Renovations in the Future Arts Office

Posted on: May 2nd, 2012 by Hayley No Comments

I came into Future Arts after a bit of time off for Easter, and when I walked in I was sur­prised to find that ren­o­va­tions were under way in the build­ing. The office is get­ting a makeover, and I’m impressed with how it is turn­ing out!

When I walked into the build­ing I was greeted with funky green walls which suit the cre­ative and inno­v­a­tive envi­ron­ment here at Future Arts. Comfy new sofas wel­come vis­i­tors so they have some­where to sit when they arrive, and dig­i­tal pic­ture frames proudly dis­play pho­tos from over the years which show­case the peo­ple that are part of the team. New rugs, lamps, and tables fill the office, fresh­en­ing up the place and keep­ing it stylish.

No one would ever say that Future Arts is bor­ing now that when you walk down­stairs there are unmiss­able lilac and yel­low walls. We also now have a room des­ig­nated for youth train­ing which was a much needed install­ment. Many other changes have taken place down­stairs, such as new floors in the kitchen and new locks on the doors, which makes me really look for­ward to work­ing in the office when all these changes are com­plete.

 

 

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Future Services online portfolio: 2 years of great design

Posted on: March 19th, 2012 by Tom No Comments

Over the last two years we’ve had over 20 cre­atives work at Future Arts as part of the Future Routes employ­ment scheme. All have worked to deliver dig­i­tal media ser­vices for both clients and the inter­nal needs of Future Arts, across a wide range of dis­ci­plines includ­ing Graphic design, brand­ing, print, web design/development, video and motion graph­ics. As a require­ment of the (now defunct) Future Jobs Fund our employ­ees had be, either, ‘not in edu­ca­tion, employ­ment or train­ing’ (NEET) or from dis­ad­van­taged backgrounds.

Our aim in cre­at­ing these 6 month term employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties was to give new and upcom­ing cre­atives a chance to bridge the gap between unem­ploy­ment and find­ing their first job role. It allowed them to train through var­i­ous coach­ing and tuto­r­ial work­shops, while at the same time gain­ing expe­ri­ence by work­ing on live client projects and ulti­mately increas­ing their portfolios.

One of the most reward­ing aspects of the pro­gram has been that most, if not all employ­ees, have gone onto big­ger and bet­ter things. Either find­ing that first-time job in the cre­ative indus­tries or fol­low­ing a new path into fur­ther edu­ca­tion.  But some of the most notable suc­cess sto­ries are where we have seen some of our past employ­ees go on and start up their own businesses.

We have now re-launched our new Future Ser­vices port­fo­lio, show­cas­ing two years of some truly amaz­ing work. This is a col­lec­tion of all the live client projects cre­ated by our graphic design­ers, web devel­op­ers and mul­ti­me­dia producers.

Please visit www.futurearts.co.uk/services and take the time to browse through this col­lec­tion of our work. It’s a great show­case and I’m really proud of all the staff that have con­tributed over the years. And on that note here’s a big thank you to the staff of Future Arts, past and present:

Future Jobs Fund — Wave 1
Laura McBride (Graphic Designer)
Laura Fir­bank (Graphic Designer)
Paul Chalis (Mul­ti­me­dia Pro­ducer)
Cher­rie Chan (Mul­ti­me­dia Pro­ducer)
Sam Pepen­dick (Web Devel­oper)
Jay Wether­ill (Web Developer)

Future Jobs Fund — Wave 2
Laura McBride (Graphic Design Coach/Graphic Designer)
Edward Neal (Graphic Designer)
Jen­nifer Apple­ton (Graphic Designer)
Rob­bie Richard­son (Web Devel­oper)
Stephen Gar­vani (Web Devel­oper)
Nathan Jen­nings (Mul­ti­me­dia Pro­ducer)
Brahim Lkhar­rat (Mul­ti­me­dia Producer)

Future Jobs Fund — Wave 3
Laura McBride (Graphic Design Coach/Graphic Designer)
Emily Rose Clifton (Graphic Designer)
Hamish Cole (Mul­ti­me­dia Pro­ducer)
Thomas Williamson (Mul­ti­me­dia Pro­ducer)
Michael Hoskin (Mul­ti­me­dia Pro­ducer)
Joe Pagan (Web Developer)

Cur­rent Future Ser­vices employ­ees
Sharon Leese (Graphic Designer)
Bethany Dalzell (Vol­un­teer Graphic Designer)
Hamish Cole (Mul­ti­me­dia Pro­ducer)
Thomas Williamson (Mul­ti­me­dia Pro­ducer)
Michael Hoskin (Mul­ti­me­dia Pro­ducer)
Mar­tin Toole (Web Developer)

—–
Tom Chap­man
Cre­ative Indus­tries Coach / Senior Cre­ative

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Social B2b — The Launch

Posted on: March 11th, 2012 by Hayley No Comments

Mon­day 5th March was the Social B2B event for Future Arts. It took place in Project Space Leeds, an eclec­tic con­tem­po­rary art gallery over­look­ing the River Aire. Local politi­cians and busi­ness­men gath­ered to net­work and learn about cor­po­rate social respon­si­bil­ity. As a new Future Arts vol­un­teer this was my first chance to expe­ri­ence an event, and not only did I help it come together but I saw behind the scenes what it takes to make it a success.

At around 4:30, staff and vol­un­teers arrived at White­hall Water­front to pre­pare for the event. There was no time to enjoy the cap­ti­vat­ing art­work as we hus­tled to put up signs, set up the bar, and brace our­selves for the arrival of the guests. Despite sev­eral set­backs, like not hav­ing cor­rect name tags for every­body, the venue was pre­pared by 5:00 as guests started to arrive.

The friendly atmos­phere before the speak­ers arrived set me at ease as guests enjoyed a com­ple­men­tary drink and began to min­gle. There was a clear sense of cama­raderie as I heard guests as well as staff dis­cuss their busi­ness goals and aims. When Tom Rior­dan arrived every­one gath­ered into another room to lis­ten to his insight­ful speech. Being the CEO of Leeds City Coun­cil it was polit­i­cal in nature but enjoy­able as he spoke with insight and expe­ri­ence. After an oppor­tu­nity for the guests to net­work, Sally-Anne Green­field fol­lowed suit with a charis­matic speech about the impor­tance of social enter­prise that had every­body cap­ti­vated. Other speak­ers from Future Arts con­tin­ued to inspire with touch­ing accounts of the social return that busi­nesses can enjoy from eth­i­cally buy­ing prod­ucts and services.

The high­light of the night was the per­for­mances from some of the Future Youth that have ben­e­fited from pro­grammes and work­shops pro­vided by Future Arts. I was taken aback by the qual­ity of these per­for­mances, and it was clear from the audience’s reac­tions that they too did not expect how tal­ented these young per­form­ers were. This was the per­fect con­clu­sion to such an influ­en­tial evening because it showed first hand how great the out­come can be when a busi­ness invests in the community.

Over­all the evening was a great suc­cess, with guests hav­ing the oppor­tu­nity to col­lab­o­rate and expe­ri­ence the ben­e­fits that eth­i­cal buy­ing can pro­vide. The staff were in good spir­its as guests began to slowly trickle out, leav­ing us to think back on the night.

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Placard Marketing

Posted on: March 8th, 2012 by Damon No Comments

Stand­ing glee­fully beside a field of horses, I think it’s safe to say my plac­ard mar­ket­ing cam­paign didn’t get off to the great­est of starts. At best I was hop­ing that some bloke walk­ing his dog would dis­cover me pro­mot­ing Future Arts and that he would spread the word about us. It wasn’t to be, and despite not get­ting the fairy tale begin­ning I wanted, it has been an exhil­a­rat­ing adven­ture since. (more…)

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