Life's a Pitch - Continued Research

We have still not been able to decide on a name for our business so its really hard to start thinking about logos and branding when this isn't in place. I personally think it would be best to design the logo as a very simple, shape based idea which can be altered and adapted with the changing monthly themes. 

I sent my name ideas to the rest of the group and Alice and Tyler responded with some more ideas. 

IllustrationBoard, Printville, DrawVille, ThePrintBoard, Printsy, Boardsy, TheSketchBoard, Printy Polly, PrintSize, IllustrationMonthly, PiggyPrints, TheArtPrinters, TheArtPrints, The Art Folk, IllustrationFolk, Illustratesy - You Illustustrate, we recreate, (from your Print Partners idea) PrintAlly, Printpal, Printchums, Print-Off (your lift off), but like it's a competition, so a print-off. But you can also print off stuff. The Print Pad, PrintFolk, Printerest, Print village, Print quest, Arteasy.

I think we are on the same page when it comes to names because most of them are based around the same theme. I think our task now is to start narrowing these ideas down rather than thinking of any more.

Forum/Social Media Account/Newsletter.

I think the idea of a social media account is good because it is a good way to gain publicity and to keep people connected and updated. I think there does need to be a way for the business to stay in contact with its users (both creators and buyers). It could be used to update people when a new theme is released or when items become available for sale. I think a social media account and a newsletter in the form of an email is the best way to do this.

Products Available

I read an article recently about ‘the choice paradox’ which I found really interesting. It basically explained that too much choice can overwhelm and confuse people and put them off making any purchases at all. When you select one item out of a large range, there are so many that you haven't selected that you start to doubt that the choice you have made is the correct one. The more choice there is, the easier it is to imagine that you could have made a better decision. Professor Iyengar conducted an experiment with two displays of jam. One display had 24 types of jam and the other only had six. The conclusion of the experiment was that the larger display attracted 60% of shoppers and the smaller stand attracted 40%. However only 3% of people made a purchase from the large display and one third of the visitors to the smaller display purchased a jar of jam. This goes to show that although we are attracted to large ranges of options, we are actually more comfortable with fewer options. 

I think for our business we would be best to stick to three products which can all be printed by the same manufacturer. We have discussed this in previous conversations with my group and I think that having postcards, prints and posters available would mean that customers would not be overwhelmed with choice and would be more likely to make a purchase. 

Handmade Notebooks - Christmas Gifts

I have been making notebooks with my designs on to give as Christmas presents this year. I only planned to make a few but then I got a really positive response from people who I had shown them to so I continued to make more. 

The first books I made were a set of three, I had made the plain notebooks and then just started to doodle on them. This set was themed around feathers. The exercise was quite mindless and I did it to relax but I thought the outcome was quite neat and I felt that I would be happy to buy them or receive them as a gift so other people might do as well. Since making this set, I have moved away from drawing directly onto the cover and I am not digitally printing onto the covers to make multiples. 

I have been using some thick handmade paper that I was given ages ago as my covers which I am printing onto with my home printer. Because of the size of the sheets of paper, I am restricted to only producing little notebooks. I like them and they are perfect as a little gift but I think once I run out of this paper I will buy some larger sheets and make some books in more formal sizes like A6 or A5. 

The designs I have produced or selected from old work have been based on what my individual family members and friends would like. Thats why it might seem like the designs don't really connect. 

• Original hand drawn feather designs - set of three. 
• Beach hut and seaside pattern - set of two. 
• Pug drawing - individual. 
• Ram skulls - set of three. 

I have been using a range of coloured threads to bind my books with the saddle stitching technique. I have been tying the books together with plain string, even if there is just one on its own I will tie it with string to keep it flat and make it look presentable when it is opened. On the back I have the words ' Handmade by Naomi Smith' and I chose only to include these words because I am giving them to people who already know me. 

My intentions with this are to make more and potentially set up an Etsy shop to start selling them. For this I would need to change what I have on the back of the book and include some sort of contact detail, maybe my Instagram name, email address or link to Etsy shop, just so there is a clear point of contact. I enjoy making these books and find the process of making them relaxing and satisfying. It would be really handy to make a bit of money through this as well. I would need to look into pricing, I don't want to rip people off but I feel like so far when I have sold things I have often undercharged which is not how I want my work to be sold. 

Life's a Pitch - Pricing and Payment

How much will people be willing to pay?

Redbubble 300mm x 400mm Art Print - Base Rate £9.35.

I looked at Etsy to look at the pricing of art prints but there is such a range of prices that it is hard to define what is the most popular range. Most prices on the first page of 'highest relevance' prints are priced between £5 and £30. Personally, I think £20 should be our upper limit so people think they are paying a reasonable price but not too little that it is exploiting the artist. Obviously this will take more research and discussion with the rest of the team before decisions are made.

Art.co.uk are also selling prints mainly between £5 and £35 on their bestselling page. Some of these are famous paintings though which have been reproduced a lot already so this is a bit different to what our business will be selling which are new designs. 

How do people prefer to pay?

The options for paying online are by card or Paypal. I think people have more trust in Paypal as a payment method and the majority of people who shop online have an account. Even if they don't it is easy to set up. I am not sure how it works exactly but it might also be a way of paying the artists when we make a profit on their work. 

The options for Paypal are to have a free business account which means you can accept payments from people via Paypal. The upgrade would probably be more appropriate for this business because we would want a checkout directly on the website to make it appear safer and professional. 

Life's a Pitch - Packaging Research

This parcel sticker is by Qwertee. The actual parcel is packaged very plainly but the sticker makes it recognisable as something a bit more interesting. I don't know if this image is directly linked to the company or whether it is just there for design but either way, it makes the parcel different to other plain parcels that arrive in the mail. This would be cheap to produce because it is just a printed 2D label. I think that we could do more than this for our packaging design especially as it would be an envelope which is easier to print onto than the plastic on this parcel. 

This is the poster tube design by 'Imposters' who sell prints, posters and photos which is very similar to the products our business will be selling. I like the idea of having a plain tube with what looks like a sticker on the outside. The sticker looks like it has been used to seal the two ends of the tube together and then this would be destroyed when the package is opened. I think this is a really good idea and it highlights how it is straight from producer to consumer because there has been no tampering in-between. When it comes to design, it might be good for us to change the sticker design each month depending on the theme. Having the logo on the outside of the packaging is also good for promotion because people will see it in the mailing process and if the buyer decides to keep the tube then it will be seen here too. These stickers could be printed in the same place where the rest of our products are being printed. 

These are the envelopes and puffy bags used by 'Sass & Peril' who sell their work through The Paper Cub Co. I think these are the most personal and crafted packaging designs out of all the ones I have looked at today. The designs are screen printed onto existing envelopes which I think makes the product feel handmade and made with care. Obviously screen printing these designs would be time consuming so as the business grows, it might not be feasible to do this, however, when starting up this is a possibility. Another option would be making an ink stamp with the company logo on which can be printed onto envelopes. The only issue is whether this would print well on a poster tube. 

Life's A Pitch - Name Ideas and Company Research

Name ideas

I watched a couple of videos online giving advice about naming a business. I didn't properly realise how important the name is before watching these but it is actually the first thing the audience will see/hear about the business so it needs to be good. Things to consider included what we are trying to communicate, the key elements of the business, the business aims, and appealing to customer base. They also suggested that depending on the business concept, you need to think whether it would be more appropriate to create a new and exciting name or something more familiar and trustworthy. It also brought up issues of checking for names already in use so there are no legal breaches made or confusion caused. 

Platform, Art Platform, Lift Off, Print Platform, Launch pad, Springboard, Print Base, Arty People, Print Lab, Print Partners, Print Pig, Print Pug, Printable, Print-a-bull, Propel-a-Print, Propeller Print, Principle...

Some of these are bad names but I think a few have potential. I will put these forward to the rest of my group. 

Structures of Similar Companies - ETSY

Etsy's mission is 'to enable people to make living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers' which makes it relevant to our own business. 

This information is from a corporate strategy presentation from the company in 2012.

Etsy's CEO, Robert Kalin, said that it was more important to them at this time 'to build engagements than build profits' which I can understand as a strategy for a long term, sustainable business. It needs to gain trust and a base of customers who will stay loyal as the company progresses to making more and more money. This is shown in their figures between 2008 and 2010. 

Customer experience goals: the most important thing to them was differentiating themselves from other competitors in the industry.

Etsy is similar to our business in the way that it needs to cater for buyers and sellers and both need to stay interested in using the business for it to survive. 

Their executive structure consisted of five people on the board of directors, then on the rank below was the C-Suite of three people, and then below that was a management team of ten people. 

Work environment: the Etsy office space was described as having an 'ambience', it had the essentials of desks and computers but didn't spend loads of money on furnishings. They have plants inside, recycled curtains and other furnishings and energy saving lights. 

Customer Service - human to human interaction has helped them to keep customers happy. Not everything can be solved by a computer. They also have pop up shops and markets where sales are made on a face to face basis which brings in a different group of customers. 

Structures of Similar Companies - REDBUBBLE

I have an account with RedBubble so I feel some of this information may be biased based on my experience. The structure is simple, anyone can create an account and upload images onto Redbubble so that they are available to buy in the form of T-shirts, mugs, prints, bags, cushions, etc. This might make it seem like it is a company inclusive of everyone, which it is, but it means there are endless designs to trawl through that give the impression that the company cares very little for the actual artwork. 

As a seller on Redbubble, the prices of each item is fixed and you have to add your own margin on top of that. This means you are torn between making a good profit but an offputting price, or a reasonable price with very little profit. For example, I made a sale the other day and these were the figures. Also, due to other terms and conditions, no money will come into my bank before I have earned a total of £13. 

I understand that Redouble is a big company and it has a lot of people contributing artwork, I just feel like it is not a good experience for the artist or the buyer, it isn't made particularly personal in any way and the products still seem to be churned out of a factory instead of having time and care taken over them. 

Song of the Sea

I watched the animated film 'Song of the Sea' (2014) and was taken aback by the beauty of the artwork and animation in it. The textures made the images really atmospheric and the colours were subtle and comforting for most of it. It felt like whenever I paused the film, the image on the screen could be used as a piece of artwork because of the level of craft and consideration gone into every detail. 

Watching this film made me think about my animated sting for OUIL504 which is only going to be 15 seconds long. Judging by the content of a 15 second snippet of this film, I think it would be better for me to focus more on making good pictures and animating them rather than trying to cram too many animated elements in and making the whole thing look rushed.  

Ram Skulls

I produced this drawing of three ram skulls as a Christmas present. 

I like drawing natural forms which is why I often choose animals or plant life as subjects for my personal work. I think skulls are really interesting to draw because the shapes are unlike anything else and I like the fact that they are so close to being symmetrical but not quite. I think it highlights the imperfections and unique qualities of nature. I usually choose line work as my method of drawing but I decided to try something different with this and opted for pointillism. I used a 0.1mm fineliner for this and I am really happy with the level of detail I managed to achieve with this technique. I found the process very repetitive but quite therapeutic until I realised how long I was spending on it and that I needed to speed up. I like doing personal work to relax because I still feel like I am achieving something and making good use of my time - much more productive than a Netflix binge. 

Final framed image

I am really proud of these drawings and the original piece is being given away as a gift. However, I want to maximise the use of it so I took some high quality scans and am hopefully going to produce some prints of the individual skulls. I want to make some postcard sized prints first and maybe combine them into sets of three, one of each skull. Judging on the demand and success of these I might make some larger scale prints, depending on how well the images enlarge because the originals are actually quite small. 

I find myself having a lot of ideas of ways I could make prints and start to sell my work but I just need to find the time to get going with this. I think the next step for me is making an Etsy account but I don't want to rush this and people to be put off by a badly thought out page. I would prefer to spend time getting my products ready for sale and make sure everything is as I would like it to be seen. 

Life's a Pitch Meeting

We arranged to meet as a group today as the last meet up before christmas. It was myself and two other team members who came to this so we read through each other's manifestos and combined them into a single paragraph. We all had quite similar things written down, some of the same phrases were used across all three which was good because it showed that we all understood the idea of our business. We were doing this for over an hour, constantly going back and changing words that didn't sounds right or didn't have the right tone of voice. We kept tweaking sentences too to make sure we were getting the correct message across. This is what we had by the end...

We are an online creative community that hosts monthly, themed competitions for UK based aspiring artists. Each month, twelve winning designs are made available to purchase as print based products through [our website name]. The designers also have the option be promoted during that month of sale thorough links to a personal website or social media account. Our goal is to finance a sustainable and profitable business whilst supporting artists and respecting buyers through the means of reasonable commission and pricing. Above all, it is important to us to create an ethical and honest relationship between everyone involved. 

Obviously this isn't final because our business may still evolve and we haven't had feedback or input from Georgie or Rebecca on this yet but we are communicating with them through Facebook messenger and iMessage to ensure the whole group stays involved. This is also how we are all going to stay in touch over the christmas break. 

When discussing name ideas, I had very little to show but we discussed it and Tyler made a good point about having it themed around flowing to show that the competition will forever be changing. It made me thing about rotation and the seasons so maybe this could be a theme to work with which is related to the business but not in an obvious way. We have set ourselves a deadline to have the name decided by Friday 11th December so we can start the Christmas break with this issue settled. 

I brought up an idea I thought of which was to have a calendar at the end of the year which would have the top selling design from each month in it. I thought it made sense to do something like this seeing as the business is based around a monthly changeover. The other members of the group thought this idea might work but we couldn't really make any decisions about it without the rest of our group there. It was also suggested that it could be sold for charity. This would be a good way of continuing the ethical way we run the business but we would have to look into this because we wouldn't want to be losing money. 

As for work to do over christmas, we wrote a to do list of things that need researching and to be thought about. I suggested splitting this list so everyone had a different task to do to make this process more efficient but instead we are all going to do a bit of everything so everyone has knowledge on each aspect of the business and we can have a proper discussion about these things when we meet after Christmas. 

• Ideas for logos and website layout/design. 
• Make any changes to the Manifesto after receiving input from everyone. 
• Research the structures of similar companies (etsy, redbubble…)
• Research into printers and costs of materials.  
• Research into costing of postage and packaging. 
• Sizing and dimensions of prints - research and decide. 
• Research into packaging design (envelopes, tubes...)
• Research web advertising and how we could make money from this. 
• Research where you stand with selling things for charity. 
• Setting up an online payment method. 
• Research into how much people would be willing to pay. 
• Research into how people like to pay (by card, paypal...) 
• Setting up a newsletter/email/account. Some way of sending reminders for deadlines and notifications for when things come on sale or the theme has changed over. 
• Possibility of a forum or social media account. 
• Possibility of an app - or at least a mobile friendly website. 
• Splitting of wages. 
• Commission prices. 

Life's a Pitch Re-written Manifesto

From the session on Monday we all said we would go away and rewrite the manifesto so when we meet again we can combine this into a master piece of writing. This is what I came up with. 

We are an online creative community who host monthly, themed competitions where artists, illustrators and designers can have their work promoted and made available to purchase. The submitted artwork is judged anonymously so everyone sits on an even platform irrespective of previous experience. We aim to finance a sustainable and profitable business while giving our artists a fair percentage and providing quality products for our buyers. It is important to us to promote the artwork in an ethical way and build an honest, friendly relationship with our artists. 

I think this includes everything I see to be important about our business but it will be good to see what the others have written because I know that I will have missed some things out. I think the tone of voice of this sounds a bit formal and we always seem to slip into a formal style of writing when working as a group. It is hard to draw the line of how informal / formal this should be because we want to be a respected company who conducts themselves professionally but we don't want to seem too formal that it is off-putting for people with not much experience or just draw for fun. 

As for name ideas, I'm finding it really hard to think of anything good that is relevant to the theme of drawing or illustration because as soon as you try to incorporate these words, the  name suddenly doesn't sound as good. I personally think the random, unconnected names are better but this is something that could pop into our heads at any time. I need to discuss with the rest of the group the route we are going to take with thinking of our business name. 

Life's a Pitch Session

It was good to start the session with the feeling that everyone was on the same page and we all understood the idea of our business, our chat the other day was really helpful and I felt like we were at a good stage to progress now. 

Below is my interpretation of the business concept, after we had done this task and shared each others responses it was clear that we were all on the same wavelength. This did raise some issues for discussion though:

• Is 12 a good number for the amount of winners? I personally thought twelve was a good idea because it keeps the selection limited which gives the sense that it is a prestigious thing to be chosen. Some members of the group thought that 12 was too few but I think it is a good starting point. Obviously as the business gains a reputation and a following this number could increase.
• We could invite guest judges to judge the entries alongside us if they have a particular link to the theme or are regarded highly in the creative industry. 
• Should there be a submission fee? We decided on no and I totally agree with this decision because it means it is inclusive to anyone with any budget. 
• There might be a possibility to associate with other companies, maybe think of who could sell frames for our prints (Habitat, John Lewis, Ikea...) or any companies who display artwork (coffee shops, offices, conference centres, libraries, hotels...). This might be something we look into once the business is already established, it might be a lot to take on right at the beginning.

It also came up that we want to get our work shown on the site as well and we could use it as a platform for ourselves too. As a small collaborative group, we could design the header of the website each month to fit around the theme. We also had a discussion about stickers and who actually buys them, we came to the conclusion that they are usually given away for free alongside other products. I thought that the stickers could be something we design collaboratively as well and they would be sent out with every order we get. This way, our work is being promoted as we are selling other people's and the business itself is being promoted too if the sticker contained the logo and name. 

These some rough drawings I did during the break while talking to Tyler about how the winners could be shown on the site. We were getting a bit ahead of ourselves thinking about this so far in advance but it did raise some issues worth considering:

• How will the design of the website cater for designs with different proportions and orientations?
• Will it be able to be adapted to be viewed with ease on a phone screen?
• Could there actually be an app that you can download with updates of the new topic and items for sale? Products could be purchased through the app too. 

Below on the left is a manifesto I wrote for our business, the manifesto on the right is the combined outcomes of all members of the group. We underlined some keywords and words we wanted to change on the combined version as we were looking ahead to refine these sentences into a short piece of writing. I think it is really important to get across the idea that we want to build a relationship with artists and we are open to viewing work from any experience level. We need to be seen as a friendly, ethical community/business who actually cares about artwork and artists.

 This was our attempt to put all of these components together but we didn't get very far with this. We have set ourselves the task of writing out our own manifesto so that when we meet again we can take sections from different ones and combine it into a master-manifesto. We are also going to brainstorm name ideas and carry out any other research we see necessary. 

Seeing as this was our last timetabled session before the Christmas break we have arranged for us all to meet at 10am next Monday to feedback to each other what we have all done and have a group discussion about the development of the business idea. Hopefully we will then be able to sort out what each of us needs to do over Christmas so we can come back after the break well informed about our business. 

Research for Life's a Pitch

This is the research I did in preparation for the session on 30th November.

Postage prices research - this might affect the sized we make the prints and posters available in so that it could fit into a cheaper price bracket. 

Would we have to send through Royal Mail or can we send through a courier?

UPS, Parcel Force, MPD, DHL...

A business account would mean better deals on pricing. 

Packaging costs - envelopes, tubes, jiffy bags, etc.

Boarded envelopes and jiffy bags are cheap enough to buy in bulk from places like amazon or eBay. 

We would need to decide on the sizes we definitely needed and see if there is a wholesaler who could provide these for even cheaper. 

Would we print the designs ourselves on the envelopes?

Would we pay the printer we would use to do it for us?

Would we still have to provide the blank envelopes or would we pay them to source them?

Name Ideas

Twelve, Douze, Illustr8 (appropriate for 8 winning designs), Monthly Draw, 

Life's A Pitch - Change of Idea

I tried to arrange a meet up for our blog group before the next PPP session so I sent out a message on the group forum but got no response. I'm not sure whether I didn't do it right or whether the notifications aren't set up properly but the other members of my group didn't get informed that I had posted anything. I resorted to Facebook to get in contact with them. It wasn't convenient for everyone to come into the studio for a chat about our business idea on the Friday so we discussed the topic over Facebook. Obviously it would have been better to have everyone sat around a table but this worked for us and I feel we left the conversation with everyone on the same page. 

First issues raised in the chat:

• The travelling truck idea was getting too complicated. 
• We're not sure how much licensing and organisation it would take to sell food and drink as well just the artwork. 
• The truck idea would have a lot of initial costings before even having the chance to make any money, we would be starting out having invested a lot of money into it already with no guarantee of any return. 
• Would it be possible to simplify the truck idea down?
• Could we revert back to the idea of the online competition/shop?
• The online shop might be more manageable and simpler to work out costings for. 

We seemed to decide on taking forward the online shop/competition idea and the conversation developed into what this would involve. The idea is that a monthly theme would be set, work based around this theme would be entered into the competition, winners would be selected, their work would be sent to a manufacturer for products to be made and then would be available for sale on the website for a limited time. It is almost like a hybrid of Redbubble and Illustration Friday. 

Things to consider with the development of this idea:

• Limiting the range of products available would mean we would only need one manufacturer. 
• Maybe just sticking to 2D products like prints, posters, greetings cards, postcards and stickers would keep things simple and also make the postage process simpler. 
• If the business proves successful and gains momentum we could include additional products like t-shirts or stationery.
• How would we gauge how many products we would need to make without ay previous sales figures?
• Would we have to prepare for a loss and leftover stock in the first few months or could we make to order?
• Could one of the products be wrapping paper? We would have to consider that some designs are not suitable for repeat patterns. This might be a development we could plan for in the future if the business takes off. 
• How many winners would there be for each theme? Maybe 10 or 12. 
• Whats the audience? Local or worldwide? Limiting it to the UK would be a good starting point and it would keep shipping prices simple. 
• We would have to consider the packaging of the products, names, branding and logos need to be developed. 
• Could we include a personal note from the winner to say thank you for purchasing their design? A personal touch - providing a direct connection to the creator. 
• PRICING: manufacturering costs, postage costs, employment and wages, what do the designers get? 
• What files would need to be submitted for the competition? Resolution, size, colour, etc...
• Primary research - send out surveys to get a feel for what our audience think about it in terms of what they would pay.
• Research into other sites lie Quertee and Redouble and analyse how much percentage they take. 
• Submission fee? Might be off-putting. 
• If we make enough money we might be able to but our own printing equipment and cut out the cost of paying another printer. 
• Space needs to be considered, if we had our own printers we would need a bigger work space - rent, bills, additional costs. Might be best to avoid this to begin with. 

I feel a lot more confident with this idea rather than the lorry idea. I think this is much more realistic and we would be able to work with this idea as if it was something we could actually do. I think because the lorry idea would have been way out of our price budget, it seemed slightly unrealistic so it would have been easy to get carried away with things whereas the website is more grounded and can be taken more seriously. 

I need to do some research and think of some potential names to bring to the next PPP session. 

Colours May Vary and Joan Cornella Exhibition

We had a talk from Andy and Becky today who run Colours May Vary. They are really interesting people to listen to and it is clear they are doing what they love as their job which is so important. They spoke about how to approach galleries and shops with work, including themselves and said that it is best to send an email rather than turning up unannounced. The email should include a description of the work, why I have created it and some good quality images of it. They say to consider whether a seller is appropriate for your work but never tell the seller that it is, that is a decision they will make for themselves. 

They also spoke about the value and quality of prints. I was expecting them to say that analogue prints such as screen or lino would sell for a lot more but they surprised me by saying that digital prints do just as well. They say they get some beautiful digital prints that have way more merit than a poorly designed or executed screen print. It is not the case that the method of production dictates the quality of the work, it is quality that dictates quality. 

We went to the Joan Cornella Exhibition while we were at Munro House. I really enjoyed it and had a good laugh about some of his pieces. It amazes me how his mins works! He is very open with his subject matter and is not afraid to put anything out there and it is working in his favour because it is getting such a positive response. It did make me think about how cautious I am with my work and I always try not to offend anyone or be insensitive about certain topics. I suppose this depends on where I want my work to exist but you are always going to have some people who hate your work, whether it is controversial or not, so you might as well make it what you want it to be. 

Colours May Vary

We went to a briefing at Colours May Vary for our exhibition of work from OUIL504. 

Listening to Becky and Andy talk about their business was really inspiring, it is clear they are doing what they love and they are doing it well. 

How to approach them with work:

• Send an email rather than dropping in so they have time to look at it and aren't just bombarded with work. 
• Give a description in the email, explain what the idea is behind it. 
• Include good quality images to give them an idea of what the physical product is like. 
• Don't tell them that this product would be great for them - that's their decision. 

It is up to me to consider whether a seller is right for me or not, can I see my work fitting in in the surroundings of their shop or website? It is important to sell in there right places so that I can reach the right audience. 

Method of production doesn't dictate quality. Quality dictates quality. 

I was surprised to hear this really because I thought the rise in analogue printing methods recently meant that people were somewhat opposed to digital print. However, they both said that they can get some really rubbish screen prints and some really beautiful digital prints. I suppose its true that it depends on the quality of the work and quality of the process, just because something is handmade doesn't make it immediately better. 

Life's A Pitch

Last week's session was quite unsuccessful for our group. We were brainstorming a lot of ideas but everything merged into one big mess and nobody really understood the concept of the business we were proposing. It was all very rushed and confused so this week was our chance to make things clearer for ourselves and spend time talking to each other. We decided to move on from whatever was discussed last week and start fresh. We had one problem that two people from our group were not here so it was just myself, Georgie and Tyler making all the decisions for this. 

Find the business idea. 
Define business concept. 
What do we care about?
What type of business is it?
Where does it sit in the current market?
What does it look like?
Who does what and when?
What are your personal goals?
How are you motivated?

This was our first idea, a website which functioned similar to a site like Etsy.com and illustrationfriday.com which had a selected product range which rotated around a monthly theme. It would work like a competition where people would submit entries based around a theme and then a select few would be chosen to be sold and the business would take a cut of the profits. The idea of adding a time limit on the availability of the products might increase the demand for them as people know that they won't be around forever. The themes could also work around seasonal things such as Christmas or Easter so that the products on sale were appropriate to the time of year. 

I liked this idea because it was a relatively simple concept which I imagine (without any research) would be cheap to set up, and if the creatives were responsible for the shipping of their own goods, the business wouldn't require a significant team of staff. I suppose this format of business reflects my own interest in illustration and where it can exist, when I think of my own work I see it being available in print form or on products which is very relevant to this. 

The conversation then went onto having the same idea as an art fair where work is submitted around a certain theme and a few products and prints are selected to be sold as part of this collection. This changed the direction of the business entirely and the idea of the website was somewhat left behind. 

We wrote down some of our individual interests but didn't get very far before new ideas kept cropping up. We came up with the idea of a travelling art fair, initially on a small scale (we suggested in a camper van so the business had an 'image'). The travelling part of it needed a restriction so we kept it to the North of England. When thinking about who would enter work into this, we wanted the business to have an ethos of supporting people who are trying to get started in the industry so we thought about it being aimed at students, the recently graduated, beginners and hobbyists. 

The drawing on the piece of paper below was of a lorry where the back opens up and folds out to make this small, indoor space where tables can be set up, artwork can be hung and people can walk around and look at things. This is an upgrade from the camper van we initially thought of, and the double decker bus we thought of after that. 

Then the idea came of including music and food and other stalls in with this. I was concerned that this whole business concept was becoming too complex and I was confused about how it would exist. Would it be an individual stall that would be a part of a wider organised event, like thoughtbubble festival for example. Or would it be an event in itself which brings along its own food stalls and music for entertainment?

Our goal for this were to help people promote their work. We wanted to make this for people who are just getting started in the industry but then didn't want to rule out the inclusion of some bigger names because this might help to boost the profile of the business if some recognised names were on board. 

At this point, the business is a cross between retail and entertainment because it includes both. It is the entertainment side of the plan that I find concerning because I don't know what permissions you need or whether you need to pay to set up something like this in numerous locations. 

Ideas for names - this was really hard because we have not clarified the full concept of our business yet. We wrote down a list of words relating to the plan so far and tried to branch off this to think of more interesting things but we didn't get very far. I think the best names are the catchy ones which are totally unrelated to the theme of the business but really memorable. I think the name will come to us as we continue to develop the plan but at the moment I don't think that this should be a priority. 

My Haiku

I am far from being a lyrical genius but this is what I came up with. Words aren't really my thing. 

Georgie's Haiku

Travelling lorry, 

Supporting local talent, 

Sells creative's work. 

Tyler's Haiku

Travelling art fest, 

Makeshift stalls, local artists,

Inside a lorry. 

We blended these into a super-haiku which we stressed over a bit and changed it at the very last minute before Tyler had to read it out loud to the group. 

Travelling art fest

Unique, local creations, 

Arts, crafts, music, beer. 

The rest of the group got the main principle of the business by saying that it was a mobile art festival which supported local craftspeople. However, I think the last line, particularly the mention of music and beer made this sound more like a large event when I didn't really think this was the case. Some people interpreted it as a party and I think this detracts from the main function of the business which is to sell work. This is probably something the group needs to discuss next session when (hopefully) everyone is here and we can make some decisions as a full group. 

I think it was difficult for our group to agree on things today because there was only three of us but I suppose this will always happen with group work. I feel that it really hindered us not having the other two group members present because we had a limited input and we still don't know whether they will agree with anything we have discussed today. It is difficult being in a group with people who you don't know very well or have different working styles because you have to work extra hard to find compromises and make sure everyone gets their say. I am trying to be diplomatic with the way I am conducting myself in these group sessions but I am hoping that as we get to know each other a bit better we can be more honest with each others ideas and opinions and maybe work much more effectively as a team. 

Since writing out the outcomes of this session, I have started to realise that this business plan isn't really viable. I know we haven't done any proper research about it yet but the costings of just setting this up would be a lot of money. We would have to fund the cost of a lorry plus its insurance and a licence to drive it, storage for when it is not in use, the cost of an allotted space for the fair, and any other licensing to sell. I really think this business concept need to be simplified - the same thing seems to happen to all of our ideas where we have an idea and loads of different things keep getting added and it all spirals out of control. I think we need to simplify it a lot or think of a new idea altogether and restrict the different elements of it from the beginning. 

Could we narrow it down to just prints?
Just analogue media?