What is Value?!?

On being somewhat annoyed by the "I paid all that money and only got 1 logo" comment, I decided to have a look into why and how we put value on things?

Quite a lot of interesting things came up - not least someone suggesting money was "symbolic energy"!!! I don't know about you but I don't find money symbolic, or energetic!! Or is that just me??

The basic suggestion from a variety of blogs/forums etc was that things need to have value so we can trade them, which is why we put a value on something!

The part I found hardest to ascertain was the 'how' we put value on something.

For example, take 2 leather handbags, both made in Britain and finished to particular standards, one is £120 while the other is £540 -  (I'm not going to name names) the only difference is their logos.

So, this got me thinking - again... Branding, and the value of it?

A really fascinating article from The Guardian last year brings up this question for universities - who are relatively 'new' to the world of branding...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/apr/03/branding-universities

It raises the point of synergy in marketing and branding - a point that many people think irrelevant! What some people may also not realise is the productivity and pride that comes with a solid, distinctive brand. This in itself is worth hundreds of thousands!

People think they can design their own stationery, leaflets and brochures and they can market themselves, and to some extent they can. But to add that value to their company takes expertise - expertise that have been gleaned through years of education, learning and experience.

So, that's where the value is, but I'm still struggling with the how we value something.

It's a tough one - the problem is that great design looks effortless. Someone once told me that they'd created a full marketing strategy for a client, only to be told by the client "well I could have come up with that"!!! So why didn't they come up with the idea?!?

This is where the problem lies with valuing creativity.

I'm not saying everyone is like that - thankfully a lot of people aren't, and they realise the potential of creative input and the value it can bring to a project.

I wonder if I'm flogging a dead horse, trying to explain the value in creativity...

If someone doesn't see it in the first place, I don't think they ever will and that's such a shame - some people, I guess, see value as getting the most of something for next to nothing. It's a good job everyone isn't like that - Harrods, Selfridges and Harvey Nics would have gone bust years ago!

I'd love to hear other people's experience on being valued, or how they value something, such as creativity, ideas etc....

How Much?!?!?!?

Ok, so this blog post is for "nice stuff", but I really need to rant from time to time, and that time is now...

As well as doodling I also run The Design Project (NW) along with my other half Geoff. Because, clearly, I couldn't earn a living on my doodling!!

A person was heard moaning to someone that "I paid all that money and all I got was 1 logo". What they had clearly forgotten was the several variants of logo that were supplied. The brief was a very wide open one: "classic" and "expensive" - a case of the client not really knowing what he wanted, so the designs created were to assist in the filtering process. So this filtering process went on - not too long I hasten to add, it wasn't a nightmare client by any stretch.

So, what I'm ranting about is the fact that this person has "filtered" out all the behind the scenes work that goes into designing a logo. Not to mention coming up with the ideas in the first place, but also the years of experience in knowing how to bring it all together.

I'm probably also ranting about the way people under-value what designers actually do. It's one of those careers that people in general think is "easy" it's colouring in!!

A story I love is the guy that went to fix a boat...
He hammered a nail into the corner of the boat and then charged £1000 to fix it.
When the boat owner asked him how he could charge so much for just hammering a new nail in, the gentleman fixing it said "£1 for the nail and £999 for the experience and knowledge of knowing where to put the nail"

For a more comprehensive, and less ranting version of what you're actually paying
for check out these sites...

http://blog.steveperrycreative.com/hiring-a-designer/

http://www.matdolphin.com/blog/2012/01/25/how-lo-can-you-go/

New Ginger Nut Tree Book... Giant Tales

So, I thought I'd doodle an image for one of the other Ginger Nut Tree books (Frank Lampard has nothing on me!!!!!! Oh, apart from a hefty big contract, but hey!!)

One of the other books I did was about elves that look after a giant, and clean his house, clean him, and at night time clean his teeth!!

This doodle is from the part where they're cleaning his teeth...

Ginger Nut Tree Stories Continues...

Well, my 'January Resolution' is nearly up and I need to think of one for February - my plan was to make a new resolution to stick to each month, I figured it would be easier!!

So, this weeks blog I've done a doodle for The Ginger Nut Tree Stories, but it's for a part that's a bit further into the book. So it probably won't make any sense, but it was just the doodle that I had in my head at the time!

This part of the book, the little boy discovers a patch of grass that, at the stroke of midnight (it always has to be midnight!!), turns into a slide and takes him underground to a world of elves, fairies and, of course, SWEETS - I'm thinking Willy Wonka style :)

As January's resolution comes to a close, I'm thinking February's might be the same - to keep doodling
until I finish the book :)

Not quite there yet...

Ok, so , my resolution for January was to blog every week - by the skin of my teeth I've made the blog this week....

I've not managed to do much more doodling to go with the story of the book, but I've done fairies - fairies are always good in a book about a tree that grows ginger-nut biscuits and tells stories, don't you think...

I have to confess though, fairies are always my favourite characters.... the tooth fairy, the christmas fairy, the creme egg fairy (what do you mean you didn't have one of those)....

So, which one should be my creme egg fairy.... :)

And so it begins....

In my blog last week I mentioned a book that I was starting to doodle the pictures for, the words are written, I just need to make it come alive with images! So, this is my first attempt for page one - the beginning...

I realise this could be a very slow, painful process. I'm going to have to progress from just drawing ginger-nut trees, and get on with the characters that are to come - there's some elves in this story (there's always elves in stories with ginger-nut biscuit trees!!) Then there's a giant in the next book, and some more elves, so many elves, it's beginning to look a lot like The Hobbit!!

Anyway, hopefully I'll have some elves to show for next week.... no pressure then!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR....

Well, it's been a while since I last wittered on - the end of 2012 was quite manic, to be perfectly honest I think there was a time thief, as I'm not entirely sure where October, November and December went!!

October was full of birthdays, we moved house in November and spent the rest of November and December trying to find places for all the things we've acquired over the past several years!!

The decs on the tree have now come down, even though it only seems like 5 minutes ago since I was digging them out of the cupboard to put up!!

However, I have found time to doodle for a new set of books I'm working on...

The books are about a tree that grows ginger-nut biscuits - but only kids can get the biscuits. The tree also tells stories (as all trees in kids books do!!) but all the stories are made of rhyming couplets.

So that's this years mission - The Tales of the Ginger-Nut Tree!!

What's your mission this year?

:)