Week - 09 Entrepreneurship
Core Characteristics, Ethics and Theory
You will be working towards achieving the following learning outcomes detailed in Brief 3:
LO1: Research – select and deploy appropriate research methodologies to inform the needs within a project.
LO4: Distil – position a creative strategic insight that has been distilled and refined through an informed investigation
LO5: Imagine – deliver appropriate and innovative ideas that embrace risk, have contemporary relevance and question the boundaries of the discipline.
LO8: Design – realise a final solution that evidences its strategic journey and clear relationship between form and function.
LO9: Communicate – communicate effectively in a range of contexts and situations to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
Lecture Introduction: Shop - Susanna Edwards
This week we seek to explore the questions associated with design authorship and the ongoing development of designers putting theory into practice, in the process of becoming entrepreneurs.
In the final weeks of this module, we explore Design Entrepreneurship and its development since the 1990s where designers took control of their own creative destiny.
Over the next few weeks we will also explore and put into practice, the launch of a product of our own.
Lecture Introduction - Neef Rehman from ustwo
In this lecture material, we explore x3 case studies of design studios discussing entrepreneurship and how they embrace the challenges of building their business.
Case study 1 - Robin Howie Fieldwork Facility, Founder & Creative Director
Robin talks about how he started up his company straight from graduating and coming out into a recession and with no cash. He thinks this possibly shaped his business at an early stage as he knew he couldn’t take as many risks and you’re looking to secure the next paid project rather than creating your own opportunities.
He talks about being really proud of being able to nurture client relationships when it’s just a really small team, it’s quite personal relationships. By managing his own opportunities, this slowly turned into a studio and expansion. He works a lot in the public realm with some landmark projects including a project in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park where they were tasks with encouraging children to find their way into a new playground, which was really fun.
They are really proud of their work for urban interventions, which led children towards the playground which was great fun. That led to creating a playground installation there too, so it was like a legacy for the project. They also collaborated with the NLA which is New London Architecture, and Southwark Council. and have created the Museum of Us, which is a participatory exhibition and campaign and features local people.
I had a look at their website and there are some fantastic examples of getting visitors involved by simply placing stickers on a chart.
Case study 2 - Sinx, (John Sinclair), one of the founders of ustwo
John discusses the reality of coming out of university and into an agency and taking his learnings from college and transferring it into the needs and requirements of clients and businesses, and how you make those work together. He talks about how to make projects successful and go from making a process easier and really learning his craft. He also discusses how important the operational part of the business is and how as the business grew they made sure they were open with new people and moving in the area that technology is evolving in.
As entrepreneurs, their ethos was that they just wanted to work together on great projects with a bunch of people that we enjoyed working with. Looking back they maintain that you should stick to your values, but as the business grows, you need to make sure your staff understand and maintain these values.
Case study 3 - Sophie Hawkins, founders of sophiehawkins.com
Sophie studied Fashion and Performance Sportswear in 2009 at Falmouth, and was fascinated by functional clothing for labourers and that’s who she dresses now. She describes herself as very practical and learned her craft because she liked making things for her friends, not because she wanted to work for a big fashion house. I love the fact that she purposely kept the business at a manageable size, to keep control and was driven by her ethics rather than keeping Investors happy.
She started as a marketing assistant, for Clarks Originals where she learnt how the fashion industry works and then went to be a product developer for DC Shoes, clothing division in France. She was always fascinated by the tactility of fabric and where the fabric came from and how it performed and knew this reflected on the where the mastery of pattern dressing.
She also discusses how being eco-friendly is important to her as a business and especially using natural fibres such as hemp and flax.
She talks about how she built her business and the support she had along the way. She managed without an Accountant for quite a while, met a photographer who she struck up a great repour with and continues to use to the day and a pattern cutter and sample maker.
Reflection
Three very different examples of entrepreneurship and they all reference the naivety of setting up their practice and through a lot of grit, determination and hard work but also learning from their mistakes. I was very impressed how they stuck to their ethics. It made me think what type of entrepreneur I want to be.
Read | Watch | Listen
This week’s independent research tasks
Best magazines about work, creativity and entrepreneurship: