PRP Artefact#1: Letter to Creative Companies

I have sent 13 Nottingham based design companies the letter below. I am aware that I will most probably have to send more to gain the response I am after. However, I will telephone all of the companies early next week with a list of questions and make a judgement after. If I do not get any responses I will have to branch out to other areas.

I am thinking a telephone interview may be a better option. Not only because I am conscious of the little time I have (2weeks per artefact) but also as this will inconvenience the recipient less.

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Dear ____,

RE : Facilitation of Innovation in a Creative Company

I am a Web Design student at Nottingham Trent University and currently pursuing research for my final year studies. This research is focussed on how creative organisations, like yours, encourage and facilitate innovation among their employees.

In particular I am interested in how online communications such as blogs, wiki's and social networking can enhance creativity within an already creative workforce. I would like to call you to ask a few questions, if this is ok with yourself? I won’t take up much of your time, as I’m sure you’re very busy people.

If you are interested in participating, it would give us time to discuss your firm’s current approach of encouraging innovation, plus additional techniques that may be of interest to you.

If for any reason, you would prefer me not to contact you simply reply saying so. However, if you are and there are times that are more convenient for yourself, please let me know and I will accommodate these.


Thank you in advance for your time.
Yours sincerely,


Jacqui Pickup
www.jacquipickup.com

Client:Meeting3: Designs

The main focus of today's meeting with my client Robin Pounder, was to present some design ideas for the Wild and Wilder vintage clothing website.

Idea1-Standardised Layout with fabric textures and sewing patterns.

I presented this idea to Robin as an alternative and to my more inventive designs. The main reason behind this was to gauge his reaction and ensure my understanding of his needs were correct.The nature of the brand lends itself nicely to a slightly wakey design and Robin pretty much discarded this without any discussion. This was the reaction I was hoping for as I want to create a website that challenges both my technical capabilities and design skills.

Idea2-Vintage Magazine Layout

Robin though that although it is an interesting idea, it is quite complicated. I agree with this, it is a idea that needs considerable development.

Idea3-Map

A map from Wild to Wilder, with models on the streets wearing clothing from the brands and landmarks such as broadway cinema, the council house etc along the way. Robin thought that although it was interesting idea, it might be a bit confusing to someone who didn't know Nottingham well as the maps simplistic style doesn't convey distance or direction.

Idea4-interactive shop front

This is Robins (and my) preferred design idea. Navigation is much simpler than the others and

PRP: Interview Questions

Interview Questions:
1) Can you give a short description of your company...
2) What are the main job descriptions within the firm?(Manager, Director, Designer, etc)
3) Would you say your firm has a hierarchicle structure?
4)What are the main contract types? (Full time, Part time, Free Lance, etc)
5) How many employees are in the company?
6) Do you have a Human Resource department?
>who makes decisions regarding? (managers, employees?)
7) Are online social platforms encouraged in your company?
8) Are there methods implemented specifically to encourage innovation?
9) Would you say your offices designed to aid communication and team work?

PRP: Artefact#1_Interview

For my first Artefact I am going to contact a number of creative companies based in Nottingham. The intention being to arrange an interview and hopefully visit their office(s).

Aim:

The main aim of this artefact is to find examples of where online social platforms have been encouraged and implimented in varying ways and with varying success. From this, I hope to determine what methods are most successful, in what settings and why.
Also, through visiting creative companies' offices I will to observe office layouts and question reasoning behind design decisions. I hope this provide evidence on how influencial a work setting can be on a groups creative performance.

Method:

Initially I will contact people from range of positions within the companies via email and/or snail mail-dependant on suitability to the individual company. This will introduce myself, state my research topic, and suggest to the recipient that I will call them regarding my research topic in the following week.

During the follow-up phone call I will discuss their company with relation to my research project and ask if they are willing for me to visit and perform my interview.

This may seem a drawn out process but I feel this will be a more successful strategy as the ownus will be on me to make contact both times and will illiminate waiting for responses.

Evidence of the Interview will take the form of a voice recording. I have chosen a voice recording over video as it is less intrusive, potentially allowing for a higher levels and quality of participation from the interviewee.

Prediction:

From this Artefact I hope to find that from my partipants experience, higher levels of innovation and creativity can be gained from the implementation and encouraged use of online social platforms.

Client: Design Idea

This idea came from the confusion customers had regarding the shops being connected. The home page takes a simplistic approach, which relates to the company's existing branding. To enter the site, the user needs to select a shop which determines the background image during the rest of the navigation.

The background images are photographs of the shops and correspond to the users choice.The second page the user visits is interactive. The image of the shop will have hover states, linking to the brands and products sold in the shops.

The manikins in the shop windows will link to a page similar to this. The page will be faded out similar to lightbox and information will be displayed, describing the brand and giving prices. Alhough the site will no have the functionality to buy products; the user can gain an understanding on the general prices and clothing styles in store.

Pages such as About, Visit us and Contact will have a semi-transparent box making the white text readable.

SPP: Available Web Design Jobs

Creativepool:

o Company: Source
o Location: Central London
o Salary/rate: £27000 - 33000
o Contract: perm
o Job posted on: 13 January 2010
o Job start date: February 2010
o Closing date: 20 January 2010

o Company: Camden Green Fair
o Location: Central London
o Salary/rate: Negotiable
o Contract: temp
o Duration: 6 months
o Job posted on: 16 January 2010
o Job start date: ASAP
o Closing date: 12 February 2010

* Company: Purple
* Location: Central London
* Salary/rate: £22000 - 30000
* Contract: perm
* Job posted on: 15 January 2010
* Job start date: ASAP
* Closing date: 22 January 2010

INTERNSHIPSUK

IDEO: internship

Live Client: Shop Fronts

One of the requirements my client specified was to illustrate the two shops are of the same owner, as customers were not lear on this when the second shop (Wilder) opened in 2005.

With this in mind I plan to use either illustrations or photographs of the shops in the design of the website. Today I took some photo's of the Wild and Wilder Shop Fronts for reference.

Client: Vintage Magazine Design Idea

The homepage would be designed similar to a front cover of a magazine with a key image and main articles(the more important pages of the site). The other pages will be shown as double page spreads, taking the format of magazine pages. The site can be navigated through sequentially as you would read through a magazine, as well as a standard navigation bar.

Portfolio Website:Paul Bennett

Designed like a computer desktop and run on wordpress, Paul Bennett has gone the whole hog to impress. He has used Ajax and JQuery to allow windows to be moved, minimised and expanded redefining the limitations of blogging.

Internet archaeology

Internet Archaeology does exactly what it says on the tin: saves and preserves websites and their design from a dying age.

The idea was born from the death of Geocites. The director and founder, Ryder Ripps, saw it "as a major milestone in the internet's history"(.net issue 197 p16). It is quite similar to the Internet Archive however has a more modern design and simpler navigation, eliminating the need to remember complicated URL's. "it is not only important to historians, but also artists and designers".

I find the concept of this site quite interesting from a preservation point of view, but I find it hard to value the individual works. Perhaps over time this kind of museum type site will hold more value as the unstylish and badly designed becomes 'historical' but at the moment I think 'good riddance!'