studio spave available HERE
5th March 2010
We Create* has a design studio above its shop in Wolverhampton for local young designers, illustrators, and creatives to use.
Places are limited and space in the design studio is available from £20PCM - desk space, computers, internet, and room to develop designs for retail/run fashion and design-based businesses.
We Create*, 42 Victoria Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 3PJ.
Open Wednesday-Saturday 10-6
Contact information and images below
Email rich@WeCreate.org.uk
Call 01902 399 744
Many Thanks and Kind Regards
We Create*
We Create* Wolverhampton OPEN
17th February 2010
We Create* Wolverhampton opened Wednesday 17th February - PARTY!
The unit retails designs developed by local young designers, illustrators, and creatives and offers participants access to a design studio above the shop to develop designs for retail and run fashion and design-based businesses.
The design studio also allows We Create* to run projects/workshops/courses in partnership with other Social Enterprises, Charities, Community Groups, and organisation to help young people in the local community from disadvantaged and socially excluded background interested in fashion and design.
New local young designers, illustrators, creatives, and CUSTOMERS required!
Address 42 Victoria Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 3PJ.
Telephone 01902 399 744
Open Wednesday-Saturday 10-6
We Create* can now also print T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hooded tops from £10 in-store while you wait and pin badges from 50p - discounts available on bulk orders. For more information email andy@WeCreate.org.uk
The We Create* shop stocks West Midlands-based labels VAGRANT, Mouldy Loaf, Cut-Out, OFTM, Huk, Soapbox, Choochie Choo, Ashley Marc Hovelle (AMH), and Let The Kids Dance (LTKD)
More images on the We Create* Facebook Page photos section http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?v=photos&gid=64776758034
Many Thanks and Kind Regards
We Create*
We Create* on ITV and BBC
15th February 2010
We Create* was feature on the ITV and BBC local news programmes Central News and Midlands Today as part of the report about Wolverhampton topping a list of cities with the highest amount of empty shop in the United Kingdom with 23.9% / 130 shops empty.
The ITV and BBC reports were broadcast three times - lunch time 12-1 / dinner time 6-7 / and in the evening 10-11.
We Create* on ITV Central News
We Create* on BBC Midlands Today
We Create* TV http://www.youtube.com/wecreatevideo
Many Thanks and Kind Regards
We Create*
Craftspace Collective
30th January 2010
We Create* participated in a one-day Craftspace event aimed at developing a Birmingham-based Craft Collective for young people aged 16-19. The event was supported by the Arts Council, Creative Future, and Birmingham City Council.
The Craftspace Collective event was on Saturday 23rd January between 12-6pm in the Vaad Gallery by the lake at the Custard Factory in Digbeth - Birmingham. MAP!
We Create* run a pop-up shop to retail designs developed by local young fashion designers and illustrators. Visitors to the shop and participants of the event also used We Create*'s badge making machines on the day to make pin badges 100+.
Participants of the Craftspace Collective event took part in an array of craft-based and creative activities like Yarn Storming, making DIY Instruments, and creating Graffiti - made of sweets! The 100+ visitors and participants also took a break from the activities to create their own food.
For more information visit: http://CraftspaceCollective.Wordpress.com
Email info@craftspace.co.uk /
Call 0121 608 6668
Craftspace Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Craftspace/32284891418
Many Thanks and Kind Regards
We Create*
We Create* Wolverhampton Set-up
25th January 2010
We Create* spent 4-weeks working vv.hard to set-up the new shop and design studio in Wolverhampton.
The shop and design studio was set-up under the Government's 'Empty Shops Revival Plan' iniciative with the help and support of Wolverhampton City Centre Company, Wolverhampton City Council, the Department of Communities and Local Government, and Hortons Estates.
We Create* generated £20 000+ in-kind help and support to secure and set-up the new shop and incubation space and £5000+ funding. We Create* managed to beg, steal, and borrow a range of fixtures, fittings, equipment, and facilites from rolling cages, pallets, counters, peg board, to fire extingishers in 6months.
The new shop and design studio allows We Create* to scale-up its initial Birmingham retail opperation 3-4 times the size and add the design space facility to help and support more local young designers, illustrators, and creatives.
The design studio allows local young designers, illustrators, and creaties to develop designs for retail and run fashion and design-based businesses. The design studio also allows We Create* to run projects/workshops/courses in partnership with other Social Enterprises, Charities, Community Groups, and organisation to help young people in the local community from disadvantaged and socially excluded background interested in fashion and design.
We Create* set-up images below of the shop and design studio located in Wolverhampton city centre on Victoria Street.
More images on the We Create* Facebook Page photos section http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?v=photos&gid=64776758034
Many Thanks and Kind Regards
We Create*
Wolverhampton Voted fifth Worst City in the World
31st December 2009
The new home of We Create*... Wolverhampton - has been voted the 5th worst city in the World by Lonely Planet.
We Create* likes a challenge knowing that if they can make the project work here there's only four places in the world it can't - Detroit in the US of A was voted the worst city, followed by Accra in Ghana, Seoul in South Korea, and Los Angeles, US of A.
Press: BBC / Telegraph / Daily Mail / Express and Star / Birmingham Post
We Create* view of the 5th worst city in the world - PARTY!
Many Thanks and Kind Regards
We Create*
We Create* Trademark Registration
15th November 2009
We Create* Trademark registration and certificate confirmed - PARTY!
A registration for We Create* with the Intellectual Property Office Trademarks Devision was submitted in around July in Class 25 (clothing, footwear, headgear), and Class 41 (education, providing of training, entertainment, sporting and cultural activities, on-line entertainment, the provision of on-line electronic publication) and registration confirmed in Novemer.
The application cost £250 and the process was straight forward with staff at the Intellectual Property Office helpful with initial examination. The tricky part of the process was finding the Trademark Application Form on the Intellectual Property website - download HERE.
You'll also need the Trademark Classifications Class 1 - 45 category breakdown to assess the Class you want the mark to be registered in - £200 registration for one classification and £50 per additional classification.
Also tricky finding the search area for trademarks on the IPO website.
We Create* is registered - PARTY!
Many Thanks and Kind Regard
We Create*
VAGRANT Trademark Registration
1st November 2009
VAGRANT Trademark registration and certificate confirmed - PARTY!
A registration for VAGRANT with the Intellectual Property Office Trademarks Devision was submitted in around June in Class 18 (bags), Class 25 (clothing, footwear, headgear), and Class 26 (badges for wear) and registration confirmed in October.
The application cost £300 and the process was straight forward with staff at the Intellectual Property Office helpful with initial examination. The tricky part of the process was finding the Trademark Application Form on the Intellectual Property website - download HERE.
You'll also need the Trademark Classifications Class 1 - 45 category breakdown to assess the Class you want the mark to be registered in - £200 registration for one classification and £50 per additional classification.
Also tricky finding the search area for trademarks on the IPO website.
We Create* and the Homeless are registered - PARTY!
Many Thanks and Kind Regard
We Create*
We Create* Opens Shop
7th August 2009
We Create* opened its first shop, on August 1st, based in The Oasis on Corporation Street in Birmingham. The shop incubates 10 local young fashion designer's and the labels they have developed. The unit also retails designs developed by participants on We Create*'s Fashion Design and its Commercial Development pilot courses.
The We Create* shop was set-up with a £480 grant from the Prince's Trust.
We Create* had a great response in its first week with 17 sales. The organisation received 20+ enquires off other young designers to assist in the set-up of labels under development and retail space upon completion. The shop also attracted interest from another 4/5 labels wanting incubating - unfortunately no space is available in the unit as it's at full capacity. We Create* is taking contact details from interested labels as it plans on developing operations to accommodate other young designers.
We Create* has been in talks with City Councils across the West Midlands the last few months to develop additional retail spaces across the region to incubate other local young fashion designers. The organisation also aims to develop additional retail spaces around Birmingham in locations with high levels of footfall such as market stalls around the city centre on New Street, near the Bullring.
We Create*'s goal is to open a Flagship Incubation Unit in Birmingham city centre that all local young designers can retail their designs and run their business from, with access to commercial equipment and facilities, and a small network of other shops across the Midlands to allow them to retail designs regionally.
We Create* Shop
The We Create* shop stocks birmingham-based labels VAGRANT, Mouldy Loaf, Cut-Out, OFTM, Huk, Soapbox, and Choochie Choo.
Please help promote the We Create* Shop to friends in Birmingham on Facebook and MySpace
We Create* Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Birmingham-United-Kingdom/We-Create/66616623480?ref=ts
We Create* Facebook Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=64776758034&ref=ts
We Create* MySpace
http://www.MySpace.com/WeCreate_
Many Thanks and Kind Regards
We Create*
VAGRANT Photoshoots
10th April 2009
After a week of planning, getting the studio booked, and locations confirmed on Thursday 19th and 26th February, Wednesday 4th March, and Thursday 26th March We Create* went in the studio and on location to produce the shots for the VAGRANT Marketing and Advertisement Campaign and product images for the VAGRANT ecommerce site.
Fashion photographer Tom was recruited from University - Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) with a poster and model Rich Dolphin is a friend of We Create* that was happy to lend us his good homeless looks!
Thursday 19th February saw us meet 10.00am on campus at BIAD to take the studio shots for the ecommerce site - rounding up the day swiftly by 11.30am.
Thursday 26th February saw us meet at 11.00am at Chester Road Train Station (Birmingham) to take shots at a nearby laundrette, greengrocers, pub, off-license, and snooker hall - rounding up the day by 3.00am.
Wednesday 4th March saw us meet at 11.00am in Birmingham City Centre for more location shots taken at a nearby greasy spoon, news agents, market, and multi-story car park - rounding up the day by 2.30pm.
The last shoot was back in the studio at BIAD on Thursday 26th March for an hour 1.00-2.00pm to get some remaining close-up shoots for the ecommerce site.
We Create* would like to thank Tom and Rich for the skills and time given to produce the location and studio shots.
More images can be seen on our Flickr and VAGRANT ecommerce site
Photographer Tom Ayerst http://www.tomayerst.co.uk
Model Rich Dolphin http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=505651358&ref=ts
Many Thanks and Kind Regards
We Create*
We Create*/VAGRANT Pub Golf Scorecard
1st April 2009
There's nothing more the We Create* team like to do on a Friday night after a long hard week at work than go out and play Pub Golf!
We like it so much we want to get more involved in the sporting event so we've designed and developed a Scorecard with a Guide to Pub Golf so you can all go out and enjoy it now as well - FORE!
Please DOWNLOAD the PDF, print off one for each competitor, and get playing!
Many Thanks and Kind Regards
We Create*
The History of We Create*
15th March 2009
The We Create* concept was initially devised in 2000 when founder Richard Leighton was 17, studying his A-levels, and working as a sales assistant at GAP in Birmingham.
Richard was concerned about homeless people being cold on the streets and thought it would be a good idea if clothing designers worked on a project with homeless people to design and develop functional and versatile apparel that would help keep them warm.
Richard went on to think that the clothing designers could also help teach the homeless people to design the apparel and that they could develop a business, brand, and a shop to sell the designs they produced.
Before you knew it, in Richard's head, this company could help employ all the homeless people around the United Kingdom and get them off the streets. Some of the homeless would work in Head Office developing and producing designs, some in the warehouse to store and distribute stock, and some in the shops to sell the designs to the general public.
A concept not dissimilar to the GAP where Richard worked but all people involved in the company were given a helping hand off the streets, training, and employment. Richard understood that maybe all homeless people weren't interested in designing clothing but he felt he could find a job in the company to suit most of them.
Aged 18 Richard decided that if he was going to develop this company he'd need to go to University to study fashion and the business and management processes that revolved around setting up a company in the industry. Richard applied for a variety of universities through UCAS and after visits to the different institutes he accepted an offer to study a BA Hons in Fashion Design Management at the University of Leeds in September 2002.
Richard planned on studying the degree, learning everything there was to know about the fashion industry, and after graduation three years later starting the company to help the homeless.
After the first year on the course Richard, despite having the best year of his life socially at University, academically wasn't learning the skills required to set up the business on the course. Over his first summer Richard stayed in Leeds and worked at his job as a sales assistant at Diesel. He looked at changing university and courses but decided to stay at the University of Leeds because of the friends and fun but decided that he was going to start to develop the company now rather than wait until after graduation.
Two months into the second year of his Fashion Design Management degree, in October 2003, Richard approach The Big Issue in the North with the concept to develop a Training and Design Management Agency that offered individuals from homeless backgrounds the opportunity to gain qualifications and commercial experience in Fashion Design called The Big Fashion Issue. Richard felt he couldn't set up the company by himself and needed help so he approached the organisation because he felt they both had similar aims and objectives.
The Training Agency would not only offer training in fashion design but also fashion journalism, photography, and styling. Big Issue vendors could use the training agency to develop the skills to design and develop branded clothing that was to be manufactured and sold to raise awareness and profits for the Big Issue to run the project. In addition vendors who wanted to learn fashion journalism, photography, and styling would develop a Quarterly (Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter) Big Fashion Issue magazine that the other Big Issue vendors could sell across the United Kingdom.
Richard approached The Big Issue because he found out through research that they were part of a network called International Network of Street Papers (INSP). The network was made up of 50 Big Issue-style publications in 30 countries around the world (now around 100 publications in 40 different countries worldwide). So Richard thought if he could make it work at the Big Issue in the United Kingdom that he could help other homeless people all over the world by utilising the Big Issue and its wider network.
In January 2004 aged 20, with a £500 grant from the University of Leeds Community Initiative (LUCI), Richard delivered his first 12-week Fashion Design and its Commercial Development course. The course showed Big Issue vendors all the processes involved in the design, production, promotion, and retail of fashion-based products. The course outcome saw participants develop a brand called VAGRANT and a range of Tees, hooded tops, and sweatshirt design for retail. The vendors also modelled the designs in the Leeds University RAG Charity Fashion Show and the University of Leeds Graduate Fashion Show. In the summer Richard delivered his second 12-week course working with the Big Issue in the Midlands and its vendors in Birmingham.
By the end of the summer Richard and the project had run two pilot courses with the Big Issue, developed a brand and designs for retail with Big Issue vendors in Leeds and Birmingham, and met the Financial and Managing Directors of the Big Issue in the North who rejected the concept and its further development. Richard also met the Managing and Financial Directors at The Big Issue in London where the concept was presented to the board and also rejected.
By this time Richard had realised that the best way to tackle homelessness in the United Kingdom was not to specifically work just with the homeless. He realised that homelessness was the end result of a number of unfortunate circumstances and that the best way to tackle homelessness was to work with people vulnerable of becoming homeless in the next five or so years of their life. Many of The Big Issue vendors Richard worked with were from disadvantaged backgrounds, had a poor education, and had ended up on drugs, offending regularly, and in prison. So Richard developed the concept into a Training and Design Management Agency that offered individuals from disadvantaged and socially excluded backgrounds the opportunity to gain qualifications and commercial experience in Fashion Design.
Richard had spent the past 11 months studying on the second year of his degree and working 20-plus hours a week on the project for The Big Issue as a volunteer. Still confident, and believing the concept was now stronger than ever after it's initial trial, Richard approached a number of other charitable and not-for-profit organisations connected with helping individuals from disadvantaged and socially excluded backgrounds across the UK. Unfortunately none of the organisations wanted to help. Richard thought it was his lack of experience and age that was the reason behind no one wanting to help with the concept so he decided to develop some other concepts he had generated while working on The Big Fashion Issue project.
Richard spent the next 2/3 years approaching and developing other fashion-based projects for an array of organisations including Oxfam, The Salvation Army, and the Homeless World Cup as a volunteer - all were also rejected for commercial development.
Richard had planned on successfully developing one of the concepts for Oxfam, the Salvation Army, or the Homeless World Cup and then re-approaching the Big Issue again to reconsider. Unfortunately by 2006 and aged 23 Richard had found that very few charitable and not-for-profit organisations were interested in innovating and diversifying, so he gave up and got a job working for French Connection as a sales assistant to save the money to study for an MA in Fashion so that he could get a job as a designer.
For the last 4/5 years Richard had felt very isolated and didn't realise that he had effectively been operating as a Social Entrepreneur or that there were other individuals out there like him.
Richard was asked to go and speak about the projects he had developed back at the University of Leeds at a university-run business event. One of the tutors organising the event asked Richard the question "You're a Social Entrepreneur aren't you, really?" and not particularly knowing the term he searched for 'Social Entrepreneur' on Google.
By chance a few weeks later, Richard came across an advertisement in the Birmingham Post jobs section for a course at the School for Social Entrepreneurs in Birmingham. Richard had a look on the website but decided not to apply and continued to working to save for his MA in Fashion as, by this stage, he was pretty dejected with charitable and not for profit organisations. Richard started his MA in Fashion at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design - 3/4 months into the course Richard was inspired by his fellow students to look into The Big Fashion Issue concept again after a lack of motivation on the course and not really wanting to work as a designer for someone else.
Richard went on the School for Social Entrepreneurs website to have another look and noticed they were recruiting for the 2008 Fellowship Programme starting in April at the School in London. So he applied in December 2007 and was invited to interview in January 2008. Richard thought the only way he could afford to do the course was if he was offered a scholarship placement as he was already working five nights a week to fund his MA in Fashion. Richard was offered a scholarship placement in March 2008 and gladly accepted.
By April the course started and Richard felt he had enough skills, experience, and renewed confidence to develop the concept by himself into a Social Enterprise - We Create* was born. Over the next 3/4 months at the School for Social Entrepreneurs the concept made more progress than it had made in the last 3/4years. We Create* gained support from PricewaterhouseCoopers and funding from UnLtd* and the Prince's Trust for £5,280 to set the social enterprise up over the next 12 months.
In January 2009 We Create* was officially set up and formalised.
Richard graduated from the School for Social Entrepreneurs in April 2009 aged 26. He has now been offered and accepted a funded place on a PG Certificate in Social Enterprise at Coventry University and is in the process of finishing his MA in Fashion.
We Create* is now developing its organisation's outreach around the Birmingham area and is applying for funding and support from other organisations to help establish a National Headquarters. The headquarters will allow We Create* to train individuals from disadvantaged and socially excluded backgrounds in fashion design, support recent fashion graduates and young individuals based around the city setting up or wanting to set up their own labels, and space to retail their designs.
More information about We Create*
DOWNLOAD the We Create* Information Booklet PDF
VIDEO TO FOLLOW when we can afford a digital camcorder!
Last Updated on 15/04/2009
Contact rich@WeCreate.org.uk
Many Thanks and Kind Regards
We Create*