A couple of weeks ago, we had a lecture on freelancing from an experienced freelancer.
It was great to hear how to be entrepreneurial and creative with yourself as a business and how to market yourself. I had heard alot of this before from IPP lectures, so it was good to hear it again and refresh my memory.
Monday, 13 June 2011
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Meeting with Lizzie Jackson
Tara Dulake and myself met with Lizzie Jackson today.
The information that we gathered from Lizzie is Ravensbourne have an open source e-portfolio online software called Mahara. This is, according to Lizzie, a blank slate, nothing is on it, so we could potentially have our online portfolio site on here.
The idea of a social network and portfolio is something that management at Ravensbourne have a great deal of interest in. There is currently a group, who have named themselves "the student web services". According to Lizzie Jackson, this was a project that they worked on which was not E&E. They are going to be doing a presentation on Monday. They are looking to team up with people because they do not wish to do it by themselves. So there is an opportunity to collaborate here.
The use of Mahara is currently being tested with two students. So we could look in to designing a profile and then uploading this on to Mahara for testing. The person to speak to about this is a man named John White. Mahara portfolio would only be visible to internal eyes. I explained to Lizzie that Carlos's portfolio site idea would be for employers and for collaboration between students i.e internal and external. So for example, if the 3rd year animation students need sound designers, then this site would be the best way of looking out for the right person.
Lizzie then explained that you could copy the link to your portfolio and send it to people. This idea didn't sound very good to me, because students might as well sign up to the other portfolio sites that are out there. I asked it was possible for the portfolios to have an option to be public; like blogspot; blogspot gives you the option for your blog to be findable by the Google search engine.
I found out yesterday that Ravensbourne are looking to implement a new scheme for prospective students, which is for the applicants to submit their interview material online. This will be done through a server called VPN, which is outside the college firewall. This saves Ravensbourne having to give out passwords.
So this is the research that Tara and I have found on the portfolio and social networking schemes that Ravensbourne wish to implement.
The information that we gathered from Lizzie is Ravensbourne have an open source e-portfolio online software called Mahara. This is, according to Lizzie, a blank slate, nothing is on it, so we could potentially have our online portfolio site on here.
The idea of a social network and portfolio is something that management at Ravensbourne have a great deal of interest in. There is currently a group, who have named themselves "the student web services". According to Lizzie Jackson, this was a project that they worked on which was not E&E. They are going to be doing a presentation on Monday. They are looking to team up with people because they do not wish to do it by themselves. So there is an opportunity to collaborate here.
The use of Mahara is currently being tested with two students. So we could look in to designing a profile and then uploading this on to Mahara for testing. The person to speak to about this is a man named John White. Mahara portfolio would only be visible to internal eyes. I explained to Lizzie that Carlos's portfolio site idea would be for employers and for collaboration between students i.e internal and external. So for example, if the 3rd year animation students need sound designers, then this site would be the best way of looking out for the right person.
Lizzie then explained that you could copy the link to your portfolio and send it to people. This idea didn't sound very good to me, because students might as well sign up to the other portfolio sites that are out there. I asked it was possible for the portfolios to have an option to be public; like blogspot; blogspot gives you the option for your blog to be findable by the Google search engine.
I found out yesterday that Ravensbourne are looking to implement a new scheme for prospective students, which is for the applicants to submit their interview material online. This will be done through a server called VPN, which is outside the college firewall. This saves Ravensbourne having to give out passwords.
So this is the research that Tara and I have found on the portfolio and social networking schemes that Ravensbourne wish to implement.
T-shirt Designs.
Myself and a number of others met with Jill Hogan about using the ravensbourne logo. Bottom line is we cannot change or manipulate the logo, the only thing that we can do is make it black and white. So our best bet is to use the penrose pattern on the t-shirt.
Here are a couple of t-shirt designs that I've come up with.
Here are a couple of t-shirt designs that I've come up with.
Research and Tuesday 31st May.
Last post was a break down of some of the more major portfolio sites that are out there. I admit that I haven't broken down some of the other major competitors, but I think we have enough competitor research, and I was noticing common trends with the ones that I had already researched.
I met with Jared Taylor so that he could go over the marking criteria for this E&E unit so that I could have a better understanding of what I need to do in order to pass this unit.
Doing the company breakdowns which were in effect a SWOT analyses (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). I have never done a SWOT analysis before, so this was a new experience for me.
When I told Jared about the business idea that we are working on. Jared pointed out something that running two operations at the same time is both entrepreneurial and efficient as we are raising our capital primarily through this business. The businesses that we are running are merchandising and this portfolio website.
Merchandising business- sell t-shirts to fund the website. We won't be spending any of our own money because we will be doing a supply on demand operation.
When I told Jared about my idea of having a job page, or there being a section on the homepage for job advertisements, he said that Ravensbourne already has a jobs page, and with this portfolio site idea, it's a good idea, but if there is a paid membership then that's a bad idea because of several reasons:
Why should students have to pay for this kind of service when there are so many other portfolio sites out there that do the same service for free.
The second reason is that there are 1,744 students in the college, we need to consider how many of them have web building capabilities. Why would they pay to use our service? When they could make their own portfolio.
Jared also told me that the kinds of services that we were offering on the site, the college already do it. This was something that I wasn't really aware of. This shows that I had not been very thorough with my research, I have some good progress with external companies, but I foolishly forgot to check out the main, internal competitor- Ravensbourne itself.
There's already a jobs page, which I knew about, but not many people check the page out. My suspicion is that the main reason why is because it's on moodle, and nobody likes it. It's cluttered, not user friendly and there are too many links which leads to the user being overloaded. I think a survey needs to be launched as to why people don't like using Moodle and would they use our site as a way of seeing what jobs are out there if it was created.
Jared also said that we are limiting ourselves in terms of expansion, there are only 1,744 students in the college, and we have no guarantee of how many people will sign up to the website. We as a group thought that the best way to expand is to sell this site or service to other universities. That way reaching more customers.
We came to an agreement that this website will be funded entirely from the merchandise business that we are running at the same time as apposed to a paid membership and money from merchandising. We will also look at potential advertisers. Andy Kinnear had the idea of perhaps Autodesk liking to sponsor the website for advertising space.
One idea I had was to have a job page on the website where people like Lorna Hamilton upload jobs that they have found on to this site, instead of a page on moodle (college intranet) and on this page we have filters for the different types of jobs, location, and duration of this job.
This blog post is to show that myself and the rest of the group are aware of some of the weaknesses of this business.
The next step is to meet Lizzie Jackson (credit to Tara Dulake for arranging the meeting) with Tara Dulake and find out about the services that Ravensbourne offer. From this research we can see if we could come up with some kind of page that brings these services that Ravensbourne offer in to one location.
I met with Jared Taylor so that he could go over the marking criteria for this E&E unit so that I could have a better understanding of what I need to do in order to pass this unit.
Doing the company breakdowns which were in effect a SWOT analyses (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). I have never done a SWOT analysis before, so this was a new experience for me.
When I told Jared about the business idea that we are working on. Jared pointed out something that running two operations at the same time is both entrepreneurial and efficient as we are raising our capital primarily through this business. The businesses that we are running are merchandising and this portfolio website.
Merchandising business- sell t-shirts to fund the website. We won't be spending any of our own money because we will be doing a supply on demand operation.
When I told Jared about my idea of having a job page, or there being a section on the homepage for job advertisements, he said that Ravensbourne already has a jobs page, and with this portfolio site idea, it's a good idea, but if there is a paid membership then that's a bad idea because of several reasons:
Why should students have to pay for this kind of service when there are so many other portfolio sites out there that do the same service for free.
The second reason is that there are 1,744 students in the college, we need to consider how many of them have web building capabilities. Why would they pay to use our service? When they could make their own portfolio.
Jared also told me that the kinds of services that we were offering on the site, the college already do it. This was something that I wasn't really aware of. This shows that I had not been very thorough with my research, I have some good progress with external companies, but I foolishly forgot to check out the main, internal competitor- Ravensbourne itself.
There's already a jobs page, which I knew about, but not many people check the page out. My suspicion is that the main reason why is because it's on moodle, and nobody likes it. It's cluttered, not user friendly and there are too many links which leads to the user being overloaded. I think a survey needs to be launched as to why people don't like using Moodle and would they use our site as a way of seeing what jobs are out there if it was created.
Jared also said that we are limiting ourselves in terms of expansion, there are only 1,744 students in the college, and we have no guarantee of how many people will sign up to the website. We as a group thought that the best way to expand is to sell this site or service to other universities. That way reaching more customers.
We came to an agreement that this website will be funded entirely from the merchandise business that we are running at the same time as apposed to a paid membership and money from merchandising. We will also look at potential advertisers. Andy Kinnear had the idea of perhaps Autodesk liking to sponsor the website for advertising space.
One idea I had was to have a job page on the website where people like Lorna Hamilton upload jobs that they have found on to this site, instead of a page on moodle (college intranet) and on this page we have filters for the different types of jobs, location, and duration of this job.
This blog post is to show that myself and the rest of the group are aware of some of the weaknesses of this business.
The next step is to meet Lizzie Jackson (credit to Tara Dulake for arranging the meeting) with Tara Dulake and find out about the services that Ravensbourne offer. From this research we can see if we could come up with some kind of page that brings these services that Ravensbourne offer in to one location.
Friday, 27 May 2011
Company breakdowns.
As written before, I need to look up the different online portfolio sites and analyse their strengths, weaknesses, their Unique Selling Point (USP) and how they get their money.
For the record, it's very difficult to isolate what a portfolio site's USP is when they in effect are doing the same thing, providing space for creative's to upload their work for companies and individuals to see.
Carlos asked me on Thursday 26th May are there any companies out there that I've looked at that are providing a similar service to what The Third Nexus is offering, I googled it and the only thing that I have found that is closest carlos' business idea is something called foliotek (www.foliotek.com) but this is more for an education institution use, for marking and examining students work, not to exhibit students work to make them look attractive as employees which is Carlos's idea.
Behance Network.
USP- Leading platform for creative professionals.
Strengths.
It's well established in two ways. 1) well known in the industry. 2) there are a lot of portfolios, so they have a large amount of customers.
Provides the user with some useful tools, you can import your flickr album and you can post your portfolio created on Behance on twitter and facebook.
Clean design.
Weaknesses.
Not many jobs for the UK, majority in America.
Very little filter control when searching for jobs, the user can only filter out results by industry, not by country or anything else.
Has the potential to be overwhelming to the user because there is so much on the site and on each page.
How do they make their money?
The Behance Network make their money from advertisers. These advertisers can advertise through the company's products- The Behance network, served sites, the 99% and newsletters.
Partnerships.
Small business solutions.
Carbonmade.
USP- easiest way to display and manage a portfolio online with professional portfolio designs.
Strengths.
Sasy to setup.
A good degree of personalisation
No advertising- this reduces the clutter on a portfolio.
Clean design
Well constructed and phrased sentences to make the user feel welcome.
Well known.
Weaknesses.
Limited space for photos and videos on the free portfolio scheme. This maybe a way to entice creatives to invest in the portfolio upgrade, which in that case is good business sense.
How do they make their money?
There is no obvious signs that carbonmade receives money from advertisers, this would lead me to conclude that their only source of income is from the portfolio upgrade.
Shown'd.
USP- a centralised hub to maintain a portfolio.
Strengths.
They have shown a sign of continuous improvement, this is visible through their blog. One of their posts was about "portfolio bug fix updates".
Allow companies to post jobs, thereby enticing creatives to join the site with a possibility of getting some work. (Could we offer something like this for "the third nexus" giving students a heads up of industry looking for talent? This will utilise Ravensbourne's contacts).
Shown'd has a wide variety of material, they have companies recruiting, this provides employers and employees with a service, which is free. In addition is provides the creative to see what companies are out there in that particular industry. They also have an articles page covering various different creative and technical topics.
Weaknesses.
The design of the site is very centralised, and if there is alot on the page (which more often than not is the case) it can give the pages a claustrophobic and cluttered feel.
With regards to the blog, on the other hand this was last updated in 2009, so they haven't kept it up to date.
Coroflot.
USP- "largest, most established, most diverse pool of professional creative portfolios in the world".
Strengths.
* What the user wants is laid out clearly in front of you.
* They have provided two services, one for the employee and one for the employer.
* Nice bold and clear design, light on the eyes to give it a clean look and to not overwhelm the user.
* They have a job section, with several filters. Coroflot has a country filter, but there isn't one for the UK, and so Coroflot is not targeting the audience who wish to work here. Perhaps one of The Third Nexus USP's should be that we have jobs for the UK, both London and wider.
* In addition, majority of these companies that I have researched are based in the states, perhaps another one of our USP's should be that we're local, we live in London/UK and so we're closer.
* They have a help section that is clearly laid out with several clear catagories and a contact email if the help requirement cannot be found.
* Portfolios have a nice clean, well laid out design, with an overview, portfolio, profile and activity sections.
Weaknesses.
* With regards to the filters, what I did notice was that, again like other portfolio sites majority of the jobs are outside the UK, majority are in the states. If The Third Nexus is to have a jobs section, there should be a search filter of whether you wish to work abroad or in the homeland (homeland being the UK because this service is for Ravensbourne).
* The page design on the Design Jobs page is very white, and very pale so it could have the potential to be boring.
Apart from these two weaknesses I struggle to find anything else that could be classified as a weakness for this website. Everything functions well.
How do They Make their Money?
Coroflot do not charge for membership nor is there an upgrade scheme. Coroflot receive their financial income from job advertisements. There are several packages- single $265, 3 pack $695, 5 pack $1,050 and 10 pack $1,750. Considering Coroflot is well established and has a large customer base it is not a stretch of the imagination that they enjoy a good flow of income from this because companies want a large audience.
Professional on the Web.
USP-
Strengths.
It's well known, when googling portfolio websites, this is one of the first to appear on blogs and to appear under the google search results.
Set up is easy and straight forward.
Weaknesses.
Not an attractive front page, it looks cluttered and unprofessional.
Overall site is cluttered looking, too "in your face" and bland.
How do they make their Money?
Professional on the web have advertising banners on the sides of their pages, just like Facebook.
Deviant Art.
Strengths.
Well structured site, has catagories to the side of the page. Catagories consist of- digital art, photography, traditional art etc.
Well established which can help attract attention of advertisers.
Weaknesses.
I couldn't find any weaknesses for this site, or how it is managed, it appears to be a well constructed website.
How do they make their money?
Advertising products for different sized companies, (users can either advertise on the homepage or on the individuals profiles):
The individual- artists or members who want to promote their work to the Deviant art community.
Small to medium sized businesses. For this section, Deviantart have different price plans (http://about.deviantart.com/advertising/). These price plans are from $50-$1000 USD (united states dollars)
You then have the advertising package for the premium brands, ad agencies and ad networks that have budgets more than $3000 USD.
Deviantart also make money through T-shirts and gear and print making.
Print making is done on the site, either by catagory or artist.
Print sizes vary from artist to artist. Price is also down to the discretion of the artist.
Deviantart have a clothing section called deviantwear.
Users can select from-
T-shirts- generally price $20.
Hoodies and jackets
DA pro series and bags
Emoticon stressballs
Collectibles
Trolface
and Active Wear.
Deviantart also make their money through premium accounts.
Here are there rates: £3 per month, £4.82 for 3 months and £18.15 for 12 months.
For the record, it's very difficult to isolate what a portfolio site's USP is when they in effect are doing the same thing, providing space for creative's to upload their work for companies and individuals to see.
Carlos asked me on Thursday 26th May are there any companies out there that I've looked at that are providing a similar service to what The Third Nexus is offering, I googled it and the only thing that I have found that is closest carlos' business idea is something called foliotek (www.foliotek.com) but this is more for an education institution use, for marking and examining students work, not to exhibit students work to make them look attractive as employees which is Carlos's idea.
Behance Network.
USP- Leading platform for creative professionals.
Strengths.
It's well established in two ways. 1) well known in the industry. 2) there are a lot of portfolios, so they have a large amount of customers.
Provides the user with some useful tools, you can import your flickr album and you can post your portfolio created on Behance on twitter and facebook.
Clean design.
Weaknesses.
Not many jobs for the UK, majority in America.
Very little filter control when searching for jobs, the user can only filter out results by industry, not by country or anything else.
Has the potential to be overwhelming to the user because there is so much on the site and on each page.
How do they make their money?
The Behance Network make their money from advertisers. These advertisers can advertise through the company's products- The Behance network, served sites, the 99% and newsletters.
Partnerships.
Small business solutions.
Carbonmade.
USP- easiest way to display and manage a portfolio online with professional portfolio designs.
Strengths.
Sasy to setup.
A good degree of personalisation
No advertising- this reduces the clutter on a portfolio.
Clean design
Well constructed and phrased sentences to make the user feel welcome.
Well known.
Weaknesses.
Limited space for photos and videos on the free portfolio scheme. This maybe a way to entice creatives to invest in the portfolio upgrade, which in that case is good business sense.
How do they make their money?
There is no obvious signs that carbonmade receives money from advertisers, this would lead me to conclude that their only source of income is from the portfolio upgrade.
Shown'd.
USP- a centralised hub to maintain a portfolio.
Strengths.
They have shown a sign of continuous improvement, this is visible through their blog. One of their posts was about "portfolio bug fix updates".
Allow companies to post jobs, thereby enticing creatives to join the site with a possibility of getting some work. (Could we offer something like this for "the third nexus" giving students a heads up of industry looking for talent? This will utilise Ravensbourne's contacts).
Shown'd has a wide variety of material, they have companies recruiting, this provides employers and employees with a service, which is free. In addition is provides the creative to see what companies are out there in that particular industry. They also have an articles page covering various different creative and technical topics.
Weaknesses.
The design of the site is very centralised, and if there is alot on the page (which more often than not is the case) it can give the pages a claustrophobic and cluttered feel.
With regards to the blog, on the other hand this was last updated in 2009, so they haven't kept it up to date.
Coroflot.
USP- "largest, most established, most diverse pool of professional creative portfolios in the world".
Strengths.
* What the user wants is laid out clearly in front of you.
* They have provided two services, one for the employee and one for the employer.
* Nice bold and clear design, light on the eyes to give it a clean look and to not overwhelm the user.
* They have a job section, with several filters. Coroflot has a country filter, but there isn't one for the UK, and so Coroflot is not targeting the audience who wish to work here. Perhaps one of The Third Nexus USP's should be that we have jobs for the UK, both London and wider.
* In addition, majority of these companies that I have researched are based in the states, perhaps another one of our USP's should be that we're local, we live in London/UK and so we're closer.
* They have a help section that is clearly laid out with several clear catagories and a contact email if the help requirement cannot be found.
* Portfolios have a nice clean, well laid out design, with an overview, portfolio, profile and activity sections.
Weaknesses.
* With regards to the filters, what I did notice was that, again like other portfolio sites majority of the jobs are outside the UK, majority are in the states. If The Third Nexus is to have a jobs section, there should be a search filter of whether you wish to work abroad or in the homeland (homeland being the UK because this service is for Ravensbourne).
* The page design on the Design Jobs page is very white, and very pale so it could have the potential to be boring.
Apart from these two weaknesses I struggle to find anything else that could be classified as a weakness for this website. Everything functions well.
How do They Make their Money?
Coroflot do not charge for membership nor is there an upgrade scheme. Coroflot receive their financial income from job advertisements. There are several packages- single $265, 3 pack $695, 5 pack $1,050 and 10 pack $1,750. Considering Coroflot is well established and has a large customer base it is not a stretch of the imagination that they enjoy a good flow of income from this because companies want a large audience.
Professional on the Web.
USP-
Strengths.
It's well known, when googling portfolio websites, this is one of the first to appear on blogs and to appear under the google search results.
Set up is easy and straight forward.
Weaknesses.
Not an attractive front page, it looks cluttered and unprofessional.
Overall site is cluttered looking, too "in your face" and bland.
How do they make their Money?
Professional on the web have advertising banners on the sides of their pages, just like Facebook.
Deviant Art.
Strengths.
Well structured site, has catagories to the side of the page. Catagories consist of- digital art, photography, traditional art etc.
Well established which can help attract attention of advertisers.
Weaknesses.
I couldn't find any weaknesses for this site, or how it is managed, it appears to be a well constructed website.
How do they make their money?
Advertising products for different sized companies, (users can either advertise on the homepage or on the individuals profiles):
The individual- artists or members who want to promote their work to the Deviant art community.
Small to medium sized businesses. For this section, Deviantart have different price plans (http://about.deviantart.com/advertising/). These price plans are from $50-$1000 USD (united states dollars)
You then have the advertising package for the premium brands, ad agencies and ad networks that have budgets more than $3000 USD.
Deviantart also make money through T-shirts and gear and print making.
Print making is done on the site, either by catagory or artist.
Print sizes vary from artist to artist. Price is also down to the discretion of the artist.
Deviantart have a clothing section called deviantwear.
Users can select from-
T-shirts- generally price $20.
Hoodies and jackets
DA pro series and bags
Emoticon stressballs
Collectibles
Trolface
and Active Wear.
Deviantart also make their money through premium accounts.
Here are there rates: £3 per month, £4.82 for 3 months and £18.15 for 12 months.
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Business idea and my research.
The business idea is an online portfolio site for Ravensbourne. The idea was Carlos Gutierrez. The aim of this is to show case Ravensbourne students work. We would like to have the Ravensbourne logo on it so that we can be associated with the institution thereby gaining traffic from creative industries. And with the college's links and highly regarded name, we hope to use this to our advantage.
My role for this project along with Tara Dulake is market research. Who are our competitors? How can we distinguish ourselves from them? Thereby making ourselves unique.
My research has found quite few competitors which makes it harder to distinguish ourselves from them. These are the sites that I have found:
Behance Network- www.behance.net
Carbonmade- www.carbonmade.com
Shown'd- www.shownd.com
Coroflot- www.coroflot.com
Professional on the web- www.professionalontheweb.com
Deviantart- www.deviantart.com
Design:related- www.designrelated.com
Portfolio's friend- www.portfoliosfriend.com
wix- www.wix.com
Square Space- www.squarespace.com
Jobrary- www.Jobrary.com
Logopond- www.logopond.com
Creative binge- www.creativebinge.com
Fig Dig- www.figdig.com
Glossom- www.glossom.com
Crowd Spring- www.crowdspring.com
Brand Stack- www.brandstack.com
index + exhibit- www.indexhibit.org
Cargo- www.cargocollective.com
View book- www.viewbook.com
Krop- www.krop.com
Creative shake- www.creativeshake.com
impact folios- www.impactfolios.com
These are some portfolio sites that you have to pay for.
logo lounge- www.logolounge.com
drip book- www.dripbook.com
design taxi- www.designtaxi.com
big black bag- www.bigblackbag.com
The next post will show my analyses of some of these sites and how the portfolio site we are looking to set up can be distinguished from the rest and what are it's unique selling points.
My role for this project along with Tara Dulake is market research. Who are our competitors? How can we distinguish ourselves from them? Thereby making ourselves unique.
My research has found quite few competitors which makes it harder to distinguish ourselves from them. These are the sites that I have found:
Behance Network- www.behance.net
Carbonmade- www.carbonmade.com
Shown'd- www.shownd.com
Coroflot- www.coroflot.com
Professional on the web- www.professionalontheweb.com
Deviantart- www.deviantart.com
Design:related- www.designrelated.com
Portfolio's friend- www.portfoliosfriend.com
wix- www.wix.com
Square Space- www.squarespace.com
Jobrary- www.Jobrary.com
Logopond- www.logopond.com
Creative binge- www.creativebinge.com
Fig Dig- www.figdig.com
Glossom- www.glossom.com
Crowd Spring- www.crowdspring.com
Brand Stack- www.brandstack.com
index + exhibit- www.indexhibit.org
Cargo- www.cargocollective.com
View book- www.viewbook.com
Krop- www.krop.com
Creative shake- www.creativeshake.com
impact folios- www.impactfolios.com
These are some portfolio sites that you have to pay for.
logo lounge- www.logolounge.com
drip book- www.dripbook.com
design taxi- www.designtaxi.com
big black bag- www.bigblackbag.com
The next post will show my analyses of some of these sites and how the portfolio site we are looking to set up can be distinguished from the rest and what are it's unique selling points.
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
1st team meeting.
First team meeting happened on Tuesday 26th April. The E&E lecture was cancelled, but a few people came in anyway from the BA animation cohort. We all sat down and started discussing ideas and we have formed a group. I took notes from the meeting so that we could have a template for us to submit for the business proposal deadline this Thursday (28th April).
I will post the actual business idea once the deadline has passed.
I will post the actual business idea once the deadline has passed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)