Task 4

CONTEXT

In responding to this task you will need to consider the following questions:

Who am I competing against? What do they offer? What makes me better? What makes me different?

BRIEF

Based on the principles that have been introduced in lecture 4 of the Enterprise module and your responses to the previous tasks, evaluate the Strengths and Weaknesses of three practitioners or design agencies as objectively as you can.

What opportunities for your own practice have revealed themselves to you as a result of this analysis and evaluation?

Do not use subjective language or make unfounded comments about other peopleʼs businesses.

It is essential that you make references to SWOT and evaluate its usefulness as an analysis or evaluation tool.

In the previous post I have shown work by a design agency in Manchester called 'Music.' I really appreciate the work they have produced and the way they approach design in a down to earth manner. Therefore I have decided to critically analyse their studio.

As the question states a SWOT analysis is to work out how my personal practice can be inspired by other designers strengths and also how I could in fact stand out by improving on their weaknesses.

Strengths of the company include a large range of focused design which has been taylor made for the client. When Music came to do a talk at college I thought their relaxed, down to earth style was really inspiring and they expressed the need to be motivated by the message before you could create anything which worked.

Although it is a simple point, all weaknesses are valid,I feel their website is quite confusing and doesn't showcase their work as you would expect. Also it is quite hard to navigate to their website when simply looking for 'graphic design in manchester' in google search - this will provide for them a large client base so could imagine they will have missed out.

Being in the centre of Manchester they are in a prime location for events and are surrounded by small/medium and large businesses who could go to them for work. Similarly being in a large city centre can pose threats as competition is high and I could Imagine they have to work extra hard in making every part of their company right for their target audience.