GDE 730

WEEK 4

Business/Project Plans and Communication, Client Relationships, Insight, Content, Structure  

This week we focus on client relationships. How to pitch to clients. We're also expected to consolidate learning from the past weeks and create a client-facing document, and it should also help inform assignment 1 which is a business plan for our speculative practice. 

The main question driving the week was:

 How do you write a client facing strategic document for the purpose of a new business challenge? 

Case Study 1: Studio/Client Relationship Design

Week4Lecture_Header

You are there with your idea, waving at people and you obviously do a lot of data research but essentially most ideas, in my opinion, come down to your own analysis of that data or belief in something. It felt very strong to build it from your idea but keep piling on different elements and allowing it to change with them. As long as you can keep your central idea going.

Lucy Warburton

I really enjoyed this lecture. I think the main reason was because I really resonate with the project being discussed: BECOME+BUILD. The ethos of the project is exactly the same as the ethos of my speculative studio. The idea of communicating the complex by making it simple. So I really enjoyed hearing about the actually project and how it took form. 

This lecture also gave me more to think about than the other one in terms of what to include in a business plan and/or a client-based communication. I took notes to pinpoint the takeaways that stood out to me. 

I summarize these takeaways from the conversation in the notes below:

GDE730_Week4LectureNotes

My biggest takeaway from this lecture was that the overall idea one has forms the backbone of what you're building and that having a rigourous back and forth with it and planning it out and focusing it really makes it clearer and more likely to succeed. I never used to understand why people built out these 3 to 5 year business plans, or how you could even plan that far ahead with something that isn't there. Seeing how Lucy applied that to an actual project made it very real for me in a way that I can say I get it now. I will be taking this learning forward into assignment 1.

Case Study 2: Studio Set-up

Week4Lecture_Header2

Work out what you do. What is it that you’re doing? If you want to set up an agency, what does that agency stand for? Why is that agency there? In the last 20 years brands have changed so much, and as agencies we’re the same. It was enough for us just to look good 20 years ago and just be professional. Then 10 years ago we’re talking about craft and process and delivery. Now people want to know why you exist and what you are going to contribute.

Hamish Makgill

I didn't take a lot of notes for this second lecture because this seemed like a more casual conversation where Hamish shared his experience and what he learned in hindsight to setting up his first studio and also by working in the field so that when he set up his second one he was more knowledgeable about what to do. 

The one thing that stood out to me from what he shared was that it's essential as a practicing designer especially in today's world to have a clear ethos informing what you are creating. The quote I used on the blog highlights that for me. It's something I have been thinking about a lot with assignment 1, and I loved how he arrived at and left Red to pursue that. The idea of framing it in clear words: 'Beautifully Simple' really resonated with me. 

It was also interesting how both lecture 1 and 2 both professionals seemed to have the same ethos that my speculative studio has. In a way that was really self assuring to me. Sometimes one can wonder if there is any merit to an idea one has. Sometimes I can fall into such imposter syndrome and question ideas I have. But to see the same philosophy come up for not one but two case studies made me feel more sure of the speculative idea I'm pursuing for Brief 1. 

Workshop Challenge

CHALLENGE: How do you write a client facing strategic document for the purpose of a new business challenge? Create a format and structure for a new business plan. You have considered company philosophy, leadership, budgeting, IP, and now we want you to create a 3,000-word business plan that presents your proposal to your client. This plan will be used to write a client facing project, or as an outline for a potential studio launch or entrepreneurial idea or artefact. This is very much a speculative exercise that will grow and evolve as you move through the rest of the course. One of the key challenges of this exercise is for you to target your writing and proposal to a specific audience and therefore the research, your strategy, your communication skills and outline of management or organisational objectives, are central to this challenge.

For this challenge I chose to do an Expression of Interest (EOI) to a potential speculative client. I really used this week's learning to think about how to speak to the client, and what kind of work Lucent Creative would do for a potential client and how it would play out. 

I kept the EOI personal to the client by opening with a letter to the person (client). This set up the tone of the document with a professional + personal voice for the parties involved in which to communicate. I also really questioned the kind of projects I would do and really focused it down to one area and showed the client a point of difference and how the studio is different from others out there really illustrating how it derives from the main ethos. 

My EOI is here as a gallery of pages and also as a PDF:

EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_01
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_02
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_03
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_04
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_05
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_06
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_07
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_08
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_09
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_10
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_11
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_12
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_13
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_14
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_15
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_16
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_17
EOI_Lucent_KhanNida_Page_18

Final thoughts and reflection

This week was tough. We all assumed that the deliverable was the actual 3000 page business plan and so it was very confusing what we were trying to do. I still am struggling with spending way too much time on the journal and the challenges and wondering if there will be enough time for the actual PDFs that we have to hand in. The lectures were nice, can tend to be a bit long though. Priority is now to start writing out my Business Plan.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. 

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Week 3: Legal and IP Frameworks
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Week 5: The Collaborative Mix

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