Initially, as a group we struggled for ideas. All students within the group had to come up with plans for a viable, business venture that could ultimately turn over a profit.
After much deliberation the group agreed on a concept for a portfolio website for students at Ravensbourne to make it easier for students to display their work in a digital online environment.
Our thinking behind this service was that the college, at present, was not supplying the students with an easy and accessible platform to demonstrate their skills and express themselves. This website would provide an opportunity for students to display their work for other students to see, to critique and for perhaps professionals outside the college to view the students’ work. We believed this would be a good way of promoting the college, and ourselves by showing others what we do.
This website would act as a means of critiquing other students’ work, informing students of what goes on in the other courses, raising awareness and promoting working practices between the different disciplines. This would inevitably lead to a website used not only to display one’s work but also for networking, contact building and communication. Students could also leave their contact details on their portfolio page so that they could be contacted if needed by other individuals on the same or different courses at the college. Students could keep a gallery of their work as well as a library of favourites from other students. They could also keep a friend’s list, much like that available on Facebook or Deviantart.
The outcome of the project was not entirely successful due primarily to time constraints. We were unable to get a finished, up and running portfolio website and we did not achieve all our aims. However we did manage to make a profit. However, we were able to set up a demo/ prototype of the intended website. It sufficiently shows what we intended to produce. Importantly, though the website is still work in progress, we have managed to make a profit that has covered our expenses.
I learnt a great deal from this exercise and built upon my understanding of the importance of branding, logo design and marketing, which I touched upon last year. I have as a consequence grasped a better understanding of setting up a business. Considering that we had very little time to prepare and setup a business, I think generally we made good progress. We certainly performed well with communication despite the size of our group. It was fun to do produce various designs for the logo design and seeing how the design evolved and developed. I particularly enjoyed designing the proposed website templates, creating designs for t-shirts and interacting with the other students within the group.
When dealing with branding I had to make sure it was practical and logistically possible to make that transition from concept to reality otherwise it would be a waste of time and money. Whether I was designing the logos, posters and t-shirt motifs I always had one thing in mind, keep it simple to keep costs down. I wanted to create simple designs but also maintaining professional quality. This did not mean I did not put in the hours or the effort. Even making something that looks simple can require a lot of work and refinement. Mindful of keeping costs down and maximizing profit in as far as printing etc. I only used three colours. This included the tones black and white. Using tonal colours saves money in the printing process. Consciously, when designing the logos I didn’t use multitudes of colours as this would have consequently cost more to reproduce. Also when creating the t-shirts, I made sure that the motifs/ designs were easily reproduced and that the actual designs were not too elaborate or dense in order to keep expenses down. I learnt that when designing you must always consider whether something is possible to create and that it must adhere to a fixed budget. There is no point designing something that is far too expensive to reproduce and blows the budget. Through my research into branding I discovered the importance of brand awareness and that a logo to be successful must have an emotional impact on its target audience. I understand that a logo must look professional as well as in keeping up with the times and reflecting the services of the business and the demographic that are being targeted.
We were convinced however, that we could establish a solid business that could be used for the future. We did conduct small surveys in order to assess interest in our idea. Generally, there were positive comments and there did seem to be a real interest among fellow students around the college, even across different courses. This is what we suspected in our own predictions. We asked whether they thought it was something that would interest them and whether they thought that a portfolio website would help in their studies and they indicated that they thought it would as it would serve as a place where they could exhibit their work and communicate with other students. As it stands, the enterprise has made a small profit by selling Ravensbourne t-shirts.
I found that working in such a large group and using Facebook as the primary means of communication was the key to success during this unit. We all used Facebook to exchange ideas, research and work. We all communicated rather well considering the size of our group. We communicated on a daily basis and this was a great way to make sure everyone was carrying out their allocated responsibilities and tasks. In addition, we had regular face-to-face meetings at college to discuss ideas, allocate responsibilities and discuss the way forward.
Overall, our plan in my opinion was a partial successful, however it is a shame that we were unable to finish the entire enterprise and make that transition from concept to a fully functioning company making a profit. However, the idea remains and we all believe it is a solid business model that would benefit the students and the college. We did achieve our aims in coming up with an interesting concept and the idea of a portfolio website to provide a platform for students to display their work and a forum for discussion. However, we did not manage to get the enterprise entirely off the ground. Maybe with a bit more time, we would have been able to achieve our goal. Having said this we did manage to make a small profit selling t-shirts.
I would have liked to have conducted more research into similar enterprise concepts that were taking place within the college. It came to our attention that both the college and some students were currently attempting to create some form of social network within the college.
This unit made me realise that a month is not a realistic amount of time to get a business up and running. If I were to do a unit like this again I would probably try and spend a little less time on the designing and preparation stage and focus on making the profit. However success only comes through thorough preparation and research. I am pleased that we managed to make a small amount of profit and get some interest in our Ravensbourne t-shirt designs. Our initial budget was £100. We bought and printed 20 t-shirts for £5 each for starters, and were able to sell twelve shirts for £10 each. Thus we made a £20 profit.
The unit taught me the value of carefully and diligently researching your market and target audience before putting together a well thought through business plan. It made me realize the importance of branding and logo design and that it is this, which helps your audience to associate the mark or symbol with the services you offer. It showed me the importance of being professional; the importance of constant communication and that hard work usually pays off.
I think it was unrealistic to think that we could get a fully functioning business up and running along with a completed website in the short amount of time that we had, bearing in mind we had other units to attend to as well as preparing show reels. If I was to do a unit like this again I would spend a little less time coming up with the initial business concept, branding designs and refining the company name.
