It's here! We're kicking off the first week of the August Design Challenge with a week of inspiration and nailing down your design. Step out of your usual workspace and get inspired? In this episode of the Thriving Maker podcast, hosted by me, Sarah Kavanagh, we kick off the August Design Challenge with a deep dive into finding creative sparks and crafting unique pieces of work.  Capture those fleeting moments of inspiration by keeping a journal handy to sketch and jot down ideas without any limitations. We also explore revisiting old sketches for fresh perspectives and thinking about the story you want your piece to tell. This week is all about honing in on your creativity and meticulously planning your design to ensure you're fully prepared for the next stages of our four-week challenge.

Keeping a detailed record of your design process is crucial, even if you aren't ready to share your work just yet. This habit will not only allow you to reflect on your journey but also share it once your project is completed. For those catching up post-August, there's a wealth of tips and insights to aid in your future design endeavors. Don't forget to stay connected by following the hashtag #AugustDesignChallenge on Instagram and keeping us updated on your progress. Next week's episode will see us moving into the production phase, so prepare to bring your creative visions to life. Join us on this exciting journey and push your creative boundaries to craft something truly extraordinary!

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➡ AUGUST DESIGN CHALLENGE

Transcript:

Sarah Kavanagh: 0:01

Hello, welcome to today's episode of the Thriving Maker podcast. Today I'm talking all about the first week of the August Design Challenge, which I've mentioned before. So wherever you're listening and however you're listening, I hope you enjoy. Hello and welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast. This is a podcast to support makers, crafters and artists to start and grow their creative passions into thriving, profitable businesses. I'm Sarah Kavanagh, your host, and I'm passionate about all things creative and how to turn your unique talents into a thriving business, giving you the lifestyle that you want. I started my own handmade fine jewellery business over 15 years ago and now also help other artisans and makers build their own creative businesses through marketing and branding and techniques and strategies I've studied, learned and put into practice along my journey. Today I want to help you to establish and grow your own design-led business so that it can help support the lifestyle that you want. Think of this as your go-to resource and check in for all things strategy and marketing for your business, along with stories and anecdotes from my life as a creative entrepreneur. Thank you for tuning in and welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast. Hello, today I am talking all about week one of the august design challenge. Now, if you're listening to this. Any other time, you'll hopefully find this episode useful as well. Um, the august design.

Sarah Kavanagh: 1:38

The aim of this challenge is to inspire you to create a new piece of work and to come away with an actual piece, a tangible piece of work, at the end of the process. So this is the first week, and this week of the challenge is all about finding inspiration and designing your piece of work. So have a think about what inspires you when you're out. Take time out of your workspace, out of your studio, out of your desk, and observe what's around you. What are you connecting with? What sparks your imagination? Make notes, have a journal with you to write down your ideas, to sketch out your ideas, and be free of any constraints. I want the challenge to enable you to create something new, something you wouldn't normally do. It can still be in your style of work, but just something that's maybe going to push you a little bit further.

Sarah Kavanagh: 2:55

And the first step is getting that design down, sketching out ideas, maybe going back through your sketchbooks that you already have, and is there a design in there that's that, maybe, that you loved at the time, but you just thought, oh, I'm not going to do that because it doesn't fit in with the pieces I'm making or it's going to be. I don't know how I'm going to do that, so I'm going to leave it for now. If there's something you already have, we look at some of those ideas and plan out a couple. See what one takes your fancy. How are you going to approach this?

Sarah Kavanagh: 3:31

What story is going to inspire you to make your piece? When I'm designing for a client, I chat to them a lot about what type of thing they're looking for, obviously, but also about their lives and what they enjoy doing, what their design styles are like. And you can apply a similar process when you're just designing a completely new piece. Anyway, what is it that? What's the story? What is it that's going to inspire you? Maybe you've gone on a walk and there's a certain tree that means something to you. So we have, where we live, a tree at the top of the hill. It's very windswept, um, it's been there forever. I can't even remember not seeing it and we call it. The children have always called it the magic tree. There's nothing magic about it, but they've always called it the magic tree and they've built a little stone circle and over time, people, other people have added to this stone circle, so it's something that's always there, but it might be something like that that inspires you.

Sarah Kavanagh: 4:31

What's the story behind the potential piece you're going to make and spend this week really honing in on your creativity, honing in on your inspiration, the colors, the, the feeling, what is it that you want to portray? And you will know from your own discipline, your own craft discipline, you'll get a feel for how that might work, and maybe you will need to practice skills, and that will come next week when you start putting your piece together. But right now, in this week, I want the focus to be on coming up with that design, mapping it out and really bringing it to life, bringing those ideas to life into a new piece, and then then, when you have your design, then really plan out intricately how it's all going to fit together. Now your work might be quite organic and it just evolves as you make it, and that's great. But do you need to have a certain amount of materials? What are the measurements of the piece? And be quite specific um, is there? Are there any materials that you need to order? And do that this week as well. So you're going to go from inspiration to design and to the calculations and planning for the actual piece, so that next week, when you come to start work on it whether it's practice with sample or whether you're actually going to go straight into the final piece you're going to need to have certain materials in place, and so it's good to get that nailed in now.

Sarah Kavanagh: 6:05

Now, usually you might spend a lot longer on the design stage. Usually you might spend several weeks going back and forth with the client or or making that decision and weighing out whether it's right for you. But this challenge is it's a four-week challenge, and so you have to be decisive. You have to make that decision early on. I want you to make it this week. So go from the inspiration, find, find what inspires you, find the story behind it that you can really tie into your piece of work, design it out, do a few, see what sticks, see what you like the best, and then really bring it to life with um, with your illustrations, with your designs, and map out and plan what you're going to need to take it forward. What are the dimensions, what materials you're going to need, how are you going to, how's it going to be finished? So all of that needs to take place this week so you can move forward next week with creating Now.

Sarah Kavanagh: 7:00

It may be very quick and you may be able to design the piece in one session and you know exactly what it is you want to do. But I want you to also, if you find that you've come up with a design really quickly. You have you come up with it really quickly because you're used to doing it that way. Is it something that you're so used to doing that you're able to put the design together really quickly and then think again about whether you can challenge yourself any further. Can you push the style a little bit more? Can you push the techniques and your skill set a little bit more when you're making this piece?

Sarah Kavanagh: 7:38

I want this piece that you make in August to be something that pushes you further, pushes your skill level, pushes your design skills, so that you can grow as a maker, as a crafter and an artist. So if you find that you've put it all together really quickly, have another look and question whether it is pushing you enough and if, if it is brilliant, then you maybe need to add in another design as well and if this spark of inspiration has led to an idea and a design that's come very quickly to you. Seize the moment and build out more designs which you can do at the same time, or you can take forward into the future as well, but I hope that allowing yourself to be inspired by new things, to push yourself creatively and to challenge yourself from your design and technical, technical abilities will help grow your business as well. So don't forget if you want to, you don't have to. If you want to, you don't have to.

Sarah Kavanagh: 8:39

If you want to, it would be great to share what your inspirations are. Tell us on social media hashtag August Design Challenge so that anyone taking part in the challenge can see what other people are doing. If you don't want to share your design at this stage, that's absolutely fine people are doing. If you don't want to share your design at this stage, that's absolutely fine, but it will be. It's a great way to also build connection with your audience and build awareness around the piece that you're making, because at the end of August, you will have this finished piece and over the four weeks, you'll be telling the story of it all coming together, and that really helps with your marketing and selling your work as well.

Sarah Kavanagh: 9:22

So, um, even if you don't want to share, don't forget to record the processes so that in the future, when it's finished, you can then share how it's all come together. So if you're listening to this outside of august, then feel free to take notes and tips from this episode and I hope it will help when you come to design future work. So that's it for today. Next week's episode will be the second week of the August design challenge and it'll be all. We'll be starting work on the production of your piece, whether that's samples or on the actual piece. So keep me posted on how it's all going. Don't forget to check out the hashtag always design challenge on instagram, and I will speak to you soon.