Professional PracticeZachary Beal

Creative Research Practice

Contents

- Glossary- Case Study: Ross Lovegrove- Sector Engagment: Means and Ways- Reshaping the Workplace and Distributing Capacity

GlossaryBrands

Client Proposal

Collaborators

Consultants

Copyright

Craftsman

Creative Economy

Creative Industries

Creative Research Practice

Cultural Sector

CV

Design Anthropologist

Design Creative

DemonstrationDesign Outcome

A brand in terms of design is a distinct feature or style that identifies one designer’s product or service as distinct from those in the marketplace, through unique product ranges and design features.A proposal from a client signals the start of the design process, and in this initial contact briefs the designer in the overview of a project, so the designer can determine the level of scope for the project.These include all the people who are involved in a design project, giving different inputs towards a shared goal. A consultant is a professional which a designer can employ to provide professional or expert advice on a given topic. These contacts are very valuable to designers as they can inform you about the field of design you are interested in, providing valuable information and resources. Copyright is a legal device that provides the creator of a work of art or literature, or a work that conveys information or ideas, the right to control how the work is use.A Craftsman is a designer who is particularly skilled in craft and art, and can produce extremely high quality hand made object, which are becoming increasingly desirable in our market. The economy is largely based upon harnessing the creative capital of designers for economic profit. This includes Creative Industry, Creative Clusters and Creative Products. Any industry that values creativity and harnesses it to make money. Its focus is to create wealth and jobs by the generation and exploitation of designers intellectual property.A design practice where the designer partakes in creating new and challenging works shaped around their passion’s and design ambitions. This practice is self directed, with designers creating their own personal visions by utilizing their personalized design strategies. A focus is also on making money to fund future projects. The cultural sector constitutes an interface between differing social spheres. Artist, designers and creative’s who contribute to actively engaging the community on issues surrounding the arts and the cultural industry form part of the Cultural Sector and provide a public service. A Curriculum Vitae is an extremely important record of all notable professional design activity, and is a basic requirement for getting jobs and applying for Grants. Looks at the effects of design on human behavior. They also focus on our society physical and cultural development over time, like a historian. These designers have the rare ability to act as creative sources for inspiration, and are incredibly powerful and influential within large companies. For example what Steve Jobs did with Apple.These are examples of design when an idea is physically tested with the view of further development as the project progresses. This prototyping cycle produces physical models, Design as Research.

GlossaryDesign Registration

Design Technologist

Design Writer

Designer-Artist

Economic Value

Entrepreneur

G.N.P.

Grants

Innovation

Intellectual Property

Interdisciplinary Practice

Joint Ownership

License

Patent

A Design Registration protects a products appearance, its form and general aesthetic. However this does not protect how a product works like a patent. Are the legal costs worth it to protect registration.A designer who’s focus is mainly orientated towards how technology can aid and shape the future of design. Influenced by areas like programming, interaction design and human-computer interaction.Designers who’s main practice is writing about design, and engaging with the theory of design to create books that influence varying fields. Paola Antonelli is a key example of a Design WriterSome professional practices straddle the line between Design and Art, having work displayed as an example of either, being culturally significant designed items, rather than mass produced objects.The value of a product in terms of how much it costs to produce or sell in the market place compared to other similar products. Its allocated monetary value in terms of its profitability.An entrepreneur has the ambition to compete in the marketplace, where they feel there product or idea can out compete the status quo. These project lead to more imaginative and compelling alternatives to the products and services we have today.Gross National Product is the market value of all products and services produced in one year by labour and property supplied by the residents of a country, allocating production based on ownership.Design Grants($) are given by one party(often governments and non-profit organizations) to the designer. The proposal can be an applicant’s own initiative or in response to a Request for Proposal from the funder. Grants can be written and sent in or completed Online.Innovation is a critical skill designers must have in creating better and more effective products and systems. Design for Social and Technical Innovations both strive to create new methods and structures that affect how we can live sustainably in a finite world. Designers are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as artistic works, discoveries and inventions, and designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets.This is a practice which is diverse and has many design influences and backgrounds contributing to communal projects. These allow a project to be reviewed in many different levels of complexity.When a collective of designers group to complete a shared project, they all have equal ownership of any design outcomes that result from that venture. A licence gives a manufacturer permission to copy or distribute works, usually for a royalty on each product or unit that is sold.A patent is a grant approved by the Trademark Office that allows the owner to maintain a monopoly for a limited period of time on the use and development and sale of a invention.

GlossaryPayment Models

P.P.P

Professional Liability Insurance

Professional Network

Project Brief

Propositional Design Outcome

Provocation Design Outcome

Service Design Outcome

Small/Macro Enterprise

Social Designer

Sole Trader

Trademark

There are several payment models for designers; Fee for Service, Commission Arrangement, Licence Arrangement and Salary/Wage employment. Often designed make a fee schedule to compile hours for a job and allocate time in hours for work done.People. Planet. Profit. Looking to harmonize the three elements of; Creating sustainable business, ensuring a fair society and living within environmental limits. Liability in a design hence regards the responsibility of the designer to meet the obligations and conditions of a contract. Insurance can be purchased to help protect the professional advice and services provided by a designer from bearing the full cost of defending against a negligence claims.This includes the entire wide social network a designer employes for the business, this includes clients, manufacturers, and colleagues etc. This is the built up ecology surrounding the designer practice, identifying the people and contacts that help during the design process. This is given to the designer, or written up by the designer, to initiate the purpose of the project, stating a proposition or challenge which need solutions. Covers parameters and considerations for the project.These projects explore the theory surrounding design, playing with these concepts and ideas to create forward thinking solutions or commentaries. These outcomes could be research and writing documentation, a visualization, an exhibition, one off artifact or a prototype. These designs focus on confronting an audience, designing object as a form of protest, to enable a reflection, questioning an audiences present thinking and perceptions of new emergent concepts.Service design is a growing industry, and has been transforming design by creating a platform to build on socially orientated projects, considering the whole designed system. These outcomes can take the form of a system, a policy, a digital platform, event or even a product (Product Service System) This is small design business, usually employing 10 designers or less, and started on a small capital investment. A designer with the focus of improving social connections by looking at ways to benefit people and the community though design interventions.A sole trader is a designer who works alone, controlling and managing their own the business. A sole trader is personally entitled to all profits stemming from their work, but are also personally liable for all business taxes and debts which occur through the design process.A trademark is a phrase or design in the form of a logo, which is used to distinguish the goods or services of a person or organization from the good or services of others in the marketplace, which creates market differentiation and is internationally recognized.

Ross Lovegrove is a famous Welsh Industrial Designer who has had a great impact on me through my design journey. Lovegrove's work straddles the divide between industrial design and poetry, being inspired by the principles of nature, microbiology and natural structures to inform his practice. I see the organic form of Lovegrove's designs not only as aesthetically beautiful, but also a modern representation of nature shaping and evolving the everyday mundane products we use. His inspirational products make me reconsider the impact, I as a designer could achieve in shaping our material world, by harnessing the infinite potential of nature's perfect design through the emerging technologies available today. Lovegrove also highlights how successful a designer can be by following their heart, and working towards projects with your interests and passions being the main shaping force.

Case Study: Ross Lovegrove’s Creative Research Practice

Designers Research Practice and MethodologiesRoss Lovegroves design process is non-linear, describing his process as being able to “Assemble ideas from a seemingly unrelated plethora of sources that gel into being over time when the moment is right for a concept to materialise.” Lovegrove finds that keeping several notebooks, helps him to ‘pre-edit’ his thoughts and have a physical reference of sketches and notations of ideas. This helps to retain important information which helps to create a dialogue of previous design ideas which could act as “seeds that might later be cultivated in a conscious or subconscious way’ though his work”.

One key element that is evident though Lovegrove’s work is a Technological Focus. To achieve the forms, and levels of surface manipulation in his work, Computer Aided Design has been utilised to its full potential, with teams of computer designers realising Lovegroves visions. His technological approach also extends to his manufacture process. Ross Lovegrove’s process heavily involves the processes of rapid manufacture (3D printing) as well as new and emerging industrial manufacturing techniques which he is quick to adopt and utilise and experiment within. Lovgrove’s work is also heavily material focused. As well as looking for new design manufacturing technologies, he equally considers new and emerging materials which create an add dimension of depth to his work. Ross Lovegrove realises that designers of today need to consider and implement the smartest material choices because these are the products that have added value in bedded within them. As Lovegrove is a well established designer he has the funds to experiment with new materials that could be extremely expensive, which gives him the advantage of being able to play with new materials before other designers. This makes his designs all the more current and relevant in a time where we are looking for new solutions through new materials explorations.

Nature is one of the most important influences in Ross Lovegrove’s work. Nature’s influence can be clearly seen in Lovegroves projects though there structure and aesthetic appeal. Many of his products have a focus on removing all unnecessary structure to ensure the product is not wasting valuable resources. Leaving only the bare essentials, gives his products there iconic design. This design has informed by studying the processes of nature, for example bone formations and applying it structurally to products. A good example of this is his Go Chair. Lovegrove’s designs are said to give a sensual appeal to the product he creates, and much of his curvaceous lines are referenced from nature. Working in this style lead Lovegrove to study Organic Design.

Ross Lovegrove founded Studio X, which is located in Notting Hill, London is a great example of a working and dynamic ‘Creative Research Practice’. This studio is an incredibly creative and engaging studio which Lovegrove described as ‘self inspirational’ whenever he has the chance to spend time there. It was described in his TED talk as a cross between the natural history museum and a NASA laboratory, and is lined with objects and prototypes from a range of previous projects. Creating a studio space like he has done is incredibly inspirational to me, and I would like to start my own studio or industry of one, creating a similar environment to harbour creativity. Viewing the studio instantly gives you a deeper insight into the concepts and themes running though Lovegrove’s work, and it is easy to see the effort and skill that has gone into his vast body of works. There is even a real Mammoths skull on display in the centre of the studio, which is there to inspire the designers in the studio, and is an amazing example of the natural form of nature.

Critical Review/Essay/Report“Compassionate Innovation” by Paola Antonelli (Forward to the book Supernatural)

Antonelli starts the article highlighting Lovegrove’s natural urge to seek out new technology and materials in order to create impressive contemporary design. Antonelli describes Lovegrove as possessing the power to ‘metabolise the most advanced technology’ until it becomes effortless, invisible and integrated in his design process, stating that these are the skills enlightened designers possess.

Antonelli touches on nature being a recurrent theme in his work. She describes that designers today to not only seek nature for its ‘repository of comfortably humane forms’ but rather as a ‘sensible and sustainable system that provides answers to several fundamental questions concerning industrial production.’ This is very relevant to Lovegrove’s work, as he does seek a certain style from nature, but also contributes to advancing industrial processes though his research.

To conclude the forward to the book, Antonelli described the thoughtfulness of each of Lovegrove’s projects, in terms of the ‘economy of thought and logical beauty that pervade the design process, and rotundity not only of the object, but also of its life cycle.’ She clearly describes that Lovegrove is genuinely compassionate towards the ‘typologies of objects, materials and functions’.

Career Path and Professional Milestones I was unable to find a copy or example of Ross Lovegrove’s CV, however there was large volumes of information online and in his book, Supernatural, that shed light on his illustrious career path.

Lovegrove was born in 1958 in Penarth, Wales. He graduated in Industrial Design at Manchester Polytechnic in 1980, furthering his studies in 1983 with a Masters of Design at the Royal College of Art in London. Soon after the completion of his Masters, he began his design career for an industrial design consultancy called Frogdesign in West Germany. From this early stage in his career, Lovegrove was privileged to work on illustrious projects for Sony, developing the Sony Walkman, as well as Apple, designing there early computers, which has become one of the most ubiquitous products on the commercial landscape. This first job straight out of university acquainted him with the needs and possibilities of real industrial production. Being associated with these projects gave him a lot of exposure as a designer, and helped progress his career and open up new avenues. After working with Frogdesign, Lovegrove moved to Europe to advance his design career. He quickly for a job as a design consultant at Knoll International, where his office system called Alessandri become highly successful. Whilst in Europe he also gave design consulting with large companies such as Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Dupont. Lovegrove was also made a co-member of the Atelier de Nimes, along with Philippe Starck and Jean Nouvel which was an impressive accolade. In 1986, after his European success, Ross returned to England with the aim of starting up his own design practice, Studio X, located in Notting Hill. This allowed Lovegrove the space, time and resources to work freely on his own personal projects, and create and refine his own distinct design language. Since that time Loverove has collaborated with some of the world’s most outstanding design manufacturers, these clients include; Sony, British Airways (AirBus), japan airlines, Kartell, Cappellini, Phillips, Moroso, Apple, Luceplan, Tag Heuer, and Herman Miller. Ross has also been the recipient of numerous international awards for his projects, and his works have been extensivly published and exhibited on an international scale. Lovegrove has had work exhibited in the Musiem of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Musiem in New York, Axis Centre in Japan, Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Design Museum in London (where there is a permanent collection of his works). Ross Lovegrove was also awarded the World Technology Award by Time Magazine and CNN in November 2005. The same year, he was awarded the very prestigious Red Dot Design Award for the products created for VitrA. Ross Lovegrove is currently working in Japan where he has gained unparalleled success compared with his European career.

Field of InfluenceThe description of Ross Lovegrove profile on the TED website included the lines, ““Lovegrove, has a unique ability to seduce the consumer with appealing fluid shapes, persuasive technology, rich colour and beautiful materials. He is inspired by forms of the natural world, the possibilities of new manufacturing techniques and the ability to evoke an emotional response in users.” I think this perfectly describes Lovegrove’s various influences. During his TED talk he gave an influential line,“There needs to be soul in this thing(design), there needs to be a new instinct for the 21st Century” aimed at encouraging designers to find a new expression for design in our modern age.

Lovegroves designs have been heralded as ‘the new aesthetic expression of the 21st Century”, because his work is at the cutting edge of technological and material innovation. This makes his designs extremely meaningful and emotive to our wester society, because we are so fascinated by the material world. However there is not a strong emphasis on sustainable designs throughout Lovegrove’s work. Designers need to consider sustainable aspects of design, which have been achieved in a phew projects, for example Ross Lovegrove’s Bamboo Bike project. Ross Lovegrove is predominately a product designer, but to have a greater influence within design, he needs to broaden his research fields and include system design thinking to fully integrate his products into today’s world.

I found this passage from Supernatural to be very true, demonstrating Lovegrove’s own ability to influence the people around him: “My character dictates that I constantly live within a swirl of emotions and misgivings that lead me to question right down to the bone of the very need for things. By contrast on a good day when a clear path is formed, I can envisage a three dimensional object with such optical precision in my mind’s eye that it seems to me to already exist. This constant imbalance between the utopian and dystopian is what colours my thinking with a sense of what is right or wrong, banal or visionary, possible or impossible. These questions are directly related to my conscience as in industrial designer and my sense of the inevitable, in that what man thinks often becomes reality, as part of our evolving life on this planet.”

New projects are often commissioned or collected in gallery’s all over the world, which allows Lovegrove’s work is seen by the general public which can influence people form all walks of life, makes his work accessible to people outside of the ‘design community’. This allows his work to have an ongoing dialogue with our culture, which can help to advance knowledge and inspire people.

Media1. TED Talk: “Ross Lovegrove shares organic designs”2. Interview: “My stuff is fat-free, that’s how humans, how life should be.”- Ross Lovegrove presents his “Freedom” collection for Turkish baths maker VitrA. Interview details Lovegrove’s opinions on biomorphic shapes, fat-free design, the responsibility of an elite designer, as well as thoughts on design in an age of crisis. 3. Book: Supernatural: The Work of Ross Lovegrove (Published by Phaidon, with a forward by Paola Antonelli) (Lovegrove 2004)

Personal Options of Ross LovegroveFrom gathering a lot of information about Ross Lovegrove (his process, projects and methodologies) I have gained a deeper insight into Lovegrove as a designer and as a person. It became evident through his TED Talk that he has an air of arrogance around his work, being quite narcissistic. This trait could hold him back in his future career, and instead of improving his skills, he could further narrow his conceptual ability continue performing the role of a stylist, which would be a great shame. His projects should try and look beyond styling products and finding futuristic ways to embody them. In the case of Ross Lovegrove, his work tells the story, and not the story telling the work. For a greater impact in his design work he should focus placing more emphasis on the stories behind the products he creates, for example his water bottle design.

One of the reasons Lovegrove has become so successful compared with many other designers, is his access to technology. The materials and manufacturing processes Lovegrove employs are all at the cutting edge of our technological progress, and only designers with his notoriety have the means to experiment with these new, extremely expensive, techniques. His work does demonstrate what can be achieved through innovative material and production processes. One good example of this was Lovegrove’s pioneering process of Superforming , being one of the first designers to explore the use carbon fibre in new and innovative ways.

As a designer, Lovegrove has become extremely successful by having a well tuned business ethic. Lovegrove has worked very hard this whole career to seek interesting employment to work on high profile designs. This tenacious approach lead him to network strongly, and be very focused on the business and bureaucratic aspects of design.

Bibliography

Lovegrove, R. (Feb 2005). Ross Lovegrove Shares Organic Design, TED Talks.

Frenzl, M. (29 March 2009). My stuff is fat-free, that’s how humans, how life should be, www.stylepark.com/en/news/my-stuff-is-fat-free-thats-how-humans-how-life-should-be/291087

Lovegrove, R. (2004). Supernatural: the work of Ross Lovegrove, Phaïdon.

Sector Engagment:

Means and Ways

Business Terms For Professional Services A perfect example for guidelines for a designer

to follow when conducting the Business Terms for their professional service, was the AIGA- Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services. AIGA is a professional American design association, which acts as a platform for designers to share information and give designers tools. This agreement allows me to create customized terms and conditions for the different types of design engagements I may be involved in. This document provided helpful instructions about the purpose and lay out of conducting Business Terms for Professional Service’s agreements in the future, including all relevant section I need covered. It also included a form which can be filled in for each specific design job, with a section that both the designer and the client must sign and date, which makes the contract legally binding. Included as well are more specific agreements that could come in useful such as Environmental-specific Terms and Conditions. This format allows me to deliver a project proposal to a client, and have this professional document as set of terms and conditions that I can use to secure a project, and make clear the agreement before any work has been started. The document is not written specifically for an American audience, as the agreement is general and there are no specific details which would not be applicable for use in Australia.

Rumination ModelsGallery Commision- If a designer or artist uses a gallery to display and sell there work, the gallery will take a commission of the selling price of the piece. In a Commercial Gallery, the normal figure is around 50% commission on the selling price, for they are in the business to make profit. This commission price can be negotiated, and the price is fixed when an Agreement is signed by both parties. Some galley spaces offer commission percentages as low as 10% or 20%, if they are a non for profit gallery space, for example the RMIT gallery. An amount of the commission price is spent on gallery expenses such as wine and food on Exhibition nights, as well as the galleries maintenance and marketing material to promote the gallery and the artist exhibit. To avoid gallery commissions an artist or designer could hire a space, or use public space to hold an exhibition or their work.

Licencing Agreement- This agreement refers to the permission to use an ideas and forms the document recording that permission, including specific detail surrounding the terms of that licence. This gives the authorisation to a company or manufacturer to start using a designer’s Intellectual Property by producing, distributing and selling a particular design on the open market. A 4% return on the whole sale price is a good percentage if the object has been mass produced, however if it is a small licensing arraignment with a limited amount of sales the designer should seek a higher percentage.

Joint Venture Agreement- A Joint Venture Agreement is a business agreement between designers that brings different people together on one particular project. It states that all parties are agreeing to develop a projects for a set amount of time and contribute equally to the project. This forms a temporary partnership when starting a project, and determines that all parties contribute an equal share of revenues and expenses for funding a project, but also an equal share of the projects assets. The Australian Design Unit web site had a perfect sample document of a Joint Venture Agreement which I could use in the future.

Fee for Service/ Hourly & Daily Rates- A designer states the Fee for there work in their Business Terms for Professional Services document that is provided to a client on the commencement of a job. Your services on a project could be charged at an hourly rate, if the job is small, which can command quite a high price. Jobs can be charged at a daily rate, if there is a higher workload needed. The price for services normal drops when charging daily rate. This can be an effective way to work with a client, as a phew days compiling are encouraged to gain better design insights. An outright payment can also be agreed upon for my design services, however if I underestimate the take needed, it will be a sacrifice I will have to make as the contract has already been agreed to. A Fee for Service bill dictates the amount of pay, and reference the time taken to completed tasks, a breakup of the project work.

Example of these models can be accessed though the Arts Law and Arts Victoria websites.

Exhibition/ Gallery AgreementExhibition and Gallery Agreements/ Contracts list the terms under which the two bodies will be operating during an exhibition. It simply states exactly what is expected from both all parties, covering the details of the loan of particular works, expand on the codes of conduct of that particular exhibition or gallery and clearly define the sales model that will be enacted for the sale of the work. This document clearly lays out the process for designers and artists to put there work into a gallery or exhibition. It also details the amount of commission the gallery takes.

Insurance and indemnity is normally not provided as it is hard to ensure contents, like in a shop.

A good Australian example is the Wallombi Valley Arts Council (below). It clearly defines all areas which are covered in a simple format:

Designer- Recipiant Confidentiality AgreementScorpion Agency, an online American design resource, had a downloadable Designer- Recipient Confidentiality Agreement which had space left for each party to sign. A Designer- Recipient Confidentiality Agreement is put in place to ensure all work and documents of a project are kept confidential and property of the rightful owners, as per the contact terms. If disclosed details of a product are unrightfully released then this contract provides a legal platform/ grounds to seek injunctive and monetary damages. To ensure all the boundaries are clear, confidentiality agreements define exactly what information can and cannot be disclosed.This document is layed out well, however as it was written in American, it mentions American Law in the ‘Governing Law and Equitable Relief’ section. For it to be legally binding here, I will have to alter this paragraph to make it applicable to the Australian legal system.

GRANT Applications

These are some major GRANT bodies baised in Australia:

Australia Council for the Arts- (www.australiacouncil.gov.au) This body is funded by the Australian Government.

Arts Victoria- (www.arts.vic.gov.au) Funded by the Victorian Governmnet.

NAVA- (www.visualarts.net.au) National Association for the Visual Arts.

Grants are a vital way of ‘fertilizing’ a designers career, by giving a designer or artist a sum of money to complete a project which involves and benefits the community and cultural sector at large.

A Grant application is written up and given to a Grant Body, and it regards a project the designer wants to complete, and how it is relevant to the criteria the Grant Body desires. It details an overview of a project, listing all parties that are involved, and gives insight into the projected outcomes and themes that are being created though the work. The designer must answer the questions; what the projects value is, why it is important, what ideas it will inspire.

An application should be crafted well, as there is a lot of completion and Grant money is hard work to acquire. It is recommended that all artist and designers should apply for a large range of Grants each year, to increase the chance of getting funded, as well as improve your skills at writing Grant Applications.

Grant’s form a contract or relationship between a designer and a funding organization, so the money given must be accounted for, and if a project fails to be completed by the due date, the money will have to be returned to the Grant Body, which can get complicated if money has been spent unwisely.

Practice Specific C.V’s

I found these three people to have interesting C. V.’s in there respective fields, and can use there C. V.’s as templates for writing my own, and finding out what themes and details designers see as important to express though their C. V.’s. The predominant sections of a professional C. V. include Training, Solo Exhibitions, Group Exhibitions, Awards, Commissions, Grants and Collections.

Contemporary Jewellery Design CV- www.blanchetilden.com.au/1995.html

Curator, artist and arts writer CV- www.clairewatson.com.au/biography

Industrial Designer CV- www.taylorwelden.com/resume.html

Buisness Terms for Proffesional Services AIGA (2009). Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services, www.aiga.org/standard-agreement/

Joint Venture Agreement- Surry Partner Lawyers (2009). Sample Joint Venture Agreement, www.australiandesignunit.com/wp-content/uploads/Sample%20JV%20agreement.pdf

Designer- Recipient Confidentiality Agreement- Scorpion Agency (2010). Confidentiality Agreement, www.scorpionagency.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=77

Exhibition/ Gallery Agreement- Wollombi Valley Arts Council (2008). Exhabition Agreement, www.wollombi.org/resources/WVAC_Exhibition_Agreement_2011.pdf

Rumination Models- www.artslaw.com.au and www.arts.vic.gov.au

Grants- www.australiacouncil.gov.au, www.arts.vic.gov.au and www.visualarts.net.au

Bibliography

Reshaping the workplace and Distributing Capacity

Reshaping the workplace and Distributing Capacity

Online Presence

WebsiteA personal or professional web site is the first key to creating a grater online presence. This step fully links a designer into the online community, as well as forming the information for a physical business card, being a tool i can promote in the real world. A website can be a place to express the essence of a project, so put effort in developing it and making it user friendly.

BlogBlogs allow a designer, or business, to keep a constant conversation happening between customers, highlighting new product ranges, or new design activity. It also provides a platform for interesting conversation and an opportunity to give back to the community that is supporting you. Free blogs can be created at wordpress.com, blogger.com and tumblr.com.

Wiki’sWikis are good resources for designers to engage with each other. A wiki allows all invited users the ability to upload content and files and edit the format of the web site so it can be improved or added to by each member, without permission. It can act as a knowledge management system as well as a backboard for ideas and concepts. Wikis use simple software so it is very intuitive to edit its

As a designer, it is a strong requirement that I have an online presence. This allows me a space where I can upload previous design projects, post up images of my art, as well as other interests and provide a space for clients to easily download my CV and see an overview of my interest and capabilities. By building up a practice based online profile, it allows me to access to distribute and collect information and news surrounding design on a global scale. When the tools are in place to create this Practice Based Profile, it will assist me in the Professional world by creating a professional online persona/avatar. These are some tools I can use to create an online presence:

Social MediaSocial media such as facebook, twitter and myspace provide platforms for people to link with each other and share ideas. A designer should defiantly create multiple pages on different sites to in-crease the amount of people that are exposed to your work and boost marketing campaigns.

Collaboration Tools

dropbox.comDropbox provides an online storage facility which users can upload large amounts of data onto. This online data storage provides you access to all of your data via the ‘cloud’. This virtual USB allows for users to access there data from any smart phone, computer or laptop. When a document is saved, it automatically updates on each device that is uses dropbox to ensure all data is current. As a designer it can be very valuable to have data stored this way, for digital security as well as a portal for clients to receive large sized files such as CAD files. First 2 GB space is free or 50GB is $10 a month, which is quite reasonable.

corus-share.comCorus is an online resource that is challenging the status quo e-mail services like Gmail, offering a new way designers can communicate online with their clients. The first step involves creating a folder on Corus, for example a project folder. Then all relevant contacts and clients emails are added to this folder, and each person is added to the group automatically so there is no complicated sign up process. Collaborators then share messages, upload files, save bookmarks, set tasks and calendar events within that topic. This offers a streamlined and secure online resource. It costs $50 a month for 15 GB which is quite expensive for this service, but it is extremely user friendly.

There are new and engaging digital and web platforms becoming widely adopted by designers which are enabling greater collaboration as well as acting as a powerful tools to create a more efficient workflow when designing and organizing work.

Google DocsGoogle has created this online platform to streamline the process of organization and increase ease of workflow over several tasks. It allows users to create, edit and upload work online quickly and efficiently on any computer, and access this data anywhere in the world. It also allows for collaboration in real time, allowing two people of edit the same document simultaneously! And lastly it is a free resource. However there are restrictions on file sizes which is a large disadvantage for a designer.

Social Networking for Buisness

New web platforms, aimed at professionals, have been developed to enable greater connectivity between people. These networks can be utilized to promote social networking and awareness for individual design projects, or established a new de-

sign businesses.

Linked InLinked in is the worlds largest online Professional networking tool, with over 150 million professionals using the site. It allows people to reconnect with past colleagues and connect with friends and like minded people. The site provides a forum for designers to exchange ideas, look for employment and seek expert design advice from many professionals on the network. Linked In is the equivalent of the Facebook for the professional world. This resource can provide jobs opportunities and allow a designer to join other circles of design activity with ease. Soumitri’s group; 440 Elizabeth Street, has been set up for RMIT Industrial Design Graduates and is a good place to start looking!

Branched OutBranched out is the largest professional network on facebook, so it have access to a huge client/ customer base around the world. This service provides a space for employers to post up jobs (over 3 million opportunities) and a place to browse over 20,000 internships. When looking at design these number will get much smaller but it still could be a good source in the future. It also provides a platform for employing people, which could be useful when building up my design network of professionals.

Web Forumsfor Participation, Discussion, Crowd Sourcing and Ideas

Crowdsourcing.orgCreated a community that thrives on connections and interconnections that spark meaningful change with the desire to educate and share commentary ideas. This web site provides a distributed problem-solving network that involves outsourcing tasks to the network of people, also known as the crowd. This is good because it opens up information to the public and can be evaluated by many people in with different backgrounds.

TED.comTED (Technology, Environment and Design) is a nonprofit web site devoted to ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’. It provides a valuable resource for designers, showcasing extremely interesting speakers which give 15 minute video presentations on a range of subject areas. All the information is at the cutting edge of reseach. This is a great resource to use as inspiration for design projects.

Generalassemb.lyNew, powerful web sites are opening up new avenues for designers to acquire key information, for free, to assist them in there professional practice. General Assembly provides a ‘Classroom’ environment online, teaching people about Collaborative Consumption, as well as how to became a successful entrepreneur with effective startup company.

The Internet has provided several key tools that all designers should be aware of and utilizing in there professional business. Web sites have been developed to allowed global participation and discussion, and this network is set to continue its rapid

development in the next phew years. Powerful online tools provide platforms for the flow of knowledge to spread, which gives designers inspiration and guidance in the work they want to achieve.

DESIS NetworkDesign for Social Innovation and Sustainability, provides a web platform for groups of professors, researchers and students to come together in DESIS Labs across the world, including Melbourne, to share ideas about a better future. There is a large depository of projects and resources that can be accesses ,reviewed and evaluated by multiple contributors.

Openideo.comThis is a collaborative web site, were design challenges are posted online, and a community of members develop a project in three phases; inspiration, concepting, and evaluation. IDEO helps shape the projects journey through framing the challenge, prototyping, and encouraging the design conversation. The strongest design concepts are chosen.

Enabling Entrepreneurial Activity

Innovative companies have founded web based platforms that can enable me as a designer to start my own entrepreneurial endeavours. This allow a space for designer to propose projects and get them funded via its communities donations.

Kickstarter.comKickstarter provides a new platform to enable its community to fund and follow creativity. This allows any designer with a good idea to spread that idea, via a video presentation, by people who have the means to fund creative projects. It also harnesses the fact that if multiple people contribute a small amount, a huge sum can be collected and uses to ‘kickstart’ a business idea. Strong sense of community on the site, with rewards being given out to contributors such as products, benefits or experiences, based on the individual projects outcome.

Profounder.comProfounder allows designers to fund and grow their business by involving community support. This sys-tem works much the same as Kickstarter, but has a larger focus on alternative ways of funding projects by ‘getting social’. This service provides a comprehensive checklist for planning and funding a business and provides DIY community funding tool which can help get a project off the ground.

Shapeways.comShapeways is a 3D Printing company based in the Netherlands, which gives the general public to use cutting edge technology. A designer can simply upload a digital 3D file, select its material and printed out and sent globally. “We’re working to democratize creation by making production more accessible, personal, and inspiring.” I have used this service successfully in printing out a range of jewelry in silver. There is the option to make a store on shapways, which you can make money for selling the rights to print your designs on shapeway. This could be a good opportunity to make some money.

Etsy.comEtsy is a very handmade orientated design web site, allowing crafters, artists and collectors to sell their handmade creations and vintage goods online. The items must be created by the seller, which ensures objects are authentic and the majority of the money does solely to the designer. This provides a network of customers to create a small online shop to sell works.