Self Promotion Evaluation

Self promotion evaluation 

  Within self promotion I had to look at all the different ways in which I could promote myself in a business I looked at such things as leaflets, bill-boards, shopping bags and office items such as pens and mugs. I also found that making my own website and logo would help a lot as a lot of people go onto the websites to see your work and also if you had a logo it would help people to recognise your work. So altogether I found that by promoting your work you are more likely to sell the things that you want as people will see your logo and even some of your images, so it is very important to promote your business to get your business going.

  For self promotion I decided to buy a CD and to put my images on as this would be a great way to show my work. I would put this on a slide show in the store so that people would be able to see some of my images and what I’m like as a photographer. This would be a good way to promote as it is really cheap to buy the Cd's and then to simply put your own images on them as the Cd's only cost me about £1.49. I also bought a pen as I thought that this was cheap and thus you could give them to people if they spend money in your shop or have a stamp card so that if they collect about 5 – 10 stamps then they would get something free or a discount on their next order. This would help as you could give people who work in the office a pen and then other people would be able to see it. The same with a mug with my brand on it, but perhaps this would be better as then it would be bigger and more people would see it. However a pen would only cost around the £2 region and thus quite cheap to produce and wouldn’t make you lose out on anything. I also bought some business cards which I think are really important as you could very easily give them out to many people and they are really cheap to print at about £4 and you could make your own designs on the cards. And for 250 cards I think that this is a very good and cheap option, also you could give your business cards to anyone to look at or use (teenagers, adults). I also think that using letterheads is a good idea as you could send someone a letter such as a confirmation letter for an order and then others may see the letter. Also this wouldn’t cost you a lot and more people would feel appreciated.

 In conclusion I have found that by promoting your work you can sell a lot more as a lot of other people could see your work the more items you made for people to use. So I think that self promotion is a very important factor in a business. Also in order to improve my work I would make a letterhead so that I could send people letters o bills or current offers on products. Also I would have someone stand and show my images on a small stall wearing a T-shirt with my logo on so that people will see it, especially in a place like Medowhall or Sheffiald where a lot of people will go. This is something that I think would improve my promotional work as a lot of people will be able to openly see my work and could approach someone on the street/ outside shops and find out more about my photographic work.

Self Promotion Task

As an experiment I went out into Rotherham so that I could take some photos for self promotional ideas. I found that this was very easy as there is a lot of places that want to self promote so they will put all types of different items on the street such as posters, billboards, leaflets etc. I thought that the bigger and more bright the image/symbol is the more likely you are to get your product noticed by people and potential customers.

This is the contact sheet of my images - 


















 I thought that putting a poster on a wall with lots of other photos is a bad idea as then your item could rather easily be swamped and misplaced by other posters.

Wassink Lundgren Presenting Techniques

Wassink Lundgren had a rather unique way presenting his images as he presented them as a book. He framed them as though you were going through the book page by page in a sequince form start to end. I thought that this was a good idea as no one else had done anything like it so it was really original. I also liked the way that he had the information on the images at the end of the book so that you could look at it and see the information on an image you may have liked and also infomation on Lundgren himself. However I didnt like the way the paper was blue as it kind of drew away some of your focus on the actual image to look at the other half of the book.

Will Sanders Presenting Technique

Will Sanders Image -


I liked the way that Will Sanders presented his work in an almost randomly laid out way.  HIs images were placed without frames and the images went all the way to the edge of the foamboard which I found very interesting and thought looked really good. Also I liked the way that he just had the lights on all of his images instead of spotlights on a few of the images that he had selected. This helped me a lot to understand just how important the light is to an image, as when we first went in there was some images by the door that I thought were placed very badly as you could'nt see the images themselves that well because there wasn't a lot of light on them and when you approached them for a closer look you could mostly see your own shadow instead of the image being presented, also the fact that they were placed near the door and were rather small meant that they could be easily overlooked and go unnoticed by the other much larger images in the gallery with a more open and lighted area.

katie cantrell portfolio

Open publication - Free publishing - More photography

 

Waves £1.29 (in qty.)

 I found this pen on the 123 Print website. I think that £1.29 for a pen is very good and cheap and a good thing to hand out because everybody loves free things!!

I also liked the fact that you could use all different colours and designs on your personalized pen. This would be good for people in offices and also students as they often use pens and thus other people would see it also.

http://www.123print.co.uk/

 I got this from the Vista print website. It enables you to customize your own business card. I think that this is a rather cheap website as it only costs £3.95 for 100 cards. I think that these cards are a good idea to hand out, however, I wouldn’t do a lot of them as they are small and people tend to lose them easily.

 http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/vp/welcomeback.aspx?xnav=welcome&rd=3

 

I again got this on the 123 Print website. It is a letter with my brand down the side. This could come in handy if you were to send a customer something in the mail, such as a new price list or a bill.

 

I got these from Cafe Press. You could make all kinds of clothes items such as jumpers. I liked these T-shirts because I think that if you ware them people will take note of you and of what you are wearing. Also if you are in a popular place such as Meadow hall this self promotion tool can be very useful.

http://www.cafepress.co.uk/makepersonalized-gifts

This is a magnetic card that I made on Cafe Press. I think that this would be very good as perhaps giving parents after they have visited and bought products some many times – such as 5. This would promote me as if people put it on their refrigerator then other people would see it whenever they go to that persons house.

http://www.cafepress.co.uk/makepersonalized-gifts

 

 I have chosen to also have a bag because I think that some people would feel more interested if they receive their photos in a good looking strong bag, this would mostly be for the adults, however a child could also carry this to school and so be seen by others or the adults could take it shopping with them and as the shopping mall is very big many people would see it. I also got this from the same place that I made the T-shirt at Cafe press.

http://www.cafepress.co.uk/makepersonalized-gifts 


I have also made a stamp that can be very effective, I would not hand these out I would perhaps use them on discount cards for people who come often. This would encourage people to come more often because they would want to get the stamps of discount.  Also the fact that you can put your own logo on again gives you an added advantage of self promotion if anyone else looks at it. This item would be good for the adults who will obviously want to save some money.

 http://www.123print.co.uk/

I have also done a calender which I thought that people could buy in the shops as the older people may want one if it has a nice image on it. Also if they place it were other people can see it and may ask who took the images and were they got the calender from. I also liked the fact that you could have a magnetic one or a normal card one. I also thought that this was quite cheap to do as you could order 25 for £14.95 and if you sold them for £5 to £10 each you would quickly make money back.

Report on my gallery Space!

If I was to exhibit my work in a gallery, there would be a lot of things to think about, such as the images that I want to show, the sounds I may be planning to play to set a more appropriate mood, I may also want to put some kind of item in the gallery to give it an extra boost, for example I could put pipes in a room to illustrate heavy industry. Also for the sounds of heavy industry I could use metal sounds. However I would have to also think about some of the more smaller details, which are still as important, such as the lighting, paper, frames, colour for the walls and the floor surface. These are as equally important because they could change the way someone viewed my work. For example if I was to exhibit some modern work and I was to put it into an old gallery space and use an elaborate and patterned frame, it would probably look out of context.
 
If I was to exhibit my work in a modern gallery I would probably use some of my Photo shopped images of kaleidoscopes. I liked these because they can trick the eye very easily and they look very nice and colourful. If I was to do this I would put them on large canvases at around about A4 size.
Also I would have the walls in plain white or maybe even black because then they would stand out even more and you would look directly at them. I think that there wouldn't need to be any frames as the detail would be all in the images and it would look too much if I was to have a frame also. However, it could look okay if I was to use a thin border in - black if the walls are white or black if the walls are white.
If I was to have some kind of music  playing in the background I would probably use some kind of techno music that would be as entrancing as the images themselves.
I believe that if I was to have any props I would perhaps like to use mirrors so that the images would be reflected around the room. I think that this would have a good effect on people as they would feel a little like they were in a mad house that they used to have. However I would make it more obvious that the mirrors were there as I would put outlines around them.
This is how I would present my images if I was to exhibit in a gallery

Gallery space

Julian Beever

Julian Beever has a completely different way at showing his work, as he does 3D chalk drawings. I think that this is a very good idea as its something totally original and up-beat. This doesn't need a lot of anything as you wouldn't need to be framed there would be normal sounds of the street as that's where he draws them. I believe that this would be loved by the audience as its something that they can interact with.

This is another one of Julian's images. I liked this because it looks very real. I also liked the idea of the viewers being able to physically touch the images as they are drawn on the street. This would give me some aspiration as I think that it would be a good idea almost like a Magritte painting as he has taken a small size object and turned it into a huge life size image. 

Gallery space 2



Richard Serra

 This shows a new modern way to present ones work. I liked this because there is no frames or anything, so it's pretty simple to do you would just need some very large prints and a colour (or black and white pending on opinion) background. There isn't many lights, just ones on the ceiling aiming down on the image, but mostly skimming the image and reflecting from the ground.



These are other images of his work, but this is of a large structure which is in a spiral, and as the image shows people can walk around it. There is no way you could frame this as the frame is the building itself. Also the lighting was natural as you would go round it in the daytime. This is extremely contemporary and up to date. You could put really any sound to this as it has no specific theme such as flowers to it. However you could try heavy industry as the sculpture is industry looking. This is interecting very well with the audiance as you can walk around them and thus are very involved.

Gallery Space

 These two images show how you can present a 3D model in a gallery using lights, and a photo of the city so that you can build it. This is placed on a round table in the middle of the room with no lights at all just them from the model itself. I think that if you were going to put any sounds to it you would have to think about something along the lines city sounds such as cars beeping and people yelling. Also this model is done in wood, which gives it its 3D effect, whereas paper wouldn't have looked as good or as real. To achieve the high level of detail desired in the wooden model, Strausfeld worked with a fabricator to produce the model that is eleven feet long by nine feet wide and contains over 250 individual buildings. Due to its size, the model was divided into three separate sections so the Center can easily reconfigure its space for special events. Using Macromedia Flash, Strausfeld also developed a content management system, so Wall Street Rising can quickly update the model’s information about current developments and special events.
This is a very good and original idea, as it is something that the viewers probably have never seen before, so it would be very remembered by the audiance. This has given me some ideas that instead of simply hanging photos up in the traditional way, you could have some sort of 3D design in the middle of a room which will capture someones attention as soon as you walk into the room.

Gallery Mood/Atmosphere

There are many different ways to present your work in a gallery, for example the mood or atmosphere of a gallery has a very big effect on the viewers opinions. For example you could improve your atmosphere simply by adding some sounds to do with the images, lights that compliment the pictures, the colours including the wall so that it adds an effect. But you could also go a little more eccentric and have the smells of the images, for example if you had displayed flowers then you could have some sort of flower perfume as if you really were where the image of the flowers were taken.

This image shows one eccentric and modern way to display some work that you have done. This cube was designed by the Eames company and was done so that people could view and understand complex mathematical theory in simple terms and to also engage and entertain the gallery viewers. I think that this is a good piece of work as it is unusual so people are much more likely to want to view it. 

This image was designed by Wolfgang Tillman, and it depicts his idea on how to hang up your images in a less traditional straightforward and parallel way, Tillman has made them look more hectic. I think that this is a very good idea as it would make the viewer look more at it as they would need to stop and look for a lot longer in order to be able to see the whole set of images. Also his images are very bright and colourful, whereas the background is very white and clean so that the images stand out alot more. This would be good in the centre of the room and depending on the images with some kind of music.

Context

I have learnt that the term context means the effect or meaning of something, also it can mean the situation, for example the gallery space has a very big effect on the context because a traditional gallery such as the Graves, which is an old gallery with older ideas such as the traditional gold and elaborate frames and simple colours, this would be out of context if an item form the site gallery would be placed in there as it would look out of place, being so modern. So the context has a very big impact on the way you place your work and also where you place it.
 To carry on from this, I believe that the Millenium gallery is a very modern gallery and wouldn't look right with pictures from the Graves gallery in it as they woul look too traditional and not at all in place, however the Millenium gallery has some exhibitions that are for the older items, such as the mini version of a cinima showing very old films. I believe that this has a very big effect on the audiance as the more older people would probably like to see the more traditional portraits and scenes, whereas, the more young moudern people would prefer to go to the site or the Millenium as it is a lot more up to date.

Chris Oflis depiction of the Last supper at the Tate Gallery.

I chose this image because i liked the idea of simply leaning the work against the wall without much fuss around it. However i didn't like the idea of leaning it against elephant dung, but that is what makes it link to Africa. Also i liked the large wooden space and lack of lights simply focusing on the work. However the images on the floor and the wood background make it seem very spacious and light.