Personal + Professional Practice: Studio Brief 3: Equilibrio Research & Development

BriefWorking in groups of four you will construct a business plan or business proposal for a creative design studio and present it to your peers and tutors in an formatively assessed, oral presentation.

Your plan/proposal and presentation should be based on the analysis and content that you have been introduced to throughout the module.

Background / Considerations
Four heads are better than one as long as they communicate. You will now have the luxury of four pairs of hands. How will you use them effectively? You will need to consider the following:
What skills and services do you have to offer?
Who is your target market?
Who is your competition and how will you compete?
What are your costs, charges and financial considerations?
How will you structure your studio?
Who will be responsible for what?
How will you promote your services? To who? Using what media?

My group for this project consisted of 6 members: Sam C, J'nae, Bobby, Joe, Jasper and myself. As we were one of the largest groups, we had the benefit of putting six heads together to come up with a concept which we felt represented us as a collective. The only difficulty of working with a large group was finding a suitable time for us all to meet up to discuss ideas and developments. As we were briefed on this just before the Easter break, I was unable to see the group for most of the duration of this project as I was at home in London. I felt that this resulted in me having less input than I would have liked to as I felt that I could have helped the group more in other circumstances.

When thinking about where we wanted to base our studio, we agreed that Barcelona would be ideal due to its thriving art and culture. As Joe also knew a basic level of Spanish, we thought it would be something different to offer an English Design Agency based in Spain, with our own linguist as part of the team.

In terms of the name for our agency, we wanted something which effectively represented our practice. We looked at various Spanish words and phrases until we found our name 'Equilibrio'. We were particularly sold on this name by a definition provided on www.designary.net which was:

We liked the use of the term 'harmonic visual relationship'. We thought it was also relevant that this definition had been used as part of an online Spanish graphic design dictionary. To confirm the meaning was correct I checked the definition on the www.oxforddictionaries.com, where they confirmed that in short; equilibrio means a good balance.

Definitions

1.1 (de fuerzas, componentes) balancela balanza está en equilibrio the scales are (evenly) balanced
el precario equilibrio entre los parotids the precarious balance o equilibrium between the parties
el equilibrio entre la oferta y la demanda the balance between supply and demand

(In other dictionaries)

1.2 (estabilidad) balanceperdió/mantuvo el equilibrio he lost/kept his balance
lo mantuvo en equilibrio sobre el filo del cuchillo he balanced it on the edge of the knife
en estado de equilibrioin equilibriumhacer equilibrios to do a balancing act

(In other dictionaries)

2 (sensatez, juicio) es una persona de gran equilibrium he's a very level-headed o well-balanced person

Compounds

equilibrio ecológico - ecological balance
equilibrio estable/inestable - stable/unstable equilibrium
equilibrio estable - stable equilibrium

All of these definitions fit perfectly with the message we were wanting to convey. Once we were happy with the name, we were able to begin to focus on our location, finances, roles and identity.

During our first Equilibrio meeting, we broke down the research tasks into six - so one topic to research into each. My role was to research into Spanish (but more specifically Barcelona's) culture. As we needed to come up with a logo, I also began to think about initial ideas to present to the rest of the group. I designed a few very basic logo ideas. The main inspiration for the logo was the idea of two scales perfectly balanced through the use of our name: Equilibrio. I wasn't sure what type of aesthetic we were wanting to go with at this point, so I kept the logos as basic as possible to get feedback and hopefully spark ideas for the rest of the group.

My initial logo ideas

_____

I was able to find a broad range of design agencies in Barcelona during my research. It made our decision to place our studio even better justified due to the range of competitors. The other traditional Spanish attractions and cultural aspects included:

1.Basilica of the Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Família, is a massive, privately-funded Roman Catholic church that has been under construction in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain since 1882 and is not expected to be complete until at least 2026. .Considered the master-work of renowned Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926), the project's vast scale and idiosyncratic design have made it one of Barcelona's (and Spain's) top tourist attractions for many years.

2. Gothic Quarter (Barri Gotic)