Help Feed the Goat
Goat Collective consists of eight students studying a range of creative degrees. We are good friends and work well together. As stated in the manifesto we all share a passion for social change, equality and environmentalism and intend to use Goat Collective as a platform to output work raising awareness about these issues. However we understand that this cannot be all we do, we require funds to enable us to work on these passion projects and the best way to do this is to offer our services to the commercial sector. In this overcrowded industry it is essential that we have a unique selling point. Leeds is home to a number of very talented designers, photographers, videographers and commercial artists. However the majority of these practitioners work solely in their own fields and are unable to offer a variety of creative services. This is what makes Goat Collective different. A client can approach us with almost any brief and we will be able to complete it to a professional standard. This makes us particularly attractive to start up companies; a client's vision only needs to be communicated once and as we all work closely together, the aesthetic we produce will be consistent across each visual element of these start ups' identities. We are based in Leeds and the number of start ups and independent companies is on the rise, we feel we have placed ourselves in an optimum position to obtain commissions from these companies and are excited about the way Leeds is developing.
Hyde Park Book Club is one such Independent company, a cafe/event space prizing good coffee, music and artwork. We have managed to secure an ongoing artist residency at Hyde Park Book Club, each month we update the artwork hung in the space.
Goat Collective was launched in September this year and to celebrate we produced poster packs for the first years at LCA. Unlike the majority of free material distributed during the freshers week, we weren't offering any advice or trying to sell anything. The poster pack contained free artwork and nothing but. We've all experienced student halls and know how bare the walls can feel, so what better to receive in your first week than a pack of straight up artwork. Each poster pack contained a selection of prints. This was our way of getting the Goat name out there and re-investing in an institution that has helped get us where we are today.
We are currently being kept busy as we are in the process of curating an exhibition called 'Disposable Society.' This focuses on implications of the throw away society we live in and offers us and other artists (we have put out an open call for submissions) the chance to portray their own viewpoints on this topic through whichever medium they see fit. The event will run from the 5th to the 13th of March at the incredible space at Northern Monk Brewery. We have contacts at Independent Leeds magazine who plan to feature Goat Collective in their next issue and advertise the Disposable Society exhibition. This will provide invaluable exposure. We are really excited about the event, however it has made us realise the importance of funding if we are to progress as a business. For example the event space itself costs £450 and there are a number of additional costs such as transport and promotion. We have been receiving a steady flow of commercial work but this is primarily coming from bands and small events and the fees we have been able to charge are not high enough to pay ourselves for our time and also reinvest into the company. We have each put £50-£100 back into Goat Collective but are looking for other means to gather funding. None of us are particularly financially secure so we will not be able to continue to to fund projects with student loans and part-time jobs.
With more funding we feel we would be able to promote ourselves both through digital means and with printed material. This would allow us to reach a number of businesses that have not yet heard of us and hopefully secure some commercial clients that will offer repeat business.
We are currently working out of studio spaces offered at Leeds College of Art but as the majority of us are graduating this year we're beginning to look at studio space for rent. We have spoken to contacts at East Street Arts and they are able to offer temporary space at hugely discounted rates, funding from Quality Formations will help to pay rent for the first couple of months and provide us with some financial security that we desperately need if we are to move forward with the collective. It is vital we obtain some studio space of our own; we need somewhere that we can all work from together and also plan to use this space to run exhibitions, live art events and art workshops for the public.
Goat has also been offered the use of £10,000 worth of darkroom equipment and need a space to house this. Not only will this be useful for the photographers within our collective but we also plan to have this open to the public. Leeds does not currently have any public darkrooms for independent photographers to use and we feel that if advertised correctly, this could be a valuable asset to our business. We have not yet worked out the exact costing but photographers will pay a fee to use the equipment and materials as well as a yearly membership fee.
Further down the line we want to purchase some simple screen printing equipment and possibly a risograph printer, this would be significantly cheaper than using external printers so we will be able to offer our clients competitive rates.
We have big plans for Goat Collective and feel that it is a very viable business model. Funding from Quality Formations will help us to achieve our goals. Help feed the Goat.
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