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Welcome to the new look smallFISH. The project is progressing well with a launch date scheduled for Christmas. As you may have noticed the project has evolved and we plan to explore a number of different areas all involving design students. This includes three different projects, findasmallFISH (smallFISH as you know it), Cooling Sheds and Design Course Resource. We will announce a bit more about each of these projects over the next coming months as we get closer to launch day.
We’re also now on Twitter – @smallfishhh
This blog will be used to keep you all up to date with the progress of the projects and with news and articles concerning design education, students and anything else we feel deserves a mention. So if you find anything that you think might interest us, let us know on the Twitter.
We’re preparing for an exciting and hectic couple of months as we build. Thanks for every ones support throughout the design community, it’s really appreciated. So just for old time sakes, here’s the slide show that got the ball rolling (we need to do an update in the same format, keep an eye out).
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I’ve found the Wenovski Design Thinkers network a great place to discuss smallFISH and bounce ideas around. The users have been more than happy to offer their thoughts on the project, advice and support, it’s been much appreciated.
Check out the interview I recently had with Arne van Oosterom about the project, click here.
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I’m proud to announce that smallFISH is collaborating with the Board of Innovation Labs. The BoI Labs is about bringing bright (experimental) ideas to the market by supporting its development and commercialization.
BoI Labs will be able to provide assistance in looking for ways to monetize smallFISH so that the project can support itself. BoI will also actively scout for the right partners to assist in the growth of smallFISH.
This is great news and I look forward to further working with the guys at the Board of Innovation.
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In a previous post both Nick Marsh and Sarah Drummond commented on the importance of a mentor for students. smallFISH encourages students to enter the real world and deal with real clients, these unknown territories can be quite intimidating and daunting for a student, and a mentor is somebody that can point them in the right direction. This got me thinking how smallFISH can aid students in such a way, smallFISH-to-student mentoring in my opinion wouldn’t work, it’s just too high maintenance. The advice coming from smallFISH will be a lot more general and less one-on-one in the form of a blog.
So I got thinking about the bigFISH, Nick Marsh mentioned in his comment that it was an ex-IDEO mentor who looked over his intern project at the Design Council and how valuable an experience it was. So why can’t the bigFISH get involved? smallFISH will be given the option to post up their on-going work, any problems they encounter etc. and send out a signal requesting advice. Professional designers, business owners, entrepreneurs etc. will be encouraged to participate and give a lending hand. It’s something I can see working, a similar concept works well on forums such as core77 and product design forums with advice sometimes exceeding that offered at university!
While it opens up interaction between users on the website I also think it could have a positive effect on student’s work. The fact that they know people are watching, and of all people, those that hold the key to their future once they graduate will encourage to make sure they’re on top of their game. It also gets a lot more people involved and allows professionals to have an impact on their local community.
I’m interested to hear peoples thoughts on this and thank those that have already commented, whether on this blog, their blog, twitter or wenovski.
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The response to smallFISH so far has been great! It’s starting to frustrate me how little time I can dedicate to it at the moment. Also appreciate the comments on the last blog post, it’s been great food for thought. I’m glad to see the word on Twitter is getting around. I’m thinking of setting up a Twitter account for smallFISH, but for now I’ll be updating @jasecoop with smallFISH related tweets.
My current plan of action so far is this:
- Put together a short business plan, a pdf, something I can give to people to further explain the website.
- Map out the website for developers.
- Start on website visuals.
I’m also happy to announce smallFISH has a domain name – small-fish.org
As far as small fish goes, it’s quite a popular URL, so I’m happy I’ve been able to find something quite decent.
Will update the blog later tonight on an idea that has come up in the comments section that could prove to work very well.
The slideshow on the home page is as far as I’ve got so far in terms of ‘getting something on paper’. I realise this leaves a very loose concept, though in my head (and notebook), the project is a lot more thought out. So I though I’d create some discussion points that I’ve spent the last week or two thinking about.
Design
One of the first things I want to communicate with smallFISH is that design for smallBUSINESS owners is not just a pretty sign and business card. It is, in a nutshell, about creating a customer experience, a ‘local brand’ that people can connect to. I feel that the smallDESIGNERS true value will lie in playing a hand in the business side of things. This is opens smallFISH up to product, interior, interaction designers etc, not just graphics.
Money
I have decided to not attempt to make any monetary gain from this project, you’ll either see that as a good or bad move, depending on your generation. In terms of money involving smallDESIGNERS and smallBUSINESS, I feel that it’s vital smallFISH stays as transparent as possible and only offers advice for each party, not enforce a ‘set-price’. Standards of student designers vary, and this is a vital part of business important for a designers development, something rarely mentioned in university.
Devalueing design
I’ve had this conversation with a number of people, whether smallFISH devalues design. The way I see it, the type of company’s smallBUSINESSes are are the kind that wouldn’t even dream of approaching a consultancy/designer. I’m talking about your local greengrocers, market stalls, butchers, community groups. If the sort of companies using smallFISH though are those that you’d expect to pay for a consultancy/freelancer then that’s another story, but, it is up to the designer, after all business is business. But I feel it’s important smallFISH communicates that students are just designers in training. smallFish gives local business an insight into design, and student designers an insight into business.
Running of the site
The way I’m picturing things right now is that there are two sides of the website. One for smallDESIGNERS and one for smallBUSINESS, both relevant to the specific user. Each website section will offer information and advice in the form of blog posts that a number of people can contribute to. e.g. Designers on NDA’s, business professionalism etc. and Business on design, how/why/where to use it. smallFISH and smallBUSINESS are linked by postcode with the use of a search feature allowing users to browse profiles (portfolio/business info).
A big part of the site will also be the case studies, similar to the portfolios of the likes of IDEO, Frog etc. This will provide a ‘sales pitch’ for designers and also a great way for designers to get recognition and publicity for their work.
Universities
I think the real driving force for this project will come from the students. It takes a certain kind of student to march along their high street and sell a service to a shop owner, though I believe these passionate, hard working students will be the core foundations for a successful project. It will be up to them to direct business to smallFISH, so smallFISH has to be able to offer something that has value to it.
Thinking about this it got me thinking about university collaborations. If universities got behind the project and introduced a smallFISH brief into their module it would do a lot of good for the designers, the local community and smallFISH. Designers get to deal with clients, face to face, deal with money, real business, an experience that even internships lack. And hey, if they can’t sell, then they do the work, present it to the smallBUSINESS and amaze them with beautiful design, well thought-out ideas and initiative.
I’ll leave it for now. I could keep going, but I feel this is enough to talk about for now. So please, jot down your thoughts in the form of a comment and participate.
jase.
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Welcome to the smallFISH blog. I’m going to be using this blog to update my progress with the project and also to document ideas on the direction I see the project taking. I’ll try to keep the blog posts short, sweet and to the point, I don’t want to bore you. Also when I get a bit more time I’ll upload this blog to my own server and buy some domain names, one step at a time…
“There’s no idea that’s so good it can’t be improved by sharing it with a few other smart people”
It would be great to get people involved in the development of smallFISH, please post any thouhgts you have on the project as a comment, whether your a designer or programmer, negative or positive, I want to hear it. If we can spark a conversation around smallFISH it will allow the project to grow and move on a great deal faster. I’ve decided to share this idea early for this very reason.
So please blog, tweet, digg, share, it’ll be much appreciated.
And if you go on to comment, it’s good to have you on board.
jase.
