Creative Business Cards

What I liked about a lot of these when looking for inspiration was that a lot of them had a interactive aspect to them which made them personal.

Self Promotion

Fluor

Fluor
'This direct-mail piece by design agency Fluor shows the use of folds at their simplest The leaflet is distributed in a plastic zipped envelope.When opened upvia its one vertical and one horizontal fold, it becomes a poster. One of the four planes of this self-promotional piece has a slit in which nest a Fluor business card."

Metalli Lindberg

"This set of 12 promotional slot cards was created to celebrate the new studio space. With the involvement of the whole studio an identity was created which is based on elements that chatacterize the space in which they work. The result is the presentation pacl of 12 with their 're.' theme- rethink,re-ward, re-studio. A party was ogranised where guests could make their own constructions and groupings."


hat-trick

Rabih Hage is an interior design company, they turned to hat-trick for a new identity to reflect the nature of their business and establish their own signature style. 'We designed a brand mark using the initials rh, r hidden in the h' 'it also deals with issus of light, space, and three dimensions, reflecting the nature of their business.'  Invitation uses folds and die-cutting to open into a shop window. Looking through the window you can see examples of their work."


Corina Fletcher/ Boag Associates

 "A periscrope lets you look around walls, corners or other obstacles and, if you're in a submarine, you can use one to look above the water. Communication design consultants Boag Assocciates thought that the periscope was the ideal object for a self promotional project expressing the theme' see further'.'  "All Boag Associates' previous self promotional piece s had been in an A5 format,"so the criteria was that it had to look A5, it has to be a periscope, it had to be easily assembled and it had to work."

Frost*

I came across this Sydney based studio, Frost* and I had a look at there magazine work and corporate literature as this is in my are of interest.

Effektive Studio

Effektive

'Effektive is a multidisciplinary independent design studio based in Glasgow. With a genuine passion for what we do, we deliver considered and engaging design for a wide variety of clients across both the private and public sectors. We specialise in identity & brand development, print design & production, art direction and digital design.'

Writing a CV

Introduction
Your CV is a marketing tool –an advertisement promoting your skills, qualifications and
experience. You may need different versions of your CV if you are aiming at more than one
industry, for example, a CV for a part time retail job will differ from an Artist’s CV.
There is no universal blueprint for how to set out your CV as every employer will have different
tastes. However, your CV will be effective if it:

• Has visual impact to capture an employer’s attention

• Reflects your personality and strengths

• Fits the industry and organisation you are aiming for

• Shows that you have the specific skills needed to do the job

Target your industry, target your job

It is important to tailor the CV layout to the industry you are aiming for. Employers in different
industries will respond to different types of presentation. For example, a design consultancy may
look for an edgy, innovative idea, which showcases your design skills, while other organisations
will prefer a neatly presented CV in a traditional format.
‘The design of your CV is almost more important than the actual content. CVs start to look
the same after a while so it helps if you can distinguish yours with a little –but not over the
top –design flare. In particular if it is a design-related job’

Before you create your CV it is worth asking yourself the following:

• What do I know about the employers I am writing this CV for?

• What are the requirements of the position/s I am applying for?

• How do my skills / experience match the ‘person specification’in the job description?

A creative resume is fairly important. Not only it resembles your personality, it also speaks your capability and creativity. Putting more effort and thoughts into creating an impressive resume is definitely worthwhile, as it is usually the first thing any employer sees before flipping through your entire portfolio.

TASK 5- Proposed Position Statement

• One thing that has come to my attention that I am determined to keep into consideration is building up relatioinships with clients/customers. I believe that putting in this time and effort will pay off concluding in reoccurrig clients and a boost of reputation and contacts within the industry.

• I would like to work with others and gain experience and knowledge from those in the industry, therefore I believe I  would benefit greatly from working with a range of companies/ design agencies before I work for myself.

•  I believe that any experience within the industry would benefit me greatly whether it is in m area of interest or not however I can see myself currently working for magazines or publications with layout etc.

• Working nationally or internationally is something that appeals to me, I think this could only benefit me, broaden my knowledge and understanding of the industry.

•  Through my research it is evident that a website is essential for a designer/agency, but what's on it and how it is presented is also very important. Something that is essential is contact details for possible clients/jobs.

• I would like my portfolio to reflect the idea that I am diverse as a designer and can work across many fields, however I would also like it to show that I have grasped an expert outlook on the industry and have a strong preffered area of working.

• As it stands I have no preference to what size agency/ firm I work in, I think it would benefit me gaining expereince from both a small, tight knitagency and also a large compnay. I would like to make my ideas heard and known and not just fade into the background.

• I would like to inform myself more and more with editorial, and layout kind of work and this is something I am very keen to work towards. 

More to add

TASK 4- Who else is out there- how good are they?

Evaluate the Strengths and Weaknesses of three practitioners or design agencies as objectively as you can.

Keeping in mind
Who am I competing against?
What do they offer?
What makes me better?
What makes me different?

The three design agencies I am going to evaluate  are

Round

Boxhead

The Designers Rebulic

Round- research

"Studio Round is a Melbourne based design company. Our approach encompasses identities, print, the web, art direction and the built environment.

We build partnerships with our clients to understand their communication challenges. We apply our creative thinking and understanding of design to develop thought-provoking solutions to address commercial needs.

During the course of the project we spend time meticulously crafting the detail while keeping an eye on the bigger picture. Our approach is to combine the expression of original ideas that innovate, challenge and inform. Our response is always appropriate to the brief."

 Looking closely at their website and there work it is clear that a main strength of theres is that they are a very established design agency, they take pride in building relationships with their clients and focus on detail within there briefs. Round work across a broad range including prints, web, signage, art direction etc. They have a list of achievements,awards and clients they have worked for. The website shows a broad range of their work professionally and smartly.  The website is also very easy to navigate around and has a clear layout.

Round may benefit from having a desription of how they have produced each outcome to a brief to infrom viewers how they have come to achieve this. Maybe they could inform viewers also of the company came about, how it was set up.

Opportunities for Round are to grow, as they are an internationally company working world wide they have the opportunity to work worl wide. They have the opportunity to work in other fields orspecialise as they have established what they can already do very well. 

Threats come in the form of other design companies within Melbourne where they are situated, who focus on the same kind of work as Round.

We Are Boxhead- research

Strengths within We Are Boxhead include how visual there website is, they leave text to the minimal but where they do use it they allow it to be visual also with use of colour and suitable typeface. Their sight focuses centrally on their work that they have produced. Another strenght is that they have descriptions of some of their work in quite a lot of detail, what the project is and how they have gone about the brief. We Are Boxhead are another company which work across a range of disciplines including, print, moving image and online & interactive.

We Are Boxhead don't give much information about their company, they show a lot of work but don't inform you how big they are, what their focus is or how they came together. Also they only desribe some of there work and how they came to produce it.

Opportunities for the company  would be working nationally throughout the contry as they appear to work a lot within the North where they are located, they therefore hav ethe oppotunity to increase their client list and contacts. They have the oppotunity to inform viewers of the sight , more about themselves and who is involved.

As for threats, We Are Boxhead may be limited by just working within the North and therefore making there competition greater. They work across a range however and therefore can work in different fields instead of being limited to briefs.


The Designers Republic- research

A main strength of The Designers Rebulic is their prestigious list of clients that they own, working for the likes of Coca Cola and MTV. Their website is rather visual, again focusing on the work they have produced and who they have worked for.


Their website can be quite confusing to navigate through as when you visit their home page there is only a small link directing you to another sight. The links on the actual page change when you scroll over which means it can be hard to navigate. There isn't much information about the company and what they do and how they became The Designers Republic.


They have the opportunity to work for a lot of well known companies/ brands across the world really with MTV and Coca Cola etc within their list of clients.
It aslo says that The Designers Republic is in progress so I believe this means the website.


Summary 
From using a S.W.O.T analysis to look at the qualities of three exisiting design afencies I have come up with a list which may be opportunities for my own practice that have revealed themselves. 
Firstly I know a website will be of great importance and something I will rely on to get myself and my work known, however I think it needs to be more than this, The Designers Republic sight was something that stood out to me although it could be confusing the noises were a small touch which made it stand out. I think it will important for a website to have a stlye in order to stand out.


I think I need to make myself open to different disciplines and not narrow myself down to one specialism as it is a competitive market I need to be able to offer a variety of skills. And this is something that has become apparent to me whilst looking at design agencies, a lot of them offer a variety and it needs to be clear on your website.


Contact details need to be clear on a website, somewhere so people can immediately contact you, as it stands now I only have a blog which has a lot of stuff on and no way for people to get in contact, this is something to consider.


Something else that has ocured to me is that it is very important to give some information about the piece of work even if it is just short.

TASK 3 - How will I promote myself?

Based on the principles that have been introduced so far in the Enterprise module and your
findings in previous tasks, evaluate the most suitable marketing methodologies for your
own practice and the most effective methods to reach your potential customers.

Key things to consider:
What do they want to hear?
That you are there to improve their reputation/appearance
That you are the best
That you know what  you are doing
You are a professional

What should I say to them?

How will I communicate with them?
Not using technical graphics terms that they won't understand
Through visuals, work, drawings
One on one, email

 Summary

Looking at the marketing communication mix in terms of my own practice I am  to work through the options of advertising, direct marketing, personal selling, public relations and sales promotions, some obviously more suited to my practice than others.

Firstly I am going to evaluate direct marketing with regards to my practice. Marketing myself will need to take shape through a variety of self promotion methods, directly affecting the customer. This can be done through the use of mail shots, emails and online,  my website One negative of this is that it can be annoying to customers or generally anyone who perceives this as junk mail and may simply be annoyed.

The use of advertising myself may take the form of a website which later in the year I will set up to promote my work and my practice. This is possibly the most cost effective way of promoting yourself and makes use of least resources, can be done in the space of my own working are.
Personal selling would be an excellent way of getting to know customers and build up a reputation, working directly with clients/customers, the key being to engage, inform and persuade them. The benefits of this at the early stage of my career would be to build up connections and relationships to get my work known and recognised. I suppose the negative would be knowing how to act and work with customers initially and also how  to go about reaching these customers and having the time to visit them.

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

Based on the principles that have been introduced so far in the Enterprise module, as well
as the previous tasks, investigate, analyse and critically evaluate where your potential
clients are located.

I've decided to look at clients who supply Coffee, looking at local, national, European and Transnational Coffee shops specifically. With quite a high demand on these kind of shops there is potentially a large market for design here.

Clients to evaluate:

Local: Opposite
National: BB's
European: Costa Coffee
Transnational: Starbucks

Other clients:

Journalism- magazines- layouts, editorial, typographical
i-D Magazine
Retail- fashion/ high street, stationary, supermarkets
Urban Outfitters, Waitrose, Paperchase


P.E.S.T analysis comparisons

Political- Increate in VAT within the UK will affect local and National clients, higher prices may mean decrease in customer spending and less business
Lower VAT abroad and internationally won;t be affected like the UK.

Economical- The exchange rate may affect businesses European and transnational, may incur a loss in profits from the low exchange rate.
Locally and nationally the recession means people are spending less especially on luxury items like luxury coffee and cakes.
Something affecting all clients is the green issue, with constant use of plastics and paper within their packaging.

Social- Transnationally and European may want local designers instead of paying for someone in the UK as it would lower their costs and be easier to contact and also communicate with with regards to language.
Locally, Opposite relies a lot on a students market, this will be affected by terms and holidays when students relocate.

Technological- These days Skype is a common method which can save costs on communication, this will be relevant especially to European and transnational clients, as well as email is a highly used method of communication to send design ideas or arrange meetings etc.

Round

The focus of Round involes identities, print,
the web, art direction and the
built environment.

We build partnerships with our clients to understand their communication challenges. We apply our creative thinking and understanding of design to develop thought-provoking solutions to address commercial needs.

During the course of the project we spend time meticulously crafting the detail while keeping an eye on the bigger picture. Our approach is to combine the expression of original ideas that innovate, challenge and inform. Our response is always appropriate to the brief.

 

 

We Are Boxhead

We Are Boxhead, like a lot of agencies, produce a range of work including print, branding and moving image. I have been looking predominintly at their print work. I like their style of type and image, mainly photography. They have produced a lot of work for music. I really like their crisp, finished style of work and I can see myself heading towards this kind of work.