Contacting Competition

I decided to e-mail our researched competitors within the design industry to get some advice on our business proposals from working professionals....

I am yet to hear back from them

Hello Martin. 

Me and two of my peers are writing to you for advice on starting up a business in the graphic industry , based in Edinburgh. We are BA hons Graphic Design students currently in the middle of an Enterprise Brief, where we have to begin/create our own 'fake' business. We have chosen Edinbourugh as in our research we found out that it was one of the most creative Citys in in UK. We would be so grateful if you would take a few minutes to answer some question for our research as we found you're company inspiring and professional. The questions are based on business and for our research only , if you feel that the questions are innaproprate then feel free to pass. 

1-What would you say are the most important ways of promoting yourself when you are trying to start up a business?

2-What do you struggle with the most finatially?

3-What is the one piece of good advice you would give a young Graphic Designer when starting up a business for the first time. 

4-What is the one piece of bad advice you would give a young Graphic Designers when starting up a business for the first time. 

Also one last thing, if you ever need some new and fresh Graphic Design then we are ALWAYS open to collaboration and challenges   

Our Location / UD

After not hearing back from the landlord about the first property we found that we though was ideal for our business we finally found one which we were able to get more information on. Kirsty found this property on gumtree and got in touch with the landlord to get a break down of all the costs that would be involved within this property and whether or not it would be suitable for our type of business. Having more information on the property was a really important factor because we needed this information for our business plan. This location has previously been a clothing shop so the facility is quite modern and seems suitable for a design studio. The location is perfect for three designers because its just the right size and we could make it feel like a very comfortable place to work in, add a homely touch to it as we will spend a lot of time here. The most important thing about this property is it has the upstairs downstairs element to it which is key to the name of our company.

ROLES - Upstairs Downstairs

Other than being professional graphic designers we each have our individual roles and key responsibilities within our business.

As a trio we will work together to make our business work, here is a Summary of our roles within the industry and our business.

Our Business plan

                           
Here is the business plan for Upstairs Downstairs which Kirsty H produced using her clever business skills and knowledge in the mathematical and funding side to things. 

                               

FINAL PRESENTATION IN PDF

The final presentation that we will be showing on the day.
We have also made business cards , a small digital production and a folder for our buisness plan to include with this.

                              

in my part of the presentation i will be talking about

Over the past couple of weeks we have been discovering what kind of designers we all are and what we can bring to the business.

for example

Kirsty alderson...

Kirsty Hardingham 

And myself

Aswell as being professional designers , as a trio we each have our separate roles.

These are some of our key responsibilities within the business. 

myself
Kirsty

Kisrty

We currently have three main methods of promotion which will develop over time , this includes our business card, website and press ad. 
All these elements tie in with our target audience because each separate target audience will have access to a different form of promotion. 

The business card will be necessary when it comes to networking and building our client base because we can hand this to potential clients.
 Having a memorable and unique business card will work in our favour because it will rest on the clients mind and give them an idea of who we are as designers. 

The website will be accessible to all of our target audiences but each will view it a different way depending on what they are looking for.

P.E.S.T AND S.W.O.T

Based on the research in which Kristy and myself conducted on our competition within Edinburgh I chose three of the companies to carry out a SWOT analysis on as this would determine just how much of a threat they were. I also carried out a PEST analysis on our own company to determine where we place within society. 

http://edinburghart.com

Strengths: 

- Their work is fresh and interesting and so will appear to the modern day audience. 

- The start up of the website design is very creative. 

- They have a good city centre location. 

- They have an online shop as a further source of income. 

Weaknesses:

- The text on their website is quite small. 

Opportunities:

- They could tour craft events around the country to put themselves out there a bit more and make some extra money on top of the shop space and online space. 

Threats: 

- More shops like this are cropping up so competition is building. 

http://www.thetouchagency.co.uk/

Strengths: 

- They have designed for big clients such as WWF and Amazon. 

- They are located in the center of Edinburgh.

- Their website creates a good first impression. 

- Their team has a range of people from a range of design backgrounds. 

Weaknesses: 

- The logo isn't as memorable as it possibly could be. 

Opportunities:

- They are quite a small business so they could expand. 

Threats: 

- There are a lot of design studios in Edinburgh to compete with. 

http://www.edinburghdesignstudio.co.uk/

Strengths: 

- They have won awards. 

- They cover both digital and print design. 

Weaknesses:

- Their website isn't that appealing.

- The story of them as a company is quite short. 

Opportunities:

- Giving more background on the company may help because clients may then put more trust in them. 

Threats: 

- Companies are holding onto their money more so design studios are all trying really hard to impress. 

Pest analysis of our company.

Political

As a company we will steer clear of political issues based on opinion because this could get us into a lot of trouble if we upset the wrong people. We will work within the guidelines of environmental law to be an environmentally friendly company in the best way we can. We will not promote anything that goes against things that government have set in place because this could create a bad name for ourselves.

Economic

Due to the current economic climate the cost of things for the business will is likely to be higher. We need to do our best to keep these costs down in order to produce affordable design and keep the company going. We recognise that economic factors will make times difficult for a new company. 

Social

If we are in keeping with the social factors of design we are more likely to have work because there is high demand for this. Following trends will keep our design fresh and innovative, and because it's a trend there will definitely be a market for this because it will be current.

Technological

We will use the latest technology available in terms of print to create the best possible quality for our clients. We may not update our software every time an update occurs because these changes can be small but very costly. Our designs will need to move along with the technological change because this will alter how design looks. 

Presentation Introduction

i have created a small ten second piece of moving image to include in our presentation. 

This is mainly to show off our skills as designers , our style and this would be potential promotional material for our business. 

I considered motion graphics in our presentation to make our business stand out.

Folder Cover and business cards printed.

We printed our cards onto white card and antique to make the cards look sleek and more durable. 

Front and back of the business card. 

The front of our business card was originally a logo design that i created but when we got feedback on this logo from others we were advised not to use it because photo logos like this don't tend to work over a range of elements due to the fact they are more complicated. Due to the fact we really liked this design we decided we would apply it to other elements of our business and feel it works really well for the front of the business card and creates a sophisticated solution. We decided to keep the back of the business card quite minimalistic so there is no confusion with the information it contains and its straight to the point. The idea of using greys throughout all our designs for the company comes from the fact that our favourite colours are blue, pink and orange and we imagine that if you mixed these together you'd get a mucky grey colour. We have managed to include all elements of our corporate identity but feel this works really well because they compliment each other. 

We printed the business cards out on a range of stocks which include antique paper and watercolour paper. The watercolour paper is definitely the better option of the two because it has a nice quality texture to it and the antique paper being slightly yellow doesn't make the design look as good as it could. Based on these business card designs Kirsty created a folder than will hold our business plan in, just to add another nice personal touch to our company. This is will hopefully make our idea more memorable. 

I took on the task of creating a homepage layout for the website we plan on setting up. I chose the design because it sticks to this minimalistic approach that all our elements seem to have and it looks really easy to navigate around. The buttons i have included to direct the audience to different pages just include really important aspects of our company which is good because we want everything to be straight to the point instead of including our 'whole life story'. Again the use of colour being quite neutral works really well because it ties everything together as being from part of the same company. These colours add a level of sophistication. I feel that having all elements of the website central to the page is another great feature because your eye is automatically drawn to everything instead of things being all over the place. 

Final Business Plan Template

We have chosen this Barclays business play as our last template as it is clear and easy to read.

                           

After we had created our business plan we needed to put together our presentation so we could present our idea to our peers. Kirsty came up with this very basic design influenced by my logo and branding, for our presentation and what each slide would include.  the minimalist approach again is really relevant because it was in keeping with everything else we had produced and the more important side of the presentation was the information it put across and not whether it looked fancy. Using the same colour scheme as we have previously also linked everything together and using the logo shape on the corner of every slide was just another nice little feature and with intention so that people remember this as they are constantly being shown it. The idea of our presentation is to sum up everything we have stated within the business plan but within ten slides and in a way that anyone would be able to understand. 

Business proposals - enterprise

We realised that we will need to make a few extra business proposals so that we can make extra money. 

These include the renting of shop space to young designers/ students, the small percentage of commission that we will take from their sales and then the branding and identity business studio. This will be great in terms of getting ourself heard about , interacting with the public , for inspiration and obviously that extra bit of cash. 

Funding - Enterprise

Looking at different funding options for out business.


Although We have already discussed various different ways of making that extra bit of money funding through banks is a key area in our research that needs to be assesed! the funding of out business is very important and choosing the right bank is essential as our company will be relying on them for pretty much everything from the chairs we sit on to the software and printing facilities we need to produce work.
Here are some potential banks that we would use in terms of both business advice and help with funding. 

                        

                        

                        

Open publication - Free publishing

Our Name - UpstairsDownstairsDesign

Checking our name availability in the UK, good news , our name is available. It has stated that we include a suffix designating limited liability to the end of our name. 

UPSTAIRSDOWNSTAIRSLTD

Competition - Edinburgh - Enterprise

Lewis Bilsland is a talented and experienced graphic designer freelancing in Edinburgh. He has a HND in design for marketing , an advanced diploma in graphic design and has won two student of the year awards when he was studying. He has worked on many projects  that have covered many areas of design such as Publishing , working on consumer magazines , exhibition material , design for packaging and  annual reports.

"I am a freelance graphic designer based in Edinburgh, with over 10 years experience in crafting design solutions for everything digital and print."

Lewis has worked for some top agencies and companies such as Pinpoint Scotland 'a publisher specialising in magazines' , beauty sleuth 'specialising in internet retail' he stated that working internet based was too much of a busy place for graphic design , so he then began working for a deign studio in Edinburugh called 39 steps. Here he designed for businesses in areas of branding and identity , web design , brochures , promotional literature , email marketing , illustration , events material , magazines , annual reports and many more!! This makes him major competition!

Lewis is now with an award winning digital agency based in edinburugh called Storm Id... further competition! 

Some of lewis's work...

Building our Website

I started to create our website today , looked at a few free website generator sites that were ok but after i designed it , there wasn't an option for links unless a payment was made. These are a few websites that i looked at 

Choosing a URL..

And a website name...

Webstarter

Website Address.. 

The final Website designs...

Looking at prices for software packages , and prices to sign up on websites ...

Studio Space , Edinburugh

Here is another studio space that i found situated in Dairy , an area close to central Edinburgh. Dairy area has become an increasingly desirable residential and retail location, and has a wide range of shops, restaurants and leisure facilities.


This retail unit has been newly refitted and prominently located occupying the ground floor and the basement in a traditional stone building amidst a terraced parade of similar properties. This is perfect for our Upstairs and Downstairs idea.

Ground Floor is 650 sq/ft, new laminate flooring, neutrally painted walls for a blank canvas, newly fitted electrics and a large bright shop window/frontage. the design of the interior is something that we are looking for ,clean , spacious and bright with a blank canvas to add our own edge.

Basement is 440 sq/ft, with sink and toilet. Also newly fitted electrics. 

Studio Spaces to rent

I found this studio situated in one of Edinburgh's prime business locations , right near the main rail networks , this is extremely handy as i would commute to work via train. The studio is also easily accessible from the M8 and M9 if i was to drive to work on odd occasions. 
The studio comes with 4 month rent free on 12 month deal, no set-up costs!! 
It is modern and offers 24hour access along with parking , air conditioning and CCTV. 
The studio also offers on-demand meeting rooms as standard. The studio is £85 per week per person.
Although this studio would be perfect for work in general , we would not be able to peruse our idea of having an upstairs studio/work area and a downstairs open workshop and hub, if we rented this studio , we would have to rent a separate property in town for our open workshop , this would be way too expensive as we would be paying double our rent and all the extras. 

Business Cards for enterprise

These are the final business cards which i designed and produced for our company. 
We will be handing these out to our peers and tutors during our presentation ...


                        

Enterprise Lecture

DONT GET RIPPED OFF!

Copyright Matters.

broadcast , performances, limited edition prints - make them our own.

an example of copyright …

CartoonStock.com - 

PROTECT YOUR IDEAS.   MAKE A LIVING FROM YOUR WORK

.

Contact the designer/Artist , come to a decision on how much you want their design for , what your using it for , how many times you're using it and for how long.

The college has a licence to photocopy and take photographs of published books, the college pay a huge amount 5-6thousand a year to have this licence for the students. 

intellectual Property (IP) REFERS TO CREATIONS OF OUR MINDS.

four basic types of intellectual property 

*Patents -  Apply only to things that work in a new way , electronic , mechanical , soft wear , medicines , scientific. E.G The ring pull can , a computer box , a television screen , a phone cover  etc  - All the same but with their own uniqueness

Henry mill took our the first patent, for a typewriter in England.

Patent letaler - wipe clean leather created by Seth Boyden. E.g Patent leather came from this Term.

*Trademarks and Logos 

-Trademarks can be very complex devises , very precises in terms of colour layout etc. ™ - means the logo is UNDER INVESTIGATION , and after the logo has been verified it turns into…..

Just like and L plate on a car 'Learner' before the P plate 'Passed'.

Comparing logos - the AUDI logo has their own typeface , logo and design. 

However , Heinz Baked Beans has registered various typefaces and colours therefore no other bean company can use it.

Also the Guinness branding had their own branding plus the glass shape to go with it , this is so their brand is unique and recognisable and you always thing guinness when you see this shape of glass , for instance , seeing someone across the bar drinking Guinnes , you might not be able to see the logo but you can see the glass. 

Registeres Designs - 

e.g APPLE , ELISSE etc. 

iPhone - registered trademark for Apple Inc. Various apps are still patent pending, .

JUST BECAUSE THEIR REGISTERED DESIGNS DOSNT NECCESARILY MEAN THEY ARE GOOD DESIGNS. 

COPYWRIGHT - Art , Design,  litterature , music , animation , film and games - AUTOMATIC - DATE AND RECORD YOUR WORK! 

Everyday Copywright 

Every book has an ISBN NUMBER , a C symbol , two dates and the authors name. - same applys for books on amazon , they have a copyright symbol that stands for Amazon. 

AN EXAMPLE STORY OF COPYWRIGHT 

Shepard Fairey is well known for his prolific stickering and flyposting of his propaganda-style images. While we at CR are well aware of his ability to stick his images just about anywhere in any city, we're still surprised to see his the hot-off-the-press posters he's created in support of Senator Barack Obama...

The photograph taken from a photographer was then drawn by Shepard , he i still in court today. 

HOW TO SECURE YOUR COPYWRIGHT - ADD THE SYMBOL AND YOUR NAME AND DATE THE DESIGN….

2012 Olivia Chapman

also keep a log of your significant creations and limit where you upload it to , this makes it more difficult to track …  

How long do they last?

• Patents - max 20 years

• Trademarks and Logos – – for ever –
– renew every 10 years

• Design Rights
– Up to 25 years
– Renew every 5 years

• Copyright
– Until 70 years after death