John Watters - Networking Lecture / OUGD502 - Personal and Professional Practice 2

Networking lecturer 

Networks 

To ‘network’ means
to interact with others, to exchange information
and develop professional or social contacts.
"the skills of networking, bargaining, and
negotiation"

Your Network? 

YOUR ‘Network’ is simply getting in touch
with people you find interesting enough
to want to chat to. About the creative process,
careers or anything that comes to mind
when seeing what they do in their own sphere
of creativity and professionalism.

Like?

Even day we see work through ‘trawling’ the
internet whilst researching and are faced with
seeing work that we either love, like or question.
By seeing this work, we question rather than
simply ‘liking’ what we see. That should never
be ‘the be all, and end all’. If we really engage
we should want to know MORE.
Asking the creative questions
that we usually have, is a better way of
understanding what you like and WHY.

More than Like? 

By ‘liking’ something, it is simply an opinion
based on aesthetics and is subjective.
We can go deeper and consider the concepts,
contexts that have given birth to the outcomes.
How can we ever know the process involved?
What nurtured these ideas, how can we know
and gain a better understanding of what we see
as interesting?
MORE THAN
A LIKE?

Why not ask the creative themselves?

Connections 

By looking at other creative’s work, via blogs,
websites, presentations, conferences and
maybe printed articles. We then, have the
potential to contact these people, thus adding
to our ‘NETWORK’ or that group of
‘like mind’s.
CONNECTIONS?

We join existing or new networks, and create
networks that we see as ‘synergetic’ or
investigative to informing, to
expand and/or educate our own practices.

Creative networks

As creatives we are NOT bound by our specific
disciplines, We can all design a pair of shoes,
a home interior or a favourite car.

So by sharing and discussing all manner of
creative ideas, we expand our acceptance
and understanding of the whole ‘Creative world’
and building a network of hopefully ‘friends and
professionals’.


And hopefully on a regular basis?

What can you ask? 

• What was the process?
• What was the brief ?
• What were the challenges?
• How did it work?
• What was the outcome?
• Were YOU happy with it?

How do you ask them? 

• Email 
• Twitter  
• Facebook  
• Letter  
• Telephone 
• Snapchat 
• Personal Contact 
• Instagram 
• Dribble 
• Behance 
• Creative circle 
• Future rising 
• Scottish creative network 
• We are future heads 
• Blogs 
• Alumni