Trend: Up-Cycling

Up-Cycling is different to recycling, it doesn't require energy or resources to collect, sort or process the materials. Up-Cycling is about reusing something without downgrading it's quality. 
Rather than throwing out old furniture for example why no re-upholster or give it a fresh coat of paint. 


A company called ReMake have come up with a unique way of Up-Cycling by reusing old billboard adverts.

ReMakes™ eco-friendly placemats are made from reclaimed billboards and movie posters. Each one-of-a-kind set of four placemats is randomly cut and selected from the same poster. 

ReMakes™ placemats help preserve our environment and reduce landfill, while bringing an artistic and unique look to your table.

http://www.remakes.biz/Home.html

Trend: British Heritage

Maybe it's the festivities of the up and coming Royal Wedding or the 2012 London Olympic Games, but patriotism is here and a trend that's taking over.

The Union Jack

The union jack is unavoidable in all areas of design at the moment from Jan Constantine's collection of hand embroidered textiles, to Paul Smith's union jack lined umbrellas. 

Locally sourced foods

In our current economic climate everyone seems to be more aware of supporting our local business' and local farmers in particular. There has been a greater demand for locally sourced foods and supermarkets such as M&S and Waitrose are committed to sourcing local produce.

"We value our farmers, so we are doing all we can to support them and help maintain a prosperous British agricultural industry. " M&S

British Heritage in Fashion
Think the great outdoors. British Heritage is all about teaming up wool, tartan, sheepskin and tweed with fur trimmed accessories.

The

 British classic Barbour Jacket. 

Hunter wellington boots.
British designer Vivienne Westwood.

The Brief

During this unit we will investigate where ideas come from, how they are valuable and how they can be developed into viable business concepts. We will see how ideas do not just come from nowhere –the strong ones are underpinned by hard work, knowledge, awareness and research. As the great innovator Edison pointed out – genius is “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”.

For the Project you will

a)    identify an opportunity for an innovative new product, service or organisation

b)    shape your ideas into a business concept proposal

c)    create a selling business pitch

The project will give you and your team the opportunity to try out your creative capabilities in new contexts and pit your wits against fellow teams.

For assessment and grading during this project, you are required to work together in teams to apply your creativity as follows:

·      Having looked at trends and fads in society and keeping your ear to the ground, identify an opportunity i.e. an idea for a new product or service that you believe has commercial market potential. This may be directly related to your subject specialism or can be something quite different.

·      Come up with a business plan where you:

a.  Develop the idea into a robust concept, describing

•                 The opportunity/setting (trends etcetera)

•                 The concept (service, product)

•                 The target market (segmentation, customer profiles)

•                 Market need or desire and how you satisfy it

•                 Who your competitors might be

•                 Why your concept is better/different and why

•                 What steps you would need to take next to make your concept happen

b.  Include a basic start up and cash flow budget and a project implementation/ action plan (Gantt chart) showing key activities and the timeline required to implement your business concept

c.   Create a selling (no more than 10 minute) presentation of your business concept/idea for a potential funder (e.g. PowerPoint or equivalent), including rationale for proposed business concept and supporting evidence, details of the research and analysis you have undertaken to develop it thus far and the next steps necessary for taking your concept forward to reality. All members need to take part in the presentation which will take the shape of a ‘Dragons Den’ style pitch to a panel.

d.  You are required to keep a personal project log or blog throughout the project to record your research and learning journey.   For summative assessment you will fill in an individual statement through an online questionnaire/ exam where you will account for your contribution to your group and answer some questions on content we have covered through the unit. You will also submit a link to your blog.