LADIES, WINE AND DESIGN with alice Kearney

Ladies, Wine and Design Belfast was set up by Alice Kearney, a graphic designer, art director and illustrator working at Mammoth Design Studio in Belfast. We caught up with her to tell us about where LW&D started and how she hopes it's going to help the Northern Irish community of female creatives.

What is Ladies, Wine and Design and what made you decide to start it?

Ladies, Wine and Design was initially started by a New York based graphic designer called Jessica Walsh. While Walsh was working on a personal project called ’12 Kinds of Kindness’ with Timothy Goodman she realised she wanted to start the monthly gatherings to mentor and champion other women’s work. There are now Ladies, Wine & Design groups in over 170 countries.
I started the LW&D Belfast chapter as I thought it would positively add to the local design community and get some of us female designers together for fun workshops and social nights to discuss work, life and business.

What affect do you think/hope it'll have to the female creatives community in Northern Ireland?

I hope it builds on the growing community in Northern Ireland. We’re a small place and it’s my aim that LW&D becomes a perfect way to get to know other creatives in different studios and from different areas of the design sector.
It also gives people the opportunity to start new design collaborations that they might never have had the chance to do before because of these new found connections. I think there can be a lot to benefit from a casual meet up with a glass of wine (or two). Also, it’s nice to ‘like’ each others work online but it’s even better to put a face to an instagram account I’ve been swooning over!

What events/projects have you been involved with so far?

So far, I have organised a few casual meet ups for people to get to know each other but next up we will be attending the Drink & Draw in Town Square, Belfast on April 24th. This meet up is free so no excuses!
Then in mid May we have a screen printing workshop with graphic designer Pauline Clancy at Belfast Print Workshops. This workshop is now fully booked but we will definitely be doing more workshops in the future so follow us on Instagram or email us to get involved.

 What can we expect to see from LW&D in the future?

More workshops to get our hands dirty, more meet ups with wine (wine drinking is not mandatory to join LW&D! and to naturally create more design led collaborations with LW&D individuals.

Ladies, Wine and Design's Next Event: Drink & Draw in Town Square, Belfast — Tuesday 24th April, 7pm

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Womenfolk – The Time is Now Panel

12/03/18
Black Box
18:00-20:00

There has long been a disparity between the number of men and women involved in Design and Entrepreneurship.

The Time is Now is an Interactive panel discussion which will discuss how we can encourage and support young female design entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland.

We have four wonderful speakers including Karishma Kusurkar and Aileen McEwen who will be joining us for this event that is part of Creativity Month 2018

More information and tickets are available here.

"Service Design, the human element and me" by Elizabeth Meehan of coffeenosugar

In ways Service Design found me. One morning I woke and realised my then job wasn’t right. It lacked creativity and I was a creative person; I was a problem solver, nothing brought greater joy, but the skill felt under utilised; I was an ideas person (I didn’t always want to carry them out but I always wanted to pass them on), and I’d always felt people were at the heart of everything. My then present day job did none of those things, not really or not enough.

So I set about doing all the usual things you tend to do to find the ultimate career option when it isn’t somehow etched in your DNA. Research had taught me to observe, to question, to reflect and I drew everything I could from it. The recession was an interesting time and there was lots to learn. I started noticing the gap between the customer experience and business owner perspective; the focus on the intangible elements and how it was overlooked. And despite the fact that we were in the midst of an experience economy the human element was more often than not missing. I knew consumer tastes and needs were changing and their increasing demands would only be satiated with the design of great experiences that embellished the human element: Service Design, i.e. the process of problem solving by designing with the very people who will use the service, addressed so many problems in a practical, resourceful way. I knew something was needed because people are complex; one persons experience and expectation would not be the next, and transition from the goods economy meant huge challenge for businesses having to respond in a completely different way to survive into the future. 

But as sure as I felt, I had doubts, including the receptivity here towards design. As a child my father would berate me for paying attention to ‘frivolous’ things, like ‘design’, and urged me to focus on the practical. Which I later realised, in ways represented the attitude that was embedded in our culture towards design. The result, we were blind to it, but Service design was all about the human element, blending all the things I wanted in a career; a sense of meaning, purpose, challenging problem solving, creativity and design, so I took the bold step, which felt bold given the endless times I was asked the question, ‘eh…what’s Service Design then?’

I doubted myself, until I realised that just because someone hasn't seen something you have, doesn't mean it isn’t important, or that there mightn’t be a career there. All decisions come without guarantee. So, this leaves me with three things to share;

1. Sometimes it’s important to trust yourself above others, sure, by all means do the research and check the need is there, but then go for it.

2. Use all of you because it will bring you most happiness. Life’s journey is all about finding ourselves and expression.

And

3. if your passion is design, now is a great time, because thanks to the hard work and commitment of Blick Shared Studios, design is growing here and one day the goal that design is embedded in the fabric of our day to day lives, will be a simple reality.

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Find out more from Elizabeth at coffeenosugar

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Photograph by:

Luke Chesser

"Seeing the bigger picture in the day-to-day" by Hunter Paper Co.'s Emma Jackson

I’ve been working for myself now for 4 years, firstly as a freelance illustrator after graduating from a degree in illustration, and for the last 3 running my own stationery and greetings card brand, Hunter Paper Co.

Hunter Paper Co. originated as a side project while I was freelancing and quickly gained momentum and became my full time business. It took a while to niche down to what was really selling, find a consistent brand style and also tackle learning the business side of things, but 3 years on from officially setting up the business I feel like I’ve really found my flow and I’m beginning to strategically plan ahead more and more.

It’s so easy when you’re building a business, especially if you’re doing it on your own to get caught up in the day-to-day. There’s so much to get done, you want to say yes to everything and the to-do list never seems to get smaller! So I thought I’d share some tips of what I’ve found helpful in planning ahead and thinking strategically.

Look at the year as a whole

I usually do this at the start of the year, I mark into a diary or a calendar big work events in the year, even if they aren’t set in stone. That way when I have those big events in mind, I know they’re on the horizon so it probably isn’t a great idea to veer of course too far in the months leading up to those big events. I also highlight calendar events such as Mother’s Day, Valentine’s etc, which play a huge role in my business, so if something like this could boost your sales it’s worth paying attention to them even a few weeks before.

Prioritise on a daily basis

It’s easy to get into the studio in the morning and just start working on the most exciting thing or the thing you’d like to do the most. If there’s a big project looming though this procrastination can have a huge knock on effect. Write a to-do list of just 3 - 5 things and put them in order of priority. This gives you a little bit of structure in your day, when there’s really no rules - sometime you’ve just got to be the boss and discipline yourself.  

Do your accounting!

I have to admit, I’ve only really learnt the value of this in the last few months! 🙈  If you’re on top of your accounts you can plan ahead with confidence and stress a whole lot less! It’s also given me a little extra motivation, I’ve set income goals and I’m driven to reach them each month rather than just producing work and seeing what sells!

Make it visible

In the run up to big events in my business, like a trade show for example, I draw it all out and pin it to the wall in front of my desk. I draw out a calendar and cross out days to remind myself how quickly time is passing and I don’t have time to browse facebook! I also put floorplans for the show, or design drafts or to-do lists up on the wall in front of me, so everything is easily accessible, and it also reminds me to keep the final goal in mind in everything I’m doing.

 hunterpaperco.com