Date: Monday 26th July

Time: 10.00am-12.00pm

Location: City Business Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2V 7HH

Booking ESSENTIAL. e: cbl@cityoflondon.gov.uk, t: 020 7332 1812

W: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/cbl

This month, Bracket will join them to talk about collaboration:

How can you join forces to win new business? This interactive and practical session will give you tips to help you find creative ways to network and collaborate to further your business.

Date: Wednesday 28 July

Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm (with networking until 3pm)

Venue: The Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3XF

To register for this event call 020 8522 5700 quoting Fit for Business or email fitforbusiness@newham.ac.uk

Last month, on 8^th June, the first RewireLondon event took place, at Rich Mix in Shoreditch – a collaboration between Bracket and 8Fold.  RewireLondon was an unconference for the creative sector, an interactive and flexible event where the attendees were the driving force.  This meant that rather than curating the schedule completely with invited speakers, it was mostly left open for artists, writers, designers and other creatives to suggest and run their own sessions.

We started the day with Araceli Carmargo-Fitzpatrick of THECUBE presenting her concept of “Ideas Engineering” and David Rowan, editor of WiredUK, discussing the iPad and the future of publishing.  As attendees got inspired by what they heard on the main stage, the schedule slowly filled up with a range of diverse and innovative sessions.  There were project showcases, collaborative problem solving, informal discussions and even meditation! The full list of sessions that took place is here.

What people commented on most throughout the day was the number of connections they were able to make with others across all creative sectors.  We’d intentionally set out to create a mix, as we know that the most innovative ideas can come from multi-disciplinary collaboration. And that was a key theme throughout the day – many sessions touched on this topic with in-depth discussions on how to kick-start creative ideas.

Everyone was keen to continue the conversations after the schedule had ended, so we were lucky to be able to do this over the delicious punch provided by the Courvoisier The Future 500.  As the cocktails flowed, so did the business cards – it was a great ending to a fantastic day!

Thanks to all involved – we’ve already had many requests to keep the event going, so watch this space.

www.rewirelondon.org

The day is for freelancers, independents and micro-businesses working as trainers, consultants, project managers, advisers, coaches and mentors and will provide the time, space and structure for attendees to reflect on their practices against current business challenges. Throughout Concourse 2 there will be opportunities to network, listen to experienced and diverse speakers and refresh thinking.

Bracket will be running a workshop on ‘effective collaboration in the creative sector’ as one of eight options to help attendees expand their skills knowledge and experience.

Event details
Concourse 2 – Yes, No, Maybe
9^th July, 10.00am-4.00pm
Wellcome Collection, NW1
£50

For more information and to book a place, visit the Concourse 2 website.

Making Ideas Happen – an essential read for anyone who generates ideas – takes readers through a series of suggestions, based on case studies from successful creative organisations known for “overcoming the obstacles between vision and reality” (the book’s tagline).  This ranges from practical tips on managing projects (including Behance’s own “Action Method”, thinking about how your workspace can help you become more action-orientated, and overcoming the stigma of self-promotion.  It also nods to some of the current trends driving our working practices such as the freelance culture, flexibility, digital developments and co-working, as elements that should be capitalised to support ideas execution.

A considerable amount of the book is dedicated to the “Forces of Community” using networks and contacts to get ideas through to completion.   Making Ideas Happen acknowledges the value of collaboration (“ideas don’t happen in isolation”) but identifies the challenges that can arise throughout the process for creative people, such as sharing ideas, transparency and tolerating feedback, whilst looking at processes for overcoming these.

Overall, Making Ideas Happen is an accessible read that encourages you to reflect on and re-evaluate the way you work creatively.  Belsky has been careful to focus on thought-provoking techniques for putting ideas into practice (99% of the work) rather than ideas generation which is well within the comfort zone of most creative people (the other 1%).  It’s one of those books that, when you find your brilliant projects aren’t leaving the sketchbook, you should dip into for actionable suggestions for getting them going.

For more information visit http://the99percent.com/book or pre-order the book on Amazon.

Did it work?  Even better than expected!

By the end of the two days we had:

-       a new website with a wordpress theme built from scratch, based on a new colour palette

-       a series of illustrations and text visualising the Bracket collaborative process, as well as text throughout the website

-       a range of characters to be used in an animation for an online viral video

-       a series of images to be used in a printed promotional campaign

-       and the beginnings of a film documentary

So how was this achieved?

We spent a long time (the first half of the first day), using Bracket’s developed techniques to generate ideas, set aims, and identify the tasks to be completed   Our essential toolkit for the two days included magic whiteboard, post-it notes, and coloured pens and markers.  By lunchtime, the walls of THECUBE were covered with words, diagrams, scribblings and plans of what was going to happen over the next day and a half.

Being in the same room together meant everything could happen quickly and seamlessly.  Laura (copywriter) worked with Emily (graphic facilitator/illustrator) to iron out the Bracket process which informed the text and illustrations; Naomi (graphic designer) worked with Joel (filmmaker) to develop the colour palette for the website and the characters used in the animation and illustrations; Matt and Andy (web-developers) worked together to set-up the website, and then Matt worked with Naomi to translate her page designs to the web, whilst Andy worked with Laura on the search engine optimisation (SEO) keywords.  It was great to see everyone’s ideas gradually coming to life.

Furthermore, everyone said that they enjoyed the experience – meeting new people, working with others and adding an interesting project to their portfolio.  Through the agency, Bracket intends to run more of these ‘labs’ to deliver commercial projects.  For more information on Bracket’s creative agency and to get involved, visit www.bracketcreative.co.uk

Here is who is involved (in order of how far the network spread):

Laura North – copywriter (a previous colleague)

Emily Wilkinson (Empathi) – graphic facilitator/illustrator (introduced through a mutual friend)

Naomi Ray (Studio Pixie) – graphic designer/illustrator (met through Twitter)

Matthew Smith-Stubbs – front-end web developer (fellow member of THECUBE, co-working space for creative businesses)

Andrew Davey (MediaBandit) – web developer (responded to a call put out through the Open Coffee mailing list)

Joel Somerfield (Order) – filmmaker (was passed on by someone through the Open Coffee mailing list. But turns out he has done work for mutual contacts also).

So we all know how important it is to stay networked to stay in the loop, but if you want to build a collaborative team quickly – it’s essential.

Stay tuned for the progress of BracketLab, which will be taking place on 2^nd and 3^rd June at THECUBE.

But when you don’t share a physical space with your collaborators, is there an online equivalent?  How can those titbits of information be shared with the whole team and displayed visually so that they’re not forgotten?

Stixy is a flexible, intuitive and free tool that allows individuals to create online boards and add to-dos, documents, photos and notes, which can then be shared with team members.  The board’s design can be customised and the ‘widgets’ moved around and organised easily.  A great way to get started.

A tool with more sophisticated functionality (but needing a bit more of an induction) is Evernote.  Evernote allows users to store anything – images, websites, text notes, sketches  – in an online space or  ‘notebook’, to come back to later.  Although primarily designed to help individuals to remember stuff, they have added functionality for notebooks to be shared with others (although a Premium account is needed for them to edit and add to the notebook, otherwise they can only view).  Once downloading the various applications and plug-ins (such as the web clipping tool), your Evernote account can be accessed from your computer or the internet.  Install it on your mobile phone and you’ll also be able to store bits of information on the fly – for example,  take a snapshot of something that inspires you and add it to your shared notebook for your team members to see almost instantly.

One session will be dedicated to collaboration, so Bracket were delighted to be asked to contribute.  We’ll be speaking alongside Margo Selby, Textile Designer and Natalie Melton, Commercial Director of Arts & Business, looking at successful partnerships and how to make them work.

For more information and to book your place, visit the Hidden Art Forum 2010 website.

Hidden Art Forum 2010
Date: 16 June, 9.30am-5.30pm
UBS Investment Bank, Bishopsgate
£5 (exc. VAT) for Hidden Art members.  £15 (exc. VAT) for non-members.

How will it work?
A team of self-employed creatives will get together w/c 31^st May to brainstorm and develop ideas for an online presence and marketing campaign for Bracket.  Through a mixture of face-to-face meetings, workshops and web-based communication, the team will deliver a solution by 4^th June (see Social Innovation Camp, the 24 Hour Book Project and Launch 48 for similar projects).

This is part paid creative project, part workshop/learning experience/experimental lab!  BracketLab will also be documented in film and image.

We are looking for a:
- web designer
- web developer
- graphic designer/illustrator
- copywriter
- filmmaker
- (also open to other disciplines that can contribute)

All team members will need to be available on 31st May*, and 2^nd and 3^rd June, and have access to the internet on the other days of the project.

What do you get?
- You get paid for your creative input
- Develop your skills in effective collaboration – skills development, peer learning and exchange are a large part of the project
- Be part of an experimental process and new way of working – explore new methods for your business
- Get coverage and exposure – the project will be promoted widely and you will be credited for your work

For more info:

If you are a self-employed creative, open to collaborative and new ways of working, and would like to be involved, e-mail alison [at] bracketprojects.co.uk for more information and to arrange an informal chat.  We aim to have the team confirmed by Friday 21^st May.  If this isn’t for you, please feel free to pass onto others you think may be interested.

*UPDATE: the 31st is a bank holiday, so intro day will take place on 28th May or 1st June.