Life's A Pitch - Royal Mail

I have looked on the Royal Mail website for some initial prices for posting. I found this a little tasking as we haven't yet decided on the sizes and formats of our packaging, whether they will be in box-like envelopes or tubes etc. So I looked at large letter sizes and then moved onto medium Parcels, so we have the pricing for each when we decide on that aspect. I think the prices are reasonable, especially when it will be added on to the price of the product and we will charge a bit more for the packaging process and our time.

Life's A Pitch - 'Do Not Bend' Stamps

Although this is superficial, i have done some research into 'Do Not Bend' stamps, this is obviously for postage and packaging, but I do think its important to think about, as the packaging is what the customer will first see before they get to the product and it should reflect the business, almost like how first appearances are important.

Life's A Pitch - Research from the packaging article

From the article i have previously posted about how to package unframed artwork. I have done some initial research into the products it listed that we would need. Yet again, i have used Kite Packaging as it sells everything we would need, at a good price. I really like the idea of getting our company logo printed on to tape, which Kite packaging offers, i think this would be a nice extra touch as personally i like the packaging of things that i buy, i think it shows how the company has put extra thought into it and it reflects the quality of the product.

Life's A Pitch - Packaging for our business

After browsing the internet looking for some research in to packaging our products for our business, i stumbled across an article with some great tips on how to package un-framed art work so it will be delivered safely. This could help us narrow down our research into pricing for the exact things we would need.

Life's A Pitch - Kite Packaging

I have found that Kite Packaging is quite a good business that could help us with some of the things we will need to start our business. They have a very large range of products at a fair price, especially when ordering in bulk. Although, this is only a small part of our business, i think it is still very important to research into things  that we will need, even something as small as tape.

Life's A Pitch - Digital Colour Services

This is another printing company, they actually print greeting cards and poster. I quite liked the aspect of recyclable materials as this could be a plus for our business by advertising a 'green' ethic, this could potentially broaden our target market.

Life's A Pitch - Solopress Printing company

This is just some quick research into Solopress Printing company. Im looking for what types of prints they do and a prices so we can start looking into finances.

Life's A Pitch - Christmas To-Do List

When we all got together last time, to create our business manifesto, we also created a list of tasks that we need to do over christmas, we decided that we would get a wider range of research if we all did each task and put our findings together.

Ideas for logos and website design. Complete manifesto. Research the structures of similar companies (etsy, redbubble, depot…) Research into printers. Research into costing of postage and packaging. Sizing and dimensions of prints - research. Research into packaging design. Research web advertising. Research where you stand with selling things for charity. Setting up an online payment method. Research into how much people would be willing to pay. Research into how people like to pay. Newsletter/email/account. Possibility of a forum or social media. Possibility of an app - at least a mobile friendly website. Splitting of wages. Commission prices.

Life's A Pitch - Naming the business

My main worry about this business proposal is the name. We have not yet come up with a name for our business and we are now coming to the time were we should be looking ahead to designing logos and branding for our idea.

We have discussed this thoroughly but cannot seem to agree all together on name ideas, we would like it to be professional, exclusive and contemporary.

The dilemma we have is that if we put ‘illustration’ or ‘art’ in the name it could come across as a bit cringey.

But then we thought of businesses like ‘Moonpig’ and ‘Funky Pigeon’, these are just random, weird names, which become successful businesses. But some of the group don’t like this, which I can understand as you want to make the business seem professional. But I guess every shop name has to start from somewhere.

We have now given ourselves a personal deadline of  individually thinking of names before Friday (when we break up), so we can design logos over the holiday.

Life's A Pitch - Group Manifesto

Today I met up with my blog group to discuss our business proposal before we break up for Christmas. After last weeks session, we went home to write our own manifesto to bring back today and write it again collectively. Only three of us made it today, which did make it a little harder as we had just us to decide what we should write as out collective manifesto. We all read out or personal ones we had done and then we picked out the best bits from each one and started from there.

We were quite thorough with our manifesto today, we spent 1hr 30 going through it to make it as good as we could get, using correct grammar etc. I think it went really well, we pulled on each of our strengths in all the individual manifestos and came up with something that we all agreed to be exactly what we want to say, the only problem is I don’t know if its exactly how we want to say it…  the problem is still the tone of voice.

Our Group Manifesto

We are an online creative community that hosts monthly, themed competitions for UK based aspiring artists. Each month, twelve winning designs are made available to purchase as print based products through [our website name]. The designers also have the option be promoted during that month of sale thorough links to a personal website or social media account. Our goal is to finance a sustainable and profitable business whilst supporting artists and respecting buyers through the means of reasonable commission and pricing. Above all, it is important to us to create an ethical and honest relationship between everyone involved.

It says all the points we have discussed in every session but it doesn’t read as conversation, but more formal. At the end we decided that we would post the work we have done today on the group chat and see what the rest of the group who weren’t here have to add to it and then individually go away to make it more informal.

We have also given ourselves a list of tasks that we all need to do over Christmas, we were originally going to designate tasks to each person but we thought if we all do each task then we could bring our findings together collectively and have a larger body of work, plus we can all record our work that we have done ourselves as we get assessed on what we have done individually.

Life's A Pitch - My Manifesto

My manifesto

We are an online-based community where we post monthly themed competitions for non-established creative, from all levels of experience.

We believe in quality products and ethically promoting work and we aim to respect both artist and buyer, using reasonable pricing and commission, whilst financing a sustainable and profitable business.

But most of all we would like to create an honest, friendly and respectful relationship with all who visit our site.

This is the manifesto that I have written from the work we did as a group in the last session. The hardest thing that I found was how to write it in a tone of voice suitable for our target audience, whilst keep a sense of professionalism. Our message is that anyone can enter, and we do not want to come across as if we are better than anyone else etc. so we wanted the tone of voice to be more conversational, I hope to discuss this with the group and see how they have handled this.

Life's A Pitch - Business Proposal

In this PPP session we were given a few tasks and forms to fill in. This gave us a chance to solidify our business proposal even more. As the session got longer, I started to realize how much thought has to go in to it, you need to think of every little thing and be really direct.

There were limited sheets, so I wrote mine out….

Whats your business idea?

Website/shop – each month there’s a different theme, they have about 3 weeks to submit work for free to the website, we pick 12 winners and send designs to a printing company and we sell them for a limited time on the website in the format of prints, posters and stickers.

How did you come up with it?

The group came up with it in the last session, which I was ill, but after discussions in our own time we discussed different ideas and thought this was the best for costing and it being the most achievable.

What excites you about it?

I think it’s a really fun idea, which gives aspiring artists a chance to get noticed and sell their work. It can also move with the current news, themes and it wont become stagnant if it is changing monthly.

What industry does it belong too?

Creative industry

Retail

What Improves services do you provide? Something new? Something better.

We actually think about the artist and the designs and it allows people to sell their work and compete, changing every month – people will be interested.

What is your market?

Anyone who wants to participate, can, artists, hobbyists etc.

Our market is also the person buying the work as well.

What companies are potential competition?

Illustration Friday, Qwertee, Etsy, Redbubble

After we filled in this sheet we had another discussion about our business plan….

• ·      We decided that we would no longer sell stickers, they are a great idea but we just thought that none of us have really gone out of our way to buy a sticker, we like them but we would normally get a free one with something we have bought or a promotional package – maybe we could give away stickers with our logo on it as a way of branding and promoting our business?
• ·      Could we associate with another business? For instance, Habitat. We could work with them on themes each month for shop window pieces etc. or in coffee shops or hotel. Would working with a business reflect the quality of a brand? We spoke about this as a group but we questioned what rights we would have to the contestants artwork after we had it, could we really stick it in hotels? Would they need money from it? It was all a bit confusing to us so we are just going to stick with keeping it more simple. Although, we could create an illustrated poster each month, advertising that theme and ask business if they would possibly put it up. Maybe art coffee shops or galleries?
• ·      Could we get sponsored by a shop? Do a theme related to them?
• ·      We could design the website banner each month for each theme, like ‘Google’ changes its search engine font.
• ·      For promotion – send to art colleges, uni’s etc.
• ·      We discussed if we should let the audience judge the entries, although we said that they might mark it on who has done it i.e. their friends and style over substance.
• ·      Do we keep it at free entry? This is because we have it for free then we might get thousands of entries and it will take a long time to filter through them all, or we could charge but that goes against our plan to let anyone enter, and it could stop someone from entering the competition.
• ·      One of our aims is to be as fair to both artist and buyer, we don’t want to rip people off or give a ridiculous price, unlike other websites like redbubble and Qwertee
• ·      Releasing the products for a limited time only will add value to the products.

Life's A Pitch - Research

Research

After discussing our business proposal with the rest of my group via facebook, I have started to research some costs for things we might need to consider for our business.

Outline for our proposal

Monthly online competition

Different themes each month

12 winners get selected

We will put their designs on Posters, greeting cards and stickers

We will sell their work online on the website for a limited time only

The research I have gone into is:

How much a website would cost for a business

How much is postage and packaging

How much would prints be from different places and the different paper and quantities.

This is what i found:

Printing Companies

Leeds Printing Company

They do stickers, posters, banners, business cards - they don't have prices online but we can request a quote

Stuprint (Leeds)

Stickers -

Digital Print x10 (standard delivery) £31.59

Litho Print x250 (standard delivery) £104.50

Green Print (environmentally friendly) x10 (standard delivery) x10 £37.91

Posters - 

Matt A4 Digital Print x10 (standard delivery) £28.25

Litho Print x50 (standard delivery)£47.70

Green Print x10 (standard delivery) £33.90

Packaging

Defendapack

Wrap boxes -

1 = £9.89

10 = £15.88

25 = £26.32

60 = £50.68

140 = £106.38

Postage

Royal Mail

Large package, contents worth up to £20, 1st class UK - 95p