Category: Art

  • 3 Tips To Start A Successful Business In Today’s Market

    If you are thinking about starting a business in today’s market, you need to ensure that you are ready for all the challenges that will be coming your way. What many people don’t realize is that starting a business is about more about the idea and planning than just throwing yourself in the deep end and seeing if you float. There is always going to be a risk when it comes to starting a business, which is why being prepared is an essential part of doing well. From creating something substantial to running a commercial credit report on any potential business partners to ensure that they are safe to work with, there is no such thing as being too prepared in the business world. As such, we have written this article to give you some advice on how you can start a successful business in today’s market.

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    Come Up With A Great Idea

    The very first thing that you need if you want to start a business is a great idea. There are so many companies today that offer the same kind of things, so you need to either find something different or come up with a reason as to why your idea is better than all the others. This is not an easy thing to do, and a lot of the time you will think that you have come up with something fresh and there is a little start-up around the corner doing the same thing. As such, ensure that you have done all the research that you can surrounding the industry that you want to enter, and find yourself a gap in the market.

    Find The Funding

    The next thing that you should be doing is finding funding for your business. Unless you have a spare ten thousand sitting in your bank, you are going to need help here. Trade shows are a great way to find people who are looking to invest in a new business, all you have to do is give them a reason to invest in yourself. Set yourself up a business stall and you will be amazed at the amount of interest that you can generate this way. You might also find that other businesses who are successful in your area are willing to give you advice on what you can do to help your business get started. You can find other examples of how to get funding for your business on a site such as https://www.themuse.com.

    Alongside hunting for investors, consider how your business presents itself to those potential backers and clients. A reputable central address, professional call handling and secure mail forwarding can make a young company look far more established without the cost of renting office space. Many founders use services like YOUR VIRTUAL OFFICE LONDON to manage correspondence and book meeting rooms for pitches, which helps protect personal privacy while improving credibility. Those small operational choices often make a big difference when building investor confidence.

    Hold An Amazing Launch Event

    Once you have got the idea, the funding and you are ready to open your business, you need to ensure that you have an amazing launch event lined up. Invite your investors, potential clients, other businesses, everyone you can think of to this event to open your business. To make this event amazing, you need to think about food and entertainment. Hire a catering company to take care of all the dishes that you are going to serve and this way you aren’t going to have to worry about the food being bad quality.

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    When it comes to entertainment, if you check out a site like AliveNetwork.com, you are going to find a range of entertainment options that you and your guests can enjoy. Go for something a little different from the traditional event entertainment because you want your event to really stand out from the crowd and be memorable.

    We hope that you have found this article helpful and now understand some of the things that you need to do if you want to start a successful business in today’s market.

  • Future Positive x Radisson Red

    Future Positive x Radisson Red

    Radisson Red is a hotel concept by Radisson for those interested in art, music and fashion. The first Radisson Red hotel is opening later this year in Brussels, followed by other locations across the world.

    We recently collaborated with Radisson Red on their brand new blog, creating a series of features showcasing the work of creative designers, artists and makers based in some of our favourite cities. Find out more about them below and read each individual story on Radisson Red’s blog.

    Act

    Act is a brand of espadrilles and accessories founded in 2013 and established between Berlin and Mallorca. Silvia Conde photographed co-founder Isabel Rotger in Berlin for this feature.

    Read more.

    Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-1 Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-2Images by Silvia Conde

    Pino Gay

    Pino Gay is the name of the project of Camila Pino Gay, a designer and illustrator based in Santiago de Chile. Our contributor Carlos Molina paid a visit to her flat in the Chilean capital.

    Read more.

    Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-3 Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-4Images by Carlos Molina

    Patrik Larsson

    Patrik Larsson is a freelance interior architect and furniture designer living and working in Gothenburg. Swedish photographer Hilda Grahnat followed him around the streets of Gothenburg for this feature.

    Read more.

    Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-5 Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-6Images by Hilda Grahnat

    Karen Mabon

    Karen Mabon is an accessories designer based in Edinburgh. We visited her studio in Edinburgh’s New Town and spent a morning photographing her.

    Read more.

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    Airplantman

    Josh Rosen calls himself Airplantman and designs incredible vertical gardens from his studio in Los Angeles. Our contributor Valerie Chiang visited him to photograph his creations.

    Read more.

    Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-9 Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-10Images by Valerie Chiang

    Pena Jewels

    Miriam Álvarez and María Sanchez are the creative team behind Pena Jewels, a jewellery brand born in Lisbon and now based in Madrid. Silvia Conde photographer their studio.

    Read more.

    Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-11 Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-12Images by Silvia Conde

    Flora & Laura

    Flora & Laura is the project of Helsinki-based art director and flower stylist Laura Väinölä. Laura Iisalo spent a day with her documenting a day in her life.

    Read more.

    Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-13 Future-Positive-Radisson-Red-14Images by Laura Iisalo

    Follow Radisson Red on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

  • Kristin Texeira

    Kristin Texeira

    Kristin Texeira is an oil painter originally from Massachusetts. From her studio in Brooklyn, Kristin creates abstract colourful paintings to capture, document and preserve memories. We chat with Kristin to find out more about her earliest memories of painting, the influence of colour in her work and what happens on a normal day at her studio.

    www.kristintexeira.com

    Studio photographs by Julie Simon.

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    What are your earliest memories of painting?

    I remember as a very young child a pair of feathery paintings above my mother’s couch. I would subconsciously study them – the way the colors and shapes interacted and overlapped, comparing and contrasting them. So, it all started with looking.

    After that I can remember passing my hours filling coloring books – my strategy was to use as many colors from the crayon box as possible. I had little watercolor sets and my grandmother would let me paint on her walls and windowsills. I loved color from a young age. I would take the paint palettes from my classmates and mix their colors together to watch them all blend before washing them.

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    Please take us through a normal day at your studio and tell us a little about your work process.

    I’m a big list-maker. My day usually starts with a coffee and a “to-do” list. There is a lot to balance between the act of making art and the business side of things. So, my lists usually include a few business oriented tasks: emails, updates, applications, and then there’s the good stuff – what I will make that day.

    Most of my paintings begin in the form of writing. I try to free write everyday in search of inspiration. Writing helps me to preserve the present and unlock memories that I haven’t visited in a while. My paintings are these stories retold through the language of color.

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    Colour is clearly an essential aspect of your paintings. Please tell us in which ways it influences your work.

    My life is categorized with color. Colors are evoked through interactions. I make playlists based on the colors of songs. I know certain friends will get along with each other based on their colors. I see colors in scents and sounds. It helps me define moments in time.

    I paint to provide proof – for myself and others – of existing in these moments. Painting keeps me present and allows me to pay homage to the past. I gather colors daily as a reminder to remain awake and I paint the colors of the past to remedy nostalgia.

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    What other elements are an essential part of your work? Where do you draw inspiration from?

    Travel plays an important role in my work. I’ve noticed a pattern where I never have a sense of my present home until I reach a new destination. Interacting with new environments allows the past to become a memory and therefore something I wish to preserve through painting. Being in new places and listening to the stories of strangers serves as great source material for my pieces. My desire to learn through travel and my artistic practice are intertwined.

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    What are you working on at the moment?

    Though I look outwardly for inspiration, my work over the past few years has been mostly personal. I am continuing the search for beautiful interactions but, I am starting to gather other people’s memories as well.

    I have had strangers come to me with memories that they want to preserve through paint. There have been families that have to sell their grandparent’s home and want a tangible map to remember. There have been couples that share a great adventure in a faraway place, walking me step-by-step through their memory, asking me to put it into paint. It’s amazing some of the stories people have shared and beautiful that they trust me with something so precious. I’m hoping to continue my own adventure and help many people along the way with remembering theirs.

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  • The Poundshop

    The Poundshop

    Founded in 2010 and currently run by George Wu and Sara Melin, The Poundshop is a pop up shopping project based on the idea of selling quality designer products at affordable prices.

    The Poundshop’s mission is to make design accessible to a wider audience and all products are sold within the £1, £5 and £10 price bands. Working with a wide range of designers, most of whom are new to making products, The Poundshop is the perfect testing ground for them to experiment with new and interesting products. Over the years, The Poundshop have organised pop us shops at numerous spaces across the world, including Selfridges, Somerset House, Loft Tokyo and Science Museum in London.

    We talked with its founders to find out more about the project and what makes a perfect submission to the Poundshop.

    www.thepoundshop.org

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    Could you tell us a little bit about your background and what you do apart from running The Poundshop?

    Sara: I am from Sweden originally , but have now been here for 14 years! Studied at St Martins and then RCA in London, where I met George and Sarah. We pretty much set up The Poundshop shortly after leaving RCA .

    I do a lot of different things but most of it runs backs to The Poundshop. At the moment I am working as a consultant for a charity putting together a new product range for their online shop and also designing a pop up shop for them. I am also planning two workshop that will be take place in Brazil in October.

    George: I am originally from Manchester and studied graphic design in Bath before moving to London for work. A few years later I took part in the BB New Music Shorts and decided to switch to film so went to the RCA where we met. Now besides creating Poundshops, I am a director at Nexus Productions creating videos and installations. Currently I’m working on a new short film in collaboration with photographer John Short which should be coming out at the end of September.

    Poundshop

    What inspired you to open The Poundshop?

    Sara: The credit crunch I think and wanting to do something together.

    George: I always had the dream of having my own shop one day. Pretending to be shop keeper and stocking shelves! I think it’s because my family has always run businesses, it must be in me!

    Poudshop at Weiden + Kennedy

    What makes a perfect submission?

    Sara: Cleaver solutions to a small problem, beautifully designed with the minimal usage of materials to keep costs down.

    George: Something that you would definitely use yourself that’s has a real purpose which is a challenge at such a low price point.

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    How do you approach the interior design and visual merchandising of each of the spaces you use for The Poundshop?

    Sara: Generally I collect lots of images of things that I like the look of as a start. Shop interiors, patterns, colours etc. George is definetely the better one at coming up with ideas and she has a more graphic design / installation background than me, so she tends to take the lead on the design and then we discuss it.

    George: Yeah I think usually we have a big brainstorm. Because we don’t work together all the time it’s good to get to know what the other is into at that moment. Then the starting point can either be the venue: The Science Poundshop was inspired by equipment transit cases. Or by the function of the shop: The ICA shop needed to be set up in a very short space of time so we created it out of repurposed ladders. The most important consideration is that the materials are all low cost to compliment the idea of low cost design shop.

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    What are your ambitions for The Poundshop? How do you see it developing in the future?

    Sara: At the moment we are discussing a few changes and new routes but we tend to not plan to far ahead… So we will just have to see where this year will take us!

    George: I think our next challenge and always the biggest is the Christmas Poundshop, but the most exciting (and intimidating) is our forth coming appearance on Poundshop Wars on BBC 1!

     

    All images, courtesy of The Poundshop 

  • Why You Don’t Need Video Subscriptions as Much as You Think You Do

    In this day and age of high-speed internet connectivity and affordable computers, it’s easy to catch up on the latest shows and movies thanks to video subscription services like Netflix and Amazon Video. However, are they as crucial to your daily life as you think they are, or are they just being a nuisance?

    In this article, we’re going to take a look if you really need video subscriptions or if they’re just forcing you to spend money you could be saving.

    Photo via Unsplash

    Regular television still has great programs to watch

    It’s probably been a while since you’ve looked at a UK TV guide or seen a schedule for cable channels, but many of the latest and greatest shows are still exclusive to television and won’t come to video subscriptions for a long time if ever.

    There are plenty of fantastic shows on regular television broadcasts including news and sports. While video on demand is a great way to watch specific shows and movies, there’s still a lot to watch on regular television.

    Video subscriptions are surprisingly limited

    Sure, if you’re on a movie binge and you want to catch the latest films from the past few years then Netflix is a fantastic option. It seems like there’s a massive selection of things to watch and you’ll be able to get your money’s worth. However, once you’ve had the subscription for a few months, it really starts to show just how limited your video subscription service is.

    To make things worse, choices are often limited by regions as well. For instance, what you can watch in the United Kingdom is drastically different from the choice you get in the United States. In addition, movies tend to come and go as “exclusives” which can make you want to keep your subscription for longer.

    Video subscriptions are also fairly outdated

    While some shows are fantastic and exclusive to their platforms, most films are actually somewhat outdated. This means that you’ll be able to catch up on old films, but there’s nothing recent that you can watch unless it wasn’t popular and went straight to a video subscription service.

    This means that if you’re looking to watch films, you’ll have a surprisingly limited library to pick from and this isn’t such a great choice for movie lovers.

    You don’t own any of your movies or shows

    Sooner or later, Netflix is either going to be taken down or the licenses for certain shows will be stripped away. This means that you’ll end up in a situation where the shows you love are no longer watchable and you’ll either need a physical copy (such as a DVD or BluRay) or you’ll need to hope another video subscription service has it.

    DVD and BluRay copies can be relatively cheap, especially during sales periods, and you can always buy them second-hand from sites like eBay. In short, if you really want to preserve your favourite films and watch them at any time, owning them is the best option.