Debbie Lord Presentation

Bio:
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.

Accounts:
> 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 community for buying, selling and creating art


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.

Public Survey Tally

This surveyed has been tallied by totally the amount of key words used the public used to describe themselves. The majority of people surveyed where between the ages 14-19. Indie is a music genre and although in the questionnaires it was used to describe a fashion style aswell as a favourite music genre it has been tallied to one category. Comfy was surprisingly a word used often to describe a style. From observing the publics behaviour it was a question people struggled to summerise, often possibly an approach to look modest while others may have been to young to have identified where they felt they fit in with society. The tally varied that the public are majoritly influenced by music and celebrities. These catergories are major influences because people look up to them as they are deemed successful, people use them as safe guards, as something you can't go wrong by inspiring by.

2/3 of the public surveyed were shopping for themselves, in a season when there aren't any public occassions such as christmas or easter coming up this seems understandable.

70% of the public surveyed like alternative music, this has been catergorised by placing the following genres under the alternative music as it hasn't been classified as mainstream yet, these genres are indie, rock, metal, punk, electro, emo, folk, acoustic. While the other genres are classified as popular music.

60% of the public surveyed said they dress alternatively, this has been categorised by placing the following styles under the alternative bracket, they are trash-glam, scene, freestyle, glam-goth, scene.

Definition:	a catch-all term for the newest rock music, which has not been around long enough to acquire a specific name
Example:	Alternative music embodies many sub-genres including: Indie Rock, Alt Folk, Gothic, Brit-Pop, Alt Country, Adult Alternative, Shoegazer, Heavy Metal, Grunge, Post-Punk, New Wave, Post-Rock, and more.

Public Surveys

I went to Manchester on Wednesday and did a public survey to generate a trend report. I visited 4 outlets, Urban Outfitters, Topshop, Paperchase and Afflecks Palace asking a total of 19 people over 15 questionnaires. Some people doubled up. The survey was to compare, contrast and analyse the answers.

2/3 of the public surveyed were shopping for themselves, in a season when there aren't any public occassions such as christmas or easter coming up this seems understandable.

The questionnaires verify that the public are majority influenced by music and celebrities. These categories are major influences because people look up to them as they are deemed successful, people use them as safe guards, as something you can't go wrong by inspiring by.

Indie came up as the most popular genre, being used to describe both music taste and style.

Indie definition:

Adj.

1.

indie - (of pop groups) not affiliated with a major recording company independent - free from external control and constraint; "an independent mind"; "a series of independent judgments"; "fiercely independent individualism"

70% of the public surveyed like alternative music, this has been catergorised by placing the following genres under the alternative music as it hasn't been classified as mainstream yet, these genres are indie, rock, metal, punk, electro, emo, folk, acoustic. While the other genres are classified as popular music.

60% of the public surveyed said they dress alternatively, this has been categorised by placing the following styles under the alternative bracket, they are trash-glam, scene, freestyle, glam-goth, scene.

Definition:	a catch-all term for the newest rock music, which has not been around long enough to acquire a specific name
Example:	Alternative music embodies many sub-genres including: Indie Rock, Alt Folk, Gothic, Brit-Pop, Alt Country, Adult Alternative, Shoegazer, Heavy Metal, Grunge, Post-Punk, New Wave, Post-Rock, and more.

This co-insides with my belief that the alternative market is becoming more popular. It terms of market, I think my cards will have a commercial market to sell into.

Vernon Park Arts & Crafts Fair 12th Sept 2010

Vernon Park Arts & Crafts Fair in Stockport was held on the 12 Sept 2010, open to the public 10am - 4pm. It was funded by Stockport Council. There were 17 stalls, ranging from cards, cermanics, handmade toys, wooden decorative pieces, jewellery, printed and handmade interior products, paintings, homemade cakes and charity stalls. Some of the stalls had 'Lucky Dip' which cost a £1 to play which kept the children amused.

I worked as a runner from 9am - 4:30pm helping set up the stalls, doing tea runs and making sure the stall holders were happy. There was a good mix of stall holders. I noted the most popular stalls were the cake stall, which had a constant gather of people, and while the handmade toy stall hardly gathered any interest at first it became the most popular stall from around 1pm onwards. I think this was because interest sparks off more interest as people don't like to miss out. The weather wasn't good which didn't help with the turn out, but by 1:30pm it had dried off and there seemed to be a lot more people just in time for the 2pm live band playing in the parks band stand, this helped keep the customers in the park for longer as there was entertainment. Also the cafe provided a sanctuary when it rained and kept the customers well fed. Inside Vernon Park House is an underground museum to the history of Stockport as well as ancient artefacts like a mummy and history behind insect species. On the top floor is an gallery, with work submitted from locals of Stockport, there is a variety of work ranging from £25-£400 as well as beautiful grounds to walk through with its own Lilly Pond and maze providing and excellent location for an Arts & Crafts Fair.

It was a good opportunity working at Vernon Park as this provided an insight as to what is needed in holding a fairs, how they work, what makes it work and how to run one properly.

Working there also gave me the opportunity to talk to stall holders who have set up their own business and are establishing themselves in the industry. I'll upload the individual questions I asked appropriate stall holders on a separate post.

Trend Report

I feel the majority of society are influenced heavily by these three things, which shifts trend patterns.
> Fashion
> Music
> Global Issues

While individual people are influenced by personal issues which can't be summarised to fit a market. I've studied the current climate and have come up with predictions that are going to shift trends in the market.

Fashion suits a persons mood but we are all influenced by each other, as Rock music is becoming a more acceptable genre to listen to it is becoming more popular to dress that way without causing a fashion faux par. Last year high street leading competitor Topshop introduced Glam-Goth and Rockabilly fashions into their store. These looks are due to make a comeback with Winter around the corner and more suppressed moods are set upon us. Cosy sheep fleece are returning.
Leading radio shows such as Radio 1 which play the latest in current popular music cover rock music more and more so every month. They featured new-age 'screamo' band Rolo Tomassi 5 months ago which came as a huge surprise. While leading festival such Glastonbury have invited a large majority of popular rock bands to play at the festival, with their audiences getting bigger every year, giving evidence to the fact that this trend is shifting.



Major celebrities have risen from this style, such as Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, though it would be fair to say Lady Gaga is also influenced by Japanese culture.

Subjects I have been taking photos of and drawing are around this theme and I would like this project to have a nogalistic and provocative theme through out looking at Timorous Beastie as my secondary research.