Saturday 6 December 2014

OUGD603 - Extended Practice: Card Designing Brief

On the 20th October an email was sent out to us all about the possibility of designing cards for a company based in Leeds. I responded to the email quite promptly as stationery is something I would love to get into designing! I heard back quite soon after and was asked to go for a meeting with him straight away. We sat and discussed his background and mine and I wrote down notes as we were talking.

He already had existing cards which are in shops throughout Leeds. He was asking me to design Christmas cards to start with and then extend the range further into the New Year depending on the success of the initial designs. He was also keen to allow me to change his logo and perhaps any of the typography used on the current cards. All of the cards would be connected to Leeds in some way, and depending on the location of their distribution, they would be specific to that area and perhaps quite humorous. 


We had discussed the cost of designing each card and he said he would like to pay me hourly. He also said that he couldn't really afford to pay me an awful lot to start with, but that this could change in the future after Christmas sales have gone through. 


We exchanged several emails:


This is taken from one of the emails I sent. The response I received made me question whether or not to take this work on, or whether I should reconsider. I have always wanted to start my own card business and know a few people who own shops at home and feel confident that they would buy some of my designs, but I have simply never had the time to put into it properly, however I could do this year. Initially I had written a brief relating to cards but I decided to get rid of it as it didn't really have much focus. 


Me:





Response:
Discussion with John:
I asked John when I was in college one day what he thought I should do. I explained everything from start to finish and the response I had received from the email. John advised me to write up a written contract via email, and if I don't receive the response I would like then to do it on my own instead.
He advised me to do the following:
- Tell him that the copyright belongs to me - Paid monthly instead of hourly (easier to calculate per card) - £50 for each design plus 1% of a sale (trust value there) - All points can be reviewed in 6 months - Name printed on the cards not my logo

Below is the email I typed up and sent to him:
I was quite surprised at the response I received. As the reason he didn't want to go ahead 
with the work was because he had initially agreed to pay hourly and not per card. Ironically though, this would have worked out cheaper for him as I could have spent 8 hours on one card in one day and 4 on another, so the amount which he would pay me monthly could fluctuate immensely.

I feel as though this all happened for a good reason though, and retrospectively, it opened my eyes up to another possible career choice for me. I have decided that in the New Year I am going to design some stationery. The Tigerprint brief and LCA Christmas Card brief allowed me to develop my crafting skills even more and also gave me an insight into what it would be like to design my own stationery. Had I taken on this work, I wouldn't have had the time to spent on those two briefs. 

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