Learning about the Industry – Dean McLachlan

Today we met Dean, who is a wedding Photographer. When he first started out as a photographer, he wasn’t interested in focussing primarily on weddings in his profession, the idea never really appealed to him initially. He started out working as an apprentice for a high end wedding photographer, gradually working his way up to becoming a photographer himself. 9 Years later he was taking photos of products and most notably taking pictures of the dogs of Crufts. Eventually he found himself picking his clients more freely and becoming more of a pro in the field. In 2007 he bought his first professional camera and went into the wedding photography niche – over time he had learned to love the subject and spoke passionately to us about how much he loved photographing people and their emotions as opposed to stationary objects and scenery. Most recently he has been working alongside the Bath Rugby team, capturing scenes of the game and the more interesting aspects of the sport, not just the players and the ball, but the people watching and reacting. He’s not getting paid for this project but he knows that because he is a Bath based photographer, this is a fantastic opportunity to work for a more well-known organisation and as part of the project, a coffee table booklet with photos he has taken will be produced and that will be a good form of advertisement for him as a photographer and will hopefully get him by more potential clients interested in obtaining some photography work. Dean explained to us how most of his most recent work has come from the networking site, Twitter. He recommended us all signing up to the site (which is ironically what I did minutes before he came in!) it’s good for getting your name out to the industry as well as your work, for potential clients to see. Another thing Dean has done is advertised in a local photography magazine. The magazine is a not particularly well known one and is dedicated to very local photographers and Dean as a photographer is a lot more established in that field, and he explained his reasons for this were that he would “prefer to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond.” I can see where he is coming from in this aspect; people are more likely going to notice him than they would if he had a small article dedicated to him in a large ubiquitous magazine. He taught us the imperativeness of getting yourself known and really showing your passion for your field. Follow people on Twitter and get yourself a good website up and running. Realise the importance of your portfolio, to a client, you’re only as good as that. Also if you’re thinking about going into advertising yourself, it’s important to advertise according to your current scenario. If you’re just one person, its best to advertise locally as opposed to all over the country, you’re not Superman at the end of the day, you can’t manage all that work and all that travelling!

I’m a Twitter!

It was only a matter of time before I found myself on this website. I have followed quite a few of the relevant creative profiles as well as added a few of my colleagues as contacts. I’m hoping that I will be able to promote myself as a freelancer better on this online profile and hope that I may be able to network better between clients and other people in the same field as me.

Link to my Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/#!/AlexJamesParker

Networking Events, Work Placement

This Sunday, I shall be attending the Shepton Mallet Digital Arts Festival, where I will be attending a few talks and workshops, I’m not too sure on the specifics, I’ll let you all know how it went when it happens! Also there’s an iNet Networking event happening at the Square Club in Bristol next Tuesday which I might attend to, hopefully Max will be able to join me as I really don’t know Bristol very well! It’s also going to mean that I’ll have to miss one of the other lectures which should be ok so long as I can find out what I missed and catch up. It looks like it might be a formal event so I’d better dress appropriately!

I also emailed a whole bunch of Frome based businesses this morning and have heard word from the Rook Lane Arts Trust, saying they might be able to provide me with an intern opportunity which should be good as I need some work experience as part of this module and I will learn more about what happens in the design and arts industry and about running a business in general. They’ve asked if I can send them a CV which means I’ll need to crack on with that tonight!

Learning about the Industry – Andrew Fuller

Today we met Andrew Fuller, who is the creative director of Designbull, which is a design company which focuses primarily on making logos, brand identity and general design work. Andrew studied Graphic Design and Photography and eventually moved into Freelance designing. He enjoyed the freedom of being his own boss and quickly became a jack-of-all-trades working with a number of clients doing many different projects, he managed to find work by promoting himself through basic advertisement but usually he would get work through meeting the clients via networking. It’s an excellent way to promote yourself as a designer because you can earn people’s trust and friendship through communication in a casual environment. Even if you don’t get work straight away, you will still be in people’s minds and eventually something might come along in the future. When it came to dealing with clients, I learned that he would often make a sort-of questionnaire for the client upon the initial walkthrough where it would ask them suitable questions relating to what they want done, the image they want to promote and other details (however this method was probably less appropriate for the bigger companies you’d work for) the process helped him save time and get a more basic and understandable outlook on the project at hand. When it came to the matter of the costs of the work he was doing, he told us that he initially started out at a £10 an hour rate but as he became more prominent and started his own business (Designbull) he felt more comfortable charging a higher rate (Nowadays he charges around £60 an hour! But if he can get more he will try!) When pricing yourself, there are other costs that you need to consider in the final pay which is also important to look at, such as the materials used, printing costs, time consumption, brainstorming, also the knowledge of the subject. Also he explained that when he works with the payment, he would often charge 50% of the final costs up front and 50% after completion, so that if something bad happens, he walks away with some money for the work he has done. Andrew taught us some valuable lessons when working in the industry, he told us when it came down to clients, we must stick to our guns, that we should have standards when selecting, we should not say yes to every offer because in the long run it may not be worth it. He also taught us the value of networking and getting yourself known to the masses as it is the best way to get work in this industry if you don’t have unlimited funds to spend on advertisement. When finding images to use in logo work, websites etc, you’re better off using original photography as infringement of copywriting and plagiarism can become detrimental to your funds very quickly. Overall we should just set ourselves boundaries and values of which to stick by, but not so much as to prevent yourself working out an agreement between a client.

Learning about the Industry – Louise Myers

Louise was studying at Bath Spa last year working with a lot of animation based projects. She came in to talk to us more about the course we are on rather than go into her own career although she did bring in some of her work from when she studied last year. She showed us a CD with her stop-motion animation and some other animation projects from her colleagues. Many of the projects used a variety of animation types; we saw work in stop-motion, motion graphics and computer generated animation and it was interesting to watch them. She taught us many values regarding how to approach a brief/project. When choosing what project/client you choose, it’s important to choose concepts that you are interested in because you will naturally have more passion and when it comes down to brainstorming ideas, you should always try and spend a lot of time thinking of ideas as you will have a more wider and diverse selection to choose from, also looking at existing concepts in the field for inspiration is important.

Sounds of Frome Logo

Last Thursday I had prepared some logo designs to bring in to the Sounds of Frome shop. I brought in around ten different rendered designs and showed them to Tom. After a brief discussion on each design, he decided on one which he liked the best. He said that he would need to speak to his boss about it and that they'll contact me once they have reached a decision, things are looking good!

Here are some of the designs I submitted, the final one was the one he most preferred:

Learning about the Industry – Ben Derby & Joe Ashford

Today we met Ben and Joe who I learned had previously been on the same course as us, but had finished the Digital Design Foundation course as well as the Graphic Communication third year a few months ago.  Since then, they have paired up and co-founded their own design freelance company which they called ‘Purple Egg’. They basically prepared us for what it was going to be like in the third and final year of this course, should we decide to go for it. I now feel more informed about this year and am not dissuaded by the amount of work and effort needed for it. Along with that information, the duo also gave us some general tips for when you work/try to find work in the industry. One of the main factors about being a freelancer is the fact you have to constantly promote yourself. Go to expeditions, events, pick up leaflets, meet contacts and lots of general networking (maybe even start a Twitter account one day, god forbid!). Your personality is also an important factor and a client/contact will always appreciate someone who is positive, polite and enthusiastic. This can be accentuated with what you wear, how you present yourself and what you bring when you meet them. The Design industry is full of creative and casual people and thus, the need of looking overly formal is almost inappropriate (except in some cases – pitching for example), don’t feel you have to disconnect yourself with the client. They will open up to you if you’re friendly and humorous (within reason obviously), if you know the client’s name, don’t be shy to call him/her by that. Nobody will stop you if you were to bring a few sweet offerings to butter them up a bit as well! Keep business cards on you at all times and hand out when appropriate, enter competitions and get placements, everything you do will help you learn in the industry and prepare you for the possible issues you may face. The duo also taught us how to go about the current course we are on as they were once in our position. They told us to make sure we turn up to as many lectures as possible and to make use of the resources available to us. So get down to the library for solid primary research on anything and liaise regularly with our mentors. They are there to help!

Also, earlier this morning I also heard back from Sounds of Frome regarding a possible project with re-designing a logo for them. They would like me to come in for a chat tomorrow at around 10.30 and discuss how to approach this brief and have a look at some of the ideas I have made.