We are really pleased with the latest concept in our floor screeding educational initiative. Those of you that have been following our work will know about the Screed Scientist, which has been storming up in the search engine rankings as well as making appearances in trade magazines. We have always felt that education, training and information sharing can go a long way towards improving floor screeding.
If we may say so, it is a great idea to pass on tips and hints to the broader industry, but could there be a more sustainable way? And if you think about this for long enough you then realise that you have to get people at the bottom when they enter the industry. If you can get to the fresh, green, and enthusiastic people then you can make your ideas last and turn them into something more enduring. What better way than to target apprentices?
As a warning and please note, this is all work in development. We have seen that as we evolve our ideas there are important lessons. For example, if you start out with a concept it is actually a journey and you have no idea where you will end up! To simply illustrate this we can tell you that when we began with the Screed Scientist we had no clue to the fact that we would create an entire family of characters. In the family each would have an important job and a message to communicate to the rest of the industry in terms of suppliers, partners and customers. Before we move on, let us meet the family.
Number 1: The Screed Scientist
Number 2: The Underfloor Heating Man
Number 3: The Screed Doctor
Anyway we side tracked a little bit there, so let us get back onto the subject of the Screed Apprentice. Yep, this is a cool idea and so how do we develop it? This sounds like a job for Trevor, the graphics genius. Our MD, Spencer Warner (the real Screed Scientist) got on the blower to Trevor our graphics man and couldn’t find him! Spencer has had over 25 years on the tools and can be guaranteed to be on site or in the office by 7am if not much earlier. Anyway, Trevor, one of these creative types trundled in much later, half asleep and to a barrage of excitement. “Trev, we have got this great concept that could be very useful to us and for a trade body that we are working with, what can you come up with?
Most people or companies won’t show you what happens next, but we really enjoy the creative process. In our way of thinking this stuff will look cool on our social media platforms especially as a part of our pinterest account. So here goes with the creative stages. The comments are here are for a bit of fun and to add a bit of interest to some of the thought processes that went on inside our heads and are not to be taken too literally.
Stage 1
Comments:
Too much like Letter Land perhaps? Not quite the message or image we are looking to convey.
Stage 2
Comments:
For the two outside images we seem to have a teapot out of Alice in Wonderland and an elephant going to work – again we are not hitting the right messages. BUT hang on!! The middle two images certainly have some mileage. The large hat seems to indicate a bit of youth in terms of not having fully grown into the role. The swooshing about shows a keen, not been tainted by how things have been done in the past and above all it shows a bit of dynamism. Great. Hey Trev please develop these a bit further.
Stage 3
Comments:
Great, really looking cool. But remember the title of this blog post which was about creativity and attention to detail? For the image on the left, does the long bar look a bit wooden? Hmmmm, we can’t be having that. Hey Trev, please fix that for us.
Stage 4
Comments:
Yes! This does the trick. We can now move on with this concept.
Creativity, innovation and attention to detail are exactly what you need in our industry. The Screed Apprentice is go!