‘Design and the Market’ ‘Not Tom’ Presentation.

As a group we got together and went over our interview with ‘Not Tom’, we recorded it and had written 

notes so it was easy to refresh our memories. We sorted through all our information identifying what we thought would be the most relevant for our presentation. I personally found this tricky as I wasn’t exactly sure what type of presentation it should be as the brief is quite open. I think however we have achieved a good mix of background information on the company, business information and information on the work they do so hopefully people will enjoy it and find it interesting. We simply wanted to tell the ‘Not Tom’ story from past, present to future.

As we are in a class that is filled with a mix of disciplines from product designers, to jewellery designers, to students who do animation I have been terrified at the thought of presenting an coming up with a unique creative way to show what we have learnt. We therefore have decided to keep it simple. We have gone with a ‘Not Tom’ style – laid back and fun and have tried to represent their brand in each of our slides keeping them in the mind of the viewer.

I’m nervous for tomorrow but looking forward to completing assignment 1 for ‘Design and the Market’. I hope all our hard work has paid off. I’ll post up the presentation slides tomorrow after it’s all over.

‘Not Tom’ After the Skype Interview.

Skyping ‘Not Tom’ was a really positive experience. I was a little apprehensive as I thought it might have been awkward doing an interview via skype however they made us feel very comfortable and were open to answering all our questions. What they say on their website is true they really are “nice guys”. I don’t want to give too much information away before our presentation in case I bore anyone watching who has read this but I will write a brief summary.

The business started off with Richard and Harry with a shared passion to work on projects the love and can be proud of. Since 2009 the business has grown. They get busier everyday and so have had to hire some part time staff to help with the work load. Money is not the main motivation for this business instead it’s having the power to do what they want, the main reason for their set up was so they didn’t have to work for other people giving them a greater chance of designing things they love.

Their knowledge of setting up a business was limited. They had taken some business based modules at uni but Harry took some extra classes after to learn more. They both feel that learning how to run a business is mainly common sense so they just go along with it getting advice from others where necessary. Their business plan doesn’t seem to be overly detailed they take work as it comes if it is suitable for their company, they won’t do something that goes against what they have set out to do. More international projects are something they are planning to do in the near future.

Branding is something I’m always interested in so I was keen to find out whether or not it was important to them. They said it was important to them although they didn’t spend a lot of time on it. The ‘Not Tom’ brand was intended to be noticeable but not overpowering they want their work to speak for its self which it seems to be doing.       In my design and the market module we have been told that our personal brands should sum our personality up. I think the ‘Not Tom’ brand sums Harry and Richard’s personalities and work up exactly; laid back, fun and serious when needed. Obviously I don’t know them personally but that is the impression I got of their personalities after the interview.

Hopefully the rest of my ‘Design and the Market’ class will find our presentation interesting. I definitely enjoyed learning more about ‘Not Tom’. They are a company to watch I’m sure I will read a lot more about them in the future.

‘Not Tom’. Background Research.

‘Not Tom’ is a design company based in London specialising in furniture and exhibition design, they also work in other areas taking on some branding work and hope to work on more interior based projects in the future.

Richard Jennings and Harry Osborne are the two faces behind ‘Not Tom’ (get it Dick and Harry not tom!) They met at university and soon after leaving decided to set up a business together so they could do the work they wanted and not the work others wanted them to do.

The company is small with the two of them working full time and bringing in other members of staff part time to help with graphics and CAD. They also have design

Interns in the office from time to time.

Looking through their work I noticed they have done a few high profile events such as ‘London Fashion Week’ and the ‘Campaign for Wool’. 

This ‘Wool Modern’ exhibition that was used as part of the ‘Campaign for Wool’ is one of my favourite pieces of their work I just think it’s really beautiful and quite romantic. After they completed the exhibition where they worked with Loui Thomas they gained a lot of publicity. The woolly twigs were featured in the gallery’s windows, the windows of the ‘Pringle’ store on Sloan Street and featured in the promotional video for the exhibition in association with ‘Harrods’. You can also find ‘Not Tom’s’ work featured on well know design websites such as ‘Dezeen’. Word of mouth seems to work well for them and getting people talking about their outstanding work gets them business.

Before our skype interview with them we outlined questions we wanted to ask highlighting the most important in case we were short of time. We also thought we would ask them to send us some photos of their office environment as it wasn’t possible for us to see it in person.

The types of questions we will ask will be how they went about starting up a business, how they brand themselves and what have been there biggest hurdles. We have quite a few others so will hopefully have time to ask them all and let them lead on to some other interesting topics!

Design & the Market: Finding a Business (Assignment 1)

Our first assignment for the ‘Design & the Market’ module is to research and interview a business of our own choice then present our findings to the rest of the class. This project aims to develop our understanding of what running a business entails and give us some insight into the types of business models that operate within the creative sector.

Working in a group with three other girls from my discipline (Vikki Kidd, Hollie Edwards and Danielle Carnegie) we discussed a few businesses we were interested to know more about such as; ‘Graven Images’, ‘Ice Cream Architecture’ ,‘Blacksheep’ before all agreeing on a London based design duo ‘Not Tom’.

We liked ‘Not Tom’ due to their approachable laid back identity, the fact that they are a fairly young company (founded in 2009) but have already worked on high profile events such as London Fashion Week 2011 and we are all interested in exhibition/ furniture design which they specialise in. We felt that as they are quite a young company we would be able to relate to them and ask them questions about their start up and where or what they’re aiming for in the future.

After deciding on a business we e-mailed them. Fortunately they e-mailed us back really quickly so we could get the ball rolling to set an interview date. We were prepared to travel down to London to conduct the interview face to face however they said that it would be best to skype instead as they felt their offices would be too small and we would have a wasted trip. We will be interviewing them this week and we have some ideas that will hopefully make up for the fact we are not seeing them in their office space.

This week will be dedicated to doing more research on them, getting together as a group to set our questions and most likely having a trial run to calm our/my nerves!