Kate and Zoe are renoun for making beautiful bespoke jewellery but they have another string to their bow – mentoring students and new graduates. They are looking forwards to presenting a marketing seminar for the jewellery designer / makers; of the incubation support programme ‘DESIGN SPACE‘ set up by Birmingham City Council. The scheme provides a creative environment for the designers, who are embarking on a career in design such as Hannah Bates, who works in silver with light-gathering rods of vibrant coloured acrylic.

‘Design Space is a Business Premises facility, part of Solutions for Business portfolio of publicly funded business support.

The scheme provides shared incubation space and facilities for up to 20 Creatives who are committed to starting up a design led business, providing them with:

• Free access to shared incubation space for up to 12 months to run their business from
• A fully serviced environment (i.e. workshop facilities/studio space/IT equipment/showcase and meeting area)
• In-house mentoring
• A package of sector specific business development support
• Clustering/networking opportunities’

“It is very rewarding to share our experiences with other designers” says Kate “with our lectures, we aim to guide these new business startups, by introducing the basics of marketing and PR. Through their own practise and experience in this sector they will be able to develop a strategy to promote their work, remembering that they need the product and service behind them to prevent making expensive mistakes.”