Personal & Professional Practice: November 2015

Sunday 22 November 2015

Life's A Pitch: Unique Selling Points + Business Haiku

After looking into existing companies similar to our own, we wanted to outline what made us different from our competitors; what is our USP?

When deciding on our USP we came up with the concept of using new, unknown artists and helping them to get recognition and work; Leading to the name of our company -

Hungry Space

Originally Hungry Murals, we decided that we didn't want to limit ourselves to just murals, and also space sounded better. The concept of 'Hungry' was inspired by the unknown artists in the world who are hungry for succcess. Also the idea of run down places that are hungry for regeneration.

Our main USP is that we are young, fresh and creative practitioners, running a business for other creative practitioners and post grads.

Haiku Task

Response to Haiku + Proposal task

This task, although quite constricting, was really helpful in terms of forcing us to refine our ideas in order to present them to the class, really thinking about the way we would be interpreted. The concept of a haiku really made us think about the language we were using and if it was appropriate to our brand values/personality. It outlined the importance of tone of voice and how we would be perceived, using certain words like 'Rad' to imply that we are young, fresh and fun.

Using our experience making the Haiku we created a business proposal, that really just outlined our intentions in a simple and concise way, which is good preparation for our final presentation in terms of being professional, clear and to the point. We didn't focus too much on language within the proposal as the function was about purely conveying our ideas.

Life's A Pitch: Second Meeting

Recently my group had our first meeting, where we really started the ball rolling in terms of idea generating for our business. Unfortunately, 2 of our team members were missing from the session however, we decided to carry on and do the best we could.

The first thing we were urged to do, was to list qualities of each member of the group in order to get to know each other better and make working together a bit easier. (I'm warm, funny and digital which is nice i suppose) We also used the list to create an idea of the roles we could undertake in our company, and how we could utilise our skills to create a successful company.

After snowballing on top of our initial idea from the previous session- murals, graffiti, unknown artists - we gathered a list of existing companies (mostly given by John), to receive an idea of what sort of market is available for what we were trying to create; these included OFFF + Design in Daba. We also came up with a line to enhance our presentation 'we will make you famous', which would be aimed at the artists, urging them to work with us.

OFFF: Let's Feed The Future / Website

An event/festival that unites creatives in a three day journey of conferences and workshops.

List of sponsors for OFFF - I felt it would be worthwhile to make a note of these, to see how our project could be sponsored if it was of a similar nature.

Design In Daba / Website - features a blog/archive of interviews and featured artists.

Thoughts

At this moment in time, it is hard to visualise an effective business concept based on our ideas. We are clear that we are going to create a business that focuses on 3D spaces, using artists to help. We have come across the term Facilitators which outlines our intentions, to source and use existing artists to create artwork in outdoor spaces, in the form of murals and 3D installations.

In all honesty this concept is something that I am not particularly excited about or interested in, however the process of setting up a business, funding it and promoting it, are key skills for any creative and will be a really valuable experience that I can apply to later life.

Monday 2 November 2015

Life's A Pitch: Intro + Study Task 3

Notes from the session + Intro to Life's A Pitch

I'm quite excited for Life's A Pitch as I think it will be really useful for giving us an insight into what setting up a business would be like, which is obviously useful for me if it's something I'd be interested in doing after uni. However, in terms of working in a group I am not that excited, as I am not a fan - having said that, I am still willing to give everything my best shot and keep an open mind, as the end product could be something interesting.

Sectors

From the session I gained an understanding of the different sectors that a service/product/company would fall into, in terms of Primary, Secondary, Tertiary or Quaternary. I found it slightly difficult to get my head around each one, however the notes I made during the session helped me.

Primary - Extracts from the earth, Raw Materials
Secondary - Turning Raw Materials into Manufactured, Finished Goods

Tertiary - Service Industry, retail and wholesale, entertainment, media

Quaternary - Intellectual Activities, generation of knowledge, culture, libraries, education, i.t (slightly confused about this one)

Which Sectors do your professional areas of interest fall into?

Publishing & Book Design

Tom Clohosy Cole & Charlie Roscoe - The Red Prince

Childrens Book - falls under Tertiary Sector as it has been created to be sold, and for entertainment purposes.

Retail & Merchandise

Caleb Heisey - Folksaga Liqeur Branding

This particular platform of illustration would be referred to as packaging/branding, however it falls into retail and merchandise also. I'd say that these products either fall into the Secondary sector, as they are using raw materials like glass to make their product, or Tertiary sector as once again, these bottles have been designed in order to sell.

Character & Narratives

Laura Carlin - Inside a rape Trial

This particular piece was created to go along side an article, and illustrates the idea of the victim being the one who feels completely isolated, despite their band of lawyers etc.

In my opinion, this particular piece falls into the Quaternary Sector as it's purpose is to generate a feeling of empathy, therefore educating it's audience about a certain aspect of Rape Trials.