OUGD602: Craft fair

OUGD602: You Think Complaining Helps You? | McKennah Watson | TEDxPaysonJuniorHigh

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind" - William James

I'm going to approach projects more positively instead of saying "this is too hard" or "I can't do this" because I can I'm just choosing to complain instead whereas I should be taking productive action.

OUGD602: To find work you love, don't follow your passion | Benjamin Todd | TEDxYouth@Tallinn

"80,000 hours that's the number of hours you have in your working life. That's a long time so it's worth doing some research and trying to work out how best to use them."

Free online careers guide at 80,000 hours .org

"Our generation grew up with different careers advice "follow your passion" we need to move beyond following your passion."

"We should be focusing on what we can do for other people and make the world a better place."

He gives an example of someone who is extroverted and should get a job in sales. Passionate sales people, persuasive sales types actually burned out and died younger. Following their passionate made them more likely to die young. 

1. Achievement - get good at something

2. Meaning - do something that isn't just helping yourself 

If you focus on helping others, lots of people want you to succeed instead of doing it for yourself.

Focus on doing what's valuable then that will lead to passion. 

"Altruism is one thing you'll never regret."

OUGD602: How to unfollow your dreams | Charlie "charlieissocoollike" McDonnell | TEDxYouth@Bath

"Dreams can be unrealistically positive." 

It's not to say that dreaming is a bad thing but you only see the best possible outcome because

"You're imagining yourself in a scenario you have never been in."

Nobody dreams about losing awards or face all the hardships of life. They aren't the things we dream about but they're the things that happen.

He speaks about how he never dreamed about being a YouTuber but that became his career. In Charlie's talk he tries to make people not feel bad for not knowing what they want to do because their future career might not even exist yet. In his era of YouTubers, nobody had made a full career out of making video content online yet. This set of YouTubers were the first to do it. He then thought he needed a real career.  So his new focus was a film maker, it was his dream to focus on. "I wanna be a filmmaker because that seems more legitimate than what I wanna do." but this isn't always accurate.

There's a pathway that people believe they need to follow through life - having a dream and doing everything possible to achieve that goal but Charlie says "that path is simply not for everyone. I do not want to find people that are disappointed that tried to fulfil their dreams but didn't because it doesn't fit them personally."

"Don't romanticise your dreams." There are always failures. People just don't talk about them as often.

"You shouldn't let your past self be the person who makes choices for you today. Make those choices today."

"I don't know who I'm going to be tomorrow, I don't think that's failure I think that's progress."

OUGD602: Cool For Crafts Festive Arts Market - Next Week

In preparation for the festive craft fair I'm going to:

• design a few more new products
• getting a friend to help me take stock up
• organising boxes of stock, packaging, business cards
• writing a price list
• counting my stock before hand to take so i can tick off what i have sold
• getting float/change for notes etc

OUGD602: Mind mapping / draft for physical thing to post.

The message I want to send out:

Positive.

• Happy.
• Promote collaborative.
• Witty humour.
• Short and simple messages.

Could send art prints as a little package - personalised messages // doodles on the back specific to each person or company. Could also put little illustrations on the envelope.

This means it shows companies and businesses the work I already have + a hand written note makes it more personable.

Go to some local studios and companies in Leeds and hand them out by hand so studios in the tetley or duke studios.

Means potentially meeting people face to face, more personable and engaging.

Purpose to gain exposure, possible collaborations.

Contact small businesses to think about possible collaborations.

OUGD602: How to write effectively about your work

What is it responding to, trying to solve, improving or communicating? 

Pick your favourite project -  now use the elevator pitch to exercise: 

Use one sentence that covers everything. 

What, How & why?

• What is the core idea? - Consist and clear introduction.

• How does it work? - Punchy, summary how it does what its trying to do?

• Why does it work? - What is the drive behind it, what are you trying to change in the world, why is the current thing not working and how does your project solve it? Why this innovation is necessary 

Reduce this down. Not be repetitive, strip it back to its essential elements.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Favourite project from last year:

Thirsty Planet Campaign 

• The core idea is to promote drinking water to everyone.

• It's an app that is designed to track your water intake and reward you for drinking.

• It's interactive and sociable you can keep track with friends and reminds you to drink whereas people usually forget to.

OUGD602: You've Got Mail

I sent a physical letter to Hallmark because they are people I would be interested in doing a placement with.

What I included in the letter:

- A Don't Be A Prick art print

-A You Are Lovely Art Print

-A business card with a note on the back

-A letter

I included the art prints to demonstrate my work and I feel like these two best reflect my style and personality. On the business card I just said a little bit about who I am and in the letter I spoke about placements and work experience enquiries. I only posted this Thursday morning so I haven't had a response yet but hopefully.

Proof of postage: