Day 4

Thursday 7th March, 2013

Beyond the Creative to the Business End of Things - Gary Edwards

This talk was given by Gary Edwards. Gary owns the company Digital Issue, where they produce online publications. He began by giving a brief overview of his career, and where he is today. He quickly made it clear that reputation is a very important thing for him. He said it was very hard to build, but can be lost so quickly. Once you gain a reputation, you have to make sure that you maintain it. He gave three pointers on how to gain a reputation:

• Research your market
• Look after your clients
• Know your competition

Although this talk was not what I was expecting, there was some interesting points brought up in it, and it was good to hear about the creative industry from another viewpoint.

Day 3

Wednesday 6th March, 2013

Setting up Your Own Business - Andy Gardner HMRC

This was probably the most helpful talk I attended this week. Andy Gardner from HM Revenue and Customs, gave a lively, extremely useful and funny talk. Walking in to this talk, I was expecting to come out with my head fried, and so confused, but I was surprised to find that this was not the case at all. Considering it was only an hour talk, Andy went into a lot of detail about: tax, paying and the classes of National Insurance, keeping and maintaining records, calculating net profit from turnover, allowable and non-allowable expenses, capital expenses and how to fill out tax return forms. Andy also provided us each with a thick booklet, explaining what he was saying in a lot more detail. He gave us some links to watch 'webimars' which are also there to help us a lot more for when we need them. I have always thought of tax as a extremely complicated thing that should only be approached by those who know what they're doing; to be honest, I still think this, but this talk has helped my understanding of taxes a lot more, and that they're not quite as scary as I first thought.

Designing for Mobile - Tim Makin

This was probably my least favourite, and least helpful talk out of this week. Tim graduated from Glyndwr in 2007. He now has his own company wink;nudge>. I didn't find this talk relevant to me, personally. There was some interesting points made in this talk, but a lot of it was for people who understand web design and the technical terms, whereas I don't. Something that I found quite interesting was the fact that web access on mobile phones will overtake desktop use in 2013. I found a couple of things helpful, for designing websites, as I am currently starting to create my own website, for example, there are two types of website, dedicated and responsive.

If Only I Had Known... - Sian Saunders

The most inspirational talk of the week!! Sian began the Daydream Designs company in 2006, just working from home. In 2008, the company started to grow and grow, and now there are 6 full-time members of the team, with some added extras. Daydream Designs is quite a unique agency, as they a very small agency, working from a converted garage at Sian and her husband's home, that really gets to know their clients like they're friends. They a offer a homely experience. Sian expressed many times throughout the talk, that they are always looking at how they can do something differently! A good example of this was the work that they have done for The Real Ale Trail, where as you scroll down the page, the beer glass gets emptier and emptier (shown below).

With Sian, as Ffion, a graphic designer who currently works there full time. She gave some good advice; to go into shops and look at what they are selling. See what you think you could do better, e.g. logos, packaging etc, and ask the owner if they are interested in you re-designing it, and sell it to them.

They put together 5 top tips, which they think are the most important things to do/remember:

1. Stand out from the crowd! - designs with personality, because after all, we're hardwired to notice only what's different
2. It's all about the customer! - listen to them!
3. Live by design, not by default!
4. Perspective - look at things differently, and continue to be curious!
5. Go the extra mile! - this always makes a difference!

This talk was really inspiring, and you could really tell that Sian is extremely passionate about her work and her company. She really wants to make a mark, doing the thing's that she loves doing. It so refreshing to see someone get so passionate about their love for their job, not the commercial side, as Sian defines success as loving what you are doing, and waking up in the morning feeling excited about going to work. I came out of this talk, feeling inspired, thinking that I want to work for Sian and Daydream Designs, drinking tea, and creating quirky illustrations.

Day 2

Tuesday 5th March, 2013