• Concept development
• Presentation boards
• Sketchbooks
• Blogs
• Proposals
• Technical processes
• Storyboards
• Finished resolved pieces- high quality resolutions
• Self initiated briefs

How would they be sent and/or how would they be received- any problems?

• Royal mail
• Courier
• Digital showreel
• Face to face
• Skype/ in person
• Exhibitions- trade events/network events, end of year shows, book fairs, popup shops
• Blogs, Issuu, Vimeo, Flickr, Tumblr, Cargo, Student designers, Behance, online shops
• Email- PDF etc. links
• Website
• USB
• Prints
• Mailshots
• Gift/bribe
• Zine/publications
• QR code
• Press, promotion

InPress

Yesterday we had a meeting with Rose in marketing and discussed the future of InPress now that the enterprise module has ended. Niall has a great idea of employing two students from the year below next year and involve them in what we are doing, then when we graduate we can pass down the event side of things to them. We would manage this from afar and perhaps set up the InPress studio as a separate practice that links with the events, one promoting the other.      

I then received a phone call from my manager from my part time job in Hyde Park pub, he has asked InPress to do some work for the relaunch of the pub. We have a few things to discuss and decide, then we are going to go back to him with a quote.

Today we met with Fred to discuss all of this. He agreed that Niall's idea for the future of InPress is a good one, but we need to make sure that we don't lose hold of the company. Passing it down to younger years could mean us no longer being involved with our own company. Also he gave us some good advice in relation to our design order from Hyde Park pub and said that we could go back to him once we are ready to figure out how much we want to charge.

PPD

Todays session with Fred and John...

Study Task 5

Proposed position statement

• Who am I – who are they ?
• Where are they – How will they find me ?
• How will I promote myself – what do they want to hear ?
• Who else is out there – how good are they ?

Write 10 short but informative statements that identify your distinctive ‘positioning’ as a Graphic Designer. Your statements should consider your ambitions, skills and areas of creative interest in relation to the market, your clients, competition and possible collaborators and should be based on the information that you have collected in response to the set tasks.

You will need to compare a list of your skills and services against customer/client needs to those of yourcompetitors, this should help you determine how your company is unique.

1. I intend to form a print based graphic design studio located in Leeds, especially after my experience working with my enterprise group InPress.
2. I want to focus on screen printing and broaden my knowledge in different printing methods, inks and stocks to set me aside from other design studios.
3. Having specialist printing in house will give my studio a unique selling point and give it a creative edge.
4. I am extremely interested in image, branding, promotion and illustration, but I would like to collaborate with other designers to widen our skill set. Designers that specialise in typography, publication and layout design, digital media and different illustrative skills to my own would be ideal.
5. Although I would like to be primarily based in Leeds, I would also like to experience working abroad to broaden my creative thinking and experience different cultures to influence my design work.
6. It is a strong belief of mine that you should have friendly contact relations. I want my clients to know that I work in the graphic design industry because of my passion for it and my thirst for more knowledge in this area.
7. From running the InPress event I have found that this is a very successful, low cost fun way to promote what we do. We managed to cover all of our costs and get work from just our first event. Leading up to when we graduate we have decided to carry on InPress and do quarterly events and any work and orders we receive from doing these events. We are also going to have a part in the end of year shows following a conversation with Fred.
8. The events held by InPress will be a chance to showcase our own work and have some creative freedom. This will keep graphic design fresh and fun for us but will also allow us to keep up with contemporary design practice when fulfilling orders and briefs from clients.
9. Organising these events is a unique way to promote our design studio and will give us a unique selling point. They will also allow potential clients to see our work first hand and meet us face to face, giving us a friendly image.
10. Overall I am set on creating a studio in Leeds after I graduate. Hopefully InPress will grow and continue to get work as I have already found a collective of designers that I work extremely well with and compliment each others strengths. We all have the same idea of what we think a graphic design studio should be, are hard working, organised and all have a passion for graphic design practice.