Colours May Vary Talk

Today I went to a talk at colours may vary, I love the shop itself and try to visit frequently to get inspiration and enhance my love for design and creativity.
It was really interesting to hear from the owners, Becky and Andy about how they find and choose the work to sell.

They discussed how they like selling prints and ceramics that were all slightly different, they felt that customers liked to have something that they felt was individual to them and they were the only one that owned a little piece from the artists or designers collection. This is quite interesting in terms of creating prints. maybe it's worth while to create hand screenprints instead of digital prints to appeal to the person who loves design and craft.

They discussed what works well in terms of presentation. They tend to sell things that have a commercial value, something that would appeal, not necessarily to mass market but something that is quite a niche appeal to creative people for their shop.

They often consider if the designer has used an appropriate process and if so how this works well alongside the meaning of the book. This was really interesting to here as I feel that I would need to be considerate of this when creating my childrens poetry book.

They suggested that students could come in for feedback for projects and prints, this is definitely something that i would consider doing, perhaps in third year when i feel slightly more pleased with the professional quality of my work. 

In terms of pricing, they said they take a 25% - 60% margin depending on the craft and work towards the piece to be sold. This was interesting because the hand craft compared to the production value needs to be considered in many senses. I'll need to make sure that I'm producing appropriate pieces that use materials that are worth the production value.

When presenting my work to be sold in a shop I should be able to explain  the process and the project itself, WHY have I made what I've made and how will this add something to the shop.

Overall I was really inspired by the talk, it scared me slightly as it seems scary to be ready to be at the professional standard however I feel that in time I will be able to achieve this quality.