Brief 4 Meeting with Tom

Tom and I needed to catch up to ensure the project was still on track and I also needed some information off Tom.  I wanted to find out what Tom thought about the wooden business card idea.

I started by asking Tom if he still planned to set his own business up(all the branding so far was based on this!)  Tom said he wasn't sure as he wondered whether he would be better getting some experience with a furniture maker first.  He has very little money to start a business up.  So I suggested that maybe we could continue designing the company branding (for future use) and use the same colours, typeface and icon for his personal branding.  He liked this idea.  The personal promotion has a different focus than a company so we agreed I would design the layout for a CV, personal business card and possibly a cargo account.

One issue with Tom is he has no product shots so we agreed that this was a priority.  He knows a couple of photography students so he agreed to contact them to see if we could maybe get a few product shots somewhere scenic nearby.  I offered to be there so I could 'art direct' them.  This needs to happen in next couple of weeks.

I showed Tom the 'story' behind the Furniture Maker on the Sitting Spiritually website and asked Tom to provide a 'personal statement' which wouldn't be 'formal' but have a creative/personal tone of voice to really humanise his story.  this could be used on his CV and his website.

He also has a CV which needs updating so he agreed to send me this after updating it.

We discussed the possibility of using a customised URL on a Cargo account or similar but I said it would cost at least £50 and I didn't see this adding value to his on line presence (given at this stage he was more portfolio based and he would be directing furniture makers not clients to it)  I said the benefit of having his own URL is he can get a 'slicker' email address.  I explained his 'hotmail' one didn't give a professional view.  I asked if he knew about anything 'furniture maker' specific and he thought some of his course friends may have something so he agreed to check.

Tom liked the idea of a wooden business card.  he said he would make some plywood so he can determine how thick it would be.  We can then experiment with how the type and layout would work. he said we could actually laser cut as small as 10 point so we shall see.  He was also keen to test the wooden mat idea out as a means of promotion.  We also agreed we would experiment with different formats for the business card IE standard 85x55, square and round. - Could combine the mat idea?

I plan to research other Furniture Student promotion and websites as the projects focus has changed slightly with the Personal branding and also produce some layouts for business cards.