Mike Beecham. MA. MCSD. PGCE.

LECTURING & TUITION IN DESIGN AND CREATIVE MANAGEMENT

I have over 40 years of experience in the communications industry, working my way up from a 'shop floor' creative up to Creative Head of multi-national companies within the heavy retail and mail order businesses.

In the past I have interspersed lecturing in between my working career to teach at MBA level. This was to help aspiring managers to understand how the creative concept integrates with the marketing brief to be effective and still individual in its impact, pointing towards a creative approach not an over analytical approach.

After leaving the commercial/creative role I lectured at Leeds College of Art and Design in Advertising and Graphics and at Calderdale College of Art in Graphic Design. Also I have been employed to give individual lectures in Design Management at Salford University.

At present I can offer individual teaching modules to students who need to expand their options in getting their first employment by teaching them how to build a greater understanding of the knowledge required when involved in the contract between themselves the marketing department or originator of the design/creative brief. The need to protect their creative idea in a professional and structured way is a major reason why young creative people struggle to attain a foothold towards being accepted as a professional contributor in a working environment.

GUIDANCE & TEACHING OF PHOTOSHOP, IINDESIGN AND ILLUSTRATOR

Also I am currently offering training or guidance to using Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator to either students or businesses that require more hands on approach to producing graphic content using internal staff. I am currently involved in teaching staff at the head office of Asda/Walmart Leeds besides small businessses who need these skills to promote salable products.

TUITION FOR ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES

Working in Photoshop and Corel Illustrator I draw straight to screen, which has allowed me to replicate traditional magic marker illustrations. One major benefit is to be able to produce marker style visuals straight to a digital output. Passing these skills to advertising students is essential to helping them transmit their ideas in a professional way to prospective employers.

The creative contract requires 'a leap of faith'. This period of trust is where marketing can be turned into a differentiated concept that stretches the boundries for sales success.

BACKGROUND TO MY COMMERCIAL EXPERIENCE..

Started as a trainee creative person in advertising agencies,I worked my way up to being a Creative Head of a number of multi national organisations. In the mid-point of my career I joined Grattan plc (part of Otto Versand. Germany) as a Design Manager eventually being promoted to become the Creative Head, with a department of 30 designers. My duties included developing creative concepts for all areas of the Grattan and Look Again brands. I have experience in the organisation of large-scale fashion photo shoots abroad together with art direction. I was also trained in marketing and had direct input into the decisions with development of creative strategy, interfacing between both the directors and the creative department. In this period I was also part of a team that won the Peritas National Business Game in Madrid. Also my position had responsibilities of daily management duties from monitoring a £10million budget through to a staff development programme.

In 1999 I was successfully assigned to working as Creative Head for a cross- functional management team put together with Tesco supermarkets as a joint venture with Grattan to develop a new mail order business opportunities for Tesco. The initial task was to developing a new brand image together with Lowe Lintas and Wolf Olins, Tesco main London media partners. The team won awards 2 years in succession for the best catalogue design with the Tesco Baby and Toddler catalogues. My last position was to start a mail order catalogue by linking selling opportunities through various multi-retail channels. Also I helped launch thefirst in-store touch screen catalogue system for Asda Stores.

My experience has acted as an essential bridge between creative and management functions allowing me to utilise a knowledge of the marketing processes that need to be employed to deliver profitable creative solutions to the right customer targets.The culmination of skills has given me a bank of knowledge that can help shape future creative students pathway to a longer career.

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