Paper Salad , Work Experience

In October we had a visit at college from Claire Frost and Karen Wilson who are Paper Salad! They came to talk to us( as ex students of Stockport college) about setting up their own company.Ten years ago Claire and Karen along with 3 other graduates from the same class rented a studio together in Houldsworth Mill in Reddish, Stockport they all produced designs which they sold through an agent but over time 5 became 2 and Paper Salad was born.This company designs and publishers contemporary greetings cards , gift wrap and social stationary and all their artwork is available for licensing.

The designs are all hand drawn and instantly recognisable as the Paper Salad brand.The two girls had to find all their own funding and commit a lot of time and energy into building the business.They obviously get on very well and have the same level of commitment to the job. The first print run was £10 000 !The reality of running their own business is that only a small amount of time is spent on creating designs , most of their day is spent balancing the books, sourcing printers , envelope suppliers and talking to agents . They employ 6 part time staff , and have nine agents who sell the products in the UK , there are also distributors in New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland and Cyprus.At present Paper Salad is a limited company and Claire and Karen have a monthly salary .

I was really impressed when the girls came in to talk to us at college and absolutely loved the designs they showed us. I approached them and asked if i could do a work placement with them,to my delight they agreed.

I have spent time at their studio in Reddish and am amazed at the amount of stock they have, new designers are produced approx every 3 months and they are just beginning to use digital printing. The place is always busy and Claire and Karen have created new designs whist i have been there, agents call in to discuss sales and p r and promotion companies have also called to discuss advertising. I have helped to package cards and make up sample packs for agents. The company has been featured in several trade magazines recently who have published articles about the Paper Salad brand and its success.It has been great to see how the business operates and last week i was asked to put address labels on invites to the Spring fair at the NEC in Birmingham the invites went out to all retailers who have or do sell Paper Salad products and the list was endless , this demonstrated to me how well received and commercial the designs are and how brilliant both Claire and Karen are at managing their business.The Spring Fair is a trade show where new contacts are made for future sales, its on from the 7th to the 11th of Feb.

So thanks to you both for allowing me into your place of work i am truly grateful and wish you continued success you deserve it!www.papersalad.co.uk/

Uni trip to New York Nov 09

OMG how excited was i when i asked my college tutor if it would be ok to approach Dan Funderburgh about a possible visit to his studio whislt we were in NYC and she already had it planned! Result , i am already Dans no 1 fan so it was amazing to visit the new falvor paper premisis and meet both Mr Funderburgh and John Sherman who is the business brain and driving force behind this fantastic wall paper manufacters.The heart of the company has moved from the New Orleans site ( which will now concentrate on fabric printing) to Brooklyn and is still in the proccess of renovating the building, which is a sight to behold.There is a huge window at the front of the flavor Paper building which allows passers by to observe the production of the cutting edge wallpaper designs ! The wallpapers are all hand printed and a single roll retails at a starting price of $150. www.flavorleague.com/wallpaper/

Christmas card brief

For the College Christmas card i decided to stay away from digital designs as i am far happier creating by hand.To incorporate the Stockport theme i sketched some local landmark in red on white to create a Stockport Toile pattern ,The historical Toile de Jouy is a design i have been looking at in my critical studies essay so it seemed appropriate.From the initial design i feel these two examples are the most successful.

Cherry Tenneson Vinyl Art

Cherry is an artist who works with vinyl,she did her B A in interactive arts and her M A in fine art . Cherry came into college to talk to us about her craft and what she produces.She was a sign maker for 7 years producing traffic signs, health and safety signs ,bespoke signs and the company she worked for had the contracts for producing all the NHS and Job Centre plus signs.Cherry then worked in galleries for 2 years which is where she began to think about using vinyl in her own art work.Tenneson Dale is a collaboration of work by Cherry and her friend Nicola they both wanted to create art using vinyl because of its flat appearance and clean lines.They were interested in Minimalism and looked at the work of Donald Judd, Elsworth Kelly, Frank Stella and Karl Andre to inspire them. The use of colour was key in the work and having decided to use politics as the theme of their work the three main political party colours were chosen. Colour- Order-Politics this was the plan for the collection of work , to represent political information using coloured vinyl in a minimal style. One of the pieces was displayed at the Corner House in Manchester , it is called Order Order (2006) and is the alphabet of political seats and consists of 26 separate canvases with vinyl in blue,red and yellow to represent the 3 main parties.For some reason the Corner House only displayed 16 of the canvases so when the exhibition moved on to its next venue at Stockport art gallery Tenneson and Dale added large red crosses to the 10 canvases that had not been previously shown.

Cherry gave us a demo of how to weed vinyl letters off tape and also how to layer vinyls, i asked her about hand drawing directly onto vinyl rather than using illustrator on the computer and she said that drawing onto vinyl and cutting it by hand with a scalpel was the best way to get intricate detail as the vinyl cutting machine had limitations with scale and lines. It would take a while to develop enough skill to cut vinyl confidently but Cherry mentioned some artist who do it by hand as well as by machine,Julian Opie ,Jim Lamby ,Ian Monroe and Andrew Bracey. Cherry gave us lots of tips and advice, i asked her about the best way to place vinyl onto perspex which is with water and a tiny amount of washing up liquid in a spray bottle!She also adviced us not to let vinyl get too warm because heat warps it and to remove any glue with white spirit once the vinyl is in place. Cherry was very inspiring and it was great to meet her.

www.axisweb.org

Fred Aldous Manchester,Laser cutter

Fred Aldous is a design , craft and art supplies store who now offer a laser cutting service to local designers.The design files for the laser cutter need to be in illustrator (.ai) and saved in version 8, the set up cost for the correct files is £5 and the cutting service is charged at £1 per minute the cutting speed depends on the type of media being cut ie wood would take considerably longer than paper.A circle cut in 3mm perspex takes 15 seconds to cot at a cost of 15 pence.Paul who demonstrated the laser cutter explained that a charge of approx £50 would be made if illustrator files had to be altered by Fred Aldous staff so its a good idea to double check your designs before you get there .The laser cutter is similar to a vinyl cutter and works best with clean lines and solid shapes my design had thin lines across a shape and gave an etched effect which works well for certain projects and on certain materials. Paul was very accommodating and showed us examples of designs cut from paper, mirror ,wood ,card, felt and acrylic.He said several designers email their files to him on a regular basis and a local designer uses the laser cutter to create acrylic jewelry.The store can provide the materials to cut from or you can take your own, the laser will not cut glass or metal but it will mark it (engrave) it cannot cut any material containing chlorine such as pvc or vinyl.

Paul Walker

Fred Aldous Ltd

37 Lever St

Manchester

m1 1lw

T-0161 236 4224

open mon-sat 8.15am-5.15pm

www.fredaldous.co.uk

Urban Outfitters, Manchester Store

Urban Outfitters was the brain child of two young men in 1970 in Philadelphia.Richard Hayne and Scott Belair began their outlets by selling second hand clothes and inexpensive furnishings to the student market.The store design reflects this feel of junk store meets high street with its exposed brick walls and large wooden railway sleeper type open stairs with rope hand rails.It has a young edgy feel and a relaxed atmosphere.The staff did not approach me instead took a laid back pre occupied stance but were very helpful when asked questions.There were a good number of people browsing and purchasing goods whilst i was in the store and prices range from inexpensive to designer scale so the brands available have a wide appeal, goods on sale include books, trinkets ,clothes and shoes.This seasons collections in the Manchester store are mainly block colour with very little pattern in sight, the few patterns around are florals reminiscent of 80's chintz prints .The colour pallet in this store is navy,black ,whites and greys. The store offers six design collections plus the in house brand Urban Renewal which recycles old garments to produce patch work.Urban Outfitters also have twenty one boutique brands and the website offers city info and a campaign to bring back instant photography along with other issues under the Projects heading.There are eleven Urban Outfitter Stores in the UK at present.

Urban Outfitters Manchester

42-43 Market St

Manchester

m1 1wr

T-0161 817 6640

www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk

Heal's Furniture Store,manchester

Heal's is a furniture and home accessory store that prides its self on stocking modern, designer and contemporary designs

Heal's was established in 1810 as a bed making company.In 1893 Ambrose Heal joined the firm and wanted to reflect the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement by employing skilled crafts people to produce quality designs that were affordable to the public.His moto was "Better furniture for better times".There are now seven stores in the UK and Heal's work with some leading designers and brands such as, Philippe Starch ,Tom Dixon, Orla Kiely, John Reeves and Matthew Hilton.

The wallpaper on sale in Heal's range in price from £25 to £250 per roll which would suggest that the target market is the high end of the high street.The store is located in the centre of Manchester close to other high end stores,it is over four floors and is well spaced and has a huge glass frontage.The goods in store are generally block colour any pattern is in small areas of the design usually very detailed and intricate layers of pattern. The store has a sterile feel about it with white walls and floors and a definite lack of customers .The staff acknowledged me on each floor i visited and the lady i spoke to about wallpaper was very knowledgeable and extremely helpful, she did comment that business was very slow and the store had been quiet of late.I was able to order wallpaper samples free of charge and advice re other relevant out lets was given by the assistant.

Heal's

11 New Cathedral St

Manchester

m1 1ad

T_0161 819 3000

www.heals.co.uk