Week 1: Lecture – Brief Analysis

This week the creative practitioners answer the following questions:

• How do you identify the subject of a self initiated project?
• How do you structure and plan the production of a self initiated project?

Week 1: Workshop Challenge

The Challenge

Highlight the characteristics of your personal interests, identity and experiences, to identify a subject to be developed into a self initiated project.

1. List four potential self initiated project ideas and add them to the Ideas Wall. Start by researching the subjects and final outcomes you generated during the Contemporary Practice module
2. Select one self initiated project idea you want to explore over the next four consecutive weeks
3. Develop a detailed project brief to outline the question you would like to address, the project aim, objective, audience, critical context and anticipated final outcome

Possible projects:

1. Expanding on week 10 from the previous module: Type and Page. Create a series of prints to illustrate more work by Wilfred Owen, or to produce a set which includes other WWI poets such as Siegfried Sassoon or Rupert Brooke. The set could include equal numbers of those who survived the war and those who didn’t.
   Look to link the project to the Royal British Legion and/or the Imperial War Museum where the outcome could be an exhibition about these men to include biographies and artefacts from the time.
2. Using week 9: Message Delivered. Other than it being an exciting project which would look good, I’m struggling to find a reason to use this and create a brief. Could it promote the town and still include the negative comments?
3. Week 2: Industry Today. A discovery made during this brief was there seemed to be a division between the two categories given in the brief: design practice and design production. Those in design practice work behind closed doors while design production show their work in various exhibitions and festivals in the town, however these are quite low-key and not well advertised to the general public.
   The town holds other events, although mostly food-based. There’s a week long cartoon festival where established cartoonists give talks and workshops, a new comic festival follows this same format. Perhaps a design festival event would develop a closer art and design community?
4. This idea doesn’t come from any of the briefs set in our first module. This idea is to create an event similar to the ‘Business of Design’ talks and workshop which would be held at the local art college to help students there. Invite local designers to discuss possible paths to take into art and design, talk about their experiences and goals, etc.

The Winner:

I’ve chosen to develop the outcome of Week 2 into ‘The Shrewsbury Design Festival’. Since starting my own studio in town I’m surprised at how insular other agencies seem to be. There simply isn’t a design community and no event to encourage one to develop.

Initial Brief, Notes and Considerations:

Overview

During week two of our first module I found that there’s a lack of interaction between design companies, artists and ‘makers’ in the town. It surprised me at the number of studios there are here, if you were to walk around the town you would see only four design agencies, two arts venues and one gallery available to exhibit. Some arts groups have open days or exhibitions but these are pretty low-key, tending to stick to small areas of the town and in their own groups. The only art-based event is the bi-annual Shrewsbury Open Studios, although town-wide and open to the public it still sits below the radar due to a lack of publicity.

Two existing festivals in the town which follow a clear format are the Cartoon Festival and ‘Comic Salopia’, a comic festival initiated by Charlie Adlard who is the artist behind the Walking Dead comic and lives in the town. Another festival which runs slightly different is a literature festival. This only hosts talks by authors in different venues, there are no events held in the town centre, for example.

Village/Town/City?

Look into the number of remote studios around the area, do they feel cut-off working from small villages or even more remotely in a ‘middle of nowhere’ cottage. Ask why they choose to work remotely and would they benefit from an accessible design community, are they established enough to be able to work from anywhere they choose?

Would they travel to Shrewsbury for an event? What type of event would interest them enough to travel in?

Promote and encourage more collaboration and build a more wide-ranging network from the town; the middle of somewhere. Develop the approach a design festival would need to stand out in the area.

Target Audience

• Artists studios
• Design practices
• Freelancers
• Students
• General public

Objectives

• Encourage/develop/create a wider community for artists and designers
• Highlight the design industry within the town
• Encourage interest in design as a career
• Develop local knowledge of available practices
• Encourage collaboration
• Get people talking!

Must-haves

• Funding
• A variety of venues
• High-profile speakers covering a wide range of disciplines
• Local speakers
• Workshops
• Good promotional material
• A strong visual identity
• Local interest
• Art installations through the town to engage the public and visitors to the town during the festival period
• Knowledge and ability to run the event!

Funding:

Look into what funding might be available from the local council, the Arts Council, etc.. I would need to explore other sources similar to how I imagine the Arts Council to be, research to be continued…
Using the Kickstarter platform as a possible means of raising funds for an event, their first rule:

This covers an event like this perfectly. I don’t have any experience of Kickstarter (other than contributing to a couple of books) so again, research to be continued…

I’d aim to seek advice from the two festivals (above) to gain an insight of the in’s and out’s of putting one on in the town: any red-tape they’ve had to get through, what venues are available and what costs are involved in using them, do they have any outside funding and if so, where from. Also general advice to avoid any pitfalls they have come across in their time. Also seek advice from other UK festivals, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, London would be invaluable.

Another possible source of income would be merchandising. Although likely small margins due to production costs, they could be covered by Kickstarter and used as an incentive to donate. Different levels of investment brings different items: £10 gets you a Tote Bag, £20 gets you a bag and a set of posters, etc. Higher levels get an ‘access all’ pass.

Venues

There are a number of possible venues which have held events in the town. Contacting those to see what would be required such as insurance, booking fees: set amounts or commission-based. Availability, to determine dates in common to maximise the number of venues available at the same time.
Look into other possible venues – arts centres, schools, collages might suit hosting workshops whilst theatres and galleries would be better for talks and seminars.

Other Considerations:

• Legal issues and permissions
• Insurance cover
• Visual identity – you can’t please everyone…