WYS - IDENTITY - PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENT

Throughout this year the main focus of my practice has been WYS which is the idea for a two-man publishing and design studio. This was an idea that started at the end of the second year and over the course of this year, Rob and I  have been working hard to refine the overall idea as well design the visual identity so that we are more prepared for when we finish. We have used the final year of the course to help us understand what it is we want to do with the idea once we have finished. 

This year we have both found our feet and now have a much better idea of what it is we want to do after graduating from the course. The main focus of WYS is artist books, we have already started working with photographers to help them produce books and other printed matter. Along the way, we have really seen the full potential of the WYS as a business idea and are now working to position ourselves so that we can get where we want to go after leaving LAU.  

Industry Research
We have both done a lot of research into independent publishing and this part of the industry. This has helped us to identify where we belong within the industry (competitors) and we know who is doing similar things and what has been done and what hasn't. The research has also made me more obsessed with books and the culture that surrounds that. 

Identity 
We both understood that having a strong visual identity was a very important part of being able to attract the right people/work in the future so we have designed our identity appropriately to help us "fit in" with the crowd that we want to get work within. We have designed all of the assets that we need to become a proper, legit design business. 

Business Cards 

• Simple black and white business cards - printed on high-quality G.F. Smith stock to show that we are all about perfection within our work. 
• Alternating in colour between myself and Rob as we wanted to make it a bit more exciting rather than having just white or just black. 
• Business cards to be used at networking events for us these sort of events would be book/magazine launches, exhibitions and book fairs. This is where we will meet a lot of like-minded people that would be looking for our services.  

Invoice/Letterhead 

• Professionalism is key - start as we mean to go on
• Even if we don't need them now I know that in the future we will need to manage our money and send people formal letters. 
• Important to be consistent throughout all the design - have designed everything with a similar aesthetic. 

Stickers

• Merchandise which can always be produced - stickers can be made very easily at uni in the print room. As well as this they can be bought online for a good price as if you buy in bulk it makes it cheaper and can never have too many stickers.
• They are another means of advertising. Around Leeds and mainly all big cities peoples use stickers as a means of advertising to people by just putting them up in the local area it can be beneficial.
• Cheap to make it is very easy to give them away to people - for example with orders from our website or by us just giving them to people that we speak to etc. 

T-shirts 

• Merchandise is a key part of our brand - we want to use this as a creative output for our own work as well as producing work for other and fashion is something we are both into and have been wanting to make t-shirts for a long time. 
• Helps to generate income - what we have done is bolk brought heavy cotton Gildan blanks so that we can print for ourselves in the most cost-effective way. 
• Creating t-shirts is a great way to reach out to a new audience who may not be familiar with the brand as everyone loves a good t-shirt. 

Promotional Pack 

• We want to work with people all over the world and we know that it can be very difficult to get in contact with some people so we have come up with a way of being able to grab peoples attention. 
• Promo pack consists of an edition of postcards (current artists work), stickers and covering letter (personalised to whoever we are sending it to).
• The idea behind the promo back is that we are able to attract people with large social followings as it can be difficult to get the attention of these people via social media. As well as social media influencers we have also devised a list of industry people that we will be contacting after graduation.
• The promo back should help us to break the ice with people and be a gateway to set up meetings with people who we feel that we could learn from. 
• The promotional pack will also be available for people to purchase from our webstore so that they can help support the cause.
• Rose Nordin (OOMK), Oliver Shaw (Catalogue), Nick Greenbank (Kiosk), Antenne Books, Village Bookstore, SJ Hocket (Wonder Room Studios), Housework Press, AA Bronson (NY Print Fair), Liam Hodges, SCRT Store, Nasir Mazhar and more photographers we want to work with. 

Email 

• To be as legit as possible we also got out hands on a domain (w-y-s.co.uk) 
• Very important to have a professional email address - it is the difference between us and the next person which we always have to be better than.
• To add to the email I also designed us email signatures which help to make email even more professional it includes the website, mobile number and Instagram. 

 Website/Big Cartel - http://w-y-s.co.uk

• The site is going to be the hub of WYS as it will show everything people need to know about us and what is going on at any given time.
• It is a means of contact, it showcases both our work and the work that we are supporting (collaborators/artists) and it is not the basis of our online presence, which is very important in this day and age, now that we have got a site we are able to use this as a platform that we can build on to attract new clients. 
• We have also started a Bug Cartel store so that we are able to sell our products. At the moment people can only view what will be available but in the future, we will be able to sell books and t-shirts independently as a means of making money. 

Instagram 

• A very important tool that we can use to help grow the business
• Instagram will help us to grow our online presence as here we are able to put out content that will hopefully get us where we want to with the right connections through social media it makes anything possible 
• We are both very aware of gaining a a good online presance as there are many popel that we have seen through instagram that we would want to work with/for.  

Typefaces 

• We bought typefaces to help make us as legit as possible 
• Used Student loans to make ourselves look more professional
• Had good email convocation with type foundries (explained WYS to them briefly when purchasing) 
• Use again in the future and also credit them in our work (social media following)