Life's a Pitch; Business Concept and Manifesto

I think this session was very helpful in locking down what our company was really about. At the core of all of our ideas up to date was the notion of high quality illustrated candles, with this in mind we worked though the business concept sheet and I felt as though we were getting a much stronger idea of the real values of our business. 

BUSINESS CONCEPT

Having a positive impact was something we all felt very strongly about, and having good communication and valuing the costumer service we provided was important to us, building on from this we started thinking about how one of our ranges could work with charities, and we came up with the 'bee' range of candles. Given the dwindling number of UK bees, making candles from beeswax in a sustainable way that could help the growth of the population was something that strung a cord with us. The candles could be in various shapes such as beehives, honey combs, bees themselves, to make them more desirable and appealing to audiences. 

From this we started thinking of other possible ranges we could have; starting the business with a few solid ranges that could then filter into more in the future felt like a good place to start. We tried thinking of stereotypes who use candles, we came up with the idea of a 'black magic' range as another idea; targeting those who are into something a bit more niche and out-there. We considered current retailers who specalised in crystals, Gothic aesthetic and memorabilia as competitors for this range. In regards to distribution however, we could work with these independent outlets to get some of our candles on the high street; towns such as Whitby would be a perfect place to push this range. Thinking about the 'look' of this range we thought about all the candles being made of black wax, as not many candles are available in this colour, and making them in a range of shapes to fight competitors eg skulls, bats ect. It was also suggested at this point we could include more novelty things in this range such as glitter or hidden objects in the center of candles once they burn away, to make them even more desirable. 

With these two ranges in place we thought it made sense to include a 'basics' range. These candles would all be sustainable, and would be centered more around variations in colour and scent when compared with the other two ranges. It was hoped this range would be accessible to all kinds of people, students especially, who make up a large percentage of candle consumers.  

With all this in place we also finally came up with a name! Matchboxx was something that felt simple and accessible while still relating to our products. Originally we played around with the idea of including small promo matchboxes as a type of promotion or to send with our candles containing safety information. Though we'd decided to step away from the fire safety element as such the word 'matchbox' still felt very applicable. After a quick google search we found the name 'matchbox' already belonged to a toy making company, so we changed our name with the additional x, I feel this also makes the company sound like more of a brand rather than just an object.

BUSINESS MANIFESTO

Once our concept was more concrete, I felt a lot more confident producing a manifesto. Our values were those of creating a positive impact while providing high craft and quality 3D illustrated candles. The term 'meet your maker' was coined as we were discussing our roles as designers for the business, this helps make our business feel more accessible and ultimately HUMAN. Being a business of PEOPLE rather than a corporation was very important for us to communicate. 

FINAL MANIFESTO

'Matchboxx' is a company of creatives based in Leeds, dedicated to making high quality candles with a sustainable positive impact whilst inspiring individuals to think outside the (match) box. We believe that knowing you is essential to that process, customising our products to meet your personals wants/needs and making you feel part of the Matchbox family.

Life's a Pitch; Haiku's and Development

Today's haiku task was very difficult but helpful in highlighting weaknesses in our businesses proposals so far. I feel due to the broadness of our company at the minute, it was hard to pin down our core values // aims. I also feel our tone of voice was slightly off; this was also probably due to our lack of focus within the company.

Our final haiku "The candles that wow, Handmade for all occasions, For your creative self" felt to me very vague and a little passive. The overall feedback was a little mixed as well and I feel people were unsure as to whether we were designing the candles ourselves or designing custom candles that other people wanted us to make. At the moment our idea is that we would design illustrated candles and sell those, with the customization coming through via colours // scents ect. We were also thinking about maybe involving other illustrators to design for us once the business had grown.

Personally I feel the range our business currently offers needs to be reduced. The fire safety element of it feels a bit of a stretch and over-complicating, as well as maybe the gift sets // additional cards and packaging at this point. It would perhaps be a stronger business if we were just to focus on one thing, high craft candles, then try and juggle all these various things.

PYRO PETS

One company I've looked at in regards to market research is Pyro Pets, they've set up a business that was originally started by just one art student, that focuses solely on high quality and crafted candles that people want to cherish and have a sense of personality and individuality about them. I feel rather than try doing all the things we're trying to do now, cutting it down to a stronger concrete idea would be beneficial to our businesses development. 

Life's a Pitch; Initial Concept

When coming up with our initial business proposal, we wanted something we felt we could all contribute to and excited us. As we were going through various ideas we came across the idea of illustrated candles, bringing together illustration and product! It was also something we felt we could capitalise on as most 'arty' type people also had candles, as well as students as a whole. This business would be a way of bringing contemporary illustration a little bit more into the mainstream.

We've started with a broad range of ideas of what the business could be // how it could expand further. We could either use 3D illustration to make the candles different shapes, or simply illustrate around them? Gift sets, custom candles, various smells as an option?

We also mentioned the idea of the company branching out into something eductional in terms of fire saftey in which we'd go to schools doing talks and running a 'make your own candle' kind of workshop. Of course there would probably be insurances ect to consider if working with children.

Being sustainable is also something we are all interested in and want the business to incorporate. We could work with charities // make sure all our products are eco friendly? 

At this point our target audience is rather broad, in terms of promotion and distribution at the minute it feels very much web based with maybe a vehicle to help us tour around schools. We've also thought about taking our business to fairs that cater for our differing audiences, eg wedding fairs for bigger expensive candles but maybe craft fairs for the smaller ones? Lots of options and things to consider at this point.

Study Task 3 - Creative Industries - Sectors and Services

The Dark; Children's Book by Jon Klassen

SECTOR: Tertiary Sector // Private Sector 

RELATED SERVICES: Creative industries; Publishing // Wholesale and retail trade // Education

SUCCESS OF THE WORK: Illustrated by Jon Klassen and written by Lemony Snicket, The Dark could be considered to be a success in most of its sectors and services. In regards to retail and private sector, the book has been a success; it made the Greenaway Medal shortlist of eight books, receiving many stand out reviews and commercial gain. Not only did the reviews aid in the retail aspect of this book, but they also showcased the high regard this book was shown in for its artistic and illustrative qualities; big thumbs up all around!

IKEA 'Tree Bark' Noteblock

SECTOR: Tertiary Sector // Private Sector 

RELATED SERVICES: Wholesale and retail trade // Creative industries; Crafts 

SUCCESS OF THE WORK: As this product is been sold by the major retailer IKEA, it would suggest this product is highly profitable (has been in stock in IKEA for over a year now), thus implying the private sector company is doing well from it. This could, in part, but due to its innovative idea (a notepad made from recycled paper with a little story at the front, made to look like the bark of a tree). The commercial success of this product, could however, therefore make it seem less authentic and hand crafted (just another product on the line) and take away from its props to the artistic community; this could be argued either way though. Just because a piece is commercially successful//successful in the retail world does that make it less valuable in terms of its creative industries attributions? 

Oh Comely

SECTOR: Tertiary Sector // Private Sector 

RELATED SERVICES: Creative industries; Publishing // Wholesale and retail trade

SUCCESS OF THE WORK: Started a mere few years ago, Oh Comely has become a name often uttered in most independent//art specialist magazine stockists (Colours May Vary, MAGMA ect) but the magazine has even taken a step into the big commercial world with stockist such as WHSmith. This journey from small art driven shops to bigger retailers would suggest it has made a lot of progress in terms of wholesale and retail. The Magazine also, I feel, manages to very strongly retain its artistic values and modest art driven status, proving to be a shining example of showcasing contempary illustration with commercial success.

Scottish Shortbread tin from M&S 2013

SECTOR: Tertiary Sector // Private Sector 

RELATED SERVICES: Wholesale and retail trade // Creative industries; Advertising

SUCCESS OF THE WORK: Stocked in M&S this piece, especially during its run around Christmas time, proved to be a big retail success selling thousands of tins. I would put this down to a pairing of artistic//illustration skill with the retail private sector power of M&S. Not only is this tin aesthetically pleasing and well designed in terms of illustration, but because of the money M&S have as a private company, the final product has a high level of finish to it and will have been shipped out to hundreds of shops nationwide, providing a wider scope for sales, and therefore success!

Face Sculpts for Laika's Paranorman

SECTOR: Tertiary Sector // Private Sector 

RELATED SERVICES: Creative industries; Film industry//Animation industry//Post-production 

SUCCESS OF THE WORK: Given that these pieces were made in preparation for a larger piece (the stop motion film Paranorman) its hard to measure their success without measuring the success of the film too. These pieces obviously worked well enough to be used in the final film, and while they will have cost money to make without producing any money themselves, they played a part in a feature length film which in turn made a huge profit. The success of the film is a reflect of the successes of each small artistic aspect of the film such as these face sculpts.

Visiting Speaker; Victo Ngai

Attended Rhode Island School of Design

"Fine artists like to make problems for themselves while illustrators like to solve problems given to them"

"Possibilites within limitations" (scale, colour ect - brief driven)

"Communication - create visual solutions to bridge between clients and audiences"

"Ideas first" - keeps work fresh and exciting

Uses pen and ink (dip pen) for work

EDITORIAL

Be sensitive towards briefs, make things deal-able and overcome-able

Reverse engineer; what do you want to draw first, make it fit to brief

Make use of cropping "possibilities within limitation" 

STORY AND BOOKS

Given concept and characters

Pick right moment to illustrate story

GOOD COMPOSITION is very useful

Capture that one moment in an image

Bring own interests into commission work

Vertical perceptive, further away things are more on top of image they are

POSTERS

Your interpretation of movie, be more free with collectors editions of posters 

ADVERTISEMENT

Make lots of tweaks

Hit and miss about how fun it is

"More money, less freedom" (very long brief e.g. McDonalds brief 20 pages of detail)

Try to put yourself into it but feels less fulfilling

When working on something big and corporate good to have something smaller and more personal on the side to feel fulfilled 

Can get very anal about products and how depicted 

Web work is usually a lot cheaper than big corporate briefs, less preproduction, more freedom with web pieces

Small details make projects more personal

MAKING CLIENT WORK PERSONAL

Important to make work personal

Personal work can lead to commissioned work

Boil brief down to the essence 

Image paired with article then puts it into context but can work as a lone image "want someone to hand it on their wall"

"Style is overrated - it's merely a habit of drawing"

PRACTICAL

Hybrid of traditional and digital medias (pen and ink plus photoshop)

Use of lightbox to build up textures

Digital allows for changes in colour before committing to final image

If you create a world as long as the vocabulary is the same it will work - What are your boundaries? Don't just want to capture life like realities; don't just want photos, make something photos can't make

Values are very important in a piece (black and white) - consider contrast and density (noise within piece)

EVOLUTION

Good to have far sided goal but also good to step back from that and concentrate on 'now' and close goals

"Step by step"

"It's not how good you are it's how good you want to be" - Paul Arden

Have big ambition!

Believe in the work you are sending off even if they're just scamps!

"Obstacles are for eliminating the ones who do not want it enough"

"If you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would"

"Good artists borrow, great artists steal"

"Sleep when you can!!!" - Victo Ngai

Q&A

Be as structured as possible, timetables and plans, emails done at the start of the day; answer important ones straight away, don't let them pile up

Realise that you can be motivated, push yourself, use your self doubt to push you further. It's okay to take yourself out of the work sometimes; refresh

Lines and colour become more integrated; like a painting

First few years need a part time job, get something that doesn't drain your creativity, keep pushing

Looking at colour palettes from other pieces lead to better personal understanding of colour and how it works, can now draw on self more than others now

Editorial dictates layour template for pieces

Be thick skinned, do a lot of footwork, portfolio reviews very useful; face to face, still send off promo packs but human networking helps a lot

Got an agent within year of finishing studies for VISA, but best to wait a little longer to give you more bargaining power. Need trust with agency. Do a lot of promo work for yourself

Don't miss deadlines, want good reputation