week 14

Week 14

Recording, cataloguing and referencing work

-    organise your work for sale

-    Manage your work

-    Remember what you have done

-    keep a record of all your prices

 

Selling work:

-    all work should be referenced and catalogued

-    Code should be on the back of all work

-    Initialed and numbered

-    Also need a photograph of each piece of work

-    a full page reference example, picture reference code, description, media, date sold, size, payment received and company

 

Further considerations:

-    digital logs, file sizes

-    Issues?

-    Compressing images and cropping

-    Lightening

 

Photographic references:

-    white background

-    Gives colours more accuracy

-    Ensure it's In focus

-    Best quality photos 300dpi at least

-    A detail shot this will give you more information

-    If you sell your photograph will be the only record you have

Digital log

-    back it up and save on a memory stick

-    You may want to use your photographs for promotional material

-    Store your information I.e referenced photographs as a document on a disk

 

Task

- do a digital log this is part of your hand in if not handed in will fail.

week 13 research task

For this weeks professional studies tasks I am going to think about what topic I would like to focus my report on this year.

 I really enjoyed the lecture we were given on copyright I found this lecture surprisingly very interesting. You have to be so careful in the design industry that your work is protected straight away as anyone could quite easily get hold of your designs.
I think this could be a potential report I would like to look into, I can research into companies which protect your designs etc but also look at cases where big brands have ripped off small designers work.

Another report topic I am thinking of doing is preparing for a trade show, in February I am going to Indigo to gain some work experience on the stand. This would be a perfect opportunity to take notes of what is needed to set up a successful stand, find out about what buyers are looking for and also look at the cost of travelling and setting up. Doing this topic would allow me to gather primary research and I can prepare questions before I go.

week 13 negotiating a report topic

Week 13

 

Negotiating a report topic

 

-    Indigo, setting up for trade show.

-    Copyright

Researching your report

-    what are you going to achieve

-     title

-    What will you find out

 

Step two

-    collecting information

-    Questionnaires

-    -research

-    Secondary research

-    Your experiences

 

-    consider your content this will be directly influenced by your objectives

-    Structure for your report different sections

-    Write a rough draft

-    Read check and amend it

 

Structure

-    cover sheet with images name module title level word count and submission date

-    Contents page sub headings page numbers et

-    introduction, what is the reason for wright ing this report

-    Procedure, provides with exact steps and methods for report

-    Main body

-    Conclusion

-    Recommendations optional what further research might you do on your own based on findings

-    Appendices, sections that are not included in the word count go after the report

-    Analysis sheet from questionnaires, information that has being highly relevant such as a journal article

-    Use of images reference your images

 

Research methods

-    collect primary research

-    Secondary research

-    Set a topic

-    Interviews, questionnaires, emails, Skype.

-    Prepare set questions to give to people

 

Week 12 employment

Week 12 employment writing professional covering letters

Cover letter

- just as important as your cv
- builds on the info on your cv state why the company should hire you
- before you write your cover it's important to do research into the company

Points to consider

- what does the company do
- competitors

- address your letter with appropriate contacts
- should be short and straight to the point

Second paragraph
- explain why you are suitable to the job, refer to your academic and professional qualifications that are relevant to the role

Third paragraph
- what can you bring and do for the company what is your career role make it relevant to the role you are applying for

Fourth
- talk about your interest in the role and why you would be right for it
- indicate wanting to meet them for an interview

Closing the letter
- yours sincerely and your name
- arial size 12 font aligned

Job interview
- you have to sell yourself and your skills
- preparation
- practice
- performance
- confidence
- strengths what are you good at? Write bullet points
- what are your weaknesses, how a position in that company could help you improve
- what will you becoming in 5 years in time?
- what can you offer this company?

What influences the interviewer

- your personality
- your qualifications
- your relevant experience
- background and references
- enthusiasm for the post in question

What to do in an interview
- answer the question being asked in a concise way don't waffle
- speak clearly and confidently
- talk about your good points

What not to do?
- don't be to clever
- give evasive answers
- don't get to flustered
- criticise your former employers

- arrive on time
- dress smartly
- be enthusiastic
- listen carefullyto questions
- relax
- emphasise on your skills and experience

Types of interviews

- single interview
- group interview
- sequential interview

Employer will request these skills
- self awareness
- Initiative
- willingness to learn
- interpersonal skills
- communication
- teamwork
- problem solving
-flexibility
- commitment
- commercial awareness
- it/ computer literacy

What to consider

- find out about them
- skills you need to promote
- why you are interested in the job
- why you would be suitable

When applying for a job
- read the job description carefully
- read person specification carefully
- follow directions and be accurate

Task
 - collect and research some jobs and write a cover letter

Week 11 self employment

Week 11 self employment- tax, national insurance, legal issues and basic buisness planning


Tax and national insurance

- when you are self employed you have to pay this
- you can offset your business expenses against your tax, for example if you buy a car or laptop
- you Only pay  tax on your net profit not your takings
- 9,440 allowance before you start paying tax
-you can file a self assessment tax return to tell the tax office how much you owe them or a accountant can do this

National insurance
- if your self employed you normally have to pay class 2
- if your annual profits are over a certain amount you also have to pay class 4 contributions
- in certain circumstances you may be exempt from it
- to find out more www.hmrc.gov.uk/working/intro/self employment

Keeping records

- everything you spend on your business you need to keep a record of
- your basic business record must include:
- a record of all your sales and takings
- a record of all your purchases and expenses
- use these records to create a profit and loss accounts
- the more detailed you make the easier it is to answer any questions

Tax and national insurance working a second job?

- you need to decide whether to take the tax free allowance on wages paid by an employer or on your self employment
- if taken on a second job that would mean you'd pay the appropriate rate of tax on all profits
- nationally insurance is payed on both about 2.50 a week

Self employment health and safety issues
- public liability insurance
- other health and safety disabilities access requirements
- further employment insurance
- copyright law
- crb check if you are planning to work with people under 18 and your staff
- vat you need to be vat registered when you start earning larger sums the figure is currently around 75k

Basic business planning
- a basic plan will help you focus and plan all aspects of your business
- it will help set targets and collate your ideas
- a business plan is also essential for attracting funding to get started
- it should be reviewed on a regular basis to help you monitor and measure the performance of your business
Benefits

- bring your ideas and research together
- help you decide which markets to sell to
- clarify your business purpose to others
- stay on track with targets and objectives
- each section will have a heading these are a good starting point

- vision/mission what are you trying to achieve

- executive summary what will your business do how will it do it,who will your customers be and why will they buy

- history how did you get here how did you form your ideas which people have met that inspired this, why are you starting up

- product and the service, what will you sell? Wallpaper or fabric etc what will it do what problem will it solve does it have a unique selling point that makes it so different, who will buy your product is it new product?

Market research,chow do you know there is demand for your product, what research have you done into this to demonstrate how it will sell, field research getting research from the public questionnaires etc describe your customer there characteristics and there buying pattern

- the market,what is the size of your overall market, is it a growing market, what might your share of the market will your share be over the 3 years? Who is your competition

- research and development, what work have you done so far if work still do, do you have intellectual property rights to address such as trademark patents copyright etc

- basis of operation, will you partner up with someone, premises, equipment, will you need staff, insurance sole trader or partnership?

Management, do you have a team? How many people are involved they need to know their background and what they bring to the business, explain how they can be trusted and how you cAn be trusted with a loan

- cost, initial set upCost, and ongoing costs, how much finance are you investing, funding requirements, and potential sources

Task research into current regional funding options and post graduate free business start up schemes

- www.gov.uk/buisness
- princes trust, wwww.princes trust

week 10 research task

when i graduate im unsure whether i would like to be self employed or work for a company. however, i    have put together a list of postive and negative points to consider whether being self employed would be good for me, i am doing the list based on being self employed working from home.

positive 

- the cost of traveling is not an issue therefore petrol would not be a problem for work
- i can work whatever hours i feel are best for me
- i would not need to rely on holidays to be able to venture to new places for inspiration
- as i feel gift is where i want to lie in the market the cost of the production side is quite low compared to say if i needed print room facilities because it would be more digitally produced
- i could claim back some of my utility bills on things such as electricity from using the laptop/printer etc and heating.

negative 

- i am quite a sociable person therefore not meeting and conversing with new people might get abit boring for me
- there is no one to share ideas with or talk about anythng to do with my or their work
- working from home would require a decent laptop with the up to date adobe software to be able to produce my designs. this software to buy is rather exspensive
- furthermore i would need a decent printer to be able to print my designs on good quality printer
- also a scanner to scan in drawings to work digitally with them
- i would need to provide my own motivation, no one else is there to help.

week 9 research task

I have always known how to create a basic CV and have gained jobs through it. However, after this lecture there was afew little pointers i had no idea you had to consider and do on your CV or the fact you could make it much more visual being a design based student. 

beginning of creating a brand new CV

Education and Qualifications 

- i was unaware that you put your latest level of education first, i just assumed they went in the order you recieved the awards.

- Cleveland College Of Art And Design (BA hons): results pending 

- Newcastle College National Diploma level 3: DDD

- Newcastle College Alevel : C-D

- St Roberts Of Newminster GCSE: A-C

work experience and employment 

-Costa Coffee barista- 2010

-masonic hall bar staff- ongoing 

- indigo Paris 2013 work experience 

 achievements

- gaining a place at ccad to study a degree 

 leisure interests and hobbies

- traveling and gaining new inspiration

- interested in gift design 

- danced in several theaters 

any other skills

- Driving license & pass plus 

- sewing machine