Week 7 - Current Master of Trade Research.

This week we had a 10 minute talk/presentation for professional studies. In the talk we were asked 'Where do you fit into industry' We need to be able to place ourselves in the field, understand our chosen markets and understand our competition. We were then asked who we aspire to be and why. Next week we will be expected to answer this question through a powerpoint presentation. This week I will be researching someone I aspire to be and explaining why, ready to put into powerpoint.

Ideas.
I do have my favourite artists such as David Shrigley but to really cater this module personally to myself I will be researching someone from an art therapy background since this is the field I am more interested in and would like to go into when I complete my degree.

Research.
I have decided to choose Neil Springham. He is an art therapy consultant and Head of Art Therapy across the trust. I aspire to become someone like him in future because He works with people therapeutically using art. Most people he works with may have schizophrenia, other forms of psychosis, serious depression or personality disorders. He enjoys his job and describes it as fascinating.

In my powerpoint presentation I will be explaining what I am doing now and what I will need to do in the future to become an art therapist.

Reference
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/allied-health-professions/careers-in-the-allied-health-professions/arts-therapists/art-therapist/

Week 6 - Professional Delivery.

How to deliver work professionally
Be polite to people, if a person is grumpy or not well-mannered, the person paying for this work will not be impressed and would most likely get a bad vibe. Work must be professionally finished or printed with no scraggy edges or marks on the paper. Everything must be crisp and clean along with the person's appearance. Whilst showcasing work to someone, an illustrator must explain their work from the theory, to the concept and the conclusion.

How will people feel about this kind of delivery?

• They will get a happy vibe from the illustrator and believe the work is a success.
• They will be impressed to see a professionally finished image/product.
• If the illustrator is dressed professionally and appropriately they are more likely to take the illustrator more serious and show respect.
• If the illustrator presents their work by explaining their theory, concept and conclusion, the person paying for the work will likely be impressed and will be more in touch with the work because they will know exactly what it is about. 

How to deliver work unprofessionally

• Turn up hungover with a bad attitude.
• Dressed in clothes from the night before. 
• Take the final piece of work in a carrier bag. 
• Final piece is ripped and marked with fingerprints. 
• Work is thrown on to a desk and illustrator leaves in a hurry without explaining what they have created. 

How will people feel about this kind of delivery?

• The bad attitude will put people in a bad mood
• Clothing choices will give off a bad vibe and the illustrator will most likely not be taken seriously. 
• Appearance of work is poor and unacceptable.
• No explanation of work so the person who is paying for it does not understand the theory, concept and conclusion of work. 

Week 5 - Writing a Commission.

What is a Commission?
A commission is when someone wants you to do some work for them and they tell you what they want. A contract will be made to make it binding and this will guarantee that the artist/illustrator will get paid.

How can it help an illustrator?
It can help the illustrator because it will have a guide or instructions of what they should be doing so they can refer back to it if they get stuck.

What needs to be in the commission brief?

• Deadlines
• Sizes/Specifications
• Description of content of work, what do they want you to draw exactly?
• Colour scheme if any
• What materials they want you to use
• How do they want the finished work presented?
• What file type if submitting work digitally?

What does an illustrator do after he/she has read it?
The illustrator may negotiate the commission in terms of the work they are doing, deadlines or the price they are being paid for the work. If they are happy they may create a timetable including checkpoints for certain aspects of the work to be completed by a certain time or date.

How and when do you communicate?
Progress meetings will take place at certain points throughout the commission for the commissioner to see if the illustrator is meeting deadlines and to see if they are going in the right direction with their vision. How an illustrator communicates depends on their preference or the preference of the person giving the commission, this could be by E-mail, phone, text, video call (skype), written letter or face to face. If a person has a quick question they might find it easier call the other person on the telephone rather than setting up a face to face meeting.

Week 4 - Communication and Understanding Commissions.

Communication within a commission. 
To make the commission as straightforward as possible, all parties must identify their needs and expectations at the beginning. It will also make it easier for the illustrator and the person/company commissioning them, if written confirmations are kept and to have an agenda or timetable for the duration of the commission.

Managing expectations.
Regular meetings/communication between illustrator and commissioner should be had to ensure expectations are being managed and any changes that need to be made can be identified before it is too late.

Communication Methods.

• Telephone
• Email
• Skype
• Text
• Letter
• Face to face

Confirmations.

Make sure to keep written confirmations where possible and sign off all points on the agenda at all times. In all circumstances this can not be done but it shows that you are being kept on track and doing what you need to be doing in order to get the commission finished in time and at the best quality. 

Week 3 - Identifying Conceptual Branding.

Branding.
What is a Brand?
A brand is the name, symbol or design of a product which helps it stand out to the consumer market.

Conceptual Branding.
I am using these two examples of fish and chip shop branding which includes the packaging, logo and name. One of these examples shows no attempt at branding a business and the other shows that a lot of thought has went into the branding of their business.

1st Example - This is not a particular fish and chip shop, it is an example of the packaging an everyday fish shop uses and which I have seen throughout Hartlepool. This shows that most of the fish and chip shops haven't really thought about their brand and they don't really stand out from one another since they probably buy their packaging from one particular place.

Example 2 - This is an example of branding that has been thought about. This would stand out from a regular fish and chip shop and customers would probably be more attracted to it because it looks fresh and professional, rather what everyone else has.

References
https://www.behance.net/gallery/23979655/Fish-Chips-Branding
http://www.colbeck.co.uk/shop/c-packaging/p-white-kraft-fish-chip-bags-500-035888

Halloween Party - What went wrong.

Why didn't it work?
In my opinion, the reason the planning and the execution of the halloween party didn't work out, was down to bad communication within the group. Another reason why it didn't work could have been a lack of research or experience with planning a party within the college. The main reason we had to cancel the party was due to lack of interest from the students, this may have been because of the cost of tickets which were £5, I feel this price was too much as we weren't offering them much in return such as a free drink on arrival or prizes for competitions such as best dressed.

Damage Limitation
We damaged the reputation of the illustration group in terms of planning parties for the college.

What could have the group done to make it turn out better?
Offer incentives. On the facebook page that the group made for the event, we could have created posts along the lines of 'Like and share this post to win a bottle of vodka with mixers'. This would have got the word around by people sharing the post and also may have got students to buy tickets if they thought they had a chance of winning. We had posters and people selling tickets around the college but obviously this wasn't enough since it had to be cancelled.

Week 2 - Defining Markets and Understanding Consumer Needs.

This week we are defining markets and understanding consumer needs. We have been asked to figure out the market, identify our competition and find out who they are selling to. Our task/project for this week is to plan the universities halloween party.

Things we need to consider...

• Venue
• Back up venue
• Door staff
• Alcohol licence
• First aid member of college staff
• 3 other members of college staff
• Safety at all times
• Respect of the local community

Mitigating risks.

Mitigating a risk means to reduce the risk of something happening to someone at a planned event. The best way to reduce risks is to come up with a risk assessment. Here is an example I have mocked up to show the risk, the severity of the risk and how to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Persuasion.

We will have to be able to persuade people to come to the halloween party. The WHOLE group need to also have great communication skills with one another because this is key to getting the best ideas from everyone. If we made a facebook event for the party and invited as many people as possible then that could get the event advertised, also everyone loves a freebie so we could write a post saying something like 'Like and Share this post to win a bottle of vodka with mixers' This would get the event around the social networking site and maybe encourage others to share the post to get the word around. This is probably the best way to do it in this day and age.

Approach.

How will the market want the group or individual people from the group to approach them. It's probably best not to hound people of the market we want to target by sticking tickets in their face and saying 'buy one'. We decided as a group to set up an events table in the main reception and let the market come to us, make them think they approached us and not the other way around. We need to let them know what they are getting for their money. The ticket price is £5.00 which I think is very steep for a college party so the market will be wanting to know what they are getting and if it is worth parting with their money.

What students spend their money on.

This is a pie chart I got from
http://www.savethestudent.org
It shows that students spend most of their money on rent, this of course only applies to students who are living away from home (their parents house). For me personally I wouldn't spend anything on rent since I live at home and I am not required to pay anything, I don't really go food shopping either. I think I mostly spend my money on going out for meals and going places. Another big chunk of money goes on car insurance/petrol etc... so this makes up for the rent I don't have to pay. This student money survey was really helpful for me to understand what other students are going through regarding money.
http://www.savethestudent.org/money/student-money-survey-results.html

Markets.

A market is a specific group of people that buy a product. The market group can start from as little as ten people to any amount. Two can make a group but it is better to have a minimum of ten in order to gather data. There are many different types of markets and market settings, These include...

• Seasonal - Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc... 
• Annual - Anniversaries, Birthdays etc...
• Captured - Such as being in an airport or train station, you're stuck there so you have to pay a ridiculous price for something like a sandwich or a drink. 
• Psychological - A person can make their self believe they are in a captured market, for example, a person may be at a concert/festival and want to buy a t-shirt when they could have went home and bought the same t-shirt online for a much cheaper price. 

My Market.

For the Halloween party we are planning our target market will be Men and Women 18-25 who may attend CCAD. I think the prices of the tickets need to come down because students don't really have any disposable income after bills, rent and everything else they have to pay for. Maybe £2 a ticket would be better because it doesn't seem pricey and that's around or even below the average price of getting into a nightclub in Hartlepool that charges.