Matthew Leonard : entrepreneurs forum

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Fortune Favours the Brave...

The Entrepreneurs’ Forum was created in 2002 by a group of the region’s leading business people, the idea was simple — to create a cross sector peer–group of like minded individuals who could share ideas, knowledge, inspiration and opportunities in a confidential environment. A non trading environment where real business is discussed and introductions are welcomed. Somewhere younger entrepreneurs can tap into the experience of those who have been there and done it — learning from their mistakes and soaking up invaluable business knowledge. A transfer of wisdom that supports growing businesses, nurtures emerging talent and helps to create the wealth, jobs and opportunities that are a major contribution to the sustainable transformation of our regional economy.

The Forum wanted a brochure that would be handed out to guests at their most recent event, Fortune Favours the Brave at Wynyard Hall. The publication should put forward the Forum’s tone of voice in an interesting and engaging way that the audience can relate to.To differ my design from other brochures I chose to do it in an interesting format. To relate to the target audience I chose to do it as a broadsheet newspaper, a publication that a lot of business people/entrepreneurs are familiar with. The newspaper is a 12 sheet publication with two in depth interviews with the entrepreneurs George Clarke and Justin Urquhart Stewart.

The inspiration behind my design came from high end fashion publications and business newspapers like the Financial Times, Independent and the New York Times, these influenced my designs with their simple, effective grid systems. My headlines were inspired heavily by bold letterpress typefaces that would fit well over simple backgrounds and images.

Photography by Andy Oman

Design by Matthew Leonard

Fortune Favours the Brave Inspiration...

I always wonder what directly inspired a designer when they are doing a project, what theyre looking at etc. Usually not getting an insight into this point and just seeing the finished product, with my final few degree projects I aim to show you what images and pieces have gave me the idea to go forward in a particular way.

So here it is, my moodboard for the Entrepreneurs Forum project that I have just completed. The main thinking behind this project was to step away from the conventional brochure design and tailor it specifically to the target audience, keeping this in mind the broadsheet idea came up. As you can see from the moodboard I looked at publications such as the Financial Times and mainly the Independent, Matt Willey being a designer that I looked to a lot in this project. Another designer that influenced me was Anthony Burrill, his typography is usually done by letterpress, looking at his work gave me the idea of making my headings bold and contrast the body copy of the spreads. I decided to make the colours monochromatic, all apart from the main logo on the back spread and a quotation on another one of the spreads.

During projects this year I have to analyse my performance by using SWOT analysis', here is how I thought I did in this unit:

Strengths: The development of this piece is definitely a strong point of this unit, once I got a strong concept to work on I thought this unit was quite straight forward. I also proved to myself that I can work to a timetable in the Work Based Learning unit and can get work done quite quickly. I will use a similar technique of time keeping in this unit, using small sketchbooks and doing weekly To Do Lists, this seemed to work quite well for me in the previous unit.

Weaknesses: I have a basic understanding of how to use InDesign; however, I think this unit will push my skills in the program. This could impact on my time keeping if I dont understand.I also want to get this final piece printed, I have never sent a project away to print so finding out what goes into doing this will take some time as well.

Opportunities: This unit will definitely help me gain skills in InDesign and make me more comfortable in it for future units. Sending the job to print will also be good experience for the future, getting in touch with print companies for quotes and getting the job print ready will be helpful for future projects.

Threats: Sending the job away to print I’m wary of how much time it will take to get the job ready for print and how long it will take to get it back. I can timetable what I do up to a point but I cant guess how long this aspect will be as I have never done it before.

Check out the next post on the blog to see the full project.

Work Based Learning...

The first unit of the year is Work Based Learning, getting us ready for the pace that we'd work at in the industry we were given four briefs, and four weeks to get them to the point of taking them forward digitally. This was a big step up from last year where we had up to six weeks to do one project. This project was a real eye opener of how fast I would have to work in industry and definitely pushed my time keeping.

It was interesting to see how quick I could actually get through a project without messing around and getting distracted. The projects in this unit were also completely different to one another and were about designing things I had never thought of designing, in particular the Donkey Label brief where the aim was to design some cycling apparel.

Below youll find gifs of some of the pages in the sketchbooks for this unit, in the next unit I will develop on one of these outcomes and hopefully get it made. Keep your eyes peeled for the post on the finished piece.

During units this year I have to analyse my work with the use of SWOT analysis', here it is for this unit:

Strengths: I research thoroughly in all projects that I do and check a variation of blogs, industry websites and inspirational websites. Using these websites pushes my work to be both on trend and to a professional standard.

Weaknesses: Even though I haven’t missed a deadline, sometimes my time keeping is my downfall, leaving work to the last minute and maybe rushing it slightly so it isn’t to the best standard it could be.

Opportunities: This unit is definitely an opportunity to improve on my time keeping, having four sketchbooks to complete in the four weeks will definitely force me to plan my time out and stick to a timetable.

Threats: Having a part-time job could definitely be a threat towards my time keeping in this unit, if I have got to get a piece of work done but have a shift at work it may force me to change my time schedule. Having never worked on projects this quickly could also be a problem, if I cant get inspired to do a project I’m not sure how I will motivate myself.