I was told that the workshop also breeds alot of successful collaborations across disciplines, for example a surface pattern designer provided her fabric to an upholsterer to apply to her furniture, these were than sold at a craft fair and ended up being endorsed by a larger company. I was also told that quite well established Leeds based designers often use these facilities, such as NousVous.
It seems like a great place to get involved with for me, especially hoping to persue freelance work alongside a salary job. It is a realistic oppertunity that with the hard work put in would be a great outlet for freelance production of work (be that promotional or otherwise) I think for client based work, it may not be appropriate, but craft fairs are going to become a more integrated part of my practise, so for this avenue of creative practice, it could be close to perfect. (considering distance and the friendly staff + good facilities). Fac4 are also open 9am till 9pm, you book the space, sign in, use it and pay for the facilities and materials
I was really impressed by the creative buzz at fac4, laura said it reminds her of a university or college facility because of the buzz which surrounds the workshop at any given time, with at least a few people from a variety of disciplines working away at any given time.
Fac 4 also have a pop up shop called joined at the print, which sells work produced at fac4, this has become a smalltime business that the people who use the facility have actually maintined themselves and control of the shop has largely been passed to them, again this is another nice promotional outlet which I could add to the list I am building.
Some photographs of Fac4. I want to include them in my design context publication (which I am thinking is going to focus on the creative community in Leeds - e.g print facilities like this one, events, exhibitions, live art jams, pop up shops, concession oppertunities and craft fairs.) Laura and Gina also had no problems with being included in a publication.
