PROPOSED POSITION STATEMENT

I consider my self as a bit of a 'all rounder' of graphic design and want to work in a number of areas of graphic design. My main intrest would be design for music but i also want to work in a range of areas to gain knowledge and understanding in vaired areas of design.

1- I want to design in a large number of media's (digital+print), not limiting my self to one area will increase my knowledge and design skills.

2- I would like to use my design skills in the music industry, designing artwork for artist's and creating identity's for records labels.I would also like to work in the area of publishing and layout, again something in the music industry either with large major labels such as Def jam or Sony but also with smaller underground labels like Tempa or Cadenza who are pushing there selves in the music scene they are in.

3- I want to work with both small local privately owned business's and with large corporate business's, which will increase my knowledge of audience and clients.

4- I would like to work with international client's, this again will increase my understanding of different clients and audience's.

5- At this point in time i would like to work as a freelance graphic designer, working with a design agent.

6- I don't want to limit my slef to working in one area, so along side working closly in the music industry i want to be able to reach and design for a varied client base. A good exmaple of this would be Un.titled who i have referenced in my SWOT analysis who work with local institutions in there area and large corperate companys such as puma or nike.

7- I would also like to work with the area of fashion and clothing. Designing image or type for company's such as Crooks and Castle's, Electronic Poet, Stussy etc who use freelance designer's

8- I feel my own morals and veiw should not be present in the work i do. Instead i should be expressing the audience's or client's veiws even if i don't agree with them.

9- Working with a large number of clients will hopefully give me a good source of income and also a good professional reputation.

10- I feel that the best way for me to work with clients will be through personl selling and networking, this way i can understand what the clients wants throughly.

Task 4- Who else is out there - how good are they

I have decided to look at design agency's that are a interest to the area of work i would like to work in. These company's work both in design for digital and design for print. I have chosen a local company Impression DP who are based in Harrogate, Un.titled who are based in Leicester and have a international client base and finally bcreative who are based in skipton and work with a lot of local business's.

Impression DP

Strengths

- Work with both private sector and public sector providing experience with a large client base.
- Includes print management to make savings cost's for the client.
- Useful, clear information on different area's of website making it easier for the client to understand.
- 17 years of experience.

Weakness

- Not enough pictures of portfolio work.
- No pricing policy/info on design work.
- No website design portfolio.

Opportunities

- A more professionaly presented portfolio of work including context pictures.
- A piece of infomation on there price policy or a online quotation form.
- A web/digital design portfolio with client base.

Threats

- Clients could see the work showed in portfolio as a reflection on the design work.
- Clients could be intimidated about asking about price as there is nothing on the website about it.
- The client has no exmaple of web design so might dismiss the company as not doing webs design.

Bcreative

Strengths

- Offer design for all budgets
- A large about of useful relative information for the customer making for a better buisness experience.
- Make a point of using personal selling to create a trust with the client.

Weakness

- No portfolio of work available on the website, only as PDF.

Opportunities

- A Online portfolio available to view on the website rather than PDF.

Threats

- The interent, other conpetitors could steal the buisness.


Un.titled

Strengths

- Large international client base.
- Work with a number of media's including print,web, moving image and nbew technologies.
- A well presented large online portfolio, availible for a client to view.

Weakness

- No pricing policy or infomation about pricing.
- Just a uk based studio.

Oppurtunites

- Put something about pricing giving people to chance to compare prices with other company's.
- Open a studio in another country opening opportunites for more work with a different global client base.

Threats

- Currency movment may effect working in different country's this would have to be taken into consideration.

task 3

Task 3-How will I promote my self what do they want to hear?

Promotion-

I have used the marketing mix to show how I would promote my self if I were using my design skills as a freelance graphic designer. Some methods are not relevant to my practice.

Personal selling would be important for me as a designer, I could speak to clients face to face which would give my client a amount of trust and would also build a relationship with them. It also gives me chance to explain, persuade and negotiate.

I think one of he most important ways of promoting my self would be through direct marketing. This would consist of business cards and tailored mail shot portfolios. Selecting specific work and knowing my potential client will help me meet the needs of my client.

Along side a tailored portfolio selection (in the form of mail shots), I will also use a online portfolio in the form of a website that will contain representative work, contact details and my creative CV.

Place-

Again for place there are channels for distribution, which are not relevant for my practice such as wholesaler’s, or in this case a retailer.

The first distribution channel would be direct selling, this way I can talk to customers (after gaining clients through promotion.) one to one, which builds a rapport. Distributing my work this way maintains a competitive price and improves my margins, as there is no one taking a cut.

The opposite to direct selling would be a sales agents who would commission work on my behalf and take a cut of the profit. This would be beneficial, as the agent/agents will have many contacts in the industry that may become your clients. It also will increase my client base from just local or national clients, to Europe or the world-based clients, depending on the agent you select. For me the best part of having a sales agent would be, it gives you time to focus on the job and not worry about selling your work/product.

Lastly I think a design collective would be good way of gaining clients, It would not only give ME access to specific skills but would also give others the chance to use my specific skills for there needs.

Task 2 - Where are they/where will they find me?

As a earlier post i have used the process of segmentation to see how i could sell my products/skills as a free lance designer. I choose to look at two very different demographics to show again my choice about how i don't want to put my self in a box where i am only selling to one market. I am going to have to try and narrow my choice down a bit which is visible in my previous post.

I shall do the same segmentation process for the area of design i want to work also to see the difference.

Producing image for Electronic poet clothing label.

Demographics

A- C1

Strivers

Innovators

esteem seekers

18-30 mostly

Psychology

Hip and trendy

Appreciation for expense

Modern

Electronic music lovers

Geography

City dwelling

City working and socializing

Behavior

Height of fashion

Sense of exclusivity

Part of a group

Again this would be for a freelance purpose and would be useful to know so you can design something that will target the specific audience/consumer.

from looking about businessballs.com i found that the consumer who would be intrested in this product are known as:

aspiring singles & educated urbanites

I want to try and find out about how larger design agency's use this in there practice and see if they have a department that is specifically there for this purpose.

The information about demographics is also useful in the context of the work i produce in class and is a good point of reference for research. I will help me nail my target audience and see what they react to and how they behave towards certain things. This in turn will help create functional design.

Letting clients/employers know that your out there is a important factor and is mostly possible by creating relationships with them.

Letting employer's know that your out there is done by networking with companies, agencies and collective's by emailing, phoning, and meeting them. It will also help if your portfolio is relevant and up to date. It is also i good idea to gain work placements with company that you want to work with.

A good way of letting employers know your out there is by having a website with a online portfolio on it so they know your work and telling them about your website through email, business cards etc.

Working as a freelance graphic designer is slightly different, again having a online portfolio and website is a good idea but there is a lot more self promotion needed. You need to MAXIMISE your website so it one of the ones that comes up in the first pages of a web search engine.I think the same can be said about meeting people and creating relationships with them in a good way to get yourself work. For example if i wanted to do some of the work i talked about in the previous post i would go in to the shops i know would like my work and introduce my self have a good chin wag with the owner/staff and give them a business card with my details on it such a phone number, email and web address.

Task 1-who i am as a designer/who are my clients.

I am a graphic designer based in leeds northern england. I have a passion for music of all sorts and have gained contacts in the musical industry.

My main focus of work is in print but do feel there is a need to accompany print based work with digital media, I feel this is a area that i will have to look into and maybe collaborate with people on.

I tend to work with image and illustration. I also work with type and layout but in a way where the layout and type become image. I hope to create functional design that also has strong aesthetics. I also want to work in identify and branding and feel my image making skills would be use in logo design.

I would like to become a freelance designer after i have worked in house at a agency which will help me gain experience in the profession and will also help me gain contacts and clients.

So i have gathered that i am not someone who has many ethics or concerns about who i work for, I would be happy working for a large corporate company such as macdonalds or asda in a big world based design agency, but i would also be happy working for local small business's as a freelancer.

Examples of this would be people in the music industry (musician's, record labels, manager's),small clothing label's, independent clothing shop's, independent record shops etc.

This means that finding a demand for my skills will be hard as i have a broad view on employment, but with time i think i can produce high quality work that people will want and find useful.

Examples of Agency's and Designers who i take a interest in and the clients they work for are on my PPD blog which you can find here.

cost of living

This sheet was useful for me as i am not very good at controlling my money, It is interesting ( and scary) too see how much i spend over a year and what sort of money i will need to live comfortably after i have graduated.

Segmentation of a target audience

I chose to look at two ways in which i could sell my skills to people , creating art for a certain market and hat has a certain influence and style and the other creating a piece of design which could be used by a mass market and of a completely different demographic.

Selling Street Art-

Demographics

A - C1

Esteem seeker

Strivers

Innovators

Self actualizers

25-40

High disposable income

Psychology

Appreciate contemporary art

Gregarious and extrovert

Hip and trendy

Geography

Uk city (London,Brighton,Birmingham,Bristol,Manchester,Leeds,Liverpool,Glasgow,

Edinburgh etc.)

City dwelling

Modern city center apartments.

Behavior

Personal expression

Esteem

Investor

Selling Xmas Cards From A Stall On Skipton Market-

Demographics

C1 - E

Contented and conformers

Traditionalist's

Disconnected

Low disposable income

Psychology

Appreciate a bargain

Traditional views

Down to earth

Basic lifestyle

Geography

Uk ( tourist's)

Skipton

North and West Yorkshire

Behavior

Souvenir of visit

A bargain

Like of traditional aesthetics