PPP2 // What is PEST Analysis

PEST Analysis is a little more tricky than SWOT it seems, their is a large amount of brainstorming and research involved in PEST and the results of this PEST Analysis could help you develop your organisation or make you realise that there are areas that need to be changed to suit either the Political, economical, social and technological environment.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_09.htm

Political Factors to Consider

• When is the country's next local, state, or national election? How could this change government or regional policy?
• Who are the most likely contenders for power? What are their views on business policy, and on other policies that affect your organization?
• Depending on the country, how well developed are property rights and the rule of law, and how widespread are corruption and organized crime? How are these situations likely to change, and how is this likely to affect you?
• Could any pending legislation or taxation changes affect your business, either positively or negatively?
• How will business regulation, along with any planned changes to it, affect your business? And is there a trend towards regulation or deregulation?
• How does government approach corporate policy, corporate social responsibility, environmental issues, and customer protection legislation? What impact does this have, and is it likely to change?
• What is the likely timescale of proposed legislative changes?
• Are there any other political factors that are likely to change?

Economic Factors to Consider

• How stable is the current economy? Is it growing, stagnating, or declining?
• Are key exchange rates stable, or do they tend to vary significantly?
• Are customers' levels of disposable income rising or falling? How is this likely to change in the next few years?
• What is the unemployment rate? Will it be easy to build a skilled workforce? Or will it be expensive to hire skilled labor?
• Do consumers and businesses have easy access to credit? If not, how will this affect your organization?
• How is globalization affecting the economic environment?
• Are there any other economic factors that you should consider?

Socio-Cultural Factors to Consider

• What is the population's growth rate and age profile? How is this likely to change?
• Are generational shifts in attitude likely to affect what you're doing?
• What are your society's levels of health, education, and social mobility? How are these changing, and what impact does this have?
• What employment patterns, job market trends, and attitudes toward work can you observe? Are these different for different age groups?
• What social attitudes and social taboos could affect your business? Have there been recent socio-cultural changes that might affect this?
• How do religious beliefs and lifestyle choices affect the population?
• Are any other socio-cultural factors likely to drive change for your business?

Technological Factors to Consider

• Are there any new technologies that you could be using?
• Are there any new technologies on the horizon that could radically affect your work or your industry?
• Do any of your competitors have access to new technologies that could redefine their products?
• In which areas do governments and educational institutions focus their research? Is there anything you can do to take advantage of this?
• How have infrastructure changes affected work patterns (for example, levels of remote working)?
• Are there existing technological hubs that you could work with or learn from?
• Are there any other technological factors that you should consider?

PPP2 // SWOT Analysis

I found this website very useful when researching SWOT Analysis - it focuses on SWOT from a business point which can be applied to starting or developing businesses as well as personal analysis.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm

SWOT stands for Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats

Originated by Albert S Humphrey in the 1960s, SWOT Analysis is as useful now as it was then. You can use it in two ways - as a simple icebreaker helping people get together to "kick off" strategy formulation, or in a more sophisticated way as a serious strategy tool.

Strengths

• What advantages does your organization have?
• What do you do better than anyone else?
• What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others can't?
• What do people in your market see as your strengths?
• What factors mean that you "get the sale"?
• What is your organization's Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

Consider your strengths from both an internal perspective, and from the point of view of your customers and people in your market.
Also, if you're having any difficulty identifying strengths, try writing down a list of your organization's characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths!
When looking at your strengths, think about them in relation to your competitors. For example, if all of your competitors provide high quality products, then a high quality production process is not a strength in your organization's market, it's a necessity.

Weaknesses

• What could you improve?
• What should you avoid?
• What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses?
• What factors lose you sales?

Again, consider this from an internal and external basis: Do other people seem to perceive weaknesses that you don't see? Are your competitors doing any better than you?
It's best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.

Opportunities 

• What good opportunities can you spot?
• What interesting trends are you aware of?

Useful opportunities can come from such things as:

• Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale.
• Changes in government policy related to your field.
• Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and so on.
• Local events.

Threats

• What obstacles do you face?
• What are your competitors doing?
• Are quality standards or specifications for your job, products or services changing?
• Is changing technology threatening your position?
• Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
• Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business?

PPP2 // Life's a Pitch - E flyer design

The eflyer visual concept was thought of by Ross, he came in with the idea of producing a motion GIF which would both brand out company as well as contain minimal but informative written content about our practice and ourselves.

The production of this E flyer was done by Myself, Joel and Ross and I think the outcome looks quite innovative and visually pleasing.

Life's a Pitch // E flyer development

We have had a little trouble finding time this week for our entire group to sit down together and talk through ideas as we have all been in different workshops and we have had some group absences.
However we have still maintained a good level of communication, which has allowed us to go away individually and develop the ideas we have got. So on Monday when we have time to have a meeting, we can sit and look at each of our design ideas as well as the information needed to go on the E flyer.

Mission Statement 

 Initial idea for mission statement.

Founded in November 2012, five attractive, hilarious and trendy designers put their heads together to create Four IIII (we never said maths was our strong point).
We do branding & identity, photography & film, packaging & publication as well as promotional campaign & strategy.
Four IIII can do more than SEE your design solutions, we take a creandly, proffordable & funique approach to any design problem you want solving.
Four IIII is our name, we design Four IIII's because we have an IIII Four design.

Life's a Pitch // logo design ideas

Having decided last week that we were to be called Four iiii, we decided to go away and try and think of our own individual ideas on what the logo should be. The decision to do this was mostly because we have had very little time together since the brief was set, I thought maybe individually doing designs would give us a good choice of design ideas to pick from on Monday morning. Then we would be able to make clear and processed decisions on what direction we want our studio to go in.

Initial ideas.

 Developed ideas from chosen designs.

I don't want to follow any ideas through too seriously at this stage, however there are some designs which I like and may consider digitalising before Monday just so if it is chosen we would have a starting point.

PPP2 // the 4 P's of marketing

What are the 4 P's?

Understanding the Tool

The marketing mix and the 4 Ps of marketing are often used as synonyms for each other. In fact, they are not necessarily the same thing.
"Marketing mix" is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to make in the whole process of bringing a product or service to market. The 4 Ps is one way – probably the best-known way – of defining the marketing mix, and was first expressed in 1960 by E J McCarthy.
The 4Ps are:

• Product (or Service)
• Place
• Price
• Promotion

A good way to understand the 4 Ps is by the questions that you need to ask to define you marketing mix. Here are some questions that will help you understand and define each of the four elements:

Product/Service

• What does the customer want from the product/service? What needs does it satisfy?
• What features does it have to meet these needs?
  
  • Are there any features you've missed out?
  • Are you including costly features that the customer won't actually use?
• How and where will the customer use it?
• What does it look like? How will customers experience it?
• What size(s), color(s), and so on, should it be?
• What is it to be called?
• How is it branded?
• How is it differentiated versus your competitors?
• What is the most it can cost to provide, and still be sold sufficiently profitably? (See also Price, below).

Place

• Where do buyers look for your product or service?
• If they look in a store, what kind? A specialist boutique or in a supermarket, or both? Or online? Or direct, via a catalogue?
• How can you access the right distribution channels?
• Do you need to use a sales force? Or attend trade fairs? Or make online submissions? Or send samples to catalogue companies?
• What do you competitors do, and how can you learn from that and/or differentiate?

Price

• What is the value of the product or service to the buyer?
• Are there established price points for products or services in this area?
• Is the customer price sensitive? Will a small decrease in price gain you extra market share? Or will a small increase be indiscernible, and so gain you extra profit margin?
• What discounts should be offered to trade customers, or to other specific segments of your market?
• How will your price compare with your competitors?

Promotion

• Where and when can you get across your marketing messages to your target market?
• Will you reach your audience by advertising in the press, or on TV, or radio, or on billboards? By using direct marketing mailshot? Through PR? On the Internet?
• When is the best time to promote? Is there seasonality in the market? Are there any wider environmental issues that suggest or dictate the timing of your market launch, or the timing of subsequent promotions?
• How do your competitors do their promotions? And how does that influence your choice of promotional activity?

The 4Ps model is just one of many marketing mix lists that have been developed over the years. And, whilst the questions we have listed above are key, they are just a subset of the detailed probing that may be required to optimize your marketing mix.
Amongst the other marketing mix models have been developed over the years is Boom and Bitner's 7Ps, sometimes called the extended marketing mix, which include the first 4 Ps, plus people, processes and physical layout decisions.
Another marketing mix approach is Lauterborn's 4Cs, which presents the elements of the marketing mix from the buyer's, rather than the seller's, perspective. It is made up of Customer needs and wants (the equivalent of product), Cost (price), Convenience (place) and Communication (promotion). In this article, we focus on the 4Ps model as it is the most well-recognized, and contains the core elements of a good marketing mix.

Lifes a Pitch // initial group and concept

Group.

- Mikey Scott

- Simon Isle

- Ross Francis

- Joel Burden

- Sophia Akrofi

Name.

Four iiii

Design Focus areas.

- Brand and Identity

- Photography and Film

- Promotional campaign and strategy

- Packaging and Publication

Our initial intentions and research.

After sitting down with the majority of my group this week, we have decided the best tactic to take with working in a collaboration was to assign ourselves initial research tasks, each focusing on a different area of our design focus's.

We have set deadlines for each other and requested that each must do the work for a certain day / hour, this already has greatly improved my motivation instantly.

Branding and Identity.

This is the area I am researching at this point, we have decided that we should all find a miniumum of 4 design studios that specialise in our chosen area. we then need to contact them all asking about there costings and charges.

Below is the standard template of email that we all are using.

'Hello .....

My name is Mikey Scott and I am currently studying Graphic design (second year) at Leeds college of art

Basically we have been set a new group brief at college, we have to construct a business plan or business proposal for a creative design studio.

In this brief we have to look into what services we would provide and have decided to look into promotional campaign, packaging and publication, photography and film etc. We are also looking into branding & identity and this is where I thought you could possibly help us out?

All we would like to know is whether you have a general price list or is it a more of a specialised decision? If you do have a price list, could you possibly send us an example of what you charge and for what? This is purely a college brief and non of the information you send would be used in the commercial environment. This is purely a research task so we can get an idea of costings in different areas of design.

Thankyou very much for your time and your help, I will look forward to hearing from you soon

Thanks again

Mikey Scott'

Burneverything

Sockeye

 Allyn Creative

WHAM Creative

Turner Duckworth

PPP2 // John's task No. 2

My Chosen Areas of practice as of now.

• Logo/ Branding
• Advertising
• Packaging/ Paper engineering

At the minute I am still a bit clueless to what area I want to go into after the degree, so these are the main 3 areas I could see myself specialising in, I do however still have a lot to learn and my interests change over the months.

My main strengths as of now.

• Analytical Qualities
• Idea Development
• Logo/ Branding

I haven't as of yet forced myself into taking advantage of the facilities here and really get frustrated with myself when I look back on ideas or projects which I know could be improved and developed into decent designs but because of my poor time management I always end up feeling down about my work.

My identified weaknesses as of now.

• Time Management
• Lack of confidence
• Organisation of multiple projects

I found it much MUCH easier to think of the weaknesses than it did the strengths, but I think t is good to be self critical I definitely know I have the potential to create great work but i just need the time to find myself as a designer.

A set of main goals for the year.

• Use Screen print, embossing, foiling and laser cut in a project.
• Be pleased with a piece of design I produce.
• work closely with other designers on the course more often.

3 wishes for the year

• I will win a competition brief
• I will be able to create awesome websites for anyone who needs them so I can rake in the dolla'   
• Find someone on the course I collaborate with really well. 

PPP // John Task 1 - Five Studios we would liek to work for and why

All the studios I have presented below, I have tried to pick depending on both their location, work ethos and work environment as well as the style of design they produce. I want to find a studio that is heavily involved in brand and identity and mostly print based products, however I wouldn't mind trying to find a multidisciplinary studio so I can work, learn and develop the design skills I will have formed on this course.

I wouldn't say I have a style of design but I would say I feel like all the studios I have chosen would benefit from my conceptual approach when it comes to general graphic design.
 
Blacksheep Design Studio - Cape Town South Africa
 

When we were asked to find these 5 examples of studios that we are creatively attracted to I tried to think of what I would really like out of my dream design job, and I realised one of the main factors for me was the environment and culture I would be working in, having visited South Africa and Loving the city, it's weather, culture, people and landscape. I thought I would try and find a couple of studios in Cape Town that focus on the areas of design I am most interested.

I browsed a series of South African studios that focus mainly on branding and printed graphic design, and Blacksheep attracted my attention when I saw the existing branding work they have produced as well as the wide variety of clients that they work with. They work on various different types of media from surf boards to gift cards, and I think this would be a great environment to learn how a well rounded graphic design company tackles extremely different briefs for extremely different clients.

K&I - Cape Town South Africa

 

 K & I is another South African Studio based in Cape town, it was founded by husband and wife Karl J Mynhardt and Ida V Mynhardt who are studied both in SA and Britain in both Graphic design and Fashion design and have won awards for their work. 

They seem to have a great work ethic and both really enjoy what they do and you can tell that in their work, I think it would be a great environment to learn, and the work they produce it really innovative and interesting and they get a large amount of clients which cover many different sectors. I really like the look of this studio.

BurnEverything - Liverpool 

BurnEverything is a great British design studio based in Liverpool, even though Liverpool isn't my number one desired place to end up I really do love the work they produce and the methods they use to approach their wide range of briefs. They have a fantastic brand and identity portfolio and the products and packaging they have produced for some clients is really innovative, unique and exciting, so it would be great to go see how these guys work.

Pearlfisher - London

This seems to be quite a successful studio, when looking at their successful identities and packaging they have produced, it seems they have worked with some huge global companies and successfully produced products that are in popular use in the industry. Therefore this studio attracts me to both their interesting range of brands they have created as well as their all in one approach to design, tackling as many areas of a project as they can to keep each project integral to their company.

I Want - London

I wanted to find a studio which did everything under one roof, while also visually appealing to the style of design I am interested in I Want is a multidisciplinary studio that works on projects from branding through to website and fashion design, They produce some really interesting work over all media and seem to work really hard on conceptual development of each brief and don't just design products that you would expect.

8 Creative methods of contacting desired studios

- 'Shake My hand' - Design a hand shaped percussion shaker and the packaging to accompany it, send as a small package with creative cv written on outside of box - This explains who I am and what I have to offer, as well as implying that even though I am not their I would still want to 'Shake hands' which is an important interview tactic. 

- Send a gift bag, which would include a retail style paper shopping bag with my branding on with a t-shirt or some other piece of clothing inside with my Cv written on it.

- Create a series of logos, each one highlighting a specific skill or strength i obtain. This idea would be purely visual with no written content, which may be quite difficult to give a good level of communication.

- Passport CV - personalised passport style cv, with each destination stamp containing information about myself and my practice.

- 'I'll Make the Tea' -  I would create my own branded box of tea, with each tea back containing a skill or strength printed onto it. This idea would specifically aimed towards non UK studios as it shows both my English heritage and my willingness to start at the bottom and learn

- Sponge in a box - create packaging that would hold both a sponge and a bottle of water. you would open the box to find the sponge with 'My Brain' printed onto it, it is accompanied with a bottle of water which will say ' what you have to teach me'. The concept being that I am saying my brain is a sponge and I am willing to learn and grow with your studio.

- Dot to Dot CV - a publication which is made up of both written and visual information, the written information would be printed directly onto each page, but the visual elements would have to be completed in the form of a dot to dot.

- Photography book where the photos contain my strengths and skills. instead of writing my cv on a piece of paper, I could write it in different ways, in different environments and photograph it, so the book itself is just a series of photographs but it will be structured in such a way that each photo highlights a skill / strength.

PPP2 // The Business of Design - Who are They?

The Business of Design

The UK economy is the 7th largest in the world

Different Sectors in UK Economy

Industry Sector - goods producing a segment of an economy

Primary Sector
Anything that is extracted and sold as a raw material (Milk, clay, oil, compost, sand etc...)

Secondary Sector
Anything produced using the raw extracted materials from the Primary sector.

Tertiary Sector
Taking the Primary and the Secondary sectors and using them in services

Quaternary Sector
Industries coming into improve, help and develop the first 3 sectors

this is the first I have heard of these sectors in the UK economy but after listening to Fred’s presentation and actually understanding how every job is catogorised into individual and specialised sectors.

It is a benefit to know these sectors as it will help you discover which sector you are most interested in
- find out which sector has the most design competition
- see where there is a gap in the market
- Understand which sector you are working in and why

Public Sector
Tax payer funding
Benefits everyone
A needed service that makes society run
Free at the point of delivery
NHS, Police, Military, Government, Council etc...

Private Sector
Businesses run for profit
Owned by individuals
Biggest employment sector

Third Sector
Non profit organisations
Volunteers, charities, Coop etc...
The sector in between Public and Private

PPP2 // Task 3 What is Industrial experience

Use your PPP blog to record your responses to the following questions ahead of the group tutorials after reading week.

• What is Industrial experience?

 - When you take your studied practice and involve yourself in an experienced organisation focusing on that specific professional practice. 
- Gaining experience from industry professionals in your chosen sector.
- Developing studied skills to a level a professional practice would be happy with. 
-Learning production and development skills from accomplished designers.

• What can you learn from industrial experience?

- How to communicate with other required sectors and work as a team.
- How an individual organisations represent themselves in the industry and how they differentiate themselves from their competitors.
- Practical and production skills.
- Networking opportunities.

• What form/format could industrial experience take?

- Placements, 
- internships, 
- work experience, 
- Sandwich course, 
- day release

• What are your concerns about industrial experience?

- Choosing the wrong organisation to gain experience from.
- Being used by a studio or organisation to get free labor which results in no Job
- Not gaining a job from industy experience.
 

PPP2 // 10 pieces of design workshop

We initiated today's session by all preparing and bringing in 10 pieces of design that we feel illustrate our graphic interests, which we had collected for the PPP2 study task 1.

I like these sessions as it gives everyone a chance to explore peoples graphic design interests as well as discover some new designers or sources for discovering new graphic design.

We were in a grouped of 6 and were asked to layout all 60 example on the table and start to create a list which explains as many specific specialist areas of design as possible, this list is fed by the 60 examples of work we have brought in.

As you can see below the list we created was quite extensive, we tried to make each point as specific as possible to the graphic product.

For example if someone brought in a children's book, we would not just call it 'Editorial design' we would call it 'children's educational book design'

We were then asked to select 10 items from the 60 which we feel cover the broadest range of graphic products e.g. - Typography

                      - Industrial Packaging

                      - logo and branding

                      - Automotive design

                      - Wayfinding

                      - Editorial layout and design

                      - Food/ Beverage packaging

                      -Advertisting

                      - graphic installations 

                      - Video/ motion graphics

after completing this task we were then asked to try and answer the questions below for each individual piece of design chosen.

In some cases this was extremely easy if the correct method had been taken to choose the pieces, but in some cases where people had just chosen random pieces of design without knowing the designer  it was much more difficult as it relied on a lot of guess work.

1. WHO IS THE CLIENT?

2. WHO IS THE INTENDED AUDIENCE

3. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION?

4. WHAT IS THE BUDGET?

5. WHERE IS IT FROM?

6. WHO IS THE DESIGNER / STUDIO

I will try and add more specific answers for each piece of design.

 1. Possible Automotive manufacturers 

3. Advertisement, eye catching

2. Science entusiasts

3. To amaze/ impress, promote product, catch attention, entertain

2. Automotive enthusiasts, mechanics, engineers

3. Replicate vintage car/ petrol design