Research into the market

I've spent a bit of time over the weekend trawling the internet to get a better understanding of whats already out there.

One website, FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk seems interesting. The website contains advice for freelancers and gives its users the opportunity to work collaboratively through the network. The site seems really useful - lots of info and jobs advertised. It is different from my idea however as it is an 'open' site where any freelancers can join and use the facilities. Initially I would like my business to consist of a small number of freelancers where we all can work together and know each other. I could see this evolving in the future in to becoming a much more open network of freelancers. There are definitely a number of details I need to understand better as I can definitely foresee some future problems. How would I determine who is within the community? Would there be competition between each other for work? Who are my customers? Are they businesses? Freelancers? Or both?

FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk appears to work quite closely with freelancesupermarket.com which works more specifically as a recruitment agency for freelancers. Another interesting site, however again, I feel my business idea is far more contained than this. To someone that came across my site, I would want to give the impression of a close knit team of people that they could potentially work with - I would want my business to contain some of the values of a traditional agency but without the overheads.

bristolcreatives.co.uk, has a Creative Directory, so that members of the site can promote themselves or find others within their field. Something like this (although on a far smaller scale)is what I imagined would be included within my freelance collaboration.

Update on reading so far

Although I have been reading throughout the module, I have realised that I haven't really reflected this in my blog. This is just an update to bring you up to speed on some of what I've read!

What is Graphic Design? – Quentin Newark
What is Graphic Design For? Alice Twemlow
Graphic Design Now – Charlotte and Peter Fiell
Visible Signs – David Crow
Design For Interaction – Lisa Baggerman
Gas Book 08 - Blu Source Office
How to Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul – Adrian Shaughnessy
Type in Motion 2 – Matt Wolman
Graphic Design: A Concise History – Richard Hollis
The Anatomy Of Design – Steven Heller & Murco Ilic
Looking Closer 3 – Michael Bierut
Looking Closer 4 – Michael Bierut

Research Skills task

John had requested that we write down our search terms and provide (as well as the terms) the source we searched, the hits and relevance and to type it all up on A4. I began this task and immediately found it incredibly daunting. I started searching under the main heading 'manifesto' which bought up 75 results in the source Art Index Retrospective alone. I've decided to put this to one side for now and get back to my motion graphics piece

Week 5: Research Skills, John Hammersley

Alot of what we discussed during Johns class was stuff I'd heard previously but it was good to refresh my memory. The key points I will take away from this class is that I need to be selective, summarise and reference. It has been quite some time since I've undertaken 'serious' research and the class reinforced the fact that I need to be more disciplined in my approach. I'm aware that I've been focusing too closely on the mini projects and not doing enough reading. I don't have much time free to commit to my work so I need to be more realistic in what I can achieve.

John set us quite a large task to complete using UWEs online resources facility, hopefully I will find the time to dedicate to this!

Week 3: Intention, Context and Audience, Rob Kettell

This week during class we discussed further the differences (or not) between artists and artisans and through discussion I realised that the lines are not so defined. The reading material that was given to us from the previous week held some subjective opinions on the subject which led into a discussion on subjectivity and objectivity. I realised that I need to be more subjective in my opinions and discover my position on matters such as what makes good design.
However, objectively as a group we came up with a number of things that we agreed makes a good piece of design:
Clarity
Attention grabbing
Memorable
Relevant to audience
Fit for purpose
This led to consideration of our manifesto. What is the intention and context of our manifesto? What is its relevance and who is its audience? These are not questions I am yet ready to answer so I need to look at the bigger values – what kind of work do I want to engage in or contribute to?