Week 12 - Launch of Authorial Artefact
Developing Ideas and Designs
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.
Introduction - Susanna Edwards
In the conclusion to this module, the final week explores refinement and the potential to launch my authorial artefact. We also investigate how to publicise our products or service to another audience and the different ways to use media organisations and business platforms as a PR mouthpiece for my initiative.
This includes different approaches, such as traditional online marketing to talks and product launches and the various approaches to fund your activity or product or service.
Lecture - Out there: Launches and promotion by Alec Dudson, Intern
This week we explore some of the ways to get your work out there as a creative practitioner and some of the approaches to promotion and marketing that can effectively be used.
Case studies - PR agencies Zetteler
Alec discusses how working with a PR agency can be really effective if you want to achieve the scale of your product but this really depends on your budget and what you expect to accomplish on this scale and that the creative idea itself is clear enough to be creatively communicated. Alec estimates that it would roughly cost about 2k a month on a retainer basis. He states the most effective agencies are the established agencies who have an extensive network in the press and media, and about finding an agency who have access to the network that will complement your product.
Case study - Zetteler
We look at London based PR agency, Zetteler, as a Case Study who specialise In representing innovation, design, architecture, art, technology and the creative sector in general.
I had a look at their website to see what they are currently working on, and they heavily represent the creative industries with G F Smith, Multidisciplinary artist Annie Frost Nicholson and Camille Walala to name but a few.
Alec goes on to state that a good PR company will analyse your business and look for opportunities to position you as their client and generate an interesting range of stories around your project.
Case studies 2 - Michael Lester. The World’s smallest portfolio
We next look at an example of self-promotional piece . Alec talks about the three elements that he credits its success.
Idea - In this case it was to tell the world that he is a visual communicator and communication is at the heart of this tiny project.
Documentation - It is incredibly important to his documentation of this project. We can see this by the grainy images that give a good idea of size and the materials used. It’s a great way of getting the person who’s received this package totally engaged with the concept.
Strategy - This brief was from Jelly London set through D&AD’s New Blood Festival. He specifically chose only six to eight pieces that made his projects look most powerful for a visually driven platform. He emphasis how important this is for the most professional approach.
He also has a huge following on Behance with this project having 80,000 views.
The World’s smallest portfolio
"The World's Smallest Portfolio," a self-promotional piece that is 24 millimeters wide by 19 millimeters tall. That's barely the size of a postage stamp!
Case Study 3 - The New York Public Library’s Insta Novels projects
The next example we look at is the NYPL Insta novels project which was created in collaboration with a big creative agency. From this we view a case study video that the agency that worked on this, which is Mother, the New York office, put together in summary of the initial impact of this project.
This is a really cool example of how whole novels were put onto their Instagram page highlights to capture the imagination of a different demographic giving access to their whole library.
The New York Public Library
These are fantastic examples of how NYPL are using Instagram Stories to bring classic novels to your smartphone to target a new younger audience and demographic.
Alec emphasises how this project was documented and the strategy (with the three key pointers as above) that are referred to in Michael’s case or also majorly on point here and it is such a clever use of a platform that can then be shared or reacted to.
Case study 4 - Redundancy Radio, by Liv Siddal
The next case study is by Liv Sinddall who used to work for It’s Nice That and then was made redundant so set up Redundancy Radio . This is another excellent example of an incredibly low-fi, tongue-in-cheek way of letting people know she was available for work.
Liz Siddal - Making an opportunity out of her misfortune
Liv set up this podcast on SoundCloud and carves a niche as someone who can speak about the mental health and how depression and anxiety that can come as a result of redundancy or the isolation that you might feel when freelancing. The podcast became more of an interactive CV, and it also showcased Liv’s skills as a podcaster and an interviewer.
This is a really effective way, of sharing audio and it gained a lot of traction on social media with content being super easy to share.
Its a very smart and effective way, to solve a problem for a project as a low cost solution. This could have easily been a blog as well.
Quick Wins
Alec concludes with his ‘quick wins’ that he feels are key to your brand promotion strategy or strategies.
Getting the most out of social media
Instagram - Is FREE to use and set up and is an incredibly, important tool, but this depends on the quality of your content. Make sure you can justify your returns from the time you put in. Consistency is also very well rewarded on Instagram both algorithmically and in terms of audience interaction.
Alec gives examples of three Instagram profiles that are consistent. - certainmagazine, thebrandidentity, graphic.index.
He also reminds us to Tag collaborators, inspiration or potential clients, using hashtags, follow and comment to increase engagement.
Build a network of design journalists
It’s probably a smart move as a designer to start building relationships within your network, a handful of writers who you love their style or work.
You should be able to find them on social media or linkedIn. If not try hunter.io where you have the chance to connect with anyone. Finally there is nothing to stop you writing your own press release or even an article.
Reflection
There are some fabulous pointers here to think about how I’m going to get my project/service seen and the most effective ways of setting a communication strategy while the project is in progress. Remember to set the Why, Hows and Whats!
Alec leaves us with the Simon Sinek quote - “if you’ve got the ‘why’ at the start, if you understand the purpose of the 19 project and the purpose of the communications off the back of the project, at the core of what you’re doing, the rest will follow pretty seamlessly.”