David Louis Product Design

Well, I am coming up to the end of lecturing at BCU School of Jewellery for this academic year and have been creating a summary of the content for the students to discuss tomorrow and lo and behold when put in order it appears to me to be a useful guide to starting up a new business in the creative sector.

Although I have many projects on the go at the moment including launching a  new brand plus developing my MA project alongside the running of the businesses and oh yeah I am organising an exhibition called “Made in the Jewellery Quarter” for Feb 2012… next month please do come along, anyway, I do think there is the makings of a good start your own business book there so perhaps in the future I will be able to apply myself to this.

Here is the basic content of the course I have developed if you have need of a lecturer or two in any of these areas in the creative sector just give me a call.

Course Overview

Entrepreneurship in the creative sector.

David Hendley (c)

Course Goals

To develop the skills you need to succeed in the current working climate.

To assist with developing an online portfolio.

To assist with developing your vision and create a clear next step when you graduate.

Course Overview

Puropse of a career / business plan

Create a mission statement

Outline of a basic career / business plan

Establish your personal vision

SWOT analysis of your core skills or idea.

Researching & developing your own logo and brand.

Market research -types of, how to & practical.

Freelance employment – rates & marketing

Costing your work professionally

Overheads of a studio

Distribution of your products strategically

Legal structures of a business

Marketing using press releases

Developing your online strategy

Basic web design and architecture

Building an online portfolio

Harnessing social networks

………………………………………….

of course I will keep developing the course so get in touch if you wish.

David Hendley.

Check out our other online gift businesses

http://www.gifts-of-distinction.co.uk
Gifts of Distinction I Sterling Silver goodies for that very special gift – engraving is available.

http://www.david-louis.com
Lifestyle giftware for the home – designed by our lead designer David-Louis

http://www.flaskstore.com
A vast array of exceedingly well made hip flasks and all can be engraved for free.

http://www.tankardstore.com
A specialist web site focusing on an exquisite range of tankards for every occasion.

about great product design, about our customers and about new design entrepreneurs.

All in all watch this space for Brand Explosion, excellent customer service and all round we give a damn attitude.

We are working creatively, informatively plus, with the customer first and foremost in our mind we are having great results.

Celebration

What a great time we have been having here at Gifts of Distinction and David-Louis. We have been managing to create growth in our business by raising our game. As our testimonials on the web sites show we have focused on exemplary customer service along side improving dispatch times on all the gift items we sell online.

Mentoring new Designers on TV.

Of late David has been dispensing sound advice to new designers at the School of Jewellery for the students on the Design for Industry course as well as giving a few talks on marketing and writing the perfect press release for new creative entrepreneurs at Design Space. This work was recognised recently and David-Louis has recently featured on ITV news as a mentor, over the coming months ITV will be revisiting David and talking with some of his mentees so keep an eye on our blog for links to the interviews.

Spring Fair 2011

Under the flaskstore and tankardstore banner we recently visited the Spring Fair 2011 and picked up many new suppliers and pressed the flesh with existing customers and suppliers, I was delighted when Alice made time to visit the existing suppliers I couldn’t find, I personally did four halls in four hours, met 20 people and swapped details with 10 new people. So quick and to the point visit this year, we are really lucky the NEC is beside us here in Birmingham.

Pulse 2011

Talking about trade fairs David-Louis.com is exhibiting at Pulse in June 2011 so we will be developing our brand, raising our profile and introducing new products over the next four months in preparation for the event.

New designers and new ideas

David-Louis also hope to work with Simon Pattison the new designer on the scene here in Birmingham and will be commissioning him to produce CAD drawings and turn our concepts into reality, we can see Simon is going somewhere in the design word but before he fly’s the coop and becomes a household name we will be supporting him here in Birmingham.

Finally David-Louis will be engaging a PR Company to focus on driving sales of the David-Louis Beer Cube, we are currently negotiating with Zombie Kitty and are excited about their ideas.

All in all watch this space for Brand Explosion, excellent customer service and all round we give a damn attitude. We are working creatively, informatively and with the customer first and foremost in our mind with great results.

Today I am working on the final tweaks of introducing video to my online side of the product design business David-Louis.com and am delighted to say with the support of my web designers at e-levation.net I have been able to go from concept to launch in a just three weeks. I don’t think in this post I will go in to the why’s and wherefores of the decision to launch a .TV site as opposed to using You Tube or embedded video on the site but just to say we looked at it from as many perspectives and went with www.david-louis.tv

At the moment there is an interview by Annette Naudin of the MA Media Enterprise with me which takes place in our shop in The Jewellery Quarter(I will have some photos of the shop very soon)  - I want to thank Annette and all at the Screen Media Lab for there help and interest in making this video.

Also, just to say I have conceptualised and commissioned the production of an animation featuring the David-Louis Fridge Magnet Bottle Opener which is due for launch in approx. 3 weeks. I can’t wait to launch the video on our .TV site and will keep y’all up to date on it.

Design Space West midlands – does this sound familiar?  Well probably not but this is something you should know about and it is based here in the Jewellery Quarter (JQ Web site up and coming so watch out for the link) in Birmingham,

·     19 designers,

·     1 full year,

·     Business mentoring,

·     Free workshop,

·     Free business training to NVQ level.

An excellent opportunity for emerging creatives from anywhere in the world to come to, as far as I am concerned, the creative capital. (I won’t say the creative capital of where, as it is just THE creative capital).

This week I have been mostly interviewing applicants for this excellent programme along side my other panel members, Jewellery Designer Maker Katherine Campbell Legg and Kerry O’Connor Designer and Maker of Silver and Ceramics. We met nearly 40 applicants, over 4 days and have had the hard task of understanding their goals and vision and allocating appropriate help to the most deserving – the results are not out yet but watch this space as these people are IT.

Imagine that, 19 new business people, creatives, in one hub, starting on the same day, the race is on and I wish them the best of luck. I hope to blog about them all at one time or another over the coming year.

On another note I am pleased to say I am half way through my MA in Media Enterprise and have just received notification that I have now achieved my Post Graduate Certificate – 1 year to go…..

So here is my interesting link for the day, I have seen one or two of these around Birmingham and really like it, I don’t really think this is actually carbon neutral but it is ECO Chic not ECO Geek - It does what it says on the tin – Green Graffiti.