Going Commercial

We had a very productive day today - building our business plan portfolio and working on
some new briefs to keep the studio atmosphere going - and to keep the goodies coming in!
Great day for us all, a proper 10 hour session. Here's our make-shift studio... 


And a cheeky hello for the ladies ;)


More from Patrick Burgoyne, Tara Hanrahan and Rebecca Wright (meeting on friday) soon!

Patrick Burgoyne


Patrick Burgoyne, Editor of Creative Review, has been a huge inspiration and help to the recent development of BH. For the last few mondays, along with tens of others, Patrick blesses BH with some worthy advice / experience and sometimes even a challenge.
Over the next few posts, we'll be throwing up some of his wise words. 


This week, we especially enjoyed listening to a short rendition of Patrick's professional history. Probably the most important thing he shared was that in terms of how you go about your future - there is no right or wrong. There is every opportunity to do what you want. Hearing this was so important to us - three young designers challenging the conventional approach into the industry. He did mention that a year or two with an agency / existing business would most probably benefit the 'commercial' part of the brain. He also mentioned that it could even boost-start a client base. He also mentioned that working for / in ANY kind of existing trade would potentially benefit our understanding of a profitable work ethic.

For these reasons, while Benio finishes his Degree, James will be spending a year working in design or design-related internships. Hold tight for his long list of jobs he's secured, and his quick summary of what he's been doing! Having just finished working a placement at Audacity, Josh has tuned into the educational frequency -  a very important area for BH to get involved in. Josh has just been offered a job working as a TA in a local school, where he hopes to not only become an inspiration to others, but also develop relationships in our new locality. Stay tuned for updates from him, too!

Patrick mentioned a few examples of how to go about promoting your own work ethic. Examples included:


Saul Bass - with a rich body of work, a varied career including sophistication in Posters, Animation, Film Sequences, Identity... etc. 

We loved the inside info about him too - that his wife, Elaine is a huge help and the kerfufle over who storyboarded the Psycho shower scene and who shot it!
It was relieving to learn the succession of mediums in Bass' career. It seems as if he didn't know himself where to start. Maybe through trial and error, maybe through experience, or maybe just through sheer perseverance, Bass established his name over a nmber of fields.
A great first example.


Robert Brownjohn - Another great example of a varied career - succeeding in Advertising, Identity, Graphic Design, Branding... etc.

Brownjohn's courage was what struck us the most. Patrick revealed that apparently when Brownjohn was pitching the idea for projecting type onto the naked body, (for the James Bond titles), he hired a theatre, got up on stage, stripped naked and basked in the projection... asking the producers to imagine he was a beautiful woman! Classic. One thing Patrick mentioned was that he was a great example of someone who likes "bouncing around between Graphic Design and Advertising".


David James - We aren't even embarrassed to do this (I know it seems lazy but we ARE technically writing about Patrick Burgoyne)...

... Read this if you know what's good for you:







Among the rest, Tom Hingston, Scott King and Malcolm Garret were mentioned.


Right, it's 2:27 am, the rest will come tomorrow night. 
For now, BH x


This is a Butcher's Hook

I made a little gif, possibly a loading buffer on our website?

Who knows? It was fun to learn how!


Ghostwood Press

Today, BH met with Ghostwood Press.
Ghostwood Press is  a small collective based in South London who make zines and other printed matter. At the moment there are only two people driving things forward, but they are always looking to expand, so feel free to contact them if you'd like to make something with them!


In the future, we'd be proud and honoured to showcase some of their BEAUTIFUL books in our gallery. Today, we saw some prototypes for two new books coming out, by some amazing designers; Ashley Wiltshire & Stephanie Bickford-Smith:






Ghostwood Press is run by ADRIAN CURCHER and KATHRYN NEWMAN.
Good luck in your new venture, we hope to grow with you over time. Let's keep in contact!

GFSmith

Today, BH met with GF Smith.





GFSmith is an independent British company that produces coloured and textured papers, widely regarded as the definitive collection of premium materials for design and print. 
They pride themselves on "long-standing ties with world-renowned mills; innovation in sources, materials and techniques; and an ingrained sense of pride in our products". 

Their presentation about paper (of which they have dealt with for over 126 years!!) was excellent. The representatives we met were extremely generous, offering us lots of samples and promises of even more!


"Our knowledge of our papers and their creative potential is yours 
for the taking".


They recommended we checked out:
Thanks GF Smith, we'll be sure to stay in touch!


>CONTACT: 


GF Smith 
Unit C4 
Six Bridges Trading Estate 
Marlborough Grove 
London 
SE1 5JT
020 7394 4660
london@gfsmith.com



Central Table Piece

Since we've opted to try and keep as much of the 'butcher' vibe in the gallery, we decided to keep, restore and reuse these old meat chopping tables we found, like this:




Here they are:






You get an idea of the width and height of them here:

Typefaces

Typefaces we've used (officially) to date


AlexandriaFLF:



Lobster 1.4:



Badge Idea


Reminds me a bit of Pringles....


    

To Do...

In a meeting today, we decided on the following 3-month plan:


Research:
  • LLP (Limited Liability Partnership)
  • Companies House : Name (Butcher's Hook LLP.)
  • Prince's Trust / Start-up Grants
  • Banking / Accountancy
  • Existing Galleries / Studios

Plan:
  • Identity
  • Branding
  • Business plan
  • Ethics

Accomplish (2 weeks):
  • Business Plan (on paper)
  • Business Cards / self-promotion
  • Community Work
  • Haven Arms research and development.


Working Ethic

After a meeting today, we agreed on some of the following points:



What key factors (relating to work ethic) should we agree on?




Idea Conservation

Butcher's Hook recently learnt the following:

The number of thoughts you have in one day massively overweighs the number of words you speak. FACT. Even if you can rap as fast as WATSKY (check that out...!!).

Unfortunately, most of our thoughts are never communicated and only exist within the complex cavities of our cavernous minds. Sometimes, they sink so deep, we don't even fathom their existence... They stay down there, hidden away from everyone. Your head is a gold mine.

So here's to those ideas that we get when we do a handstand, when we're pretending to listen to a nagging parent, when we're on the toilet and the ones we get when we first open our eyes in the morning. All those times when something random wiggles its way out of those dark passages in our brains, and make it all the way to the surface. Butcher's Hook encourages you to cherish them. Write them down quickly, chuck it on your phone, tell someone - anything to keep it alive!

Take that idea for a walk. Push it over the edge. Kill it, resuscitate it then tease it, until it explodes. Throw the idea around, then pick it up and kiss it till it feels better. Develop it, build on it, pass it on, DO SOMETHING WITH IT!

Just never take them for granted - you never know what kind of treasure you're sitting on.

We also found this EXTREMELY interesting:



Golborne Road, W10


Here's the first look at our new home! 
Originally a family-run Butcher's shop, this lovely little shopfront will host Butcher's Hook Design Studio / Art Gallery.

Although the images do require a pinch of salt to look at, you get an idea of our new space.








Come into the office:







Back in the day:


Who are Butcher's Hook?


After a collective experience of 10 years studying Art, Design and Technology, Graphic Design, Advertising and Moving Image, Ben and James and Josh (Butcher's Hook), decided to avoid the convention of applying our talents as juniors in pre-existing agencies. We’ve always had fantastic creative chemistry, not to mention the uncontrollable desire to take it to the next level, as professional designers.

A year down the line, having taken every opportunity to develop mostly ANY and EVERY client that approached us, we had achieved an established identity. This identity earned us our very own shop front studio, on Golbourne road, W10 (hold tight for pictures!).

Over the last year we have been working for a variety of delighted clients. Coupling our relocation with our knowledge and experience so far, we aim to improve and expand our existing reputation and healthy client base. This, in turn will increase our turnover and further our opportunity for growth.
Therefore, we’d like to propose a manifesto with a simple, but not simplistic sentence:  we get the job done, we do it well and we always will.