Pinpoint - general outlines

Open publication - Free publishing

A few bits and pieces collected from out group meeting; where we essentially began to run through a number of aspects that need to be included in the business plan, prior to constructing the presentation. By doing this it has become far more clear as to what our individual tasks/roles are etc.

Enterprise Group Project - general overview

group members:

Alex
Mitchell
Luis
Myself.

Our business proposal will involve the potential launch of a quarterly publication, 'Pinpoint Magazine'.

The brief requires us to put together a 8-10 minute presentation detailing how we would go about setting this up; and how it would be financially possible. Essentially we will be producing a business plan that would hopefully work in a real-life situation.

For this to happen we will have to take into account:

- Studio space
- printing costs
- business loans
- advertising space
- promotional material/events
- publication content
- placement
- retail pricing
- audience/context
- Equipment/materials
- Unique Selling Point

Enterprise Task 4 - Who else is out there//how good are they?

For this task I have been asked to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of 3 practitioners/agencies; however it would naturally be quite a task to identify the flaws of a successful agency; undoubtedly if the flaws were significant they would not be successful as an agency; clients would not return to make use of their service. 

I would say the majority of successful agencies/practitioners share many similar strengths, these being the common foundations of ANY successful company, graphic design or otherwise.

In essence, successful designers are those that offer a unique product; something that sets them apart from the crowd. Although it invariably goes a bit deeper than this; undoubtedly in the field of design the measure of success of an agency is how much money the client sees after implementing design work. Therefore the more money a product/service makes, the more successful the agency, the more the agency can charge; and the strengths of this company become what makes for any successful agency. 

In my particular case, I would be competing with other designers involved in the music industry (not the mainstream thing; i'm on about indie labels and small collectives etc), and in that sort of situation it almost always pays to know someone in the game, which perhaps presents quite a challenge. I don't feel as though I would be in any way better than those who are successful at what they do already; at best I could equal the standards these people are at.

Enterprise Task 3 - How will I promote myself?

At the current time I am not overly sure of how I will promote myself as I have not as of yet defined a style for myself as such, and I'm not sure when/if that will happen. Realistically, for the next ten years I can't particularly see myself joining a 'proper' design studio as such; I feel that there is a lot more I can achieve (in terms of personal interest) elsewhere, and by immediately aiming to join a 'proper' studio I might end up missing out on certain opportunities that might not otherwise come up. For that reason, I'm currently not overly fussed about promoting myself as a designer too heavily for the time being, I kind of feel as though I'd rather set up and run a blog/website combining music with a bit of design or something; maybe team up with a few others and see what can be done.

I rekon my best bet for the time being would be to perhaps start up a new blog on Blogger or Wordpress or something like that, an use that as a platform for whatever it might be that I do; rather than plunge straight into some kind of design agency and find myself at the same place ten years down the line without really achieving much of what I want to achieve. More and more I've been realising that what I really want to do is make music, this has always been the case although it seems like up til now I've not taken any chances with it - hence I am studying one of my few other interests, graphic design. As much as I now love graphic design, the best thing this course has done for me is make me realise what I really want to do; and therefore the idea of promoting myself to 'proper' design agencies at the moment seems crazy and short-sighted.

Some example blogs:

http://mtendere.tumblr.com/
http://www.inhabitonline.co.uk/
http://truantsblog.com/

Enterprise Task 2 - Where are they//How will they find me?

Potential places//client groups;

- London
- Leeds
- Manchester
- European cities; Berlin, Barcelona, Stockholm, Amsterdam etc.

- Small/indie record labels, radio stations etc...other surrounding events
- small-time publication groups - magazines/websites etc.

I imagine that primarily I would be looking to work in UK before venturing abroad, although working abroad is something that I definitely want to end up doing. It would seem a more logical step to take however to look for work in the UK first; as of course this would remove several potential difficulties such as not being confident in a different language, or finding somewhere to live. A lot of the client groups I would consider at my age are also largely based in the UK; which means I could pretty much walk in and have a proper conversation with the companies instead of relying on less direct communication such as e-mail.

I imagine the client groups I would aim to work for would work across a variety of media; ultimately ending up with print-based solutions but also making good use of digital media as a platform for multi-directional communication (as is currently the norm for many companies). I suppose at the end of the day a company shouldn't be restricted by a need to keep to one medium, although of course it is good to specialise. I would say I would like to largely focus on design for print, although design for digital is something brand new to me and I can see myself enjoying the processes behind it quite a bit.

I would aim to make use of my type and layout skills to communicate whatever it is that might need communicating; and I feel this would suit the needs of my potential client groups. I do however need to work on my image skills as this obviously plays a large part with regards to design for the music industry (not all the time), and this would also be beneficial for my digital design skills.

Enterprise Task 1 - Who Am I - Who Are They?

Potential Client groups that would potentially suit my personal interests/skills; perhaps something focussed on design within the music industry, although how much of a lucrative source of income that would be is uncertain in this day and age, most obviously resulting from digitalisation and vast quantities of piracy. Although of course money should not be what drives a good designer, and whilst the money (particularly for a junior designer) may only just put food on the table, I'm far more concerned about working in an area that I enjoy and have a great interest in, as this means I would be creating work that I would potentially be proud of.

I am also fairly interested in design within the publishing industry; generally designing magazines and booklets and potentially designing some of the content if needs be – infographics for example. It seems that this would be a more lucrative and consistent source of income than design for the music industry. I feel that I possess a number of the skills required to produce successful work within this field; I enjoy coming up with layout ideas and using typography well.

Obviously in order to get up to speed with this kind of design I'd have to improve my entire skill set, paying particular attention to conceptual development, general type/layout skills and colour management. Of course I will continue working on my software skills as a means of resolving a task.

Being the age that I am, the services I could potentially offer would generally suit an audience in my sort of age range, which would obviously then go further to impact the location and price of finished work. 


Some examples of the style of work I personally would enjoy creating:


Swamp81 sleeve designs

Francesco Franchi magazine spreads for IL magazine (Italy)

OUGD202 End of Module Evaluation

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I feel I have developed a significant number of skills throughout this module, most notably my software skills – I have got to grips with many of the functions and capabilities of AfterEffects, and this in turn has allowed me to develop my general software skills, in terms of using Illustrator/Photoshop alongside this. I feel I applied these skills fairly well to my overall outcome, although perhaps I could have used some more advanced techniques for my 60 second title sequence. For the first time also I have had to consider time as a factor, which I have enjoyed getting to grips with.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
I have made use of storyboards and timelines alongside the digital aspect of design production. Although I fairly enjoyed drawing these up and assembling images on timelines, I did not find them entirely useful for creating the sequences, perhaps due to my lack of experience in this aspect of design production. I found that once I moved over to AfterEffects, the timings I initially thought would be suitable did not work effectively, and therefore I found that simply collecting images and sketching ideas worked better for me.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I found that once I got to grips with using AfterEffects I was able to utilise it very effectively in order to obtain the result I wanted. Throughout this module I have noticed my general software skills improving, which will inevitably be useful for future modules.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I found the storyboarding aspect of this module - and particularly the 'Top 10' brief – quite challenging in terms of conveying an idea effectively. I found it much easier to make basic sketches and move straight to AfterEffects. Undoubtedly making effective storyboards will take some practice and would save time when coming to animate, therefore in the future I will spend a fair while longer working on these until the outcome is more effective.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
More work on storyboards, which will allow me to animate more efficiently. Spend more time working on the audio aspect of the sequences, I feel that a bit more work on this would have allowed me to produce a better title sequence. Attempt to use a greater range of media, in order to produce a a more varied and interesting sequence. Taken greater care over use of colour; I feel that I could have created something a little more visually appealing with a more suitable colour scheme. Collected a greater amount of visual references, in order to give me more material to work with when beginning to animate.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’) 5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance				x
Punctuality				x
Motivation				x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group			x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.