WHAT
What is the problem?
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
At the present, there are the two biggest art and design communities, Deviantart and Behance. Deviantart offers anyone with or without an art/ design background to share and sell their work. Behance on the other hand, offers a community for art/design professionals to showcase their online portfolios. Deviantart, however is not exactly true to the idea of sharing when they allow people to make money through a marketplace. Behance on the other hand, is such a broad community that it is not easy to find a voice amongst more qualified professionals.
What is the solution?
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
Focus on creating a smaller based community to allow everyone a voice. Sharing is better done following the example of the existence of societies at universities then gradually expanding to suit the market. I propose to create a single online platform that brings together degree students from different art and design disciplines at the University of West of England to allow them to share their work, get inspired and to encourage real life collaboration with one another.
KEY EXAMPLES
I was part of the WesternEye society last year, an editorially independent student paper supported by UWE Students’ Union for the benefit of all students at UWE. Their aim was to serve the UWE community with news in print and web formats, and to provide all UWE students with a platform by which to showcase their work. I served as a graphic designer on their team, providing design layouts and print advertisements for the newspaper. The society also had contributors from students of different disciplines namely journalism, photography and graphic design. It was a good example of how students from different disciplines and levels could collaborate and share their skill to acheive something greater.
SHOWCASING WORK - To help future students understand their assignments expectations and quality of work - To allow students from other disciplines to see what others do By showcasing work from every university assignment, the platform differs from ones personal portfolio website where only the best work is published.
COLLABORATION ACROSS ART AND DESIGN DISCIPLINES - To help someone out with their assignment - To create something big together The platform allows students to look at each other’s work and find ones with smilar tastes or completely different ones to collaborate with. For example, a fashion design students might need a photography student’s help to capture their garments on a model.
WHO
Who are the participants?
DEMOGRAPGHIC
UWE students Currently studying Art or Design
COURSES
ANIMATION DRAWING AND PRINT DRAMA FASHION FILMMAKING JOURNALISM FINE ART GRAPHIC DESIGN ILLUSTRATION INTERIOR DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY
Product Design
Fashion Design
Public Relations
Graphic Design
INTEREST BASED Film
Drama
Photography
WesternEye
SOCIETIES
COURSE SPECIFIC
Who is already in the market?
WHY
Why is this a good idea?
BENEFIT
BAADS is bridging the gap between pre-university and post-university. It allows students to grow into professionals and be better prepared for life after university. It also bridges the the gap between course specific societies and interest based societies and provides student both in a single community and platform.
OBJECTIVES
• Building a community • Encourage personal sharing • Creating a collaborative hub • Maintaining engagement • Ensuring trust and safety • Growth and expansion possibilities
Why not the other ideation?
NOT MEAL SHARING? At the present, focusing on university is far more conducive than focusing on student accomodation as there is better support. Also, the audience stretches wider and promotes a broader set of skills.
WHERE
Where?
WHERE
At the present, there are the two biggest art and design communities, Deviantart and Behance. Deviantart offers anyone with or without an art/ design background to share and sell their work. Behance on the other hand, offers a community for art/design professionals to showcase their online portfolios. Deviantart, however is not exactly true to the idea of sharing when they allow people to make money through a marketplace. Behance on the other hand, is such a broad community that it is not easy to find a voice as a student amongst more qualified professionals.
WHEN
When does it start?
MILESTONES
This projects requires a timeline that corresponds to the amount of time spent researching online, on the ground, designing the framework, excuting the website and maintaining the community. It does not end there however as this is an ongoing project, it should be expanding after growth of participation from the target audience.
Design website’s framework and organise content
Research on Airbnb and the sharing economy
Initial briefing and requirements
WEEK 1
Solution
WEEK 2
Brainstorm with exercises
WEEK 3
Site outline
Talk to people about idea and get feedback
WEEK 4
Maintain consumer engagement
Test website with a couple of users, fix errors and add or modify content
Get more participants through word of mouth and advertisements
WEEK 5
WEEK 6
WEEK 7
WEEK 8
Assessment Official Launch
Website maintenance, modifications and expansions
Choose the website framework
Open website to more people
WEBSITE EXECUTION. List and organise content
Design the foundation of the website
Make modifications and fix errors
Test run the functions with a couple of users
WEBSITE
The website runs on Wordpress as it offers a wide range of plugins capable of integration with social networking sites and building a user community platform. At the moment due to the theme, it does not run a responsive layout hence it is not mobile compatible but this is hardly an issue as most people rarely upload work through their mobile device.
HOW
How to build the community?
HOW DOES IT WORK? Building the community starts from word of mouth. Promoting the website to friends, coursemates, handing out flyers and displaying posters all around campus.
Posters
LET’S COLLABORATE. baads.co.uk
PRINT MEDIA
Business Cards
Exhibitions
Excursions
EVENTS Weekly art and design sessions