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. 

Level 5 Week 1. Introduction to the Module

Today we were introduced to the new module, we got our brief and new scheme of work. Things have changed with the delivery of professional studies this year because we know what is happening every week we are expected to research a week in advance and have a discussion about each subject each week and share what we have found out with one another. For example next week we will be defining markets and understanding consumer needs, therefore, I will be researching what I can on the subject this week ready to discuss for next week. We are also expected to base our research on our specific career paths so that it all links in to how I can fit into the industry to help me develop my personal professional practice.

Week 11 - C.V.

This week we were asked to either create a C.V. if we did not have one or update our current one. I already had a C.V. but the only things I had to update were adding that I gained a full UK driving licence and my current education. Below is my updated C.V.

CV

Claire Bartlett

D.O.B 19/12/92

62 Miers Avenue

Hartlepool

TS24 9JE

07885633764 (01429) 281468

clairenettabartlett@gmail.com

Driving License – Full UK

PREVIOUS EDUCATION

I attended St Hild’s Church of England School 2004 – 2009

I attended HCFE and studied Travel and Tourism from 2009 – 2010

I attended CCAD and studied Art and Design and Graphic Design from 2010 – 2013

I am currently undertaking Illustration for Commercial Applications at CCAD 

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT

I have had work experience at Tweddle Children’s Animal Farm in 2009 where I handled the animals and cleaned out their living areas.

In 2010 I worked in a club called Showroom, the job consisted of taking photographs of people on their night out, and this also included handling money and a camera.

In 2012 I worked as a shop assistant at Home Bargains which involved dealing with customers, handling money and cleaning the shop on a daily basis.

I currently volunteer as an artist at The Artrium Hartlepool. My duties include helping members develop their art skills and help them overcome mental health issues through art and design.

QUALIFICATIONS

English Language                   C                     2009

English Literature                    C                     2009

Travel and Tourism                 Merit                2009

Food Technology                    C                     2009

Religious Education                C                     2009

Art and Design                        D*                    2011

ICT E3                                     Pass                2011

Maths L2                                 Pass                2012   

Graphic Design                       D*D*D*            2013

PERSONAL QUALITIES

I am punctual, creative, hard working and committed with everything I do. I am very well presented and always ready to learn new skills from others. In my free time I enjoy reading and meeting up with friends.

Week 10 - Intellectual property rights - Copyright

How can you protect your work through copyright if it is an automatic right?
Your work can be protected through adding the copyright sign to it.

If you say your work is copyrighted it will not count unless you put that sign onto it, it does not matter how it is added to the piece of work you want to protect. It can be hand written on just as long as it is on.

How does copyright affect you?
Copyright effects you because it restricts you from copying or editing someone else's work that is protected by copyright.
https://students.shu.ac.uk/shuspacecontent/lc/copyright-does-affect-me

How can you make sure you don't infringe on someone else's copyright?
To make sure you do not infringe on someone else's copyright there are various steps that can be taken, never use anyone else's work as your own, this can also mean that you do not search the internet for drawings of a certain thing that you are struggling to draw in order to work from someone else's creations and steal their style.