This module for me has been a large stepping stone into the creative industry. In the past year I have organised and curated my own exhibition with Goat Collective, gained sign painting jobs and returning clients and well as developing my skills as a lettering artist to an adequate standard.
The experience of organising an exhibition really showed me what's necessary to produce work to industry standard and meet deadlines for events like this. From selecting submissions to buying screws and wall hooks, curating Disposable Society taught me a lot about art in the real world and who is prepared to spend time and interest in it. In that brief alone myself along with several others designed posters and flyers which were sent to print, ordered necessary equipment and produced our own frames and partitions, while sorting out a top quality space for a reasonable price due to our lack of profit and income.
Another thing I've learnt this year and improved on massively is how to communicate with clients and be firm about asking prices. I've had several people come to me with requests just from seeing my work published on social media, which has led to a few sales which is the kind of business I wish to get more of once leaving university and working freelance under Goat Collective.
Over the past year we have met a lot of important contacts in the art and design industry in Leeds. If we are to stay here, and it seems like a good idea to seeing as Leeds is bidding for capital of culture in 2023, Goat have a mural being produced this summer in the centre of Leeds and we have a real chance of getting our foot in the commercial world here straight from university, it would seem stupid not to take advantage of this. Contacts at East Street Arts and Hyde Park Book Club have helped us enormously this year, and this is something we want to push in the upcoming year while we are sourcing funding and studio space.
In the next 6 months it would be ideal for Goat to have a studio in Leeds where we can all work from as well as putting on small events and bringing clients to as an all-in-one office and base. Looking on towards a year, we need to have a regular client base and having incoming work that will sustain our needs to put money back into the Goat fund in order to progress further as a business. Search and application for funding is necessary in the near future if we want to put on more exhibitions, gain permanent studio space and develop our practices beyond university. We have already been given a £10,000 darkroom ready for us to set up as soon as we have space, which gives us and our potential sponsors or donators incentive to support us on this journey. We are also looking in to getting a screen printing bed set up so we can run off large numbers of prints at low costs, keeping the output low and income steady.
