lorddebbie454@aol.com
Bedding and Home furnishings designer for Pure
Studied a BTEC Surface Design course at Stockport College and a HND Surface Pattern Design course at Cleveland College.
Debbie Lord gave us a structured and broken down advice guide to the industry both studio and freelance based using her own experience.
After studying she did an in house placement at Scopo. While there she rang every design studio in Manchester, she got just 5 company call back which just shows how competitive the industry is, but through this a Manchester Fashion Studio, offered her her first paying job.
Her 2nd job was for Derby House Fabric Debbie Lord gave us a guide to what her yearly salary was, I found this useful as I was unsure what to expect as a yearly salary for Studio based work. Her yearly salary was £8000, 15 years ago, this is roughly £12,000 in today's money.
Her 3rd job was at Tom Lewis Studio designing fabrics, wallpaper and bedding on a £20,000 a year salary. After 4 years working in house at Tom Lewis Studios Debbie Lord decided to work freelance. She explains later the risks involved working freelance but this seemed a smart move for Debbie Lord as she juggled work life with family life, with every risk though there is potential for more money. Setting up freelance Debbie had to pay £2800 for a Epson printer at home, which prints on a range of materials such as fabric and photo paper.
Her 4th job is working freelance for Pure in Macclesfield who specialise in bedding designs.
As a freelance designer at Pure, it is up to Debbie to make contacts with as many people as possible. She uses samples and visualisations to communicate with customers, all visualisations have a colour palette under the design. Designs are produced on NED Graphics.
As a full time freelance designer you are expected to produce about 10 designs a week as a part time freelance designer you are expected to produce 10-15 designs to your meetings every 2-3 weeks.
Work life as a freelance designer consists of producing themeboards, going meetings, visiting trade shows, exhibitions. You are expected to fund everything yourself.
An agency like Pure will take about 40%-50% for each design of yours that sells.
Advice on designing:
> A square repeat for bedding is 64x64cm.
> Crown House sell old archive materials for inspiration for designers. Once bought the copyright is yours.
> Never copy. Copyright will get you in trouble. You can make 6 changes to a motif you use as inspiration to escape copyright issues.
> Detail will make your design sell well.
> Content will make your design sell well, a client might buy just one area of your design if they like enough.
> Colours are important, have a good balance of light and dark shades, 12 colours are usually the most found on a design. The fewer colours the cheaper the design is to produce.
Advice on selling:
> Repeat Pattern sells best.
> Production houses are limited by the screen/print sizes. A large motif would be hard to sell on to Production houses for that reason.
> Keep the customer updated with email/phone calls. Show the design in stages if you're unsure.
Advice on the market:
> Working for a commercial market means you have to always keep your market in mind when designing.
> There are other markets other than 'high end' the working class market exists and it sells well.
> Be aware of the customers budget and the production costs, the two work together.
> Low end production customers will want less colours because it's cheaper to produce, high end customers such as Ralph Lauren wouldn't mind more.
Funding:
> You need a business plan to get a loan.
> Princes Trust gives loans with a low interest rate and grants if you are eligible.
> The Council has Business Links, where you will be able to get info on:
- Grants available
- Direct you to a decent bank that can get you a good loan
- Free courses on time management, book keeping and writing a business plan.
> You only have to sort out your accounts once a year for tax, but you should always keep on top of them for overheads etc.
> Websites online give you a step by step guide on how to work it out.
> Or pay an accountant to work them out for you. Expect a fee of £500-£600 a year.
Inspiration Tips:
> Create mood boards
> Have your own reference library
> Magazines
> Go to shops, look at trends
> Trust your own instincts
> Books
> Buy from vintage ref stores eg, Crown House
> Take a walk
> Visit Museums
> Libraries
> Talk with people
> Take a day trip out
You will be expected to be:
> Hard working
> Able to work in a team
> Independent
> Organised
> Able to collect ideas
> Able to share good practise
> Able to synthesise ideas
> Work to briefs
> Competitive
> Able to keep records
> Motivated
Important Tradeshows:
> Premier Vision - Paris
> Heintex - Germany
> Decosit - Brussels
> Surtex - New York
Summary:
I felt relief that most of what she said you were expected to do I already knew, though I'm sure when set up my own business the amount of work will still be a shock.
Her step by step guide was motivating and it helps to have it all written down because it makes everything feel more manageable. She covered every aspect I could think of so it really reassured me of what's out there.
A summary of where my initial costs will fall at when setting up my own business
> CAD facilities
> A website
> Card Production costs
> Advertising
www.imagekind.com -a
Be a good critic and evaluate your own work. Don't settle for a design just because you've spent ages on it, if your instinct tells you it won't sell, produce another one.
