Political -
We are an Ethical business based in the culture sector, which is owned by the Government. As we are based primarily in Leeds and the surrounding areas, we boost the local economy.
Being in a tough economic climate, it is a hard time for small businesses to run and become successful. Its also tough for those paying for our work, what their able to pay will be affected by how much they earn as a company themselves, as whether the work, produced by ourselves, will in return be profitable. The labour law needs to be taken into consideration too, it will determine the legal right and restrictions of working people; there will need to be fair working contracts set in place. As Graphic Designers, employers can be all over the world, but with working with people overseas, you will need to take into account trade restrictions between certain countries.
Being environmentally friendly in regard to stock and printing, is recognised by government. There are several schemes and audits in place, the government standard, ISO14000 environmental certification, shows that you trade ethically as a company and is a really good standard to have under your company name and brand image. Its better to have the government on your side...
Economic -
Government funded - secure business, wont apply - interest rates.
We as a business need to be aware of the economic growth within the UK. This will help us understand and identify goods and services that need to be promoted in order to boost a healthy economy, for example new and innovative products which need branding for. There needs to be a fine line between compromise and ensuring ourselves a wage to live from.
Work produced by our business
Understanding inflation rates will mean I understand my clients needs, alongside my own needs in regard to living costs and how it could possibly effect my wages.
Seasonality - peaks troughs in demand - how we would cope with this. e.g xmas
Social -
Trends will effect any design work we produce, and how we operate and management strategies. Our company consists of just 4 employers of the same age range, as were a starting business we don't intend on employing any more workers to save on costs, so as of yet, there will be little social change in accordance to employment, and management strategies regarding social trends.
Design factors which need to be considered are religion, ethnicity, education, economic status and nationality. Especially when working with over seas jobs, language will be a main factor to consider. Being sure you don't offend people (unless that is the objective) is obviously another large factor, which relates to knowing about all the above design factors to consider.
Technological -
Technology as a massive effect of time, on how long we take to produce, make, print and distribute our products. The more up to date with technology, the more efficient our production rate.
The way we work and approach briefs also relies on technology, we need to stay up to date and have constant upgrades on software and hardware, which will effect finance. This will effect costs as upgrades can be expensive, especially with being a Graphic Design company which work primarily on Apple Software. For our company to keep up to date with social trends, we need such software upgrades, as it effects the quality of our products and outcomes.
Environmental -
Workload may increase during the winter period as it is a peak period in the entertainment sector in accordance to theatre.
We are an ethical company, it will effect the products we offer. Cost of paper good and stock will be of more expense due to its ethical nature, but this may not effect us directly as work sold and pricing could reflect this.
There is a new market based on making people aware of climate change; this offers us, as creatives, a new line of work and potential. Many existing companies want to promote their selves in this way, we could be the designers to make this happen.
Legal -
Copyright, this can massively effect how the company operates as it can effect cost, this also effects our work in the sense we can't do what's been done before (with a copyright symbol). Solicitor fees etc. Accountancy (taxes), also as a partnership you don't register with company house.
