Work Experience with SmartInkJet

Steven Martinson founder of SmartInkJet is a friend of mine and wants some business cards designing for his company. He'd heard of my experience working at North Cheshire Studios and asked me if I would design them for him. I'm being paid so it's good to have some work my way through that summer experience. Discussed with him the type of font he would like and the colours, so going to be getting on with it. Will post the outcome when they are complete.

http://www.smart-inkjet.co.uk/

Work Experience at Pure Innovations

I had my last day at Pure Innovations, which is the day centre for adults with learning difficulties. I've enjoyed my time there, in terms of experience it's really boosted my confidence as I was there primarily to encourage dialogue between the service users and to guide creative development. Working in the sessions you had to use your initiative a lot for the sessions to run smoothly and you always had to approach tasks calmly and clearly.

I held about 8 card making sessions in total, 2 were floral sessions where I'd cut out floral shapes previous to the session and they had to assemble them into their own designs on paper that was put on to 5x7 cards or placed directly on the card, this was an induction to colour and shapes in floral form. Another session was working with geometric, where I approached the session the same as the last by doing alot of the preparation myself. We did 2 sessions of this. Alot of the service users are unable to use scissors so preparation was needed for the sessions.

It was quite difficult guiding everyone though for this type of sessions because there were about 8 service user to 2 staff member, me and Abbi, and everyone wanted guidance with applying glue. It could be really frustrating, not with the service users because it's not their fault, just because there weren't enough of us to guide them.

So to overcome this, I thought of another technique of card making. Each service user would have an A4 sheet so mark make with paint with, without the use of paintbrushes. This was a fun experiment in getting the service users to get responses through paint using different utensils.

There were some great results, so to get the designs onto card we cut them into small rectangles and placed them on 5x7 cards. They looked really good and when they were wrapped in cellophane the looked to a professional standard, I plan to sell them at art and craft fairs I might be part of with profits going towards session materials.

We also tried using sticky colourful labels to create patterns, which had really good results on their own or mixed with mark making.


This is an example of the work done in the sessions I held. This work is by Diana, a service user with moderate learning difficulties. We focused on pattern, colour and shape.

In the end I had to leave the centre to focus more on my Uni work, but would go back again after Uni if I felt it would have some relevance in helping me establish my business. I did talk to the senior managers about selling some of the work through my own website once it is set up which they were really interested in.

Overall this has been a positive experience, I have gained confidence, a stronger intuition, a guide into progressing others creative perceptions, contacts, an insight to selling others work, a link with a charity and a stronger focus.

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.

Work Experience Vernon Park Museum and Pure Innovations

I contacted Vernon Park Museum as I'd heard they needed volunteers at their crafts fair which will be held in Sept. There I will be runner, helping set up stalls. I thought this was a good way of making contacts and through doing this I've been given permission to submit some work to their gallery for free. I was also put in contact with Pure Innovations where once every 2 weeks I will be helping adults with Learning Difficulties learn art skills, with my first visit I'm planning on teaching them how to hand craft cards, I plan to sell these cards at the Vernon Museum crafts fair and all money will go to the funding of Pure Innovations. Each session I plan to do this, I hope to get printing permission for these as I would like to then digitally print each card and sell them online giving a cut of each sale to Pure Innovations. Discussions with Pure Innovations about this are tomorrow!

I had my interview with Pure Innovations on Friday, it was really well and they were excited to hear about my proposal of selling the clients at Pure Innovations work on to Art & Craft fairs, particularly because the team had been in discussions about doing this to help funding a few days before our interview. I've been researching card outlets and Card Factory are interested in being involved with charities, so I'm going to wait to see how the sessions go at Pure Innovations as they start in a few weeks and discuss with the team whether to contact Card Factory with a campaign regarding the clients at Pure Innovations to sell their work through them. I feel Card Factory would be the ideal company as they are the number 1 leading card company in the UK for their competitive prices and they reach out to a broader market, particularly those who already donate to charities and funding.

Work Experience UKSkate

Through my experience at North Cheshire Studios I managed to get the opportunity to design 4 flyers and 1 poster for UKSkate's Jam being held this end of August, there were 4 themes, rollerblading, rollerskating, BMXing and Scootering with a final poster with all 4 sports together. We got a photographer in to capture motion pictures and I was asked to work with UKSkates colour theme but the layout was left to me. I produced about 10 designs in total and the final one was tweaked according to the picture and sport. It was interesting working along side the UKSkate team and the sponsors as some of the sponsors wanted to make sure the flyers and their logo were to standard before printing proceedings.



Flyer Update: The flyers have been sent off to Rollernews and B-Mag, both leading skate magazines to advertise the UKSkate Jam, should be published in the next few weeks.

Steve Bass owner of UKSkate has come up with a brilliant idea to help fund their £150,000 deposit for a bigger skatepark located in Stockport. Steve Bass has contact with over 6000 people through Facebook that are customers and fans of UKSkate and people who have submitted their email address to him when buying merch of his website, he has emailed and mailed all 6000+ people asking for £50 to help towards the deposit for a better skatepark and for that they receive 3 years free membership to the park. He only needs half the 6000 people to pay this to reach the £150,000 goal. Seems like a rather clever strategy to me!

Working for UKskate has improved my CAD skills which is important for my Negotiated project as the designs will be digital. It has also given me insight into a market I'm already interested in. Steve Bass has a lot of advice and he's clever with his business strategies so it helps that I've been given a bigger scope of knowledge, which I want to take with me in creating my own business. I will be spending the next few months researching more into this market and business strategies, so the knowledge and experience I have gain from this is all part of that. I have also gained experience in working in a larger team, collaborating with others to put together the flyers as well as working closely with the cliental.

Work Experience North Cheshire Studios

For 10 weeks I worked at North Cheshire Studios, I worked alongside the co-owner Jason Quinn working on local jobs designing business cards, leaflets, flyers and small magazines. I worked on programmes Photoshop, Illustrator and Quark Express, he also taught me the printing process.
It really helped working in that environment to tight deadlines and also helped develop my skills on Photoshop and Illustrator while introducing me to the software Quark Express. He left me to bring my own creative flair to the projects so I got to have fun with some of them. I particularly enjoying putting together an 8 page magazine for The Heaton Mersey Conservative Club, he asked me to be as creative as I wanted to as the club was looking for a new look for their magazine so I really got it to it.

Through this my manager at The Frog and Railway has asked me to create the posters for upcoming events held there, it's pretty straight forward work but I enjoy putting them together.

This work experience as given me experience in working to quick deadlines, has improve my CAD skills as well as gaining new skills in understanding printers, paper weights and colour control which is important to have established a basis on this as it is likely I will be dealing with a lot of print technicalities myself when setting up my own business. It has also given me insight in how a small business runs. North Cheshire Studios are strict on wastage, in time and produce, and I think this is a fair approach because both are money.
Though this experience I've gain other job offers, all local, but it is a confidence boost as well as extra money and CV experience.