A few months ago I was asked by a student from my year to make her a silk scarf from the print I designed for the Bradford Project based on the human form. I haven’t yet uploaded all my work from semester two, but here is one of my printed textile designs – I am rather pleased!
“Abstract Eddie on White” 2012
“Kwella Couture”
I am half way through reading “Rework” a book which says it will “change the way you work forever”, written by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. I am thoroughly enjoying reading it and sometimes I find it hard to put down, which is saying something for me!
Rework gives you a lot of advice on what and what not to do when starting, building and running a business. Some of the advice is the opposite of what you might think. For example, there is no point in having a huge business plan. “Planning is guessing.” They say that a big long plan, will just end up never being looked at again.
“Working without a plan may seem scary. But blindly following a plan that has no relationship with reality is even scarier.”
I just thought I would post up some of my notes which I have been taking, extracted from this book. I think a lot of the information will be very useful to me now and in the future.
“Limited resources force you to make do with what you’ve got.
There is no room for waste when you have limited resources and it forces creativity upon you.
“Make you part of the product or service. That way no one can copy.”
“Companies need to be specific to a type of customer than to one with changing needs.”
Find a target market!
I think this book has been really informative, makes a lot of sense and will be very helpful for my design and the market module.
I will leave you with one last quote, which I think is really inspiring. If you want to know more, I definitely recommend you read it.
“Pour yourself into your product and everything around your product too: how you sell it, how you support it, how you explain it, and how you deliver it. Competitors can never copy the YOU in your product.”
NESTA workshop 3, was based on book number 4 entitled “In It For the Long Haul.” Speaking to customers and staying in business, that’s what it’s all about!
Having read the book, it explains the marketing mix and the 7 p’s, the main elements of a marketing plan and financial modelling (which we haven’t touched on yet, that’s tomorrow’s surprise!)
The book emphasises that it is very important to understand the needs and desires of consumers, so I must establish their demands through market research. It is also very important to have a USP (unique selling point) as there is no point in putting a product on the market which no one wants or is too similar to something already out there. It made me think why would consumers want to buy from me? What’s so special about my product range which is better than everyone else’s? I am still thinking about that…
Pillow Talk by Little Riot LTD, is a great example of a USP. There is nothing like it on the market. The idea and product were created by a DJCAD graduate in Interactive Design.
Workshop 3 was all about marketing. It made me think more in-depth about how I would market my product: An interior and homeware print collection.
What is marketing?
It is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumers needs and wants profitably.
So last Friday, I sat down to think about the 7 p’s of the marketing mix. (At school there were only ever 4!)
My Product – Unique colourful interior and homeware designs, designed and made in Britain. My USP? Well…I am still thinking long and hard about that.
Place - Where do I sell my products? Online, retail businesses and maybe trade shows.
Price – A competitive price, just making sure I am making a profit of sorts. Thinking about costs, value, time and quality.
Promotion – Definitely spreading the word through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and My Space. Maybe in magazines such as interior, design and home mags. Also another very important promotional technique, especially if i am selling in retail stores would be point of sale displays. They must be eye-catching and draw in the customer. Leaflets may also be useful.
People – To start off with, there will definitely be no staff, unless I have a lot money to work with. I plan on being a sole trader, working alone and creating a good, reliable image for myself and my business. There will also be 100% high standards of customer service and customer care, as the consumers are the people who matter most! I will build loyalty and trust and if I ever employ staff/ interns I will treat them how I would expect to be treated.
Physical Environment – My studio space – will be well-kept, just in case I have visitors! As I said before, when selling my work, there will be nice POS and window displays.
I then moved on to the marketing plan. There are 6 main points to this…
My second Design and the Market workshop was based on the Nesta Toolkit Book 3: ‘Choosing Your Path.’ We covered a large amount of the topic in the time given.
We had to think about the types of customers who would be buying our products/services and why. We then looked at “Blue Print Modelling”, which is about looking at the different elements that make up a business and also “Relationship Modelling”, which are the stages you have to go through to make sure your product reaches your customers/clients.
Who are my customers?
The customer for an interior and home-ware collection, is fairly broad but I still wouldn’t say you can target anyone. I thought that the type of customer who would buy my products would be middle-class families/home owners, who are comfortable financially. Since my collection is going to be unique and not mass-produced (to start off with anyway) the price and the product are not exactly going to be what you’ll find in Home Bargains or maybe even Ikea.
I could also sell my products to retail businesses, who could have my collection in their store(s). I could make it an exclusive range to a certain retailer or retail chain…just a thought.
There is also the online customer, if I decided to go down that route. I could have a discounted range online, maybe to get more people interested.
What are the customers needs?
“Sell wants to needs.”
What am I offering them?
To find out whether my products are worth while and there is a need for them, I will have to do a lot of in-depth market research to get a definite answer and to establish whether people are willing to pay the desired amount of money for the product(s). That is what I will be doing over the summer!
The second exercise, “blueprint modelling” helped me to visualise how my business would function and how business will be done. The exercise was split into stages: ‘engagement,’ ‘development’ and ‘delivery.’
Engagement – Market Research, focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, customer research, advertising, networking, communication, exhibitions and trade shows.
Development – Brainstorming, designing, developing, printing, sourcing materials ( not in that order!) samples, mock ups and colourway samples.
Delivery – Design reviews, articles, adverts, sourcing suppliers, POS, networking, selling through retailers and online.
We then had to map out the steps we will need to take to deliver our product/service in a linear flow diagram. (Below)
Last but not least “Relationship Modelling.” This involved looking at how I am going to deliver my products to my customers. This is very similar to the steps above. There are four categories…
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The first Design and the Market workshop, run by Lindsey Gardiner, took place last Friday at DJCAD. As I said in my previous post we are working our way through the NESTA Toolkit. This will help us to plan, start-up and maybe eventually run our own creative businesses. The first workshop was about “Evidence Modelling” and SWOT Analysis from book two of the toolkit.
The first exercise, “Evidence Modelling”, was about envisioning my business (a home-ware and interior textiles collection) in the future and where it should be heading. It makes you think about the successes and the benefits of your business but also possible things that could go wrong.
There are four sections to fill in, each one asking the entrepreneur a question. These were…
1) Enhance – What does it bring new value to?
2) Replace – What does it make less desirable?
3) Revive - What does it bring back that was redundant?
4) Backlash – What could be the negative effect when pushed to extremes?
These were my answers…I decided do draw mine out as a mind map…
Enhance – New, original designs. British designs – helps the economy. Quality. Unique. A collection – so there is variety in what customers can buy. Brightens up people’s homes.
Replace – Cheap mass-produced products. Other competitors brands.
Revive – Craft. Exclusive range. Not mass-produced.
Backlash – Costs. Competition. Working Alone. Marketing. Target Market. No funding.
The second exercise was to carry out a SWOT Analysis. We had to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our business and the external opportunities and threats that could occur. I found that some of these were the same as the evidence modelling exercise and I felt there was a crossover for both the exercises.
The workshop was useful and it made me think more in-depth about the pros and cons of running a business. I have however, done some of these tasks before.
Last but not least, we had to think about “fake evidence.” Were we see our product/service to be advertised and sold. I would love to have my textile designs and products in shops such as John Lewis. That would be my dream come true! It would be nice for my collection to be advertised in a magazine such as Country Living or Elle Decor. Just a vision for now, though! My next task is to draw up some ‘fake evidence’.
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I am now working on assignment two of Design and the Market which is a 2000 word business enterprise proposal, due in April, so thankfully I have a bit of time to research!
First things first, I have to come up with a business idea. We were asked last week to write a mission statement explaining our enterprise. Last week, I was still a little undecided about what I wanted to do, which I think is quite common for some people at this stage at university, but I did have a rough idea. There are many things I would like to do but after spending this morning in the Furnishing Fabrics department in John Lewis, I have definitely made up my mind! In fact, I am now really determined!
My business idea is to design and create an interior and homeware label. I would love to see my designs one day in places such as John Lewis. I want to brighten up people’s homes with my unique, practical and colourful designs.
We are using the NESTA Toolkit as a resource to help us to plan and start our creative businesses. I have been working my way through book one and two and all the worksheets.
One of the first things I did was identify the values which I see as being important and not so important when running a business. I tried to narrow these down to 5 in each section. By the time I am actually running my business, I am sure they will have changed slightly!
1) Values which are always important… Honesty, Responsiblity, Respect, Creativity, Reputation and Profit.
2) Sometimes Important… Co-operation, Innovation, Independence, Time/freedom and Change and Variety.
3) Rarely Important… Physical challenge, Meaningful work, Intellectual status, power and authority and wisdom.
4) Never Important…Fame.
I did find this worksheet quite confusing as it depends on how you define things.
On Friday I attended our first Design and The Market workshop run by Lindsey Gardiner where we looked at Evidence Modelling and SWOT Analysis. More about that coming soon…
Thought I would give you an update about my studio work…
My Bradford competition work has been successfully completed (and is being entered into the competition!) and I am now working on a new project. This one has been written by the Society Of Dyers and Colourists. The project has to be based on a trend forescast for 2012/2013 and we must really focus on COLOUR. I have chosen a trend predicted for this summer entitled “Walkabout” a palette inspired by nature, the desert and natural elements. The colours include brown-based neutrals, nutmeg, grey/brown, off whites, yellows, light turquoise, rusty oranges and light reds. These sit well together on natural, lightweight and textured fabrics such as: leathers, suede, worn distressed denims and washed linens. The rich colours are inspired by cave paintings and textiles from Africa and the Middle East.
So for the past week or so, I have been doing a lot of contextual research, source drawing and photography. Keeping the colour forecast in mind, I have chosen to use the beach as my inspiration. I have been looking closely as rock formations and the natural pattern of sandstone, pebbles and rocks on the beach. I have also been taking photos of the ripples and patterns in the sea. Basically I am exploring natural patterns!
Drawings and development pieces will be on my Flickr soon no doubt. So keep your eyes peeled!
My last post about Judy R Clark, the designer we have been researching for the Design and the Market module, was fairly short and sweet, as I didn’t want to give too much away before our presentation! Now the presentation is over, I thought I would post up more of our research.
As a group, we decided to separate our research into “Judy R Clark’s 7 Steps to Success” which we thought were good points that she mentioned when having your own design business.
Here they are…
1) “Start Creating Jobs For Yourself.”
Judy R Clark graduated from Heriot-Watt University in 2006 with a first class honours degree. Shortly after she decided to move back home, to save money and concentrate on trying to sell her work in various Scottish boutiques. As well as this, she signed up to the Highlands and Islands business course, which provided her with opportunities to attend networking events, exhibitions and arranged fashion events. During this time she met Sandra Murray MBE at a fashion exhibition and she kindly took her on as an intern for one year. Still striving for bigger and better, Judy applied for countless internships with Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood and after many rejections she was accepted to Alexander McQueen, when her idea to illustrate the bottom of her CV attracted their attention. Judy commented that her internship with McQueen taught her primarily how to run a successful studio, how to co-ordinate people and work as part of a team.
“This is something you really have no idea about until you experience it.”
Judy worked as a textile designer for McQueen creating fabrics for swatches or colour ways and producing mood boards. She said she would go back again in a heartbeat but that we shouldn’t underestimate the hard work involved in working for a big design house. “You would spend a full day there, mostly standing. It was pretty gruelling.”
It’s interesting how as soon as Judy finished her internship she left the hub of London and moved back to Scotland. She has since set up her own studio space in Edinburgh and is establishing herself as one of Scotland’s best up and coming designers.
2) “It’s not a major operation it’s just me in a room”
Many people who interview Judy in her studio arrive with big expectations. They don’t seem to realise that being a new designer can mean working long hours on your own locked up in a room. Judy mentioned that it can sometimes make you feel isolated and that’s not very inspirational, but it’s just part of building up her business. However she tries to make the studio space itself inspiring, filling it with vintage objects, materials, sketches, and mood boards which give it a creative atmosphere. Often found lying in amongst all her nic nacs are her 2 cats called Vivienne and Westwood and they also help keep her company when she’s working long hours.
Judy’s success has led to a busy few years with many projects and exhibitions to organise, as well as keeping her business ticking over. But why is she doing everything on her own? She could have interns but she said but it’s hard to know whether there what she’s looking for or even whether they’ll get on. She’s really not keen on working alongside other fashion designers either because when they’re using the same inspirations they can start to come up with very similar ideas and Judy loves her creations to be unique.
Then how is she managing it all own her own? Judy admits she would not have been able to start-up at all without winning the NESTA founding, called Starter for six and the JOLOMO award. She learned a lot of what she knows about business from NESTA support, where she got lectures on things like cash flow and yearly projections, something I think we all accept at this stage we know nothing about. She jokes as long as you keep all your invoices extremely organised and can bribe a friend to help you, you’ll be fine. Nesta provides you with enough money to start-up but she says she would advise us to try to not to spend so much money when just starting out. After Nesta she entered the JOLOMO award, an award set up by the artist John Lowrie Morrison to encourage and recognise young emerging talent. She said she was completely broke before JOLOMO so has always described it as the stepping stone to her career.
3) “Who’ll wear it? Well I’ll wear it!”
When asked to describe her niche in a few words Judy said, distinctly modern, with a theatrical edge, Harris tweeds juxtaposed with exquisite Nepali silks and of course tailoring. Her inspiration she admits is largely from historical garments and her love of TV show house of Elliot , she commented that “I once spent about five hours in the V&A in London just looking at the costumes and dresses.‘ You can see this influence in her work along with inspiration from her world travels to exotic places. It’s the combination of these aspects that makes her work so eclectic. She describes her audience as “eccentric wearers,” someone who loves “bespoke style”.
In 2009 her unique style was noticed by New York’s fashion elite, when she was invited, as a top Scottish designer to showcase her work in ‘Dressed to Kilt’ in New York. She managed to nearly sell out her entire collection within a few days of arriving, fashionistas lapping up her classic yet contemporary Harris Tweed creations.
She was described as ‘a great ambassador for Scottish fashion’ and invited back for future years.
Dressed to kilt was all about a celebration of everything she stands for, she wants to keep her look fresh without conforming to changing fashion trends and this is probably easier because of her timeless historical influences. When asked who’ll wear it she said assertively, “well I’ll wear it!” This shows her complete confidence in her work and her unwillingness to change her ethos for anyone! She has a passion for what she does and she does it the way she wants!
Because of this she has been given some great opportunities, recently getting the opportunity to design a dress for Fords centennial year. The challenge was to make the dress out of car parts, from car keys to rear lights to seat covers. Even when working with this unusual material she has retained her use of crinolines and historic style. Making the jacket out of a car seat cover with movable speedometer, so you can choose how fast you want to go. The dress has been a talking point all over the world, being featured in Marie Claire, The Sydney times and USA today, even Jeremy Clarkson has blogged about it!
4) “It’s all about the networking”
A point that came up time and time again whilst chatting to Judy was the importance of networking. Our own design and the market module puts a great emphasis on creating a professional online presence for yourself, to raise your profile and create useful connections. Judy would see other designers updating blogs or making connections via twitter and think why am I not doing that? If you are not promoting yourself online there is a whole world of business you are missing out on. Judy maintains a blog, along with Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to connect with her market. She describes social media applications as a direct link of communication with customers, investors and anyone else of interest, giving them a much better insight into her working life and creating a personal connection. Social networking has also helped her reach out to a global marketplace that would not have been available to her otherwise.
When it comes to physically going out and networking with other designers at events and shows Judy insists you must be strict with yourself, “push yourself to go to everything” were her words of advice, even if you don’t like it or don’t speak much, you were there. After graduating and moving back home to Fort William, Judy exhibited in local exhibitions, entered into trade shows and attended every event she could. As a result she has good friends and connections in Scottish design circles who she says are like a community to draw help and support from when needed, even if it is just someone to accompany her to yet another event. Judy is also registered with Textiles Scotland who provide information on what events are on and where. However it’s up to you to make the effort and remember a casual acquaintance made at an event could prove invaluable later on in your career.
5) “Well there only drinking wine”
Judith is an incredibly motivated and driven young woman, with numerous awards and nominations to prove it. And the secret to her success; a deep-rooted sense of self-belief. To Judith the most important thing you can do when setting out in business, before knowing about cash flow, or technical skills or even the techniques behind what you are selling, is a true belief in yourself and what you want. Without it you wont get very far.
Knowing the right people, and knowing how to get to the right people has also been a very useful tactic in her success. And this is how the Spencer collection came about. She met someone who put her onto Colin Gilchrist and from an interview he did with her the offer to work with them arrived a month or two later. So it can be a case of it’s who you know, not what you know. The Spencer project was to create a new women’s wear range for their clothing label. She said the with the first collection of the Spencer range she had to make small compromises, toning down her designs but keeping hints of her unique style throughout. This was a tactical compromise she said as usually she preaches against creative compromise commenting “Never compromise, like I say, believe in what you do and stick to your guns. If you think it’s great then that is enough”.
If the Spencer collection did well there was a view to future sponsoring by the company and therefore perhaps a bigger studio and even a small workforce. Not something she likes doing but she knows that once the label is established and recognised she can start to really make it her own. This self-belief applies to everything related to her business.
Such determination in her work life goes hand in hand with sacrifices in her social life. She often finds herself declining invites to parties or social gatherings in favour of a few more hours sewing or attending a networking event. When this happens, Judith simply reminds herself “Well they are only drinking wine, I’m not really missing out on that much”. This sort of perspective has helped her throughout her career.
6) “What’s Next on the TO DO list.”
When asked ‘thinking back 5 years ago did you think then that you would be where you are today?’ Judy said she would not have dreamed that she would have done as well as she has. She commented that when you do budget projections etc you don’t believe you can make that amount of money, but you can! Judy has realised that she is catering to a broad market of mostly 30-60 year olds who have a larger disposable income, after showcasing along side Alison Macleod of Tiger Textiles at the A-List charity Fashion Show ‘Dressed to Kilt’. She also found there was a bigger market for her bespoke couture in New York, as people there have a lot of appreciation for her work and MORE MONEY TO SPEND. She has in the past sold jackets for £400 to students who seem to have spent their whole student loans just to buy a piece of her designs and she ahs even had people buy her garments as artwork to hang on their walls.
Judy said although she is proud of her achievements, she is never satisfied and that every achievement must be followed by another. Like her recent exhibition in Urban Outfitters in Glasgow where she explored the design story of the world-famous fabric, that is very close to her heart, Harris Tweed. One thing she hasn’t done yet is London Fashion Week. People don’t fully understand how strict the criteria is; that you must have a certain amount of stockist’s and have a certain turnover. She said she would Love to go but its impossible at this stage as she needs to expand but its next on her to do list and hopefully she’ll make it there next year!
To expand the business the first step would be to hire another person simply to tackle her ever-growing workload, she has also said that she knows she will eventually need to move the business to London as this is the creative capital of Britain and it would lead more opportunities her way. In the future she would ideally like to run her own design house with a workforce, massive collections and shows in Paris, London and all over the world.
7) “Don’t be a fashion bitch”
With a number of successions already under her belt, it could be easily forgiven to get caught up in the fame and fortune of her continual accomplishments, but for Judy, it is her down-to-earth, realistic attitude that has shaped her into one of Britain’s most inspirational young designers.
She is dedicated to her work, admitting that the Judy R Clark production was just her, her two cats and a small studio space. “Work really hard”, was her advice for prospering within the fashion industry. Her drive to succeed is underpinned by her faith in her own creativity, saying “believe in what you are doing is great, even if you seem to be the only one who agrees, still believe!” She is an advocate for self belief, which seems to be what keeps her motivated and an aspiring entrepreneur.
When asked what would be her one thing for graduates and new designers starting up to bear in mind, her answer was simple and clear: “It’s your business, you have the answers”.
It is Judy’s self assured attitude that has propelled the triumphs that she has reached in her work. “Push, push, push” and “be determined” she insists. “You shouldn’t be apologetic when being asked questions about your business”. She has a steadfast outlook on her own enterprise, saying that even if no one else will wear her designs, “I’ll wear it”.
Judy’s unpretentious approach to her work and work ethic are what make her successes come to light. She is clear and concise in her attitude toward communicating what she wants for herself and her business saying “remember when speaking that everyone else is just normal like you” and argues that anyone who wasn’t, wasn’t worth having your time anyway.
Last week was a long, hard-working week but actually quite enjoyable. I have been so busy, I just haven’t had the time to update my blog about my 1st Design in the Market research project about Scottish womenswear designer, Judy R Clark. As I mentioned in my previous post, 2 girls from my group went down to Edinburgh to interview Judy.
After the interview, we had a lot of useful information about Judy, her work, her experiences after university and the running of her design business. We learned a huge amount from her and we presented our research on Friday (24th) at The University Of Dundee.
We sorted out all the research we had into points. Each point was a piece of advice given by Judy about running a design business. This led to the title of our research project: “Judy R Clark’s 7 Steps To Success.”
1) “Start Creating jobs for yourself.”
2) “It’s not a major operation, It’s Just me in a room.”
3) “It’s all about the networking”
4) “Who’ll wear it? Well, I’ll wear it!”
5) “They’re only drinking wine.”
6) “What’s next on the TO DO list.”
7) “Don’t be a fashion B*tch.”
(I’ll explain each step in my next post.)
Using the 7 steps, we decided to create a collage on a wall space in the textile design studio, displaying all the research we had gathered about Judy and her business. We then took photographs of each section to be used on the slides in our Powerpoint presentation. It turned out to be a very nice touch in the end!
I thought it would be nice to share the making of our wall collage!
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My next post will be all about our research into Judy
