Creative Boom

http://creative-boom.com/

I have included a link for the Creative Boom website, this is a great place to look for things such as:

• Inspiration for advertising
• Doing freelance work
• Getting Noticed
• Winning work
• Success Secrets
• Career Advice

Sending Emails to journalists and bloggers to get published is a really good article on this wesbsite, it tells you exactly what you need to do and breaks it down to make you understand it more easily.

Trade Fairs

100% Design

Date: 17 - 20 September 2014

Venue: Earls Court London

Surtex

Date: 18-20 May 2014

Venue: Jacob K. Javits Convention Center 
New York City





All Images are from http://www.100percentdesign.co.uk/page.cfm/action=library/libID=3/libEntryID=70/listID=1

Self Employment

Personal traits you would need to become self employed:

• Motivated - keep up to date with all work you are doing.
• Timekeeping - meeting deadlines, planning your time wisely.
• Organisation - making own decisions, doing things for yourself.
• Teamwork - Not necessarily working in a team, but being able to socialize well with clients and people you may be working with on a project.
• Skilled with computer softwares - confidently being able to use Excel, Photoshop and Illustrator.

Funding/Finance

• You could pay for everything yourself
• Get a Loan (however this would need to be paid back)
• Building Societies
• Family and Friends
• Government
• Crafts Council
• Arts Council England
• AN Artist Newsletter
• Axis
• Department of trade and industry

The Princes Trust - Enterprise Programme

• Between the age 18-30
• Self Employed or working fewer than 16 hours a week
• One to one support to turn your idea into a business plan
• Sole trader - £4000
• Partnership - £5000
• Live in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland
• You are not eligible for this if: you are a gap year student, graduated less than 6 months ago, people with a post graduate degree or a professional qualification

Gov.uk - Starting your own business

• This tells you specifically what you need to do to create your very own business
• You will need to register your idea to make sure nobody else will copy it without you knowing
• Research into your market, talk to potential customers find out if your idea is needed on the market
• Make your product and test it on the market, maybe you could do a trade fair and see whether your product sells well. This way you know how to improve your product or adapt is so the consumer is more interested.
• Start contacting possible suppliers and partners. Who will help develop and sell your idea?
• Do you want to sell shares? Decide which legal structure is most suitable for you
• You need to look into funding. Explore government schemes, bank loans and business finance.

Equity funding

• http://www.bvca.co.uk/
• http://www.ukbusinessangelsassociation.org.uk/be-an-angel
• http://ngfc.org.uk/

Setting up a website for your business

• http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/internet-marketing/your-website/designing-your-website

Finding Business Premises

• http://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/more-services/small-business-hub/small-business-property-hub/proberty-in-business

Insurance for your business

• http://www.smarta.com/advice/general/business-insurance-the-basics

Copyright and Intellectual Property

Rachael Taylor & Marks and Spencer



Above is an image of a T shirt from Marks and Spencer and on the right is Rachael Taylor's design. As you can see they are both extremely similar. From what I understand I don't think Rachael Taylor received any compensation for this. Here is a link from Rachael's blog http://rachaeltaylordesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/my-marks-spencer-ordeal.html

Cath Kidston

Here I have included some images of Cath Kidston bags. These are copied quite a lot, not necessarily the actual patterns, but very similar ones.

Orla Kiely



Above are patterns of Orla Kiely's wallpapers, these are very simplistic and this is a style which is very popular at the minute. Similar patterns and colours are always copied and seen on the high street.

Trade Fairs

Surtex http://www.surtex.com/

Date: May 18 - 20 2014

Venue: Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City

Registration form - https://glmshows.wufoo.com/forms/surtex-request-for-attendee-registration/

Tent London http://www.tentlondon.co.uk/

Date: 18-21 September 2014

Venue: The Boiler House, Loading Bay Gallery, Gallery 12, Dray Walk Gallery, Gallery 13, Gallery 14, T3 Sml, Wilkes Street

How do I get funding for this?

• North East Finance
• North East Access to Finance
• Northumberland Business Service Ltd
• UKTI (help fund trade shows abroad)

Trend Companies: WGSN

I'm currently researching into WGSN, this is a fashion, trend forecasting website. It focuses on colours, materials, designs and catwalks. It also has a variety of target markets such as; womenswear, menswear, footwear, textiles, youth and knitwear. I always look at this when I am about to begin a project because there are so many possible trends to follow. Here are a couple of trends which I find interesting:




All Images are from www.wgsn.com

Target Market

Who would my customer be?

I think that my customer would be a young adult who likes bold colours, interesting drawings and unique patterns. Sometimes the colours are use are quite daring and I think would scare a lot of people off, but in my opinion the bolder and brighter the better. Therefore my customers would be young and daring.

Who would my target market be?

I think my target market would be young to middle aged. They would have a quirky style and enjoy explorations of colour. I think they would be mostly female because the images I use are normally quite girly. I would like my work to be sold in high street stores as a one off designer collaboration, like designers such as Henry Holland who also has a selection of his work sold in Debenhams. But my main collection of work would be middle to high end.

Surfacephilia

I really love the work by Surfacephilia, I think the layout of the website is very easy to use, with some really good photographs. To interact with their audience they have their own blog, send out a newsletter and they also took part in this years Home trade show.


Image belongs to Surfacephilia http://www.surfacephilia.co.uk/#!product/prd1/226626651/jaeger

Designers and how they connect with their customers

I am currently researching into current designers and how they connect with their audiences.

The first person I have looked at is Esme Winter

Her website is very clean, simple and easy to use. All photographs displayed are professionally taken with excellent lighting and composition. Her headings include current collections, shop, about, news and inquiries. She also has attached links to her social websites such as facebook, twitter, instagram and tumblr. This is a great way to receive clients.

Areas for Design

Interiors

• wallpapers
• furnishings
• bedding
• cushions
• tiles
• flooring

Styles for interiors

• contemporary
• modern
• traditional
• kids
• innovation

Market Levels

• Bespoke
• Mass market

Interior companies to look at

• St Judes Fabrics
• Harlequin
• Anthropologie
• Miss Print
• Andrew Martin
• House of Hackney
• Clarke-clarke
• Niki-jones

Fashion

• Products
• Men
• Women
• Kids
• Baby
• Bridal
• Sportswear
• Styles
• Floral
• Geographic
• Controversial
• Graphic
• Market
• High Street
• Couture
• Ready to wear
• Fashion designers to look at
• Preen
• Jonathan Saunders
• Viktor-Rolf
• Sophie Hulme
• Peter Pilotto
• Balenciaga
• Merni

Gift

• Products
• cards
• tags
• wrap
• bags
• boxes
• calendars
• Occasions
• birthdays
• easter
• new year
• wedding
• christenings
• Companies
• Accessorize
• Print Pattern
• Rock Scissor Paper
• Papercrave
• Liberty

Designer Makers 

• Abigail Brown
• Donna Wilson
• Jonathan Adler
• Selvedge
• Vandashop
• Roddy and Ginger
• Possible careers
• stylist
• buyer
• designer
• designer maker
• teacher
• Gallery owner
• Illustrator

Possible Careers within Design

Please find work for week 2 here