Evaluation

Initially, the thought of having to effectively market myself, find out my skills in relation to business, and essentially making a plan that can help me develop personally and professionally seemed far too daunting. After leaping the initial hurdle of doing some research into some methodologies, the progression of understanding came soon after, especially when I found the financial part of the module had a multitude of options concerning funding, loans, etc which gave me confidence in my business plan, especially when I was concerned with the cost of setting a business venture up.

The module has delivered a great deal of real skills that are relative not only to my practice; how my product sits in context, professional pricing, but also applicable to day-to-day life; budgeting, monitoring my finances, and knowing my clientelle inside out before approaching them.

It has also given me much more confidence in myself, knowing that there are niches for my services, that I can approach people with more ease due to my new knowledge, and knowing that financial support is always available, not just to students. My ignorance of this subject can be laid to rest.

Presentation

SWOT

Crim Collective

Heads Together

Leeds Project Space

Funding: Grants

10 things I know about me.

I like to craft, create and interact with a project, creating something on a larger scale with mixed media to challenge the formalities implied by a fixed frame.

I would like to work as a part of a creative team, not because I am easy to subdue when it comes down to decision making, but I like the atmosphere generated from a collective of practitioners. I find it something that would also greatly further my skills, and help to evolve myself as a designer.

Working with the clothing industry is something I would like to work towards, being not only a trainer pioneer, but having an interest in the visuals used by brands. This does not just mean the sports giants such as Adidas or Nike, but the lesser known independant companies, as I think it would help to work in a collaborative practice with people.

I would like to work locally prematurely, as to gain more confidence in practice. It also gives me a chance to create a healthy relationship with local printers, which could prove very useful in the future.

I have no real stance ethically, as I dont see the need to have any ethics, wanting to keep all the doors of opportunity open.

My skills include knowing the ins and outs of standard industry software, illustration, crafting, and typography, although the latter is not a specialist skill.

I would like to work locally in the leeds/north area of the UK and hope to work in Germany later on, as I would like to be able to design internationally.

Competition would include low-brow or mid-key agencies/companies, as I dont think that I would reach international renown and work with the giants in the industry.

Using the local design community to get my foot on the industry ladder, I hope to work for, or collaborate with typographers, as to extend my skills, and to get a better footing for similar jobs.

I can see my clients being from locals, to nationwide and then internationals, I believe that my design can be used internationally.

SWAT I 'erd

Another acronym to learn and dissect into digestible chunks of applicable knowledge.


SWOT - Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses, and Threats. The application of this strain of marketing theory can give me an advantage when considering the strengths and weaknesses of potential competition, marking it against my own, to either give me an extra hold on the metaphorical ladder, or to be influenced by the work produced.


I have decided to look at a local illustrator/promoter called Thomas Hudson. Despite him not having what could be called, an enterprise as such, he has made himself a name locally, working for various publications, including zines, flyers, posters, books, and CD covers for his band.
I chose him as an example, as he uses a mix of collage and illustration that is similar to how I want to work and design. His visual approach to design may seem infantile, but works on a similar basis to how south park and Luke Drozd are, which is by using cruder imagery, and simpler methods for communication, makes the receiver warmer to the work produced. The use of mixed media and illustration techniques are something I would like to pursue further.


However, when navigating what is meant to be his homepage for navigation, it turns out that the homepage is lacking in any sort of navigational facilities, but does not actually have any content on it! Instead it redirects to his flickr site, which admittedly has a lot of fantastic work on it, but with no real navigation in which to find, or select a certain piece of work, leaves a lot to be reconsidered. With any self-respecting designer/illustrator, there is a link or two that redirect you to a store in which you can easily navigate and select work and products to purchase. The variety of work is a major strength, displaying the obvious chronological progress from his early stages of being in the industry, and boasting the various labels, venues and club nights he has a had a hand in promoting and designing for. 


The opportunities presented are not present either, with the only real example of having opportunities is Thom's networking with local talent, including underground publications, and being on a need-to-know basis with people he needed-to-know for his self-promotion. However I think that another negative thing is to be considered in the case that he is in a band that has kicked off majorly in the past 2 years, which has not hindered his work, since he does almost all the promotion of his band, label, and artwork respectively. 


The threat was that he may of not been able to continue his style of illustration and design for much longer due to the ever changing trends and fashions of the industry, alongside his weakness of the band going on tour, and inadvertedly taking attention away from his work in the industry, which can now be put into action purely for the music industry. Maybe after he has finished his tour, he will get back to focussing on his visual work rather than his aural one.

PESTering about

The next stage in the quest for knowledge in the area of Enterprise was learning about PEST analysis which is essentially an acronym for Political, Economical, Social, and Technological analysis which is a structure/framework for strategic management methods. Despite not having a business, or a way in which to market myself or have some sort of product that can actually define me as a person, I think Im going to have to summarise what I have done so far and try to conjure up a situation/product that I could have produced, or is relative to my method of practice.

Recently I have worked on a packaging project that had to work to a set of design principles defined by a corporation, by means of investigative research, and appropriate design decisions that met the needs of the company, and kept within their ethics and uniformity of the brand. Puma were my choice of promotion, as I had an obsession with the brand when I was younger, which is part of the pyramid diagram that was used as an example for marketing strategy, it fits in with physiological, self-esteem, and self-actualisation needs. This is due to the nostalgic affinity with the brand, which comes from the family that have held the brand as a sort of family value (not in its entirety of course) that I associate with my need for acceptance and actualisation of myself in the  instance of the pyramid diagram. But looking at the company as a whole, but focussing on the footwear department, as was the product I was researching and promoting, considering the re-release of some of the company's classic trainers. Anyway back to the analysis...

Demographics of audience :

Trainer enthusiasts, nostalgic football players (pros and amateurs), trendsetters, "young guns", sport enthusiasts, trainer collectors, creative individuals, teens, and brand fanatics.

Who/How are they as people :

Despite the mix/variety of people that have been put into the demographics, I believe there is a few fundamentals that underpin the design/product strategies of Puma as a company that appeal to the subject mass.

Have an understanding of other social contexts beside their own, a degree of intelligence, not one of superiority, but one of understanding, somewhat understated, knowledge on existing products, vague understanding of previous brand achievements/marketing strategies/international events, sense of fun, a nonchalance to other brand superiority, like things to be clear, concise, need things to be put in front of them, and have ease of access to other products within the brand.

Political :

Have a relative understanding of current affairs, look on with liberal eyes, and can have a laugh about the current climate whilst maintaining a level of intelligence. Mixed feelings would be apparent though, due to the nature of the audience/market, the ever changing climate and the variable demographical implications/opinions of each respective individual.

Economical :

Due to the context of the design, the type of imagery such as icons, pictograms, and simplistic visual language works on an international level, as well as a local one. The visual approach used is meant to be universal in terms of who of what financial status can afford, as most brand products eventually go to warehouse outlets such as TK Maxx, making the products eventually available to purchase to people not as "well off". Thus the levels would be variable dependent on the outlet. However, if the place in question was a retail outlet that specialised in new lines, and known publicly to be associated with big name brands, such as size?, schuh or office, then it would be mainly aimed at people with a wider budget, as most trainers now retail at an average of 40-50 pounds.


Social :


I have identified the people who associate/buy Puma related products are once again broad but not endless. The majority of trainer consumers now are essentially obsessed with the style/look/fashion of the trainers, the packaging, the marketing and so on, due to the ever changing social trends that are spawned from the momentous, relentless shift of the ins and outs of cool and not cool, from things such as music, fashion, sport and the creative industries. Trying to produce something that is relative to all these subsubgenres of people have to be unified in a way by the visuals used by Puma. 


Technological :


Almost everyone within the demographic stated, have and regularly use the internet not only as a resource, but as an active social environment, which has a knock on effect of the culture surrounding apparel as a whole. 
Not just the trainer industry and the subsequent designs used by the companies, but they are inevitably dictated by the changing trends, for example now that retro is back and nostalgia is the in thing, the re-release of classic footwear and apparel with new colour schemes and a new label helps to appeal to the new wave generation.
Such examples; online publications, blogs, fansites, trainer magazines, size? monthly, facebook, and other such online social networking sites.




SO. This leads me to conclude that the people that are being targeted are those who live in a place where overexposure to advertising, mass popular culture, subculture, and the relentless wave after wave of new trends, buzzwords, and fashion co-exist with the retail reality of the big cities.