Charlotte's blog

Week 3 was incredibly intense as the production for our products needed to be underway. All of our materials were ordered off of amazon prime, however, when they arrived they were not the correct thickness…. which was a big problem. At first we were incredibly stressed as this was something which we didn’t want to happen, however after speaking with Maggie (the textiles tech dem) we came up with a few ideas which we could experiment with to try and solve the problem.

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Material arrival:

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Maggie suggested using bonder webbing to attach the pleather to the felt to increase the hardness and durability of the pleather we were using. As an interior design student I have not got much knowledge in textile based activities; however, I was incredibly interested to learn and expand my knowledge within this field. In order to attach the felt to the pleather we heated the bonder webbing by using an iron to press the materials together. I learned that as the bonder webbing is heated the material makes a sort of gluey substance which allows the 2 different materials to stick together… creating a very strong bond. Learning that this process was possible enabled us to use the materials we had ordered and not put them to waste. In addition to bonding the materials we started to digitally stitch our logo onto our workwear; again I have not done this before and was interested in how the process works. Harleigh and Daria are textile and fashion design students and are trained to use the stitch machines; due to their experience with digital stitch  they were able to efficiently tell me how the process works and allowed me to be involved within the making of the logos. Each logo was stitched with a different colour to represent all of the individuals within the company and their personality. (The colour which I had chosen as my colour was bright pink)  By the end of the day all 6 t-shirts had been digitally stitched with our logo on them ready for sales day and our presentation.

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DIGITALLY STITCHED LOGO:

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Alongside sorting out the materials Aidan (our Graphic Designer) had been to the print studio and got our finalised business cards printed. To enhance the aesthetic of the business card he also created some black card holders which wrap around the business card – these will be laser cut with our strapline “it’s a cover up” on them to provide an edgy and stylish look. Tuesday was a very busy day for everyone in our group; one of the other tasks we did that day was to print our graphic posters advertising our company and then put them up around the whole university. The posters which we decided to use were the ones which I had created- the pattern I used for the background of the poster was created by Aidan (we all agreed that this paint brush design perfectly suited our brand) which provided a contemporary and attractive look to our posters and made them interesting and intriguing. I placed the posters around the majority of the university blocks and ensured that they were put in places where people can easily see and read them- this is incredibly important to ensure that the posters are legible.

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BUSINESS CARDS:

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CONSILIO POSTERS:

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PROJECT DEVELOPMENT:

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On Thursday we presented our final idea to the other groups within the MYOB project, this enabled us to obtain feedback about our designs and if there was anything we could do to enhance our companies advertisement or final product design. The feedback we were given was incredibly beneficial, one main point which we were given was that at first glance our logo looked like a company of whom produced makeup products. This was due to the fact that we had used a brush effect on logo. We then discussed how we could change the logo to make it more appropriate to our bespoke laptop sleeve business. Aiden our graphic designer came up with a contemporary piece of abstract art; incorporating the brush strokes to make our logo stand out but not look like a makeup brand.

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BEFORE FEEDBACK:

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AFTER FEEDBACK:

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Another piece of feedback that we obtained was to consider producing an attachment for your laptop charger. This was something we had been considering since the start but we prevented by not having a large enough budget. We considered using the scrap felt which we had obtained for free from the textiles studio but were unsure if this would provide the casing with enough protection. Over the weekend and during next week we will be experimenting with materials to see if they will be suitable enough for our laptop sleeves. During last terms field project (Interior Styling) there was an abundance of different materials which were left over from the donations they received. We used this opportunity to ask if we could use some of the left over material and we were given permission to use them. This enabled us to create a mock up of our laptop sleeve design using left over felt, thus allowing us to gain a better understanding of how we should attach the materials together to create the perfect laptop case. Although the felt was not thick enough it provided us with a rough idea of the layout we want to produce for our final design. In order to ensure that we start the making process as soon as possible I ordered samples of potential pleather fabric which we will be using for the laptop sleeves. I ordered them off of amazon prime which meant that they would come asap to give us enough time to discuss whether the material is suitable for the production of our product.

Alongside creating mock ups of our products we also discussed how we wanted to display our products on the sales event. As an interior design student I decided to use my skills on SketchUp to design a potential object display set up. As we only have a budget of £100 we needed to make sure that the display space was produced at a very little cost; I decided to have a look around charity shops and car boot sales for cheap stands which could potentially be used. I have still not found anything which will be suitable but I intend to continue looking for suitable stands which will be appropriate for the display of our laptop sleeves.

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MOCK UP LAPTOP SLEEVES:

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ELEVATOR PITCH:

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As part of our MYOB project each group had to complete an elevator pitch. This term was something I had never heard before however, after Richard explained what occurred within the elevator pitch I understood its importance. In order to pitch your business effectively and efficiently to an employer you need to be sharp, accurate and precise in the description of your business. Being clear, unambiguous and direct is incredibly important to ensure that the businesses motives and goals are correctly understood.

The elevator pitch would last approximately 17.8 seconds; this was the amount of time it took to go from the ground floor to the third floor in the CSAD building. At first I didn’t think that their would be enough time to successfully describe our business however, after practising the pitch I realised that it was more than enough time to provide a direct and crisp description of our company. As a team we collectively decided that only one person should do the speaking within the elevator pitch; reducing the possibility of multiple mistakes made. I volunteered to speak as I have completed pitches in previous projects as part of my interior design assessments.  In the days leading up to the elevator pitch we discussed how we would best describe our business, ensuring that we included who are target market is, our values and of course the product we will be designing, producing and marketing.

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Our finalised pitch can be seen below:

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“WHO THE HELL ARE WE!”- Said by Harleigh

“Consilio, a company that creates bespoke laptop sleeves – ‘IT’S A COVER UP’ We pride ourselves by giving you the freedom to be YOU, with our quirky, extrovert designs.” – Said by Me

“MADE FOR YOU THE STUDENT” – Said by Me

Aiden hands Richard our Mock Up business card.

Harleigh hands Richard our badge and says “Wear it with pride” ( as the doors of the elevator opened”

BUISNESS CARD:

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 FEEDBACK:

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The elevator pitch went really well and we managed to complete it within 16 seconds and also had enough time to give Richard our business card which had details of our contact details and social media pages. The feedback we got from this pitch was incredibly good and Richard said that our use of splitting up the pitch was very successful. We decided that another person within our group should start the pitch by asking the question “who the hell are we?” thus ,causing an unexpected turn in the pitch rather than the whole pitch being dictated by myself. This provided the pitch with additional elevation making it more interesting and rememberable.

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Presentation:

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On Tuesday 21st we had a presentation on how to make a successful business canvas model. I had never heard of this model before and was intrigued as to what it depicted. Presentations like these are essential as they can provide me with skills which I could potentially require for future projects or if I create my own business in my future career.

The Business Canvas Model is a model that helps people understand the different areas within you business. These can include key partners (The people or companies that your company is working with or alongside) or Key activities which makes your company professional e.g. Quality control of products and manufacture. I learned that these models are useful to differentiate the different processes which take place within the business and enables you to allocate specific traits of that activity; thus making it easier to produce a business plan.

 

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As a creative collective team we had been discussing and sharing our initial ideas over our group chat following our first meeting of the mind your own business course. We discussed our client personas in order to obtain a better understanding of who we would be designing, producing and marketing our products too. Collectively we decided that our products would be aimed at students in particular therefore, we need to ensure that our  laptop sleeves are on trend, stylish, unique and of a high standard and quality.

Once we had decided on our ideal target market/clientele we started to  individually create personal persona’s which would perfectly depict the client we are marketing our products too. It was incredibly interesting to see peoples interpretations of how they would best describe a student; although the majority of our ideas were similar there were a few sections which were slightly different. Although we came across these differences we decided to include them within the final client persona profile as we realised that no one student is the same. Alongside creating individual personas we also decided to each create 2 mood boards which described the theme which we believed best suited our target market. Again this was incredibly interesting as we all created a variety of different mood boards which depicted a variety of different themes and styles. We then discussed the possibility of combining the different ideas into our designs. For example, I decided to use quite neutral and greyish tones within my mood board whereas both Harleigh and Daria used bright neon and bold colours. Therefore, in order to compromise we agreed that using a combination of grey neutral colours and contrasting them with bright bold patterns would produce a stylish and aesthetically pleasing laptop sleeve.

Next on the agenda for our group was to come up with a brand name! Initially we were  incredibly quiet whilst we thought of potential ideas. To help us understand the importance of brand names and straplines Richard our lecturer informed us that our brand name must be catchy, simple and efficiently explain what you are selling. We then started to throw out a few ideas including:

• Hip Design
• Luxsit
• Infocus
• BrighterBee
• Progresso
• Consilio ( This means “Design” In Latin)

Initially we really like the name Infocus as we believed that it linked well with our values as a group; implying that we are passionate, motivated and focused on producing high quality products. As a brand name this was quite catchy and interesting however, we were still incredibly unsure on whether it was suitable for the final brand name. We then looked into the name Consilio – I personally liked this name a lot and I believed that it had a nice ring to it and was incredibly stylish and unique. Instead of finalising our brand name we decided to design a few different logos with the different names we had suggested. This then allowed us to effectively chose a brand name which perfectly suited our aims and products.

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OUR MYOB GROUP CHAT :

This shows a few inital ideas that we had come up with for potential logos and names.

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Meeting my MYOB team:

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I was incredibly excited to start my term 2 field project and was looking forward to meeting and working with individuals from different disciplines. During the first 30 minutes of the session I met my business “family” and was introduced to the aim of the field project.

The brief for this project is to design, make, brand and market a product as a creative collective team. Each group will be given £100 as a ‘seed’ fund which will help enable the business module to successfully take place. As part of the project we had to elect someone within the group to become the financial adviser and take care of the amount of money we spend on materials. I was chosen to do this as I have experience in handling money; as well as being able to efficiently use Word excel to document the amount we spend on materials and our overall profit. One we had elected roles to each member of the creative team we were advised to come up with 5 different values which defined us as a team and what we expect each member to abide by throughout this project.

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Our Agreed Creative Collective Values:

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1. Accountability– Each team member must pull their own weight within the project and be responsible for downfalls which may be caused by their inability to commit to the project.
2. Diversity – We want our product to be universal and for their to be something for everyone; both male and female and for a variety of different age generations.
3. Passion– Each team member needs to be motivated, passionate and committed to the project in order for us to succesfully produce a good quality product.
4. Teamwork– In order for our creative collective team to work efficently and successfully throughout this project we need to be gelled and respect each individuals ideas.
5. Creativity – As a team we will design a selection of products which are aesthetically pleasing, unique, stylish and on trend.

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KEY TERMINOLOGY: 

I have never completed a business course before and therefore, the lectures taught me some new terminology. As an interior design student and an A level Product design student I knew how to design products or spaces which are perfectly suited to the needs and requirements of the target market/cliental. However, I learned about the different marketing methods which are used when designing and selling a product for certain target markets.

Mass Marketing– (undifferentiated) = business target the WHOLE market. In order to succeed and sell vast quantities of their products their designs are tailored to what customers need, require and WANT!!!!!

Segmented Marketing- (differentiated) = target several market segments within the same market. This means that the consumers are segmented into different groups which they have common interests with.

Concentrated- (niche) – Business focus narrowly on smaller segments. This includes companies such as Oatley and Holland and Barrett.

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PROJECT DISCUSSIONS:

I have always believed that the key to successful projects is hard work and my team members thought the same. Therefore, in order to start the project off well we decided to create a mind map of different ideas which we could possibly develop further. We then discussed what we would buy if the roles reversed and we were potentially buying a product. After a long discussion we collectively decided to design and make laptop sleeves for uni students and lectures. This is because a large proportion of students have laptops and ipads for their courses and we believed that individuals would buy a unique sleeve. To communicate with each other we created a Facebook group chat where we can share our ideas and designs we have created when we have not been into uni. This allows us to constantly be connected.