Week 2: Business Models, Studios, Estimating, Invoicing and Budget Management: Test & Rehearse

Weekly Learning Objectives

By the end of this week you should be able to:

1. Research and analyse some core operational and functional aspects of design practice and business;
2. Design and map a hypothetical resourcing model for budget and staff allocation to deliver a project or creative initiative of your choice;
3. Manage your independent learning effectively.

Week 2: Lecture – The Business of Design

Lecture Introduction

This lecture outlines the core operational and functional aspects of design practice and business. This is a very large field of study. We will be outlining the basic principles so that you may explore methodologies and account handling processes that are personal to your own ambition.

The format of this lecture is a filmed panel discussion, with participants representing different types of creative practice: AGENCY; COLLECTIVE; STUDIO; FREELANCER.

Through a series of short case studies, each panellist showcases a way of managing a particular project, their business model, their personnel structure, and their methodology for maintaining an effective project, alongside successful financial management.

Watch the lecture video below and make notes in your research journal. Reflect upon these ideas, and use them as a springboard into your own investigations. Use the Ideas Wall freely to discuss, ask questions and share ideas.

AGENCY UsTwo Adventure (Links to an external site.): Neef Rehman, Community Manager

COLLECTIVE Lovers (Links to an external site.): Lisa Armstrong (Links to an external site.), Creative Producer

STUDIO Studio Moross (Links to an external site.): Kate Moross, Founder

FREELANCE Theo Inglis (Links to an external site.), Freelance Designer Writer

Studio Moross

Kate Moross

Must have goals: keep them in plain sight (figure out how to make them happen, that’s the hard part).

Lovers

Lisa Armstrong

Lovers – Collective

Reason for the name is that they only work on projects they love. Studio is five years old, made up of creatives leaving studios to go it alone.

Objective is to avoid the “bread & butter” projects.

Alex (founder) set things up in a way for designers to come together for projects they’re passionate about.

A small central team which provides creative direction and project management. Huge network of freelancers that come together project by project depending on the skills needed to carry out each one.

• Designers
• Art directors
• Strategists
• Film makers
• Illustrators
• Animators
• Artists
• Composers

Case Study:

Greenpeace approached them. Wanted help with creating a ‘toolkit’ to spread word about their cause for addressing the problem of ocean plastics.

• Typeface – Sanctuary – to unite all the items in the project
• Collected plastic rubbish from the Thames and used images in all the comms.

Chose existing products for project management – easy to use – now designing their own.
‘Tell’ is a questionnaire to all Lovers to ask what type of project they like to work on.

• Which organisation would you like to help (Greenpeace)
• What would be your dream project

Includes a client project checker – shows how many resources they’re using on a project -vs- what was quoted. Working freelance (or any other) means it’s really important that projects come in on budget, this software allows clients and Lovers to keep a check on the running of a project.

Logs feedback – good or bad.

Writing a handbook for all Lovers to use – similar to the amulet, gives a sense of belonging – the book shows all the things learnt as the working model gets underway – one aim for the book is to sell it as a book of reference via the Tate…

usTwo

Neef Rehman

Theo Inglis

Freelance design writer & graphic designer.

How? Never planned to go freelance/solo. Worked in studio, mainly packaging. Enough after three years – went back into education.

‘Freelance designer’ can have many meanings.

New business?!

Came up with options and a rational behind them, produced three version of each as options.

Lessons learnt:

• Make connections
• Looks for different sectors – wouldn’t have thought of poetry as a specific field to approach.

Challenges or limitations:

Neef – their setup and client base makes projects a longer process, multiple layers of approval. Can be frustrating.

Kate – tends not to work with larger commercial clients, only with people they like to, not anything from any one, can do more of what they like. Disadvantage of that is that clients like that can bring more security. Juggling lots of smaller clients takes a lot of time, biggest disadvantage is a lot of the responsibility is here’s. If ill or away, etc., it shows in the finances. Therefore needing the right people to step up when needed is of real importance.

Lisa – Flexible. Challenges are with project management, lots of collaborators means lots of admin. Three full in the group, gather a collective per project.

Theo – toughest part to deal with is the unpredictability. Low overheads and no responsibility to others if things are quiet.

Managing workloads:

Theo – ask for more time if available, publishing dates get pushed, some more urgent than others. The more you work with someone the more open you can be about payment and deadlines, more self confidence.

Kate – double deadlines, the client gives you a deadline which isn’t necessarily theirs. They could be hiding the real one to make sure they get it within a ‘safe zone’. Again, be confident enough to ask.

Lisa – Customer tools, which is the key one they use?
Scorrow (?) Project management software, quote and plan jobs, check resources day by day. Uses a project tracker which shows info client-side.

Any universal processes used?

Neif – Have specific managers (due to their size) to organise projects. Keep workers on the same projects so they’re totally familiar with the work, no swapping from project to project – doesn’t see that as a good use of time as it takes time to get up to speed on each job.

A resource manager keeps track of who is available to work on projects, do they need extra skills, who has those skills, are they available.

Kate – who decides if there’s capacity take on more work: In the spirit of how the studio runs Kate works across lots of projects at once in ‘short bursts of creativity’ rather than long periods. That’s just more suited to how she works – no tactical reasons.

Keeps the freedom in the studio as people like to work in different ways. Others in the studio might work on two-three projects at the same time. Have project managers but most people still manage their own time. It changes around how much money is needed in a particular month – if things are comfortable there isn’t the hard-push to get things through as quickly or take they on projects which need more resources. Admits to ‘could be better’ at that aspect.

Winning Business:

Kate – Repeat business

Theo – Networks, the first ‘in’ as a freelancer

Neef – Varied ways to bring in business depending on which part will be doing that work

Wellbeing:

Lisa – Banquets, life coaches, lunches, schedule the work well so that people can leave on time.

Kate – Eating together, bonuses, no expectations on over-working. Mental wellbeing not financial. Just being aware that the team are ok, and having their support.

Theo – Working alone. Good not being stuck with the 9-5 or being tied to one place of working, however it can be quite lonely. Working remotely or directly as part of a team brings that benefit.

Neef – project coaches also coach the team to make sure they’re happy with what they’re doing an how things are structured. usTwo has always considered work/life balance as an important part of running the business. Have an independent 3rd party involved in looking after staff wellbeing.

Any changes coming?

Theo – Once you do something you get more of the same – a good thing as long as you like that kind of work. Being in a position to say know is a good position to be in. Just promote the sort of work you want to do.

Lisa – Now stop their role a few stages ahead for the larger projects, branding for instance might now be to provide a good guide and act as a guardian of the brand rather than root-out everything themselves.

Neef – 15 years has brought a lot of changes in the type of work they do. The tech industry changes a lot so they have to adapt to stay in there. Prefer to take on work needing new technology, that way they have to develop to do the work.

Kate – Started in graphics/visual design, led onto music video. Now that the tech is more affordable is now it’s more accessible. Things have naturally developed. Sometimes it’s good to be new in a field because it can bring a different perspective to a saturated market.

Advice:

Neef – More established can diversify but a new business should identify your niche and and stick with it. Then try to find the clients to help you develop that niche

Lisa – Build trust and strong relationships.

Theo – have a long term project you can work on as a way to take a break from the day-to-day

Resources

Read | Watch | Listen

Below is this week’s list of materials. For the full module resource list, please refer to the Course Hub. We encourage you to also go beyond and carry out your own independent research into themes delivered. Do not forget to use the Ideas Wall to share new ideas and thoughts.

1. Crawford, T. (ed) (2008) AIGA Professional Practices in Graphic Design, New York: Allworth Press.

2. DBA Design Business Association – https://www.dba.org.uk/ (Links to an external site.)

3. CSD Chartered Society of Designers – https://www.csd.org.uk/ (Links to an external site.)

4. Institute for Experiments with Business – https://fo.am/activities/ibex/

Week 2: Workshop Challenge

The Challenge

Map a resourcing model for budget and staff allocation to deliver a project or creative initiative of your choice.

If you are thinking about a generic project budgeting exercise, the example below gives an indication of the parameters for consideration. As the last week of this project brief requires you to write a more substantive strategic plan, please ensure you choose a topic or client that is most suited to your own practice interests.

Example

You have been asked to pitch by National Theatre for a campaign to promote a new play, to include:

• Promotional poster;
• Programme;
• Digital banner;
• Print;
• Design production.

Your client has not given an indication of the budget but would like to pay you fairly. There are no existing images. Please outline the time and costs required to deliver initial stage one body of work across three concepts. Also provide an indication of production costs based on your design proposals.

Project:

Proposed date of event

October 30th – November 2nd. This is the first weekend after the end of British summertime; it gets darker sooner so brighter light show, work back along a timeline to schedule stages of the project. I see the stages as:

Product overview/introduction document to outline the project to include

• project plan
• proposed costs
• technical overview
• site plan

Budget information to include

• Design
• Tech hire/company hire, setup & operation
• Costs incurred from use of surrounding buildings
• Event co-ordinator – make sure everyone is available at the same time!
• Photography
• Promotional material

Resources

Keep things local as much as possible – it’s a community project so that would fit in. May also lead to better prices?

Print

Local print is always expensive. Online specialist printers are the best to use price-wise because they’re set up already to produce the items you need.

Most of the print prices are for the setup, paper and time on press are the smaller part of the print price so specialist printers such as printed.com and newspaperclub.com are ideal for this. I’ve used both printers many times, their quality is good.

Ideally, after the event, there would be a commemorative (bit too grand a word, maybe souvenir…) book to show the whole event from planning to set up and throughout the launch. If some funding were to be raised through sites such as Kickstarter then perhaps the book could be the incentive to donate? Even if the money raised in this way were used just to produce the book rather than going into the pot for the event overall.

Amount raised would dictate the quality of the book but going back to specialist (online) printers; bookprintinguk.com is an option for a ‘nice’ product. I went to them for a book to promote my studio and their prices and quality seem ok:

hardbacked A5
100 page
Full colour
Page ribbon

worked out around £10 each for 15 off – unit cost would drop with higher print run.

I say ok, quality-wise, as they’re not a specialist in terms of absolute quality. The print is digital and although fine for what was needed, I would hope to go to a specialist in terms of finish quality rather than price.

Promotional Printed Items

Postcards or booklet outlining the event for public distribution in cafes, shops, tourist areas.

Event introduction, newspaper format

More in-depth overview of the event following the style of the document visualised in the pervious module. To be available as pick-up literature in the Market Hall.

Funding

A local arts charity, The Hive, has sent some advice on applying for funding:

Ah yes, funding – our best friend and sometimes also our nemesis, depending on how things are going! We rely very heavily on external funding so I’ll put as much info as I can in this email!

Will you be applying as an individual artist? Usually the Arts Council has funding available for individual artists to develop their practice, as well as for organisations. It’s a funny time all round at the moment because most funders immediately put a block on all of their usual funding applications in March, regrouped and came back in April/May with emergency funding streams with very tight deadlines, so organisations and self employed artists could help to cover their lack of income during the covid-19 situation and hopefully avert some crises.

Now most of that initial funding has been dished out, so I’m not sure if there are as many funding pots available while funding is suspended. You might need to keep checking back on their websites to see when they’re releasing funds again. Also, as the covid situation is ongoing, with many artists and organisations knowing they’ll still struggle for funding once their first emergency fund has run out (September time) then funding rounds may reopen with more emergency funding to help artists/orgs stay afloat through into 2021. This may or may not work with your project idea!

Depending on the nature of your idea, good places to start are:

Arts Council England – both Project Grants and Developing Your Practice
https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding

The National Lottery
https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/

Local Council Arts Funding (Alexa Pugh is Shropshire Arts Officer and very approachable & helpful)
https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/arts-and-festivals/arts-grant-funding/

Lots of Trusts and Foundations on funder finder websites too, such as the one below, although many require a subscription
https://www.grantfinder.co.uk/grantfinder/

Bit of guidance here
https://www.culturehive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/AB-Trusts-and-foundations.pdf

Major ones to look into include Esmee Fairbairn, Paul Hamlyn and those attached to business like Lloyds bank etc.

Most funders are very approachable and happy to help potential applicants to work out if their funding stream is for them. Some have relationship managers who cover geographical areas and it’s their job to help provide support, guidance and advice to applicants. It’s more worth their while than applicants wasting their time and them receiving hundreds of applications which are totally off the mark from what they can fund!

I’m attaching a couple of documents which you might find helpful. They’re both from a training session with Arts Consultant Mandy Fowler who has years of experience in arts funding (or investment as she prefers to call it) and are a handy guide on how to word applications, what the funder wants to hear, taking a positive tone, ensuring you get what you need whilst also making the application more about what the funder needs! They all have very specific priorities and they need to know how you’re addressing them within your project idea.

I don’t know if you and Carol know Jamila Walker who is on our board? She’s a freelance artist and has recently had a run of successes in fundraising. She might be able to offer some advice in applying as an individual, as mine is far more organisation-focused. She’s usually very prompt at responding to emails and maybe mention you’re on The Hive’s CAB and I’ve put you in touch? http://www.jamilawalker.webeden.co.uk/home/4534401263
jamilawalker47@hotmail.com

I’ve been in touch with Jamila as suggested, waiting for her reply.

One final snag…the event will need a name ????

Final Outcome

Outline budgeting document for the Market Hall project from our History and Futures Module.

Download the report.

Reflection

This weeks’ lecture was really helpful in getting to grips with this task. I found the process outline by Studio Moross the most useful and likely for me to carry on as a guide for how to structure a project in my own practice.

The tier structure they use to price a job is a great model to create a firm pricing method:

• Pro-rata
• Fixed rate
• Silly money

At my previous studio everything was prices per-hour at a set rate, it’s only recently where I am now that I’m being asked for fixed prices. I always include a contingency plan but these structure will help reduce the little voices telling you it’s too cheap and too expensive at the same time.