Personal Presentation

Presentation outlining my time over the course so far and how I have developed my practice into more specific areas of interest within Graphic Design. 

My logo represents areas I take inspiration from outside of Graphic design and its precise structure of reflects my style of working.  

Something I plan on getting across in this presentation is my interest on other subjects. I like design that can promote social and political issues, works with other disciplines and has its own voice. 

Personal Branding/Online Presence

Logo

My logo is derived from my name, taking the ascenders of the letter forms to create and image that resembles music and architecture (two areas that strongly influence my design process).

Website 

Minimal design aesthetic for my personal website as I wanted my work to stand out. Logo has been added in the top corner and have varied the work in my portfolio which ranges from photography, typography, packaging and 3D. 

View the full website here

Behance 

I have only very recently created a behance portfolio which is why it looks so limited, however I am all ready getting a lot out of it my following designers and studios to see what they are appreciating and is a great insight into what is going on in the creative industry. 

Through this site I hope to gain a following and become involved with its social network so I can give and receive feedback on projects which will further enrich my practice. 

Tumblr

I have been an active user of tumblr for a few years now and have managed to gain a following of 200+ users. What I use tumblr for is to save ANYTHING that inspires me, be it photography, sport, design, art, music, film, news, celebrities and so on. I save links to creative areas through the photos I post onto my blog so it can be used as an archive and a constantly evolving source of inspiration.  

View it here

Business Cards

Printed a selection of cards with my contact details and links to my portfolios. I plan to however reprint theses when I establish a website with my own domain name and create a business e-mail address. I want to also experiment with unique printing processes which can encourage people to interact with the cards such as debossing, fluorescent inks, interesting stock and not be 'just another promotion'.  

Typeface

Typeface is consistent across all media relating to my work.

Sampled: Presentation

We wanted our presentation to be fairly light in content and tone of voice as we didn't want to run the risk of boring people too much with the details. Our main focus of the presentation is to communicate the nature of our studio. 

Started off with where our name came from

Short clip demonstrating a popular use of a sample 

and how it has been used to create something different 

Explain how this relates to the work we want to produce for our studio

Logo design

A Manifesto which clearly outlining our aims and ethics 

These are rough estimates which we feel have been underestimated as our plan is after uni to not push this studio straight away but gradually add to it until we become self efficient.  

As we went over the presentation a few times we picked up on things we needed to change to make it run smoother. We didn't want the presentation to be too rigid so decided to all put some input in on each slide. As we had some interactive elements which are always prone to something going wrong (in some cases the link to the video would't work or the site would be interrupted by an advert) we made sure we had rehearsed so we knew what to expect.    

Business Plan & Startup Cost

How Much Should I Charge?

One main area that was completely new to me was the 'Taking car of business' side of things. Being unemployed students none of us really new how to manage finances or how much it would cost setting up a studio and living off of graphic design. Harry found this website where it would estimate how much you should be charging per project based on how much time you spend on it, how much you enjoy it, what you would get out of it ect. The estimates I gave were possibly a little too optimistic considering the early stage we were at but was still interesting to see what kind of money could potentially be made. Researching into this side of the design studio business made me realise it needed as much attention as the designing side and would have to take this into account during our working days. Being generally organised with money, costing and making sure you get paid for your hard work was a main features in the interviews I read with current graphic design studios. 

 

For the time being we will make use of the facilities available to us at the college while we are still students here. We currently have access to a wide range of resources that are already being paid for so it wouldn't be necessary to spend money on excess resources and space. For our studio space we will be working in uni and from home, using the internet to keep up with what each other are working on when not together. 

Current studio space:

We want our studio to be a relaxed environment as this is the way we are most used to working. To keep costs down we will be working from home (Will's room) where we can play music and get on with work.

Future (ideal) studio space: 

Startup Costs

For staring up after we have finished our degrees we thought we would ease into it. While we are all really enthusiastic about the studio we want to be sensible and see where we are individually before making detailed plans. The costs we considered were the resources/equipment and studio rent. 

Not moving to London but staying in Leeds or going to Manchester kept the costs of rent down and we had a brief look and found some spaces that cost around £200-300 per month. 

Other costs:

Mac(2): £1,800  

Furniture: £600

Utilities: £90

Printer: £1,400

Camera (+ Stands, Lighting): £900

Scanner: £150

Total: £4,940

We are: Sampled

Why Sampled?

To begin with we started by finding a common theme or interest between us - which we identified to be music. We are all incredibly involved in music as it is and found studios like Give Up Art and Designers Republic which work in the music industry to be very inspirational and could all see ourselves working on similar projects. We then began looking at names for our studio that related.

Sampled

This can name can be explained through two definitions:

Music:

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece giving it a completely new context. This process and the subtly behind it has resulted in some of our favourite music.

Perhaps the most significant sample ever made is the Amen Break

It gained fame from the 1980s onwards when four bars (6 seconds) sampled from the drum-solo (or imitations thereof) became very widely used as sampled drum loops inbreakbeat, hip hop, breakbeat hardcore, hardcore techno and breakcore, drum and bass (including oldschool jungle and ragga jungle), and digital hardcore music. The Amen Break was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music—"a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures." It is one of the most sampled loops in contemporary electronic music and arguably the most sampled drum beat of all time.

Our idea was to take inspiration from the art of musical sampling and apply it to the world of graphic design/visual creation.

Our Philosophy:

Creatively we build upon elements from different areas and use them to create fresh and innovative ideas and solutions.

What skills and services do you have to offer?

- Fresh, innovative design. Offering unique design solutions. Creating timeless design - not re-hashing existing design. 

Who is you competition and how will you compete?

- Other emerging graphic design studios. 

- The way in which we deal with clients, a more personable and accessible feel. 

What are your costs, charges and financial considerations?

- Working from current spaces (studio/home) cuts cost for space rental. 

- Use resources currently available. 

- Maintain a good working environment. 

Who will be responsible for what?   

- Cross pollination, all add an equal contribution.

- No designated roles.  

From discussing these questions we decided that we would each contribute as evenly as possible and play to our strengths depending on the briefs we receive. As we all didn't know where to start or what to plan in terms of starting up a business we decided to do some research, by finding out how successful studios got started and how they deal with any issues they experienced. The book Studio Culture provided an insight through various interviews about how they started, problems they experience (and still experience) and how they have maintained them.

Promotion  

To promote the studio we feel it would be necessary to establish an online presence through our own website, Behance and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Design studio Non-Format explained in their interview that digital portfolios were the way to go when showing work as potential clients can immediately view the work instead of having to wait for work to be sent and in being stacked away or forgotten about when they revive it. Behance is a great platform to showcase finished work and projects can be tagged and categorised to make them easier to find. Twitter and Facebook excel in directing people towards work through links and updates to stay relevant in the 'social space.'    

We would also like to use print media to promote ourselves and use quality print processes when doing so to give a taste of what we are able to create. Apart from getting our name and work out there we also thought it would be a good idea to begin networking locally with small independent businesses like ourselves. Leeds has a thriving creative community which we would like to get involved with and plan on how we can use these places and take part in events that currently exist.

Our Market & Why are we Different?  

We are interested in music related design however this won't be the only kind of project we take on board. Keeping our options open will bring in more clients and work and as designers we are each individually versatile. We will however be willing to take risks and not be afraid of turning down projects we don't find to be interesting which will keep our projects fresh and exciting to work on. We would like our market to be small independent businesses in the north which we can work closely with, but won't be afraid to take on projects other areas of the country and internationally to help us gain a global presence.

Identity  

Initial logo sketches

We wanted the logo to subtly hint towards sampling taking and re-appropriating so decided to make small manipulations to an existing typeface.   

We felt that in was important to not over complicate the design as we didn't want to alienate ourselves from clients by making the logo too music based as that isn't the only area sampled as a studio will be working in.