How do cross artform designers meet collaborators ( without using facebook and myspace shite)? 

Convener(s): Shanti Freed

Participants: Katherine Warman, Pia Futado, Michelle Reader, Anna Morrissey, Stuart Targett, Shanti Freed

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

• Designers are stuck in a room/ studio, and have to be asked by directors… how do we make ourselves visible ie be proactive instead of passive?
• It’s about who you know, you need to talk to people however lovely your Facebook profile is.
• Designers are starting to initiate work themselves, because they’re fed up with waiting to be asked ( see above note re directors).
• Should we write to theatre directors? Write to them at the theatre they’re working at, more likely to get to them directly.
• Devising from design up- how to find/contact appropriate companies or directors with the same working method, vision, approach.
• It can be disappointing when you meet a director, feel you have a rapport, then they work with someone they know after all.
• From a director’s point of view (Pia), if the design comes first it dictates what happens kinesthetically.
• Life gets in the way, you may not have worked for a while, you need to re-establish yourself.
• Suggested setting up a dating agency for directors and designers. Identified some things which already exist.  Young Vic- Genesis network, and Stage Jobs Pro, and event run by Stellar Network – Lone Sharks and Satellites.
• Discussed different ways to get across your visions/expressions/personality & work in process, other than using a portfolio, i.e. 3x postcards art therapy exercise
• Mentors – some designers find them very useful and some need to know how to find them.
• Michelle and Shanti