So - the end of my second week of 'Creative Futures', and I decided to just write a short overview of the whole week.
Although I enjoyed several of the lectures last year, this year I think I got a lot more out of them. I found more that seemed relevant and/or appealed to me, and had no trouble picking out at least 3, every day, that I felt might be of some use . I am just really disappointed that thanks to the 'physioterrorist', I missed near enough one full day.
The sheer amount of incredibly useful information I noted down from several of the lectures was a real bonus. I have a whole lot of avenues that I intend to pursue - from websites that I'd previously never heard of, that I can see could be of huge potential use in business or photography, through to information about things like the Go Wales Freelance Course.
A couple of factors came out very strongly, over several lectures -
* The importance of networking - and how to facilitate this. Its clearly an incredibly useful tool/skill to have, and well worth putting in the effort and following the tips given.
* The use of social web sites - so many advised using all the sites out there, and to quote Violet Fenn, to 'cross pollinate' - post links back to you (or rather, your work) on them all - its a major way to advertise what you do. Blogs seem to be an especially important tool and there were a lot of tips on how to use blogs to the best advantage.
*Getting good solid business advice on all the 'boring' business stuff - tax, insurance, ect - not only why its necessary, but how best to access it.
* Going back to Marisse's lecture on the T shaped designer. OK, so although that term wasn't used, time and again the importance of being able to collaborate, and of have some knowledge of, or being prepared to learn about and work with other fields, came across loud and clear. In today's market, its clearly a business model that is sought by a lot of companies, and one which can increase your chances of success.
For me, there were 3 lectures that stood out as being the most useful -
'Copyright - What you need to know', Janet Jones - last year, copyright as regards photography was mentioned briefly ( and more or less dismissed as not important) in one lecture - this whole lecture gave me a wealth of information that I know is both relevant and useful. And, it was clearly and well delivered .
'Creativity in the Real World - How I make a Living from Death' - Violet Fenn - I attended this lecture just on the grounds that with a title like that, it was bound to be interesting - and Oh, boy - it was. But what it also was, was chocked full of very well delivered, no nonsense, common sense, useful information on so many aspects of running a business, that could be applied across several genre's. It had me thinking about different ways to approach things, and opened up a whole new area of potential commercial opportunities, that are out there, and relatively easy to access and use .
'Life in the AfterWorld as a Freelance Artist (photography) - Alison McClean - an almost unbelievable amount of practical information, advice and tips. There was a very useful set of lists of the organisations and resources that are available, many of which I had never heard of - but many of which I am pretty sure I will follow up and utilise in the future . The advice given, whilst not an easy option in any instance, was still advice that is relatively uncomplicated to follow, and there was clearly put reason behind everything she suggested.
I'm not going into the lectures I didn't think that much of - I think the blogs I've written on them say pretty much everything - its just nice that there were so few of them !
Its slightly scary to think that there will be only one more Creative Futures week for me, before I graduate - thinking of that has made me realise how important it is for me to absorb and apply everything I've learned so far , and I am very appreciative of the fact that year, there was a massive amount of useful information and advice, that I can honestly see me making use of .
Tuesday 13 March 2012
ARD504 - Creative futures - day 3 and 4.
Day 3.
Day 3 was, unfortunately, a complete wash out - I had to attend a physio session, which caused me to miss the first two lectures of the day - I made it into the 3rd lecture, but was in considerable pain after being pummelled and kneaded, and half way through, I had no choice but to leave - I think maybe I should have taken the physio's advice, and rested for the day . I do have some notes from the part of lecture I was able to attend , and think that there is just enough there for me to give a little feedback .
Working with and in Art Galleries -Oriel Davies - Amanda Farr, Director of Oriel Davies
Amanda began by explaining that she was going to look at the way people work within galleries, based on the model of The Oriel, which is situated in Newtown, Powys.
She went on to explain the aims of the Oriel -
*To connect people with art in the local area
*To provide opportunities for Welsh and International artists
*To provide a centre for Contemporary art and culture.
She added that the Oriel has around 9000 visits per year, including repeat visits.
The Oriel is an independent public art gallery - i.e., NOT run by the local council. Its not a commercial gallery, but a registered, non-profit charity. Some funds are raised from the shop and cafe, and these are invested back into the gallery.
It owns no art collection, but has a large amount of exhibition space. Its main reasons fro 'being' are to exhibit art, and for education. It organises tour exhibitions is collaboration with other galleries. Its governed by a board of up to 12 trustee's, all of whom give their time freely and tend to stay on the board for around 3 years - its made up of a panel of people who have expertise in area's like finance, legal, retail and marketing, and they hold 3 monthly meetings .
Amanda then went to explain the different types of work opportunities and roles that exist within the gallery.
Educational work - artists are brought in by the board to work with local students.
The roles within the gallery are divided into different departments:
Visitor services - retail, house manager, guides
Programmes - curator, education and marketing officers
Operations - building, technical, caretaker
Financial management
Additional Operations - cafe
The Artistic Director oversees everything .
She went on to talk about some of the off site projects that the gallery organises for example, artist Steve Messam created this 'wool' covered piece, called 'Clad'
Sadly, she reports that the building used for this work was later destroyed by fire.
Amanda said they also run training programmes for young curator groups - these last for several months and culminate in the students involved putting on an exhibition.
The age range of students runs from 15 to 24
Poster advertising one of the Young Curator exhibitions.
It was at this point that I reluctantly had to leave the lecture. My main reason for attending was simply that I enjoy visiting galleries and exhibitions and I was curious to find out a little more about what goes into the running of them - And, as several lectures have rammed home the point about the importance of collaboration, and about being able to work with a variety of creative people, as being advantageous, I felt it would maybe prove to be beneficial at some stage in the future, if I had just a little idea of the work involved in galleries and exhibitions. Although I was only able to stay for around half of the lecture, it was well delivered and interesting, and I do feel I learnt at least a little about the subject.
Day 4.
The Chip Shop Story (Or was it Visions?) _ Andy Cheetham.
Firstly, please excuse the confusing title - I approached the lecture, expecting to attend 'Visions' - was told the lecturer had swapped the two lectures he was doing round, and it would now be 'The Chip Shop Story' - but once inside the lecture, after a somewhat convoluted explanation by Andy Cheetham, I was left not quite sure which lecture I was attending ! I suspect it was 'Visons' after all, being as there was neither a reference to a 'chip shop', nor any explanation of the lectures title .
Andy left Glyndwr in 1986. In 1992, he and his partner Bell, started the CheethamBell advertising agency. This merged with JWT Manchester in 2001, to become CheethamBell JWT. 2012 is their 20th year in business, and they are mainly involved in TV advertising.
There then followed a 'showreel' of 20 examples of the advertising that the company had been responsible for, over the last several years.
First up was an add for Umbro, advertising the new England kit - the company based the advert around the film 'The Great Escape'. Following this came a sample of the adverts they had created for Vimto - this campaign ran for around 8 years, and were based around the poems written by Purple Ronnie.
I actually remember these ads!
Andy continued with the show reel, featuring commercials they had done for Phones4u, where he also talked about the responsibility of delivering the goods, no matter what the size of the budget; Then Lemsip, United utilities, Benefit fraud - here he talked about how you have to be creative to negotiate restrictions - the ads were supposed to warn people off committing benefit fraud, but no threats could be used - so they used a 'menacing voice', instead. CheethamBell came up with the tag line 'Lambrini Girls', obviously for Lambrini and he talked about how they had even created a 'dance' as part of the publicity campaign. They were also responsible for the Kellogs tag line 'Drop a Jean size' - Kellogs were not allowed to claim the cereal as a diet food, but wanted to imply it - the tag line was the way CheethamBell accomplished this. ChicagoTown Pizza's, John West, Century Radio - there is no doubt that the agency have had an impressive client list.
Then we came to numbers 17 and 18 on the list.
Number 17 was a campaign they created for the work clothing firm 'Scruffs' - Scruffs wanted a very near the knuckle approach, that couldn't be used on the TV - so Cheethambell came up with the idea of a campaign based around them making a DVD of basically a short, soft porn film that was to be given away, free, with purchases of the clothes . We were given the option of leaving the room, if we felt that we would be offended by the film, and as I am not easily offended, I decided to stay - it was pretty dire, to be honest - embarrassing more because it was so bad - not even 'good' soft porn! (Well, not unless you have the mentality of a 12 year old boy, I would imagine!) . I've swithered about writing what I'm going to say next, but in for a penny - I was more perturbed by the speakers attitude after we had seen this clip. One of the actresses in the film was a trainee teacher at the time, and presumably short of cash, which is why she agreed to be in it. Later, when a teacher at a 'rather good' school, the video resurfaced on 'youtube', and caused her no end of problems. Now, choosing to 'star' in a film like that is a pretty dumb choice if you are training to work in a field like teaching, in my opinion, but hey - we all make stupid decisions at some time. But the cavalier attitude shown by Andy was a little unsettling - he seemed to think the grief she got was pretty amusing, and wasn't even sure how the matter had been resolved for the teacher involved (Though he thought it was all 'OK', eventually) . I wonder if she knows that this film is being paraded in University lectures - and if she knows the creator of it is still having a chuckle at her expense? Andy spent quite a lot of time talking about this particular campaign - for the life of me, I can't think why !
Number 18 actually really annoyed me - a commercial for Gamestation, built around a stereotypical image of a Mum who clearly is incapable of understanding anything at all technical or games related, and can't even get the words and terminology right . . . I'll stress that I am not a militant feminist, though I believe in equality - BUT, I wonder if any of the incredibly talented Female games students that we have at Glyndwr would have been amused by this ad?
In my notes, at this point, I quoted what Andy said immediately after showing these two clips - he said that he is "very proud of what we've done" - in brackets after, I've written my response - "Really????" - I think that about sums it up.
Another couple of ads followed, and the lecture was running over by about 15 minutes by the time I left. I'm going to try and be fair in summing this up. There is no doubt that Cheethambell is a highly successful firm, I'd seen many of the examples shown on the reel several times on TV in the past. In terms of relevancy or useful info - well, there were some examples of the sort of problem solving involved in advertising, but not a lot else. Despite this, the lecture ran on and on and on - which was annoying, but bearable - until we got to the porn film and the rather patronising and sexist ad for Gamestation . The overwhelming feeling I got as I walked out, was slight shock, that such a laddish attitude is still so evident in a profession where you would think that that sort of nonsense has long since been dispelled.
Life in the Afterworld as a Freelance Artist (Photography) - Alison McClean.
Alison graduated in 2010, and is owner of The PhotoFoundry
The PhotoFoundry
Alison ran her own business providing financial services for 15 years, before a career change to a becoming a public Speaker, and Martial Arts teacher.
The first part of the lecture, she titled 'Birth' - this was the point where she decided to 'chuck everything in' and return to university to study Creative Lens Media . She said she just wanted to learn, and advised us to make the most of every opportunity that comes our way - to get into the studio and 'pester' the tutors and techs for information on how to use the lights and so on, to take advantage of the knowledge we have around us, and to tackle our dissertation early in the Summer holidays so that our last year can spent on doing the work we enjoy - all very relevant advice .
The next section she titled 'After Birth' and basically was about her life as a graduate, what worked for her - and what didn't. In her case, she says having a 'break' after she finished studying, to re-charge, worked for her, but that might not be the case for everyone - she said that if you do take a break like she did, or even in thecearly stages of setting up a business, its a good idea to work part time - just to see you through financially, either whilst you decide what to do or whilst you are getting a business off the ground .
Her first piece of advice about starting a business was getting a website, and she had a good list of tips, resources and information for us.
*Think about the name of your website - a good resource is 'namesco.co.uk', to check out if the name is used elsewhere.
*Look at free websites, e.g. 'carbonmade'
*Wor5k with a graphic Designer to create the site - maybe exchange services, with a fellow student who has the expertise, if finances are tight .
* She talked about the importance of grammar and spelling on your website - she suggested using 'Ghotit.com - poor spelling and grammar look unprofessional.
*Get a friend to look over the site - not someone who will tell ou its 'great' just because they are nicve, but someone you can trust to give constructive feedback and criticism.
*Look for simplicity and a 'clean' look to your website .
*Improve 'traffic' to your site by using video, links to blogs and other social network sites, tags - if there is video content on your site, it can generate up to SIX times more hits.
*Encourage interaction on your site - offer some freebies and competitions, provide encouragement for people to come and look, and take part .
* Keep your website up to date !
Alison then talked about the importance of Business Cards, and again, provided us with some useful guidelines.
*Think about your branding and how its presented on the card.
*Get as good a quality as you can
*Make it uncluttered, so the information potential customers need is easy to zoom in on.
*Consider postcard size - for a photographer, these are very useful, as you can include snapshots of your work.
*Check out 'Moocards'
*Futureproof - including dates onthe card - for example, information on special offers or competitons with a 'ends by date' gives the cards a 'short' useful life.
Spreading the Word - ways to publicise and generate work -
'Word of Mouth'
You need to get over any reluctance to or coyness about saying what you do - confidence goes a long way. Take your camera with you, wherever you go - its a conversation starter at events and so on.
Use your family, friends, colleagues, fellow students, referrals.
Professionalism - you have to be professional - under promise - but over deliver.
Don't rely just on web sites - get out there, to events, festivals, galleries.
Social media - use it! twitter, Face book, Blogs, Flickr, Pintrest - link everything, use google plus, linked-in (A professional network) - Alison said that Blogs, especially, are the way forward.
Networking - got to Exhibits, graduation networking events, look at 'Fusion' (the Foundry in Wrexham), events, go to the Chamber of commerce, the pub - and Redeye.
She gave us a list of groups to look at and become involved with to help us start out - Redeye, Welshoot images.eo.uk (these run workshops, at a cost of around £20), local Camera Clubs, 'Photernative (Fine arts group for photographs, interested in alternative products); Insideout Art Group, Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, Blank media collective in Manchester, and Ffresh.
Her next advice was on how to keep being inspired - use Twitter, Redeye, Welshot, get involved in collaborations, Look at the the Art House co-op (a website - all free or minimal costs, lots of projects going on), Eager (Dutch company, sets photography projects), and keep a file of all your idea's - you never know when one will inspire or be useful at a later date.
Continuing Professional Development.
Keep up with -
*Redeye or similar
*Current trends
*Photography skills
*Competitions
*On-line magazines
And when going into business,
*Zone
*Tax and business courses
*Have a business bank account
*Go on Moneysavingexpert
*Keep accounts
*Get Insurance
The wealth of solid, sensible, useful information in this lecture was fantastic - and it was delivered clearly and in a really interesting way - Alison was down to earth and approachable, and the fact that she was speaking from extremely relevant and recent experience added validity to all the advice she gave. Photographically, I found this the most useful lecture of the week, and I am really glad that I attended it.
Show Passion In Your Next step (photography and video) _ MinimalMedia.
Minimalmedia are a group of 3 students who graduated from Glyndwr last year (2011) . All 3 are photography/media based - and all 3 are absolutely passionate about what they do.
The 3 members are -
Graham cooper - his main interest is film, studied at Yale to develop his film skills. He started a business in 2007,which folded after 5 months, so went to Glyndwr - where he met the other 2 members of the team.
Hollie Harmsworth - originally came from a fine arts background, and started to study fine arts at Chester - but it wasn't for her. She dropped out, and in a change of direction, did her HND - and liked the film side. Came to Glyndwr because the creative side being offered alongside the technical side was really appealling.
Alan Whitfield - his main genre is photography. Previously, he worked for 10 years in a factory - he returned to education, firstly at GCSE level, then A level, HND, then Glyndwr.
Alan spoke first, about the lows and the highs of getting to where he is now - the main piece of advice he had was to not let yourself be pigeon holed - just keep going and try new things, don't say know just because its not where you think you want to go.
Graham then talked about the necessity of not turning work down - he was asked to film an agricultural show, which didn't appeal at all - but he went, he did it - and got a lot of work off the back of it. he said its just as important to get experience as it is to ge a good grade - having a good portfolio and show treel is vital.
They then talked about Professional Development.
Alan spoke first, advising us to take anything that comes our way - its all experience. Accept that sometimes you just have to deliver exactly what is wanted in any brief given - even if you have ideas of your own, the ability to give the customer just what they want is important.
Hollie told us to make out own opportunities, and spoke about learning to work with others on briefs and so on.
Graham reiterated the importance of grabbing and creating opportunities - and said be prepared to push, to make contacts, especially with local companies.
"Resonance made us Believe"
Alan spoke about how they were approached by a 'guy' who wanted to make a film called 'Resonance' - Alan agreed to produce, and it snowballed with him being involved with a host of different things - team selection, auditions. he said its worth taking the initiative to get involved with other projects.
he also at this point reiterated what so many speakers have said this week, emphasising using social network sites, blogs, advertising tools - "network, network, network". he talked about the necessity to be hard working and passionate.
Graham added that 'Resonance' was the vehicle that brought them all together, in the sense that it made them realise how well they worked as a team.
He also added that owning their own equipment had proven to be of huge benefit.
Alan then spoke about using 'Go Wales Freelance Academy and Workshops' - this is the second time this week that I've heard this mentioned as a really positive and useful thing to take part in, and I certainly intend to follow this up.
Graham carried on with the 'story' of 'MinimalMedia' he talked about how the 3 decided to join forces and create their own company, and described how finding the right name was really difficult.
Like Alison before, the 3 had business advice to give - they said we need to consider tax (check out the HMRC website) and insurance implications, look at the different types of company we could become involved in - limited, sole trader, for example - as each carry different implications. They also reminded us that currently, if you intend to do any work with children, you need to apply for and have a CRB check.
Graham then spoke about having a good showreel as part of your portfolio - he said make it varied, so it showcases all your talent and achievements.
He then talked about how difficult it can be to learn how to approach people - personal contact is better, and more professional, than e mail and texts, especially for an initial approach in business. Gaining the confidence to do this isn't easy, work experience of any/every kind helps, and it does get easier with practise. Meeting people in person forms bonds - it matters. Additionally, you need to have the confidence to 'keep in touch', and be able to do it without 'pestering'.
They also talked about how this type of work often involves long and unsociable hours - be prepared for and get use to that idea .
In October 2011, Conwy Castle provided the screen for projection of images as part of the Blinc digital arts festival.
The team talked about their involvement in this event - apart from the enjoyment from just taking part, participating has generated more work for them.
To finish, they talked about their latest project - a commercial for 'Publicate' - a new publishing site on the internet, aimed to be a useful tool for getting your information out there. Graham had only just finished work on this, very late the night before - so we were the first 'proper' audience to see it.
The lecture finished with a quote, by Paul Carvel,
"Passion is a positive obsession. Obsession is a negative passion".
I found this lecture really interesting - to have people, so newly graduated, come in and talk enthusiastically about what they have been able to achieve, in a relatively short time, and to see that they were really enjoying the whole experience was both inspiring and reassuring . Some useful tips and info, and despite them claiming to be nervous, I thought it was pretty well delivered.
Day 3 was, unfortunately, a complete wash out - I had to attend a physio session, which caused me to miss the first two lectures of the day - I made it into the 3rd lecture, but was in considerable pain after being pummelled and kneaded, and half way through, I had no choice but to leave - I think maybe I should have taken the physio's advice, and rested for the day . I do have some notes from the part of lecture I was able to attend , and think that there is just enough there for me to give a little feedback .
Working with and in Art Galleries -Oriel Davies - Amanda Farr, Director of Oriel Davies
Amanda began by explaining that she was going to look at the way people work within galleries, based on the model of The Oriel, which is situated in Newtown, Powys.
 |
| Oriel Davies Gallery |
She went on to explain the aims of the Oriel -
*To connect people with art in the local area
*To provide opportunities for Welsh and International artists
*To provide a centre for Contemporary art and culture.
She added that the Oriel has around 9000 visits per year, including repeat visits.
The Oriel is an independent public art gallery - i.e., NOT run by the local council. Its not a commercial gallery, but a registered, non-profit charity. Some funds are raised from the shop and cafe, and these are invested back into the gallery.
It owns no art collection, but has a large amount of exhibition space. Its main reasons fro 'being' are to exhibit art, and for education. It organises tour exhibitions is collaboration with other galleries. Its governed by a board of up to 12 trustee's, all of whom give their time freely and tend to stay on the board for around 3 years - its made up of a panel of people who have expertise in area's like finance, legal, retail and marketing, and they hold 3 monthly meetings .
Amanda then went to explain the different types of work opportunities and roles that exist within the gallery.
Educational work - artists are brought in by the board to work with local students.
The roles within the gallery are divided into different departments:
Visitor services - retail, house manager, guides
Programmes - curator, education and marketing officers
Operations - building, technical, caretaker
Financial management
Additional Operations - cafe
The Artistic Director oversees everything .
She went on to talk about some of the off site projects that the gallery organises for example, artist Steve Messam created this 'wool' covered piece, called 'Clad'
Sadly, she reports that the building used for this work was later destroyed by fire.
Amanda said they also run training programmes for young curator groups - these last for several months and culminate in the students involved putting on an exhibition.
The age range of students runs from 15 to 24
Poster advertising one of the Young Curator exhibitions.
It was at this point that I reluctantly had to leave the lecture. My main reason for attending was simply that I enjoy visiting galleries and exhibitions and I was curious to find out a little more about what goes into the running of them - And, as several lectures have rammed home the point about the importance of collaboration, and about being able to work with a variety of creative people, as being advantageous, I felt it would maybe prove to be beneficial at some stage in the future, if I had just a little idea of the work involved in galleries and exhibitions. Although I was only able to stay for around half of the lecture, it was well delivered and interesting, and I do feel I learnt at least a little about the subject.
Day 4.
The Chip Shop Story (Or was it Visions?) _ Andy Cheetham.
Firstly, please excuse the confusing title - I approached the lecture, expecting to attend 'Visions' - was told the lecturer had swapped the two lectures he was doing round, and it would now be 'The Chip Shop Story' - but once inside the lecture, after a somewhat convoluted explanation by Andy Cheetham, I was left not quite sure which lecture I was attending ! I suspect it was 'Visons' after all, being as there was neither a reference to a 'chip shop', nor any explanation of the lectures title .
Andy left Glyndwr in 1986. In 1992, he and his partner Bell, started the CheethamBell advertising agency. This merged with JWT Manchester in 2001, to become CheethamBell JWT. 2012 is their 20th year in business, and they are mainly involved in TV advertising.
There then followed a 'showreel' of 20 examples of the advertising that the company had been responsible for, over the last several years.
First up was an add for Umbro, advertising the new England kit - the company based the advert around the film 'The Great Escape'. Following this came a sample of the adverts they had created for Vimto - this campaign ran for around 8 years, and were based around the poems written by Purple Ronnie.
I actually remember these ads!
Andy continued with the show reel, featuring commercials they had done for Phones4u, where he also talked about the responsibility of delivering the goods, no matter what the size of the budget; Then Lemsip, United utilities, Benefit fraud - here he talked about how you have to be creative to negotiate restrictions - the ads were supposed to warn people off committing benefit fraud, but no threats could be used - so they used a 'menacing voice', instead. CheethamBell came up with the tag line 'Lambrini Girls', obviously for Lambrini and he talked about how they had even created a 'dance' as part of the publicity campaign. They were also responsible for the Kellogs tag line 'Drop a Jean size' - Kellogs were not allowed to claim the cereal as a diet food, but wanted to imply it - the tag line was the way CheethamBell accomplished this. ChicagoTown Pizza's, John West, Century Radio - there is no doubt that the agency have had an impressive client list.
Then we came to numbers 17 and 18 on the list.
Number 17 was a campaign they created for the work clothing firm 'Scruffs' - Scruffs wanted a very near the knuckle approach, that couldn't be used on the TV - so Cheethambell came up with the idea of a campaign based around them making a DVD of basically a short, soft porn film that was to be given away, free, with purchases of the clothes . We were given the option of leaving the room, if we felt that we would be offended by the film, and as I am not easily offended, I decided to stay - it was pretty dire, to be honest - embarrassing more because it was so bad - not even 'good' soft porn! (Well, not unless you have the mentality of a 12 year old boy, I would imagine!) . I've swithered about writing what I'm going to say next, but in for a penny - I was more perturbed by the speakers attitude after we had seen this clip. One of the actresses in the film was a trainee teacher at the time, and presumably short of cash, which is why she agreed to be in it. Later, when a teacher at a 'rather good' school, the video resurfaced on 'youtube', and caused her no end of problems. Now, choosing to 'star' in a film like that is a pretty dumb choice if you are training to work in a field like teaching, in my opinion, but hey - we all make stupid decisions at some time. But the cavalier attitude shown by Andy was a little unsettling - he seemed to think the grief she got was pretty amusing, and wasn't even sure how the matter had been resolved for the teacher involved (Though he thought it was all 'OK', eventually) . I wonder if she knows that this film is being paraded in University lectures - and if she knows the creator of it is still having a chuckle at her expense? Andy spent quite a lot of time talking about this particular campaign - for the life of me, I can't think why !
Number 18 actually really annoyed me - a commercial for Gamestation, built around a stereotypical image of a Mum who clearly is incapable of understanding anything at all technical or games related, and can't even get the words and terminology right . . . I'll stress that I am not a militant feminist, though I believe in equality - BUT, I wonder if any of the incredibly talented Female games students that we have at Glyndwr would have been amused by this ad?
In my notes, at this point, I quoted what Andy said immediately after showing these two clips - he said that he is "very proud of what we've done" - in brackets after, I've written my response - "Really????" - I think that about sums it up.
Another couple of ads followed, and the lecture was running over by about 15 minutes by the time I left. I'm going to try and be fair in summing this up. There is no doubt that Cheethambell is a highly successful firm, I'd seen many of the examples shown on the reel several times on TV in the past. In terms of relevancy or useful info - well, there were some examples of the sort of problem solving involved in advertising, but not a lot else. Despite this, the lecture ran on and on and on - which was annoying, but bearable - until we got to the porn film and the rather patronising and sexist ad for Gamestation . The overwhelming feeling I got as I walked out, was slight shock, that such a laddish attitude is still so evident in a profession where you would think that that sort of nonsense has long since been dispelled.
Life in the Afterworld as a Freelance Artist (Photography) - Alison McClean.
Alison graduated in 2010, and is owner of The PhotoFoundry
The PhotoFoundry
Alison ran her own business providing financial services for 15 years, before a career change to a becoming a public Speaker, and Martial Arts teacher.
The first part of the lecture, she titled 'Birth' - this was the point where she decided to 'chuck everything in' and return to university to study Creative Lens Media . She said she just wanted to learn, and advised us to make the most of every opportunity that comes our way - to get into the studio and 'pester' the tutors and techs for information on how to use the lights and so on, to take advantage of the knowledge we have around us, and to tackle our dissertation early in the Summer holidays so that our last year can spent on doing the work we enjoy - all very relevant advice .
The next section she titled 'After Birth' and basically was about her life as a graduate, what worked for her - and what didn't. In her case, she says having a 'break' after she finished studying, to re-charge, worked for her, but that might not be the case for everyone - she said that if you do take a break like she did, or even in thecearly stages of setting up a business, its a good idea to work part time - just to see you through financially, either whilst you decide what to do or whilst you are getting a business off the ground .
Her first piece of advice about starting a business was getting a website, and she had a good list of tips, resources and information for us.
*Think about the name of your website - a good resource is 'namesco.co.uk', to check out if the name is used elsewhere.
*Look at free websites, e.g. 'carbonmade'
*Wor5k with a graphic Designer to create the site - maybe exchange services, with a fellow student who has the expertise, if finances are tight .
* She talked about the importance of grammar and spelling on your website - she suggested using 'Ghotit.com - poor spelling and grammar look unprofessional.
*Get a friend to look over the site - not someone who will tell ou its 'great' just because they are nicve, but someone you can trust to give constructive feedback and criticism.
*Look for simplicity and a 'clean' look to your website .
*Improve 'traffic' to your site by using video, links to blogs and other social network sites, tags - if there is video content on your site, it can generate up to SIX times more hits.
*Encourage interaction on your site - offer some freebies and competitions, provide encouragement for people to come and look, and take part .
* Keep your website up to date !
Alison then talked about the importance of Business Cards, and again, provided us with some useful guidelines.
*Think about your branding and how its presented on the card.
*Get as good a quality as you can
*Make it uncluttered, so the information potential customers need is easy to zoom in on.
*Consider postcard size - for a photographer, these are very useful, as you can include snapshots of your work.
*Check out 'Moocards'
*Futureproof - including dates onthe card - for example, information on special offers or competitons with a 'ends by date' gives the cards a 'short' useful life.
Spreading the Word - ways to publicise and generate work -
'Word of Mouth'
You need to get over any reluctance to or coyness about saying what you do - confidence goes a long way. Take your camera with you, wherever you go - its a conversation starter at events and so on.
Use your family, friends, colleagues, fellow students, referrals.
Professionalism - you have to be professional - under promise - but over deliver.
Don't rely just on web sites - get out there, to events, festivals, galleries.
Social media - use it! twitter, Face book, Blogs, Flickr, Pintrest - link everything, use google plus, linked-in (A professional network) - Alison said that Blogs, especially, are the way forward.
Networking - got to Exhibits, graduation networking events, look at 'Fusion' (the Foundry in Wrexham), events, go to the Chamber of commerce, the pub - and Redeye.
She gave us a list of groups to look at and become involved with to help us start out - Redeye, Welshoot images.eo.uk (these run workshops, at a cost of around £20), local Camera Clubs, 'Photernative (Fine arts group for photographs, interested in alternative products); Insideout Art Group, Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, Blank media collective in Manchester, and Ffresh.
Her next advice was on how to keep being inspired - use Twitter, Redeye, Welshot, get involved in collaborations, Look at the the Art House co-op (a website - all free or minimal costs, lots of projects going on), Eager (Dutch company, sets photography projects), and keep a file of all your idea's - you never know when one will inspire or be useful at a later date.
Continuing Professional Development.
Keep up with -
*Redeye or similar
*Current trends
*Photography skills
*Competitions
*On-line magazines
And when going into business,
*Zone
*Tax and business courses
*Have a business bank account
*Go on Moneysavingexpert
*Keep accounts
*Get Insurance
The wealth of solid, sensible, useful information in this lecture was fantastic - and it was delivered clearly and in a really interesting way - Alison was down to earth and approachable, and the fact that she was speaking from extremely relevant and recent experience added validity to all the advice she gave. Photographically, I found this the most useful lecture of the week, and I am really glad that I attended it.
Show Passion In Your Next step (photography and video) _ MinimalMedia.
Minimalmedia are a group of 3 students who graduated from Glyndwr last year (2011) . All 3 are photography/media based - and all 3 are absolutely passionate about what they do.
The 3 members are -
Graham cooper - his main interest is film, studied at Yale to develop his film skills. He started a business in 2007,which folded after 5 months, so went to Glyndwr - where he met the other 2 members of the team.
Hollie Harmsworth - originally came from a fine arts background, and started to study fine arts at Chester - but it wasn't for her. She dropped out, and in a change of direction, did her HND - and liked the film side. Came to Glyndwr because the creative side being offered alongside the technical side was really appealling.
Alan Whitfield - his main genre is photography. Previously, he worked for 10 years in a factory - he returned to education, firstly at GCSE level, then A level, HND, then Glyndwr.
Alan spoke first, about the lows and the highs of getting to where he is now - the main piece of advice he had was to not let yourself be pigeon holed - just keep going and try new things, don't say know just because its not where you think you want to go.
Graham then talked about the necessity of not turning work down - he was asked to film an agricultural show, which didn't appeal at all - but he went, he did it - and got a lot of work off the back of it. he said its just as important to get experience as it is to ge a good grade - having a good portfolio and show treel is vital.
They then talked about Professional Development.
Alan spoke first, advising us to take anything that comes our way - its all experience. Accept that sometimes you just have to deliver exactly what is wanted in any brief given - even if you have ideas of your own, the ability to give the customer just what they want is important.
Hollie told us to make out own opportunities, and spoke about learning to work with others on briefs and so on.
Graham reiterated the importance of grabbing and creating opportunities - and said be prepared to push, to make contacts, especially with local companies.
"Resonance made us Believe"
Alan spoke about how they were approached by a 'guy' who wanted to make a film called 'Resonance' - Alan agreed to produce, and it snowballed with him being involved with a host of different things - team selection, auditions. he said its worth taking the initiative to get involved with other projects.
he also at this point reiterated what so many speakers have said this week, emphasising using social network sites, blogs, advertising tools - "network, network, network". he talked about the necessity to be hard working and passionate.
Graham added that 'Resonance' was the vehicle that brought them all together, in the sense that it made them realise how well they worked as a team.
He also added that owning their own equipment had proven to be of huge benefit.
Alan then spoke about using 'Go Wales Freelance Academy and Workshops' - this is the second time this week that I've heard this mentioned as a really positive and useful thing to take part in, and I certainly intend to follow this up.
Graham carried on with the 'story' of 'MinimalMedia' he talked about how the 3 decided to join forces and create their own company, and described how finding the right name was really difficult.
Like Alison before, the 3 had business advice to give - they said we need to consider tax (check out the HMRC website) and insurance implications, look at the different types of company we could become involved in - limited, sole trader, for example - as each carry different implications. They also reminded us that currently, if you intend to do any work with children, you need to apply for and have a CRB check.
Graham then spoke about having a good showreel as part of your portfolio - he said make it varied, so it showcases all your talent and achievements.
He then talked about how difficult it can be to learn how to approach people - personal contact is better, and more professional, than e mail and texts, especially for an initial approach in business. Gaining the confidence to do this isn't easy, work experience of any/every kind helps, and it does get easier with practise. Meeting people in person forms bonds - it matters. Additionally, you need to have the confidence to 'keep in touch', and be able to do it without 'pestering'.
They also talked about how this type of work often involves long and unsociable hours - be prepared for and get use to that idea .
In October 2011, Conwy Castle provided the screen for projection of images as part of the Blinc digital arts festival.
 | ||||
| An image taken of the castle, during this event - sadly, I wasn't able to find any images attributed to minimalmedia. |
The team talked about their involvement in this event - apart from the enjoyment from just taking part, participating has generated more work for them.
To finish, they talked about their latest project - a commercial for 'Publicate' - a new publishing site on the internet, aimed to be a useful tool for getting your information out there. Graham had only just finished work on this, very late the night before - so we were the first 'proper' audience to see it.
The lecture finished with a quote, by Paul Carvel,
"Passion is a positive obsession. Obsession is a negative passion".
I found this lecture really interesting - to have people, so newly graduated, come in and talk enthusiastically about what they have been able to achieve, in a relatively short time, and to see that they were really enjoying the whole experience was both inspiring and reassuring . Some useful tips and info, and despite them claiming to be nervous, I thought it was pretty well delivered.
Monday 12 March 2012
ARD504 Creative Futures - Day 1
Opening Address - Dr Michael Scott, Vice Chancellor, Glyndwr University.
The speaker that was scheduled for today was actually Maurice Cockrill, R.C.A. Unfortunately, ill health meant that Dr Scott had to step in, at very short notice.
Dr Scott is a renown Shakespearian expert, and not surprisingly, William Shakespeare was very much the subject of his address.
He started by telling us he would be talking about a man who was 'a landlord, entrepreneur, pimp, and money lender. The son of a bankrupt glove maker, who is revered as a great poet and dramatist.
He said that this man - Shakespeare - was probably the best businessman ever, in the history of the UK, and pointed out that 400 years after his life, the 'business' he had created was still providing jobs and generating income, all over the world.
Shakespeare's earliest history is not known - Dr Scott explained that a lot of it had to be surmised from what was happening at the time.
When Shakespeare was around 10 years old, in Stratford, Queen Elizabeth I, paid a visit to her lover, Robert Dudley, in Kenilworth - a place within walking distance of Shakespeare's home. As was expected in the day, Dudley set out to provide the Queen with the best entertainment he could manage. He employed James Burbage to provide fireworks and a pageant, to this end, and threw open his castle to the public - and the young Shakespeare was probably one of the visitors. Burbage had arranged to fill the grounds with all manner of things that would provide a fantastic spectacle - all manner of 'mechanical curiosities' - including one piece that possibly gave Shakespeare a phrase he used in his later writing - "A mermaid on a dolphin's back" .
Despite all the expense that Dudley had gone to, it failed to impress enough, evidently, as after 3 days, he and Elizabeth rowed, and she left - however, Dr Scott cited this as probably Shakespear's introduction to the fact that putting on a 'big event', as Burbage had, was a way to make a lot of money.
Burbage then headed to London, and observed that a lot of money was to be made from the Bear Baiting Pits that provided entertainment in the day
And he also saw vagabond theatre players, who preformed in 'Inn yards' as people watched from windows - and realised that this was also a very popular form of entertainment, that could generate money.
So - Burbage thought why not combine the two ways of viewing entertainment, and set an oblong or square platform into a bear pit - and thereby created a 'stage'.
At this time, 1576, licensing was required in order to put on any entertainment, and in inner London, this was controlled very much by the Puritans - who refused Burbage's application for a license. So, he set up this 'theatre' - people acting upon a stage - just over the boarder in North London - the very first 'theatre' in the UK. As this theatre started to make money for Burbage, and his son, Richard, became one of his actors, the government of the day decided that these 'theatre companies' had to be regulated - and Burbage made sure he had all the licenses required, and the money rolled in.
By the 1590's, Burbage was looking for new plays to stage, and here enters Shakespeare - with a pregnant girlfriend and a desperate need to make a living. Shakespeare basically starts off by 'stealing' plays written by others, and re-writes them as his own - and he develops a popular following as more and more people start to go to the theatre. And Shakespeare starts to make quite a bit of money. The plays are bawdy and rude, and the audiences love them - as they do the Historical plays he then begins to write (or, as Dr Scott says, in Shakespeare's case, he begins to 're-write!)
In 1596, Shakespeare experiences a personal tragedy when his second child - his only son, named Hamlet - dies. This was followed by the death of James Burbage, leaving the theatre now owned by his son Richard. Will Kemp, who was the leading comedian of the day, walked out of the company, as Shakespeare wanted to change Kemp's comedy - and to publicise the fact that he, one of the biggest stars has left - he 'dances from London to Norwich'. This leaves Shakespeare facing bankruptcy.
So, he gathers together 6 or 7 members of the company and moves the location of the theatre to the South of London, still outside the jurisdiction of the Puritans. The theatre building is physically moved, on barges, and then Shakespeare makes a sound business decision. Instead of one company that encompasses both actors and the actual theatre, he creates 2 - the first company owns the theatre. The second, owns the actors company - and the actors now have to pay rent to perform in the theatre - though they had 'shares' in both. This was a 'business model that had never been seen before - and it worked. In order to generate money, the actors had to perform well. Shakespeare 'stole' an old play, called 'Hamlet' (like his son), and re-wrote it, putting it on at this new theatre, which was called 'The Globe'.
Wise to what the viewing public want, he then writes a play called 'As You Like it' - which, as is suggested by the title, basically means 'what the public wants' - and he has two major hits on his hands.
Another business 'headache' is caused by the Puritans refusal to license theatres in London - but a man called Henry Evans works out a way round this. The Puritans have no control over anything that belongs to the church, and taking advantage of this, he does a bit of deal making and is able to put on shows in the Cloisters of St Paul's. He also takes over an abandoned monastery - and he now has two theatres in London, itself. These theatres were smaller, but demand was high, allowing him to charge the audience more to watch, and attracting a more 'elite' audience. Aside from the big competition that Shakespeare now faces, Evans adds insult to injury by openly making fun of a feature of Shakespeare's theatre - the 'elitist gallery', seats at the back of the stage, where the wealthy paid 6d a seat in order that they might face the audience, so that all might see how wealthy they were. These developments started to have a detrimental effect on Shakespeare's profits.
Shakespeare responded by coming up with 'Twelfth Night' - and business competition began . The dramatists of the day liked to satirise each other - and, unfortunately, satirise others as well. John Marsden, Johnson and Chapman - dramatists - after some serious disagreements, produce a jointly written play called 'Eastward Ho' - but Marsden is missing from the opening night - quite wisely as it turns out, as he has chosen to satarise the King - and has 'run away' to Norwich. The remaining two dramatists are imprisoned, Johnson being sentenced to having his nose split - and Chapman decides its wiser to give up Marden. Marsden is sent for, and given the choice of ceasing to write plays, marry the daughter of the Kings Chaplain and take orders to become a priest - or, he can be hung , drawn and quartered ! Not surprisingly, Marsden selects the first option - and there is a large part of Shakespeare's competition completely off the scene.
Shakespeare, not one to pass up opportunities, buys out the rival theatre, Blackfriars, and continues to write plays (or re-write stolen plays) for both it and the Globe. And for the next 6 or 7 years, the money rolls in.
He returns to Stratford in 1612/13, and having been thwarted in his quest to buy the biggest house in the area, buys the second biggest. He starts to lend out money and buy up land and properties, creating a massive and diverse business 'empire', that made him a very rich man, and as Dr Scott explained, a business man who made his fortune on the back of creative industries. In Dr Scott's words, he created 'art for the market', not for any lofty ideals - business creativity is what made him a success, not artistic creativity. And Dr Scott suggested that when we hit any 'low points', we do as Shakespeare did, and look for a way to utilise them to your business advantage.
Dr Scott was obviously incredibly knowledgeable, and undoubtedly, is extremely enthusiastic about his subject. However, whilst the information given was interesting in itself, I'm not sure the message that he left us with was entirely right for a hall full of Art and design students. Although I think every student there is savvy enough to know that in order to succeed we have to be business and opportunity aware, to have it strongly suggested that the creative side is of very minor importance, isn't something that sat well with many - including myself - and that was the message that I think several people I spoke to took away with them. And maybe I am being 'picky' but to be told that plagiarism, involvement in shady businesses like money lending, taking advantage of fellow professionals misfortune and utilising personal tragedy's to make a quick buck, is an example of the way to succeed in Creative Industries, isn't something I found to be be particularly inspiring .
Keynote Speaker - Angus Montgomery, Editor of Design Week.
http://www.designweek.co.uk
Angus started out as a journalist, became manager of an architects Journal, then moved on to work for Design Week, 3 years ago, becoming the Editor 1 year ago - Design Week is the UK's leading Design website specialising in design news and jobs.
He said he was splitting his talk into 3 sections -
1. Firstly - passing on advice from the design industry.
2.Show some examples of work from the last 2 or 3 years.
3.Explain why he is jealous of designers.
He firstly explained a little bit about the publication, Design week, which is currently changing from print to on-line format, due to time and cost issues. He described it as a publication that reports on two industries in particular - Design Industries and Design education.
With Design Education, the magazine looks at 2 area's - (a) How to break into the industry - can it be made any easier, and (b) the cost of Education - how to make it worthwhile for people to go into education for this industry.
The magazine asked a series of designers what advice they would give to 'new' designers/people who are trying to break into the industry. This advice included :-
Simon Manchip, founder of SomeOne, a branding agency, advises that you promote yourself as well as your work, and consider how you brand yourself.
Lizzie Mary Cullen, an illustrator reiterated this advice, saying that young/new designers needed to put more emphasis on promoting themselves in the industry, and think of themselves in a professional way.
the overwhelming tone of all the examples given suggests that marketing yourself correctly plays a major role in getting into the industry.
Looking at education , and student fee's in particular, several designers were asked would they pay up to £9000 for a design degree - everyone of of them said, yes, they would.
Greg Quinton, who is the overall creative director at The Partners, and extremely successful consulting agency, says it isn't what education costs - its what it does for you. Glen Tussel, Creative Director of Brand 'Union' agreed that whilst it costs a lot, if you pay for your education, then you value it more.
Angus talked about how it was the passion of designers that makes the industry so worth the difficulties of breaking into it, and the cost of the education - he says there is no other industry that generates that level of passion.
He then moved onto the second stage of his talk, in which he demonstrated the passion, inventiveness, humour and fun that the design industry offers, by sharing with us some of his favourite designs over the last few years. There were many examples given, and I am just going to touch on one or two of them here, to give some idea of how diverse this industry is.
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)
This is a project set up to oversee the creation of affordable educational equipment for children to use in the developing world.
A consultancy Firm, Fuse Project Management and Consulting (FUSE), came up with the idea of, instead of a programme of donating old laptops, designing a low cost laptop that specifically met the needs of the children it was aimed at, and they came up with the $100 laptop
It's rugged and hard wearing, and uses a flash memory, which is more suited to the environment and needs its intended for, instead of a hard drive - 2.5 million have been shipped so far.
I thought this was a fantastic design concept, very effective and very well done.
The Pluman Lightbulb
Energy saving light bulbs are maybe environmentally sound, but few could call them attractive . So, this is the worlds first 'designer' energy saving light bulb, which is a Hulgar product, designed by Hulgar and Samuel Wilkinson.
This is the concept behind it, taken from http://plumen.com/about.html
"The energy saving light bulb is a neglected, yet inspiring invention. It uses 80% less energy than the traditional incandescent light bulb, keeps down electricity bills and is better for the environment. It also lasts around 8 times longer.
Despite this, we tend to buy them out of moral obligation. To some the problem is the light they give off, to others it is the way they look. Both can be solved. We believe the answer is in the design.
Make the bulb attractive and people will spend a bit more and enjoy a better quality of light and a design they appreciate every day. Glass tubes can be bent is many different shapes so why are there thousands of manufacturers but only three designs? Plumen aims to address the problem.
The name Plumen comes from the “plume,” the decorative feathers of a bird and “lumen,” the unit of light."
Another very cleaver design idea - although these bulbs are fairly expensive, compared to the usual (but ugly) energy saving bulbs, there is no doubt that given the option, most would prefer the option not to accept that energy concious bulbs have to be unattractive.
St Georges Crypt.
http://www.stgeorgescrypt.org.uk
St Georges crypt is a charity who work with Vulnerable people, who wanted to high light the problems with alcohol and the homeless, in a hard hitting way. They used a company called B&W Studio to design their annual report, in order to do this, to raise awareness of the work that they do, and also encourage donations. B&W Studio's solution involved producing a report that was A1 size - about the size of a blanket, which might be used by a homeless person. It contained 6 accounts given by men the charity had supported, and contained life size, close up photographs by John Angerson, of the six men who's accounts are included.
The impact and success of this campaign won several design awards for B&W Studio's - to turn a usually 'boring' document into an impactive and hard hitting campaign was, I though, extremely inventive and interesting.
There were several other examples given, which unfortunately would take a lot more space to go into the many details and information. The above 3 are just my favourite examples of what we were shown - and showing these led onto Angus' 3rd part of the lecture - he is jealous of designers because these examples show and reinforce how lucky we are to have involvement with an industry that is passionate, and that has involvement with the creation of such a diverse and innovative range of idea's. I think above anything else, this lecture made me more appreciative of just what designers can do, the impact that they can have and just how much personal and professional enjoyment and fulfilment you can get out of working in this industry.
Copyright - What You Need to Know - Speaker, Janet Jones.
Janet is a journalist and lecturer at Glyndwr University.
This, in a practical sense, was one of several lectures that I found very useful this week. As a photography student, copyright as regards photographic images is something I am well aware that I need to know about, and I thought this lecture was clearly and well delivered.
She started by explaining what copyright is, using the current 1988 Copyright Design and Patent act. This act covers copyright, design, patents and trademarks.
Copyright gives protection from having your work copied or used without consent, gives you the right to be credited for the work and prevents its alteration. In order to be 'copyrighted', work must be original and derived from creative effort. Copyright comes into force as soon as original work is created, you don't have to apply for it, its automatic.
Janet tackled some of the myths surrounding copyright - for example, copyright can protect ideas - wrong! It only applies to something that is tangible - and idea's are not tangible. For example, the idea you may have for a book is not protected by copyright - once its written down, however, it is protected.
Janet gave a couple of examples of this legislation in practise - Creation Records came up with an idea for a shoot for the cover of an Oasis CD - a shot of a Rolls Royce emerging from a pool. It was set up in great secrecy, however, an enterprising journalist from the Sun newspaper, took up residence in a hotel that overlooked the shoot, and took photographs. Creation Records sued for copyright on the grounds that the scene they had created in itself constituted creative effort - however, the court disagreed, on the grounds that the scene wasn't permanent.
Its a civil offence to breach the Copyright, designs and Patent Act, allowing a plaintive to sue for breach.
Copyright gives the creator 'intellectual rights' to a creation - this is separate from an actual creation, meaning a 'creator' can sell the physical work he or she produces - but retains copyright. Copyright is an asset, so can be sold, or left in a will - exactly like any other asset owned.
Copyright also gives you Moral Rights, which are divided into two parts -
i) Paternity rights - you have the moral right to always be identified as the creator of a piece of work.
ii) Integrity Rights - you have the right to stop someone defacing, changing or distorting your work, or using it in a way that you don't agree with.
Janet also tackled the myth that posting original material to yourself, recorded delivery, will prove copyright - whilst it may help provide some supporting evidence to proof of copyright ownership, in itself, its not accepted by the courts - far better to post a copy to a solicitor - though as copyright is automatic, there isn't an absolute need to do that either.
One exception to automatic copyright is if the work you produce is done as part of your employment - ion that instance, your employer owns the copyright - however, you can negotiate this with your employer
She went on to tell us that copyright applies to original literature, dramatic literature, music, artistic work and artistic craft work. It lasts for the life of the creator, plus 70 years.
She explained how in film, for example, copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the last of the creative team involved in the production - e.g. - there are directors, screen writers, composers, all of whom form part of this team.
It becomes more complex sound on film and video is also 70 years, but something like typographic arrangement - the layout of a page in a publication - is covered for only 25 years.
So - there may be more than one type of copyright attached to any creative production - for example, in a book the copyright of author, illustrator, typographic contributor - all may be attached .
Once copyright has expired, it is then in the 'Public domain' for general public use .
Another myth - a 3rd party can use up to 10% of another's original material without infringing copyright.
Regarding this there is a proviso within the act - Fair dealing or fair use - that allows that if the use of copyrighted material can be justified, if the amount of work is not substantial and if credit is given to creator - for example, quoting from a play or a book as part of a critique, or use in private study or research (non commercial).
However, there is no specific amount that is considered 'substantial' this refers more to content and quality, rather than quantity - so the '10%' is very erroneous . It is advisable to always ask consent, and always credit.
Janet also exploded the myth that 'everything on the internet is in the public domain and so free to use' - work only becomes part of the public domain once the copyright has expired - e.g. in the case of photographs, 70 years after the death of the photographer, when the copyright has lapsed - so just because it is available to view on the internet does not make it copyright free.
This causes a dilemma - the internet is a great platform to display creative work - but the lesson is learn to protect your work - use watermarks and low resolution, small images.
Recently, an example that illustrate this point was covered in the National News - this article is taken from deadlinenews.co.uk
A T-SHIRT has been pulled from Tesco after a Scots fashion student complained her face had been used on the garment without permission.
Shocked Nicola Kirkbride has accused the supermarket giant of lifting the image from her blog and printing it on the girl’s top.
The yellow, long-sleeved top places Nicola’s photo in the middle of a heart-shaped daisy chain.
The words “loves me, love me not” are scrawled underneath.
In the original photograph Nicola, who is studying at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, is wearing a daisy chain around her head and is dressed in a floral top and shorts.
The 22-year-old student, who is in her final year of study, was only made aware the image was being used after one of her 5,500 blog followers alerted her.
Nicola said: “I had to start a fashion blog for part of my coursework last year at university and I enjoyed it so much I just kept it on.
“I have managed to build up quite a substantial following and I really enjoyed sharing my views on fashion with similar-minded people.
“So I regularly updated it with photos of myself, which I take with a self timer on my camera, so people can see what pieces I have been recommending.
She added that she was astounded that her image could end up being sold in hundreds of stores across the country without her knowledge.
Nicola said she had previously been approached by High Street chain Zara.
She said: “They asked me if they could use some of my images and I said yes.
“It is very flattering, but Zara said they would send me out a contract to sign if they decided to use my photographs and said they would pay me accordingly.
“The first I knew about my photo being on the Tesco jumper is when the girl alerted me online.”
Nicola even went to a Tesco store to check it was true and was amazed to find the top on the rail.
She has since contacted Tesco to demand answers as her blog states that all artwork on the site belongs to her, unless stated otherwise, and that permission must be sought before using images.
Tesco admitted they had withdrawn the top from their stores.
A spokeswoman for the firm said: “It’s been taken off sale until we have finished investigating.”
She added: “We are looking into this and we are speaking to Nicola Kirkbride.”
This story is a great illustration of what Janet was telling us about during this part of the lecture.
Janet went on to give us some advice from people such as Kirsteen Harris -Jones, illustrator - she advises that all terms and conditions in a contract should be thoroughly checked to make sure that the artist retains copyright - and if you are handing over copyright, then you need to make sure that the fee paid reflects this.
To finish, Janet gave us some advice regarding 'confusing contracts', and licensing agreements that can be included that we should be aware of.
'A buy out' - in this instance it means that you are handing over all control of your work - the fee for this should be substantial and reflect this.
'An exclusive all media licence in perpetuity' - this gives the 'buyer' the right to use your work in anything that they wish too, although they cannot alter it in any way' - and again, the fee should be substantial.
She ended the lecture by providing us with a list of useful websites.
I enjoyed this lecture and found a lot of it extremely useful - its given me a much, much clearer idea and knowledge about the copyright legislation, what protection and rights it gives me, and exactly what it means, and the advice given about protecting your work and understanding some of the terminology that can be put into some licensing agreements is extremely relevant and useful to know.
Getting Started in Photography - Paul Herman.
Redeye -The Photography Network.
Paul Herman comes from an editorial background, and is director of Redeye.
Paul began the lecture by telling us that these days, photography is very much a freelance occupation,and advised us to check out the 6 day 'freelance' course, that is offered by 'Go Wales'.
he then went on to explain what Redeye is - a non profit organisation, run by and for photographers - and what it does :-
It offers -
*The 'broad picture of photography'
* Networking and advice
*Information
*It organises and hosts events, portfolio's sessions, lectures, workshops, symposia and debates.
* It organises 'Big Projects' -for example 'Lightbox' which is a course, The Look Festival, and the National Photography Symposium.
*It provides volunteer opportunities
* Promotes Ethics and good Practise
* It offers membership which is aimed at developing photographers, offering
- contacts and networks
- Opportunities
- Discounts
- Exposure
- Knowledge
(the student price for membership is £30)
After explaining about Redeye, Paul went on to ask us to consider what we would be doing in 5 to 10 years - how many of us felt we would be involved in photography as a career.
For those of us who felt that, his next section was titled 'How to be a star photographer' and consisted of a series of quotes and advice, which all pointed to the same conclusion, summed up in a quote from Greg Hobson (National Museum) - "Your work, as a photographer has to distinguish itself from the ubiquity of photography that appears on the web"
He then asked what top photographers have in common - he listed the attributes that typified the 'old style' of photographer - primacy of craft, narrow range and a tight circle of clients - and the attributes of the 'new style' - idea's based, complementary range of work, international and virtual clients.
In order to succeed he said, you need to have interest and knowledge and research the photographic economy, that we need to be aware of marketing, through talking and writing, we need a 'strong voice', to have personality to enable us to build relationships with clients, buyers and curators, we need a good 'work ethic' and to practise good business, and we need long term commitment and motivation.
You have to have 4 main area's right - the photography, communication, efficiency and motivation.
On the Business side of photography, he advised us to think about employed verses freelance; To keep the business as a separate entity to our personal life; To get some business help; To consider the ethics, balancing growth with sustainability; and to champion alternative ways of working, by bypassing institutions, look at collaborating and collectives, look at community based projects, be cross -disciplined, and look at digital and on-line ways of supporting your business.
The most useful part of the lecture for me was the next section, where he supplied us with a model for working out the sort of fee's we should be charging for our work - work out our break even point, your minimum job fee - which equals your annual overheads (which include salary, marketing, portfolio, equipment and storage, maintenance of equipment, insurance, etc., etc) divided by the number of jobs you can reasonably do in a year.
Using this model, he says you have a good reason for saying 'no', if somebody offers you less!
Then, consider usage - and to this end, always retain copyright and get use to licensing (so you restrict a buyers ability to change your work or use it for anything other than the specific purpose stated). Factor the usage a customer will get out of your work, in your fee.
He advised only working for free in specific circumstances -
- If its advantageous for the photographer
- If its limited in duration
- If it doesn't replace paid work
- If Copyright is respected
- If its commercially or socially useful.
He emphasised the importance of protecting your work using metadata and watermarks.
To finish, he listed '21 things you can do to get on' -
Go to openings
Go to Festivals
Get business advice
Use social media
Use metadata
If you're in a rut, set yourself a project -stops you getting stale, keeps enthusiasm going.
Involve yourself in Partnerships and collaboration.
Have a website/blog
Slideshow/portfolios - they have to be good
Marketing materials - have good quality business cards
Write
Give talks
Apply for grants
Be written about
Investigate print sales
Exhibit
Books - you can have your own books made up
Competitions - enter, and look at who is judging, who will see your work
E mail/newsletter -send out a couple a year - remind people you are there and what you are doing.
Again, this lecture ended with a list of useful websites.
A lot of this lecture I found quite useful, and interesting - for a start, Redeye is an organisation that I think is well worth investigating, and I intend to do so. The section on working out fee's I found really useful - that's a situation that I and, I think, a lot of would-be photographers struggle with - having a formula that can be quickly explained and adhered to, is extremely handy - especially when dealing with people who assume friendship (or even mere acquaintance) is enough to guarantee a huge reduction, or people who don't see all the hours and work that you put in, or realise the expenses that you have. The tips on what you can do to get on contained a few idea's that I hadn't previously considered, too, and some are so basic and simple - but I can see that they could also be very effective.
So - the end of the first days lectures - and the end of a very lengthy blog (did I just hear a sigh of relief?)
I found today's lectures started off slowly - in terms of relevance, I'm afraid the opening lecture struck no chord at all - considering a good part of last semesters work centred on ethics and good practise, advice to follow some of the Bards less than moralistic practises neither inspired, nor impressed. And I still can't get over a hall of A&D students being given the message that creativity just isn't that important, if you want to succeed . . . But, the following 3 lectures did provide a level of inspiration, and in the case of the last two, information that is extremely useful and can be put into practise.
The speaker that was scheduled for today was actually Maurice Cockrill, R.C.A. Unfortunately, ill health meant that Dr Scott had to step in, at very short notice.
Dr Scott is a renown Shakespearian expert, and not surprisingly, William Shakespeare was very much the subject of his address.
He started by telling us he would be talking about a man who was 'a landlord, entrepreneur, pimp, and money lender. The son of a bankrupt glove maker, who is revered as a great poet and dramatist.
He said that this man - Shakespeare - was probably the best businessman ever, in the history of the UK, and pointed out that 400 years after his life, the 'business' he had created was still providing jobs and generating income, all over the world.
Shakespeare's earliest history is not known - Dr Scott explained that a lot of it had to be surmised from what was happening at the time.
When Shakespeare was around 10 years old, in Stratford, Queen Elizabeth I, paid a visit to her lover, Robert Dudley, in Kenilworth - a place within walking distance of Shakespeare's home. As was expected in the day, Dudley set out to provide the Queen with the best entertainment he could manage. He employed James Burbage to provide fireworks and a pageant, to this end, and threw open his castle to the public - and the young Shakespeare was probably one of the visitors. Burbage had arranged to fill the grounds with all manner of things that would provide a fantastic spectacle - all manner of 'mechanical curiosities' - including one piece that possibly gave Shakespeare a phrase he used in his later writing - "A mermaid on a dolphin's back" .
Despite all the expense that Dudley had gone to, it failed to impress enough, evidently, as after 3 days, he and Elizabeth rowed, and she left - however, Dr Scott cited this as probably Shakespear's introduction to the fact that putting on a 'big event', as Burbage had, was a way to make a lot of money.
Burbage then headed to London, and observed that a lot of money was to be made from the Bear Baiting Pits that provided entertainment in the day
And he also saw vagabond theatre players, who preformed in 'Inn yards' as people watched from windows - and realised that this was also a very popular form of entertainment, that could generate money.So - Burbage thought why not combine the two ways of viewing entertainment, and set an oblong or square platform into a bear pit - and thereby created a 'stage'.
At this time, 1576, licensing was required in order to put on any entertainment, and in inner London, this was controlled very much by the Puritans - who refused Burbage's application for a license. So, he set up this 'theatre' - people acting upon a stage - just over the boarder in North London - the very first 'theatre' in the UK. As this theatre started to make money for Burbage, and his son, Richard, became one of his actors, the government of the day decided that these 'theatre companies' had to be regulated - and Burbage made sure he had all the licenses required, and the money rolled in.
 |
| James Burbage |
By the 1590's, Burbage was looking for new plays to stage, and here enters Shakespeare - with a pregnant girlfriend and a desperate need to make a living. Shakespeare basically starts off by 'stealing' plays written by others, and re-writes them as his own - and he develops a popular following as more and more people start to go to the theatre. And Shakespeare starts to make quite a bit of money. The plays are bawdy and rude, and the audiences love them - as they do the Historical plays he then begins to write (or, as Dr Scott says, in Shakespeare's case, he begins to 're-write!)
In 1596, Shakespeare experiences a personal tragedy when his second child - his only son, named Hamlet - dies. This was followed by the death of James Burbage, leaving the theatre now owned by his son Richard. Will Kemp, who was the leading comedian of the day, walked out of the company, as Shakespeare wanted to change Kemp's comedy - and to publicise the fact that he, one of the biggest stars has left - he 'dances from London to Norwich'. This leaves Shakespeare facing bankruptcy.
 |
| The Globe Theatre |
Wise to what the viewing public want, he then writes a play called 'As You Like it' - which, as is suggested by the title, basically means 'what the public wants' - and he has two major hits on his hands.
Another business 'headache' is caused by the Puritans refusal to license theatres in London - but a man called Henry Evans works out a way round this. The Puritans have no control over anything that belongs to the church, and taking advantage of this, he does a bit of deal making and is able to put on shows in the Cloisters of St Paul's. He also takes over an abandoned monastery - and he now has two theatres in London, itself. These theatres were smaller, but demand was high, allowing him to charge the audience more to watch, and attracting a more 'elite' audience. Aside from the big competition that Shakespeare now faces, Evans adds insult to injury by openly making fun of a feature of Shakespeare's theatre - the 'elitist gallery', seats at the back of the stage, where the wealthy paid 6d a seat in order that they might face the audience, so that all might see how wealthy they were. These developments started to have a detrimental effect on Shakespeare's profits.
Shakespeare responded by coming up with 'Twelfth Night' - and business competition began . The dramatists of the day liked to satirise each other - and, unfortunately, satirise others as well. John Marsden, Johnson and Chapman - dramatists - after some serious disagreements, produce a jointly written play called 'Eastward Ho' - but Marsden is missing from the opening night - quite wisely as it turns out, as he has chosen to satarise the King - and has 'run away' to Norwich. The remaining two dramatists are imprisoned, Johnson being sentenced to having his nose split - and Chapman decides its wiser to give up Marden. Marsden is sent for, and given the choice of ceasing to write plays, marry the daughter of the Kings Chaplain and take orders to become a priest - or, he can be hung , drawn and quartered ! Not surprisingly, Marsden selects the first option - and there is a large part of Shakespeare's competition completely off the scene.
Shakespeare, not one to pass up opportunities, buys out the rival theatre, Blackfriars, and continues to write plays (or re-write stolen plays) for both it and the Globe. And for the next 6 or 7 years, the money rolls in.
He returns to Stratford in 1612/13, and having been thwarted in his quest to buy the biggest house in the area, buys the second biggest. He starts to lend out money and buy up land and properties, creating a massive and diverse business 'empire', that made him a very rich man, and as Dr Scott explained, a business man who made his fortune on the back of creative industries. In Dr Scott's words, he created 'art for the market', not for any lofty ideals - business creativity is what made him a success, not artistic creativity. And Dr Scott suggested that when we hit any 'low points', we do as Shakespeare did, and look for a way to utilise them to your business advantage.
Dr Scott was obviously incredibly knowledgeable, and undoubtedly, is extremely enthusiastic about his subject. However, whilst the information given was interesting in itself, I'm not sure the message that he left us with was entirely right for a hall full of Art and design students. Although I think every student there is savvy enough to know that in order to succeed we have to be business and opportunity aware, to have it strongly suggested that the creative side is of very minor importance, isn't something that sat well with many - including myself - and that was the message that I think several people I spoke to took away with them. And maybe I am being 'picky' but to be told that plagiarism, involvement in shady businesses like money lending, taking advantage of fellow professionals misfortune and utilising personal tragedy's to make a quick buck, is an example of the way to succeed in Creative Industries, isn't something I found to be be particularly inspiring .
Keynote Speaker - Angus Montgomery, Editor of Design Week.
http://www.designweek.co.uk
Angus started out as a journalist, became manager of an architects Journal, then moved on to work for Design Week, 3 years ago, becoming the Editor 1 year ago - Design Week is the UK's leading Design website specialising in design news and jobs.
He said he was splitting his talk into 3 sections -
1. Firstly - passing on advice from the design industry.
2.Show some examples of work from the last 2 or 3 years.
3.Explain why he is jealous of designers.
He firstly explained a little bit about the publication, Design week, which is currently changing from print to on-line format, due to time and cost issues. He described it as a publication that reports on two industries in particular - Design Industries and Design education.
With Design Education, the magazine looks at 2 area's - (a) How to break into the industry - can it be made any easier, and (b) the cost of Education - how to make it worthwhile for people to go into education for this industry.
The magazine asked a series of designers what advice they would give to 'new' designers/people who are trying to break into the industry. This advice included :-
Simon Manchip, founder of SomeOne, a branding agency, advises that you promote yourself as well as your work, and consider how you brand yourself.
Lizzie Mary Cullen, an illustrator reiterated this advice, saying that young/new designers needed to put more emphasis on promoting themselves in the industry, and think of themselves in a professional way.
the overwhelming tone of all the examples given suggests that marketing yourself correctly plays a major role in getting into the industry.
Looking at education , and student fee's in particular, several designers were asked would they pay up to £9000 for a design degree - everyone of of them said, yes, they would.
Greg Quinton, who is the overall creative director at The Partners, and extremely successful consulting agency, says it isn't what education costs - its what it does for you. Glen Tussel, Creative Director of Brand 'Union' agreed that whilst it costs a lot, if you pay for your education, then you value it more.
Angus talked about how it was the passion of designers that makes the industry so worth the difficulties of breaking into it, and the cost of the education - he says there is no other industry that generates that level of passion.
He then moved onto the second stage of his talk, in which he demonstrated the passion, inventiveness, humour and fun that the design industry offers, by sharing with us some of his favourite designs over the last few years. There were many examples given, and I am just going to touch on one or two of them here, to give some idea of how diverse this industry is.
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)
This is a project set up to oversee the creation of affordable educational equipment for children to use in the developing world.
A consultancy Firm, Fuse Project Management and Consulting (FUSE), came up with the idea of, instead of a programme of donating old laptops, designing a low cost laptop that specifically met the needs of the children it was aimed at, and they came up with the $100 laptop
It's rugged and hard wearing, and uses a flash memory, which is more suited to the environment and needs its intended for, instead of a hard drive - 2.5 million have been shipped so far.
I thought this was a fantastic design concept, very effective and very well done.
The Pluman Lightbulb
Energy saving light bulbs are maybe environmentally sound, but few could call them attractive . So, this is the worlds first 'designer' energy saving light bulb, which is a Hulgar product, designed by Hulgar and Samuel Wilkinson.
This is the concept behind it, taken from http://plumen.com/about.html
"The energy saving light bulb is a neglected, yet inspiring invention. It uses 80% less energy than the traditional incandescent light bulb, keeps down electricity bills and is better for the environment. It also lasts around 8 times longer.
Despite this, we tend to buy them out of moral obligation. To some the problem is the light they give off, to others it is the way they look. Both can be solved. We believe the answer is in the design.
Make the bulb attractive and people will spend a bit more and enjoy a better quality of light and a design they appreciate every day. Glass tubes can be bent is many different shapes so why are there thousands of manufacturers but only three designs? Plumen aims to address the problem.
The name Plumen comes from the “plume,” the decorative feathers of a bird and “lumen,” the unit of light."
Another very cleaver design idea - although these bulbs are fairly expensive, compared to the usual (but ugly) energy saving bulbs, there is no doubt that given the option, most would prefer the option not to accept that energy concious bulbs have to be unattractive.
St Georges Crypt.
http://www.stgeorgescrypt.org.uk
St Georges crypt is a charity who work with Vulnerable people, who wanted to high light the problems with alcohol and the homeless, in a hard hitting way. They used a company called B&W Studio to design their annual report, in order to do this, to raise awareness of the work that they do, and also encourage donations. B&W Studio's solution involved producing a report that was A1 size - about the size of a blanket, which might be used by a homeless person. It contained 6 accounts given by men the charity had supported, and contained life size, close up photographs by John Angerson, of the six men who's accounts are included.
The impact and success of this campaign won several design awards for B&W Studio's - to turn a usually 'boring' document into an impactive and hard hitting campaign was, I though, extremely inventive and interesting.
There were several other examples given, which unfortunately would take a lot more space to go into the many details and information. The above 3 are just my favourite examples of what we were shown - and showing these led onto Angus' 3rd part of the lecture - he is jealous of designers because these examples show and reinforce how lucky we are to have involvement with an industry that is passionate, and that has involvement with the creation of such a diverse and innovative range of idea's. I think above anything else, this lecture made me more appreciative of just what designers can do, the impact that they can have and just how much personal and professional enjoyment and fulfilment you can get out of working in this industry.
Copyright - What You Need to Know - Speaker, Janet Jones.
Janet is a journalist and lecturer at Glyndwr University.
This, in a practical sense, was one of several lectures that I found very useful this week. As a photography student, copyright as regards photographic images is something I am well aware that I need to know about, and I thought this lecture was clearly and well delivered.
She started by explaining what copyright is, using the current 1988 Copyright Design and Patent act. This act covers copyright, design, patents and trademarks.
Copyright gives protection from having your work copied or used without consent, gives you the right to be credited for the work and prevents its alteration. In order to be 'copyrighted', work must be original and derived from creative effort. Copyright comes into force as soon as original work is created, you don't have to apply for it, its automatic.
Janet tackled some of the myths surrounding copyright - for example, copyright can protect ideas - wrong! It only applies to something that is tangible - and idea's are not tangible. For example, the idea you may have for a book is not protected by copyright - once its written down, however, it is protected.
Janet gave a couple of examples of this legislation in practise - Creation Records came up with an idea for a shoot for the cover of an Oasis CD - a shot of a Rolls Royce emerging from a pool. It was set up in great secrecy, however, an enterprising journalist from the Sun newspaper, took up residence in a hotel that overlooked the shoot, and took photographs. Creation Records sued for copyright on the grounds that the scene they had created in itself constituted creative effort - however, the court disagreed, on the grounds that the scene wasn't permanent.
Its a civil offence to breach the Copyright, designs and Patent Act, allowing a plaintive to sue for breach.
Copyright gives the creator 'intellectual rights' to a creation - this is separate from an actual creation, meaning a 'creator' can sell the physical work he or she produces - but retains copyright. Copyright is an asset, so can be sold, or left in a will - exactly like any other asset owned.
Copyright also gives you Moral Rights, which are divided into two parts -
i) Paternity rights - you have the moral right to always be identified as the creator of a piece of work.
ii) Integrity Rights - you have the right to stop someone defacing, changing or distorting your work, or using it in a way that you don't agree with.
Janet also tackled the myth that posting original material to yourself, recorded delivery, will prove copyright - whilst it may help provide some supporting evidence to proof of copyright ownership, in itself, its not accepted by the courts - far better to post a copy to a solicitor - though as copyright is automatic, there isn't an absolute need to do that either.
One exception to automatic copyright is if the work you produce is done as part of your employment - ion that instance, your employer owns the copyright - however, you can negotiate this with your employer
She went on to tell us that copyright applies to original literature, dramatic literature, music, artistic work and artistic craft work. It lasts for the life of the creator, plus 70 years.
She explained how in film, for example, copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the last of the creative team involved in the production - e.g. - there are directors, screen writers, composers, all of whom form part of this team.
It becomes more complex sound on film and video is also 70 years, but something like typographic arrangement - the layout of a page in a publication - is covered for only 25 years.
So - there may be more than one type of copyright attached to any creative production - for example, in a book the copyright of author, illustrator, typographic contributor - all may be attached .
Once copyright has expired, it is then in the 'Public domain' for general public use .
Another myth - a 3rd party can use up to 10% of another's original material without infringing copyright.
Regarding this there is a proviso within the act - Fair dealing or fair use - that allows that if the use of copyrighted material can be justified, if the amount of work is not substantial and if credit is given to creator - for example, quoting from a play or a book as part of a critique, or use in private study or research (non commercial).
However, there is no specific amount that is considered 'substantial' this refers more to content and quality, rather than quantity - so the '10%' is very erroneous . It is advisable to always ask consent, and always credit.
Janet also exploded the myth that 'everything on the internet is in the public domain and so free to use' - work only becomes part of the public domain once the copyright has expired - e.g. in the case of photographs, 70 years after the death of the photographer, when the copyright has lapsed - so just because it is available to view on the internet does not make it copyright free.
This causes a dilemma - the internet is a great platform to display creative work - but the lesson is learn to protect your work - use watermarks and low resolution, small images.
Recently, an example that illustrate this point was covered in the National News - this article is taken from deadlinenews.co.uk
Tesco forced to withdraw t-shirt after putting student’s face on front
Shocked Nicola Kirkbride has accused the supermarket giant of lifting the image from her blog and printing it on the girl’s top.
The yellow, long-sleeved top places Nicola’s photo in the middle of a heart-shaped daisy chain.
The words “loves me, love me not” are scrawled underneath.
In the original photograph Nicola, who is studying at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, is wearing a daisy chain around her head and is dressed in a floral top and shorts.
The 22-year-old student, who is in her final year of study, was only made aware the image was being used after one of her 5,500 blog followers alerted her.
Nicola said: “I had to start a fashion blog for part of my coursework last year at university and I enjoyed it so much I just kept it on.
“I have managed to build up quite a substantial following and I really enjoyed sharing my views on fashion with similar-minded people.
“So I regularly updated it with photos of myself, which I take with a self timer on my camera, so people can see what pieces I have been recommending.
Alerted
“But I was completely shocked when someone who had been following my blog said she saw one of my photos at her work in Tesco – on a child’s top.”She added that she was astounded that her image could end up being sold in hundreds of stores across the country without her knowledge.
Nicola said she had previously been approached by High Street chain Zara.
She said: “They asked me if they could use some of my images and I said yes.
“It is very flattering, but Zara said they would send me out a contract to sign if they decided to use my photographs and said they would pay me accordingly.
“The first I knew about my photo being on the Tesco jumper is when the girl alerted me online.”
Nicola even went to a Tesco store to check it was true and was amazed to find the top on the rail.
She has since contacted Tesco to demand answers as her blog states that all artwork on the site belongs to her, unless stated otherwise, and that permission must be sought before using images.
Tesco admitted they had withdrawn the top from their stores.
A spokeswoman for the firm said: “It’s been taken off sale until we have finished investigating.”
She added: “We are looking into this and we are speaking to Nicola Kirkbride.”
This story is a great illustration of what Janet was telling us about during this part of the lecture.
Janet went on to give us some advice from people such as Kirsteen Harris -Jones, illustrator - she advises that all terms and conditions in a contract should be thoroughly checked to make sure that the artist retains copyright - and if you are handing over copyright, then you need to make sure that the fee paid reflects this.
To finish, Janet gave us some advice regarding 'confusing contracts', and licensing agreements that can be included that we should be aware of.
'A buy out' - in this instance it means that you are handing over all control of your work - the fee for this should be substantial and reflect this.
'An exclusive all media licence in perpetuity' - this gives the 'buyer' the right to use your work in anything that they wish too, although they cannot alter it in any way' - and again, the fee should be substantial.
She ended the lecture by providing us with a list of useful websites.
I enjoyed this lecture and found a lot of it extremely useful - its given me a much, much clearer idea and knowledge about the copyright legislation, what protection and rights it gives me, and exactly what it means, and the advice given about protecting your work and understanding some of the terminology that can be put into some licensing agreements is extremely relevant and useful to know.
Getting Started in Photography - Paul Herman.
Redeye -The Photography Network.
Paul Herman comes from an editorial background, and is director of Redeye.
Paul began the lecture by telling us that these days, photography is very much a freelance occupation,and advised us to check out the 6 day 'freelance' course, that is offered by 'Go Wales'.
he then went on to explain what Redeye is - a non profit organisation, run by and for photographers - and what it does :-
It offers -
*The 'broad picture of photography'
* Networking and advice
*Information
*It organises and hosts events, portfolio's sessions, lectures, workshops, symposia and debates.
* It organises 'Big Projects' -for example 'Lightbox' which is a course, The Look Festival, and the National Photography Symposium.
*It provides volunteer opportunities
* Promotes Ethics and good Practise
* It offers membership which is aimed at developing photographers, offering
- contacts and networks
- Opportunities
- Discounts
- Exposure
- Knowledge
(the student price for membership is £30)
After explaining about Redeye, Paul went on to ask us to consider what we would be doing in 5 to 10 years - how many of us felt we would be involved in photography as a career.
For those of us who felt that, his next section was titled 'How to be a star photographer' and consisted of a series of quotes and advice, which all pointed to the same conclusion, summed up in a quote from Greg Hobson (National Museum) - "Your work, as a photographer has to distinguish itself from the ubiquity of photography that appears on the web"
He then asked what top photographers have in common - he listed the attributes that typified the 'old style' of photographer - primacy of craft, narrow range and a tight circle of clients - and the attributes of the 'new style' - idea's based, complementary range of work, international and virtual clients.
In order to succeed he said, you need to have interest and knowledge and research the photographic economy, that we need to be aware of marketing, through talking and writing, we need a 'strong voice', to have personality to enable us to build relationships with clients, buyers and curators, we need a good 'work ethic' and to practise good business, and we need long term commitment and motivation.
You have to have 4 main area's right - the photography, communication, efficiency and motivation.
On the Business side of photography, he advised us to think about employed verses freelance; To keep the business as a separate entity to our personal life; To get some business help; To consider the ethics, balancing growth with sustainability; and to champion alternative ways of working, by bypassing institutions, look at collaborating and collectives, look at community based projects, be cross -disciplined, and look at digital and on-line ways of supporting your business.
The most useful part of the lecture for me was the next section, where he supplied us with a model for working out the sort of fee's we should be charging for our work - work out our break even point, your minimum job fee - which equals your annual overheads (which include salary, marketing, portfolio, equipment and storage, maintenance of equipment, insurance, etc., etc) divided by the number of jobs you can reasonably do in a year.
Using this model, he says you have a good reason for saying 'no', if somebody offers you less!
Then, consider usage - and to this end, always retain copyright and get use to licensing (so you restrict a buyers ability to change your work or use it for anything other than the specific purpose stated). Factor the usage a customer will get out of your work, in your fee.
He advised only working for free in specific circumstances -
- If its advantageous for the photographer
- If its limited in duration
- If it doesn't replace paid work
- If Copyright is respected
- If its commercially or socially useful.
He emphasised the importance of protecting your work using metadata and watermarks.
To finish, he listed '21 things you can do to get on' -
Go to openings
Go to Festivals
Get business advice
Use social media
Use metadata
If you're in a rut, set yourself a project -stops you getting stale, keeps enthusiasm going.
Involve yourself in Partnerships and collaboration.
Have a website/blog
Slideshow/portfolios - they have to be good
Marketing materials - have good quality business cards
Write
Give talks
Apply for grants
Be written about
Investigate print sales
Exhibit
Books - you can have your own books made up
Competitions - enter, and look at who is judging, who will see your work
E mail/newsletter -send out a couple a year - remind people you are there and what you are doing.
Again, this lecture ended with a list of useful websites.
A lot of this lecture I found quite useful, and interesting - for a start, Redeye is an organisation that I think is well worth investigating, and I intend to do so. The section on working out fee's I found really useful - that's a situation that I and, I think, a lot of would-be photographers struggle with - having a formula that can be quickly explained and adhered to, is extremely handy - especially when dealing with people who assume friendship (or even mere acquaintance) is enough to guarantee a huge reduction, or people who don't see all the hours and work that you put in, or realise the expenses that you have. The tips on what you can do to get on contained a few idea's that I hadn't previously considered, too, and some are so basic and simple - but I can see that they could also be very effective.
So - the end of the first days lectures - and the end of a very lengthy blog (did I just hear a sigh of relief?)
I found today's lectures started off slowly - in terms of relevance, I'm afraid the opening lecture struck no chord at all - considering a good part of last semesters work centred on ethics and good practise, advice to follow some of the Bards less than moralistic practises neither inspired, nor impressed. And I still can't get over a hall of A&D students being given the message that creativity just isn't that important, if you want to succeed . . . But, the following 3 lectures did provide a level of inspiration, and in the case of the last two, information that is extremely useful and can be put into practise.
ARD504 - Creative Futures, Day 2
Creativity in the Real World - How I make a living from Death - Violet Fenn
When you see a title like this, on the lecture timetable, and then when you check on moodle and see it carries a warning - well - you just HAVE to go, don't you?
It turned out to be not only an absolutely fascinating lecture, on several levels, but also an extremely useful and inspiring one.
Violet Fenn graduated from Glyndwr about 12 years ago, with a degree in Design Craft. She said, to this day, she isn't quite sure what that is - she mainly did jewellery making and metal crafting . She sub-titled this lecture as 'How I did everything wrong, but somehow managed to survive anyway, despite everyone's gloomy predictions' - there was something very comforting about that heading, because I suspect I manage to do a lot wrong!
On graduation, she had to work, and admitted that with a small child, options were a little limited - and she had no clear idea what she wanted to do, anyway.
Her first 'venture' came about almost by accident - she decided to make a plush toy for a friend, as a present - 'Electrokitty' - and this generated quite a response. So she fell into making plush toys - not, however the cutesy, cuddly plush variety - Violet's were just a tad different, tending towards the macabre . . .
I actually really like these - I think they are very witty and different :)
She created a small website on which to sell the plush creations, and through word of mouth and friends, began to make a living - at this point, Violet mentioned the importance of having a 'good image' to promote your website - she had a picture of Colin Murray posing with Englebert the Owl - one of her creations - and as she said, people remembered that picture.
However, this wasn't what Violet ultimately wanted to do - and this is where the intriguing title of her lecture came in.
She admits to being bored and surfing the net - and she came across this image
Perturbed by the appearance of this gentleman's eyes, and the extremely pinched in waist, she discovered that this is purported to be an example of Victorian Post Mortem Photography . Yep - Victorians had a habit of taking photographs of their deceased nearest and dearest, for private souvenirs, and for display purposes this is an example of an 'upright post mortem photograph'.
In this day and age, I'm pretty sure that a typical response to this practise would be of disgust and shock (although, lets be honest, most of us also harbour a fascination for things like this) - but as Violet explained, you need to consider the era and the reasons. Photography was in its infancy, and it was unusual for most people to actually have a photograph taken of themselves, or their loved ones. Particularly in an era of high infant mortality, the custom of having a photograph taken of a lost child provided grieving parents with a visual reminder of the child that had passed. The Victorians also had a far more open and accepting attitude to death, than we have today - it was customary to keep the deceased bodies at home after death, and to spend time with it to say your goodbyes. Violet commented that she found this attitude far 'healthier' than today's approach of sanitising death - its creates fear and mystery around a natural process that we all experience . For what its worth, as someone who has cared for the terminally ill, and been present during the last few hours and at the actual death of some souls, I happen to agree - I think openness creates a situation where its easier to accept grief and mourn properly, and it also allows discussion - which helps to dispel myths and fear.
Looking at some of the images both during the lecture and later, I also agree that some of the photographs are beautiful - albeit heartbreaking, especially where the images of children are concerned. As a parent, I can imagine how precious these photographs were to the heartbroken and bereaved Mothers and Fathers during the Victorian era - I have literally hundreds of photographs of my kids (thankfully, very much alive), and they mean such a lot to me.
Back to the lecture - Violet was so intrigued by this image, that she featured it on her blog - and that evening got so many hits that she started to 'seek out' this type of imagery, and set up a blog where she 'collected' and wrote about this type of photographic image. She did this, just for her own interest, but after putting a link on facebook, the blog generated 800 hits. So, obviously, there is an interest - over 12 months, she gradually developed her blog into a website, http://www.theskullillusion.com/ . She describes herself as a 'curator' of this collection - the images, being so old, copyright has lapsed, but where she can, she includes credits and information. She doesn't claim to be an expert - but what she is doing obviously intrigues and interests, as the site now generates around 1000 hits per day.
Violet explains that she pretty much learnt about developing a website, as she went along, and makes the point that you can learn to do anything - and that a web 'presence' is vital.
As the interest in her website grew, so did the amount of her time taken up on the site. So, she decided that she had to cut down on her work ratio - the plush business was very labour intensive, only generating her about £1.50 an hour - so, Violet decided to compromise by starting a jewellery business that she deliberately tied in with the web site. A lot of her designs are based around the style of Victorian Mourning jewellery, but she also features images from vintage anatomy or even Alice in Wonderland.
The Skull Illusion Jewellery shop
Some examples of Violet's jewellery . . .
Violet explained that she uses what she calls 'cross pollination' - she uses a large array of social networking sites - Twitter, Tumbler, Flickr, blogs, Facebook - and each one links to all the rest - so, someone who looks at the Skull Illusion website for Post mortem photography, finds a link that takes them to her on line jewellery business - and invariably, this increases the potential for sales. The similar theme between the photography and the jewellery adds to the likelihood of sales too. Its a great example how you can make seemingly diverse things work together, one generating interest and awareness for the other. At this point in the lecture, she is throwing in a host of extremely useful information - she talked about buying in the components to make up the jewellery, and how it is cost and time effective - in other words, you don't have to do every part of the creation of your work, if the benefits of not doing so doesn't affect the quality of the product . She talked about marketing ploys like how she displays her jewellery to create images that are strong and remembered - Llewellyn the Skull, models some of her products, and she used a photograph of herself taken with Jarvis Cocker, of Pulp, which she posted on several sites - another strong image that's remembered, and again, looking at that can lead people back to her jewellery. She talked about the advantages about running a business from home - her business is run from an old coal shed, she explained - and gave information of how you can claim tax relief on your overheads - phone, heating and so on . She gave us info on using on line commercial outlets - introducing me to 'Big Cartel' - which is something I have personally never come across before.
She also talked about how this site led to her writing articles for another on line site - http://www.spookyisles.com/ - and that although she doesn't get paid for the articles she writes, this practise of 'cross pollination' works as it leads potential customers to her blog and jewellery sites. Its also led to the potential of a book deal, based on the photography web sites collection.
In conclusion, Violet offered some advice which - as a mature student - I found to be really encouraging and inspiring. She advised don't be boxed in, you can be successful doing 'whatever comes up next' - and points out that she has friends in their 50's that still don't know what they want to be when they grow up :) I'm heading towards 50 - that makes me feel so much more confident:)
As I said, this lecture was enjoyable on a whole host of levels - for a start it was well delivered and entertaining. The information on actually creating and running a business, and the resources and marketing ploys that you can use were incredibly useful and given in a no-nonsense fashion that made a lot of sense. As to the photography featured - well, I've already explained why I didn't find it morbid, but also, as a photography student it held appeal for me in the fact that she is part of preserving a form of photography that is an important part of its history. Obviously all these images are pre-digital, and existed only as prints - and the original prints have in many cases probably already been lost or destroyed - Violet's website is helping to ensure that all evidence of this form of photography isn't lost. I was also fascinated by the early attempts that they show at 'photoshopping' - several of these photographs were altered to make the dead person look alive - eyes painted onto closed lids, for example - and I found that some were incredibly well done (though by no means all! ) . I like images to tell me a 'story' and these provide evidence and information about the attitudes and history of a long gone era - which added another level of interest for me.
Like several of the other lectures I attended this week, this lecture gave me a lot of practical advice and information - but this one also entertained, and inspired me, probably more than any other I attended this week.
Staying Local After college - John Mainwaring.
John owns 'Jaffa Design' , a local design studio, based in Mold. He graduated in 1986, with a higher HND Diploma in Visual Communication and Illustration, and employs freelance workers on a shirt term basis.
He kicked off the lecture by showing a clip from one of the Naked Gun series of films - amidst chaos and explosions and scenes of devastation, Leslie Neilson tells a crowd of on-lookers that there is 'nothing to see' - when obviously, there very much was plenty to see! John said that actually - there is nearly always something to see, in all circumstances.
He went on to begin the lecture by telling us that you don't necessarily have to make tracks for big cities - that if you accept certain limitations, there is work to be had locally.
He explained that when he left further education , opportunities in Illustration were minimal - but he also had a flair fro graphic design, as another string to his bow. So, he spent 2 months in work experience for a graphic design firm in Bradford. Despite this experience, it was a time of high unemployment and jobs in graphic design were also hard to come by. He explained that there had been two major recessions since he left college - including the one we are currently experiencing.
He explained how he got married shortly after graduating, and that and the starting of a family kept him tied to the local area. Which meant the employment he was able to get was perhaps not that enjoyable, though he stressed that all work was valuable experience. In 1990, he decided to go freelance, which lasted for just over a year, as again it coincided with a short time of recession. As he said, he got through it - and during the last 6 months of it, he re-trained on computers -and he stressed the value of re-training, to open new doors and keep abreast of the industry, as you have to keep up to date on new technology.
After this he began work for Advanced Star publishing house, in Chester, an American based firm. He worked for this company for several years, before deciding the time was right to go freelance again, and thus began Jaffa Design.
The work he now handles includes some magazine work, work for a charity website, work for the NHS on stop smoking campaign, lots of work for schools and colleges - branding and prospectus , and stationary.
He described some of the 'features' of working locally - you just aren't going to make the sort of money you would make working in a big city.
He said that although you can make a good living for one, locally, you have to accept that providing for a family will be hard - however, you have to balance monetary value against job satisfaction. It took a while after he went self employed for his income levels to rise to a comfortable living - he said you may need to be prepared to accept help from the benefits system whilst getting a new business off the ground.
He gave a series of tips that he shared-
Don't put all your eggs in one basket, if you are going freelance - diversify, because otherwise, if you stick to just one genre or customer, if the work dries up, you have nothing to fall back on.
He mentioned that you need to take advantage of 'serendipity' - sheer chance - when it presents itself. He had at one stage just a basic page on the web - that led to someone from the firm Johnson and Johnson just walking through his door one day - and the work snowballed from there.
The lecture finished with a series of tips for staying local. These included -
Consider teaching, if you have the commitment and ability to work hard.
Realise that staying local doesn't mean you are tied to working for just local businesses - vis the web, you can accept and do work from all over.
Five top tips -
buy a decent mac and legal software - start as you mean to go on.
Do freelance work for friends whilst looking for full time employment.
If your young, free and single - move!
Network - with people in the industry.
Practise saying no to doing free freelance work.
Sadly, I found this lecture quite disjointed and with some conflicting advice - I was under the impression that this was all about how to stay local after further education - to be advised to 'move' away if you can, was not what I was expecting ! In delivering the lecture, he jumped back and forth between his background, tips and experience, which has made it quite difficult to put the notes I took into any sort of order that flows. That's a shame, because he was at times, very interesting to listen too, and had the delivery been better and easier to follow, I suspect I could have gleaned some useful information from it! In the end, however, there seemed a fair bit to indicate that whilst it is possible to stay local, its difficult and really, you would be better off moving - which, when I know my circumstances are such that re-locating will be pretty much impossible, is pretty dis-heartening.
When you see a title like this, on the lecture timetable, and then when you check on moodle and see it carries a warning - well - you just HAVE to go, don't you?
It turned out to be not only an absolutely fascinating lecture, on several levels, but also an extremely useful and inspiring one.
Violet Fenn graduated from Glyndwr about 12 years ago, with a degree in Design Craft. She said, to this day, she isn't quite sure what that is - she mainly did jewellery making and metal crafting . She sub-titled this lecture as 'How I did everything wrong, but somehow managed to survive anyway, despite everyone's gloomy predictions' - there was something very comforting about that heading, because I suspect I manage to do a lot wrong!
On graduation, she had to work, and admitted that with a small child, options were a little limited - and she had no clear idea what she wanted to do, anyway.
Her first 'venture' came about almost by accident - she decided to make a plush toy for a friend, as a present - 'Electrokitty' - and this generated quite a response. So she fell into making plush toys - not, however the cutesy, cuddly plush variety - Violet's were just a tad different, tending towards the macabre . . .
 |
| Hedgehogonrocks - Violet Fenn Plush |
 | |||||||
| Santinolarge - Violet Fenn Plush |
I actually really like these - I think they are very witty and different :)
She created a small website on which to sell the plush creations, and through word of mouth and friends, began to make a living - at this point, Violet mentioned the importance of having a 'good image' to promote your website - she had a picture of Colin Murray posing with Englebert the Owl - one of her creations - and as she said, people remembered that picture.
However, this wasn't what Violet ultimately wanted to do - and this is where the intriguing title of her lecture came in.
She admits to being bored and surfing the net - and she came across this image
Perturbed by the appearance of this gentleman's eyes, and the extremely pinched in waist, she discovered that this is purported to be an example of Victorian Post Mortem Photography . Yep - Victorians had a habit of taking photographs of their deceased nearest and dearest, for private souvenirs, and for display purposes this is an example of an 'upright post mortem photograph'.
In this day and age, I'm pretty sure that a typical response to this practise would be of disgust and shock (although, lets be honest, most of us also harbour a fascination for things like this) - but as Violet explained, you need to consider the era and the reasons. Photography was in its infancy, and it was unusual for most people to actually have a photograph taken of themselves, or their loved ones. Particularly in an era of high infant mortality, the custom of having a photograph taken of a lost child provided grieving parents with a visual reminder of the child that had passed. The Victorians also had a far more open and accepting attitude to death, than we have today - it was customary to keep the deceased bodies at home after death, and to spend time with it to say your goodbyes. Violet commented that she found this attitude far 'healthier' than today's approach of sanitising death - its creates fear and mystery around a natural process that we all experience . For what its worth, as someone who has cared for the terminally ill, and been present during the last few hours and at the actual death of some souls, I happen to agree - I think openness creates a situation where its easier to accept grief and mourn properly, and it also allows discussion - which helps to dispel myths and fear.
Looking at some of the images both during the lecture and later, I also agree that some of the photographs are beautiful - albeit heartbreaking, especially where the images of children are concerned. As a parent, I can imagine how precious these photographs were to the heartbroken and bereaved Mothers and Fathers during the Victorian era - I have literally hundreds of photographs of my kids (thankfully, very much alive), and they mean such a lot to me.
Back to the lecture - Violet was so intrigued by this image, that she featured it on her blog - and that evening got so many hits that she started to 'seek out' this type of imagery, and set up a blog where she 'collected' and wrote about this type of photographic image. She did this, just for her own interest, but after putting a link on facebook, the blog generated 800 hits. So, obviously, there is an interest - over 12 months, she gradually developed her blog into a website, http://www.theskullillusion.com/ . She describes herself as a 'curator' of this collection - the images, being so old, copyright has lapsed, but where she can, she includes credits and information. She doesn't claim to be an expert - but what she is doing obviously intrigues and interests, as the site now generates around 1000 hits per day.
Violet explains that she pretty much learnt about developing a website, as she went along, and makes the point that you can learn to do anything - and that a web 'presence' is vital.
As the interest in her website grew, so did the amount of her time taken up on the site. So, she decided that she had to cut down on her work ratio - the plush business was very labour intensive, only generating her about £1.50 an hour - so, Violet decided to compromise by starting a jewellery business that she deliberately tied in with the web site. A lot of her designs are based around the style of Victorian Mourning jewellery, but she also features images from vintage anatomy or even Alice in Wonderland.
The Skull Illusion Jewellery shop
Some examples of Violet's jewellery . . .
 |
Alice in Wonderland 'Drink Me' pendant |
 |
Memento Mori - Victorian style choker necklace, vintage anatomy |
Violet explained that she uses what she calls 'cross pollination' - she uses a large array of social networking sites - Twitter, Tumbler, Flickr, blogs, Facebook - and each one links to all the rest - so, someone who looks at the Skull Illusion website for Post mortem photography, finds a link that takes them to her on line jewellery business - and invariably, this increases the potential for sales. The similar theme between the photography and the jewellery adds to the likelihood of sales too. Its a great example how you can make seemingly diverse things work together, one generating interest and awareness for the other. At this point in the lecture, she is throwing in a host of extremely useful information - she talked about buying in the components to make up the jewellery, and how it is cost and time effective - in other words, you don't have to do every part of the creation of your work, if the benefits of not doing so doesn't affect the quality of the product . She talked about marketing ploys like how she displays her jewellery to create images that are strong and remembered - Llewellyn the Skull, models some of her products, and she used a photograph of herself taken with Jarvis Cocker, of Pulp, which she posted on several sites - another strong image that's remembered, and again, looking at that can lead people back to her jewellery. She talked about the advantages about running a business from home - her business is run from an old coal shed, she explained - and gave information of how you can claim tax relief on your overheads - phone, heating and so on . She gave us info on using on line commercial outlets - introducing me to 'Big Cartel' - which is something I have personally never come across before.
She also talked about how this site led to her writing articles for another on line site - http://www.spookyisles.com/ - and that although she doesn't get paid for the articles she writes, this practise of 'cross pollination' works as it leads potential customers to her blog and jewellery sites. Its also led to the potential of a book deal, based on the photography web sites collection.
In conclusion, Violet offered some advice which - as a mature student - I found to be really encouraging and inspiring. She advised don't be boxed in, you can be successful doing 'whatever comes up next' - and points out that she has friends in their 50's that still don't know what they want to be when they grow up :) I'm heading towards 50 - that makes me feel so much more confident:)
As I said, this lecture was enjoyable on a whole host of levels - for a start it was well delivered and entertaining. The information on actually creating and running a business, and the resources and marketing ploys that you can use were incredibly useful and given in a no-nonsense fashion that made a lot of sense. As to the photography featured - well, I've already explained why I didn't find it morbid, but also, as a photography student it held appeal for me in the fact that she is part of preserving a form of photography that is an important part of its history. Obviously all these images are pre-digital, and existed only as prints - and the original prints have in many cases probably already been lost or destroyed - Violet's website is helping to ensure that all evidence of this form of photography isn't lost. I was also fascinated by the early attempts that they show at 'photoshopping' - several of these photographs were altered to make the dead person look alive - eyes painted onto closed lids, for example - and I found that some were incredibly well done (though by no means all! ) . I like images to tell me a 'story' and these provide evidence and information about the attitudes and history of a long gone era - which added another level of interest for me.
Like several of the other lectures I attended this week, this lecture gave me a lot of practical advice and information - but this one also entertained, and inspired me, probably more than any other I attended this week.
Staying Local After college - John Mainwaring.
John owns 'Jaffa Design' , a local design studio, based in Mold. He graduated in 1986, with a higher HND Diploma in Visual Communication and Illustration, and employs freelance workers on a shirt term basis.
He kicked off the lecture by showing a clip from one of the Naked Gun series of films - amidst chaos and explosions and scenes of devastation, Leslie Neilson tells a crowd of on-lookers that there is 'nothing to see' - when obviously, there very much was plenty to see! John said that actually - there is nearly always something to see, in all circumstances.
He went on to begin the lecture by telling us that you don't necessarily have to make tracks for big cities - that if you accept certain limitations, there is work to be had locally.
He explained that when he left further education , opportunities in Illustration were minimal - but he also had a flair fro graphic design, as another string to his bow. So, he spent 2 months in work experience for a graphic design firm in Bradford. Despite this experience, it was a time of high unemployment and jobs in graphic design were also hard to come by. He explained that there had been two major recessions since he left college - including the one we are currently experiencing.
He explained how he got married shortly after graduating, and that and the starting of a family kept him tied to the local area. Which meant the employment he was able to get was perhaps not that enjoyable, though he stressed that all work was valuable experience. In 1990, he decided to go freelance, which lasted for just over a year, as again it coincided with a short time of recession. As he said, he got through it - and during the last 6 months of it, he re-trained on computers -and he stressed the value of re-training, to open new doors and keep abreast of the industry, as you have to keep up to date on new technology.
After this he began work for Advanced Star publishing house, in Chester, an American based firm. He worked for this company for several years, before deciding the time was right to go freelance again, and thus began Jaffa Design.
The work he now handles includes some magazine work, work for a charity website, work for the NHS on stop smoking campaign, lots of work for schools and colleges - branding and prospectus , and stationary.
He described some of the 'features' of working locally - you just aren't going to make the sort of money you would make working in a big city.
He said that although you can make a good living for one, locally, you have to accept that providing for a family will be hard - however, you have to balance monetary value against job satisfaction. It took a while after he went self employed for his income levels to rise to a comfortable living - he said you may need to be prepared to accept help from the benefits system whilst getting a new business off the ground.
He gave a series of tips that he shared-
Don't put all your eggs in one basket, if you are going freelance - diversify, because otherwise, if you stick to just one genre or customer, if the work dries up, you have nothing to fall back on.
He mentioned that you need to take advantage of 'serendipity' - sheer chance - when it presents itself. He had at one stage just a basic page on the web - that led to someone from the firm Johnson and Johnson just walking through his door one day - and the work snowballed from there.
The lecture finished with a series of tips for staying local. These included -
Consider teaching, if you have the commitment and ability to work hard.
Realise that staying local doesn't mean you are tied to working for just local businesses - vis the web, you can accept and do work from all over.
Five top tips -
buy a decent mac and legal software - start as you mean to go on.
Do freelance work for friends whilst looking for full time employment.
If your young, free and single - move!
Network - with people in the industry.
Practise saying no to doing free freelance work.
Sadly, I found this lecture quite disjointed and with some conflicting advice - I was under the impression that this was all about how to stay local after further education - to be advised to 'move' away if you can, was not what I was expecting ! In delivering the lecture, he jumped back and forth between his background, tips and experience, which has made it quite difficult to put the notes I took into any sort of order that flows. That's a shame, because he was at times, very interesting to listen too, and had the delivery been better and easier to follow, I suspect I could have gleaned some useful information from it! In the end, however, there seemed a fair bit to indicate that whilst it is possible to stay local, its difficult and really, you would be better off moving - which, when I know my circumstances are such that re-locating will be pretty much impossible, is pretty dis-heartening.
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