OUGD603: Charity Promotion- Research

I had a quick feedback and discussion session today. I got to ask some questions and figure out what the next steps to take in this daunting project were. From this session I have fine tuned some areas of my idea. Instead of dog beds, dog blankets seem to be a better and easier option, it was suggested that I probably wont want to/have time to produce a series of dog beds whereas if I were just to print straight onto the blankets they could then be automatically repurposed for the dogs to be sold or to be donated. Also it was suggested that I use the kudos of a bigger charity to help with exposure and promotion and that it may be worth contacting a store like Pets at Home to see if they would be interested in sponsoring the event by donating blankets to print on. Also the start off point recommended to me was to find a space, somewhere relevant to the exhibition so either a dog friendly place or somewhere where surrounding people are more likely to have dogs.

So my start off list goes a little like this:

Find spaces

Email dogs trust and pets at home

Find suitable fabric for printing that also works as a blankets

Find out how exactly to print onto that kind of fabric

I emailed Dogs Trust first:

Followed by a quick search on the Pets at Home website for blankets:

Fabric

Though there didn't seem to be any blankets that appeared suitable for printing so I did some searches for blankets that could work for printing, as well as how to print them.

I found a channel that talked about printing onto fleece fabrics, they only mentioned printing for hoodies and sweatshirts however, the type of fabric appears easy to print on as well as being soft enough and suitable for a blanket. Seeing as they're the experts in screen printing fabrics I sent them a quick question regarding inks and their suitability for dogs, just some things I think will be important to know down the line.

I've found some places on eBay that sell the appropriate fabric however I will also try the university shop in the fashion department, as hopefully it will be cheaper and I can ask directly whether the fabric is suitable for printing and also get a feel for it's softness, strength and suitability as a blanket. I also want to have a look at the leeds market, I know they sell a variety of fabric there too and I will be able to get a good deal as well as getting to touch/see/feel the fabric first hand to judge it's suitability.

Spaces

For the exhibition space I wanted somewhere, as suggested in my feedback, that has dog lovers and owners near by. Despite this I also really wanted somewhere near the city centre of Leeds to gain the most traffic and potential viewers/donators and that would also be accessible for any students who contribute a design for the show. It was then I remembered about an area I used to live in through my first year of college; Clarence dock.

From memory the dock often has empty spaces despite being in a beautiful environment and also had a lot of dog walkers passing through the boulevard every single day. I also recall that there were often exhibitions held in some of the spaces, the Thought Bubble comic festival was held there and Leeds Beckett (then Leeds Metropolitan) have also held exhibitions there and worked within the area so it's clear they are up for creative collaborations and events. Also with the armouries near by streams of human traffic pass through the area daily maximising the amount of people that will pass by, and hopefully pass through the gallery. So I sent a quick email to the info@clarencedock and I hope to hear back from it soon.