Day spent experiencing what the competitors to Stage have to offer.

SocietyM is an exclusive members business club, run out of the ground floor of two Uk CitizenM hotels. Based in Glasgow and London, SocietyM is a business club providing a creative workspace for large events or smaller day use. Open to anyone who is accepted into the exclusive club. The creative environment for business is provided with a combination of vitra furniture and event management provided by SocietyM on behalf of clients.

An interview with one of the managers behind the service, led to discussions about the positive differences of my own proposal Stage and while we target a similar market with similar intentions, getting to know the competition has only given me more confidence in my own proposal.

- SocietyM take little interest in providing a service to the client above and beyond a vitra furnished space and membership to an exclusive club.

- They do not consider allowing clients to welcome in their own people and providing exclusive perks to those who are members only but seeing the benefit of introducing the public into the space is not one they consider valuable, despite claiming to be a 'service for collaboration of everyone' yet members only get entry.

- Start-ups are common but they are more diverse and although appreciate my mission to target start-ups they like to welcome clients like apple, nike, converse and have no specific target market..just if you are a business/ need to run an event pay us and you have the space.

-Only open to using vitra not other creative space options, such as crowdsourcing artists and designers to exhibit work.

-Do not have a club website or marketing options other that word of mouth.

- Do not see value in the collaboration of people to clients.

Business Proposal

Stage is a proposed business club and event curation service. Providing a people centred, creative workspace experience for todays start-up business market. An exclusive workplace club, but one based on the power of collaboration by the people. Approval of the people is the essential factor for start-up businesses, artists and designers exhibiting their work and for the stage experience to be successful.

When working hard on a design project and a project in general, I tend to keep my head low and try not to blog and share every detail with you lot, the world (whether through means of online or the good old fashioned face to face conversation) After all an idea is only an intention until it has been perfected, polished and produced. Some might say I am in the wrong, if my audience doesn't get to know every time I have a cup of coffee, have an opinion on Sir Bradley Wiggins not singing the national anthem or have moved a stage further with a project. But hey its my design process after all and I'm fairly good at unsocial networking when it comes to projects. Unless of course I directly need something from you, like the great Steve Jobs, then my reality distortion field will kick in. No instead it's all about keeping a low profile, but working equally as hard on my projects as I am with being unsociable about them. With the intentions of releasing regular updates as I progress from here on, and with what the past few months have held. I can confirm that I have a lot of information regarding research and development for my service proposal 'Stage' and the current generation of ideas for my honours and degree show project. As for now I leave you with some words of Thomas Aquinas, "Ad pulcritudenum tria requituntur integritas, consonantia, claritas". May the Integrity, harmony and radiance of this post be a language for your senses.

Ready to be handed in/ End of workspace project

#DesignandMkt

Something inspiring that I read today while glancing through 'The design agenda'  (A guide to successful design management, by Rachel Cooper and Mike Press) A reference which got me motivated about and states exactly what my Service enterprise platform 'Stage' intends to provide.
 "The act of designing requires a combination of logical and intuitive thought which is encouraged in design education. As a solution-led creative activity, design does not always fit easily into the traditional culture of management. 'One goal of design management is to provide an environment that stimulates and supports creative design thinking' and Design can usually be viewed as a strategic planning process that applies the innovative potential of the enterprise with the changing requirements of the market". 
As a designer I am used to managing my own design projects and have experience in the leadership and managing of group design projects, these attributes and my values help to contribute to why my service proposal 'Stage' aims to provide what it does. A creative platform and service to provide clients/ businesses with a creative environment and temporary workspace to creatively carryout their 'job to be done'. While connecting them together with their stakeholders and creative individuals (designers and artists who require gallery space) at the same hub which the local community can interact with (closed shops and failed business premises) within the community. Aiding co-creation, community spirit and regeneration of the local high street scene, of closed shops and lack of creative business activity. Reversing the recession Stage emphasises the reward of creative capital when tackling the problems of today. With the vision of 'Stage' as a service proposal in mind, very interesting reviewing Mike Press' recent research and crowd-sourcing of what design leadership actually is. Seeing responses such as;
 ' creatively connecting the dots, providing an open space in the right direction, transferring what only your eyes can see to the rest of humanity, creating space to empower new opportunity and vision, empowering people to take the lead so they can improve the world for themselves and others, agents of change....and many more great responses' 
All very motivating while reviewing my personal proposal for the Service enterprise 'Stage' as a business start-up, with knowing why it provides what it does as a service and the benefit of doing so to the current market.

Stage, Design and Mkt

Stage is a service proposal which provides creative workspace hubs and connects local communities and stakeholders of companies and organisations together in one creative workspace within their community. Aswel as a concept of reversing the recession and improving the situation of the local high st, Stage turns closed shops and failed business premises into temporary creative hubs, of what could be referred to as 'ironic creative business activity'.
 The proposal shares my own values as a designer of the need for a creative workspace regardless of the 'job to be done', the need for creatively approaching problems and often the benefit of getting out of your own workspace, to achieve a different perspective on the task at hand, Stage provides the platform to do so.


Whether it's a place for clients to hold meetings, launch their own products (i.e a bank launching a new credit card and needing a platform to do so), or interact with their stakeholders in a suitable venue. The audience is not limited, but the service remains the same, a creative workspace hub of local creativity, the Stage tangible reward of creativity (branded recognition of using a Stage hub) that clients can take away as a reward that reflects the benefit of the experience to the community and promotes the intangible benefit that the client has returned to their own space with a new creative perspective on their 'job to be done',

"Stage you could say is a platform that sells creativity as a reward to it's audience"

The benefit of working at a creative workspace is not understood fully by clients, especially large companies which don't consider themselves to need such a service and work in office spaces which do not provide a creative scene for visualising a task at hand. Yet a company like 'Trifle creative' can go into  a clients workspace and turn it into the 'Financial times best place to work'. If a company like this can go into workspaces and provide much needed creativity, then Stage on an even greater scale, turns this around and takes clients out of their workspace as a service and provides them with a temporary platform, connecting the community, local creative people and businesses together to aid a co-creating community.


Connecting Stakeholders

provides local artists and designers a much needed gallery space to display work locally and in turn they provide part of the creative interior aspect of the service itself as payment


provides the local authority with a better high st, with closed shops opening for business once again and encourages them to use the service as a client, working alongside them to provide this local service platform.


provides the local businesses a creative workspace for their business needs and sells the Stage creative reward to them.


provides myself a business platform as a designer to perhaps sell my own stage workspace desk product to clients which is already a finalised concept/ piece of my own work and also other interactions and products I design connecting my work as a product designer and service designer together.


provides the local community with a sense of co-creation to improve society.


Marketing/ promotion

Stage branding and logo is complete and will become a huge part of the proposal when it comes to launching the service and maintaining it as a business. Such as everything from the branded reward clients will receive after using Stage as a symbol of the benefit, to something as small as the branded coffee cups and flyers that attract the local community in to view local design work and business activity at a place where creativity and business activity meets.
The physical environment is not only the 7th 'p' in terms of marketing, but also the most important aspect of Stage as a service and ties in with the Why? question behind Stage and the reason it's the business proposal it has become, to emphasise the importance of a creative process, workspace and the need for a more creative society to tackle the problems of today.

Final Prototyping

Final prototyping of creative workspace concept scale 1/3. All components still to be glued/ tape removed and a final spray paint coat and wood stain still to be applied. Also a product that may feature in my business proposal start-up 'Stage' / my service design business platform for #Designandmkt.