{"id":272,"date":"2014-03-30T10:22:14","date_gmt":"2014-03-30T09:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/matthewrusk\/?p=272"},"modified":"2014-03-30T10:22:14","modified_gmt":"2014-03-30T09:22:14","slug":"progress-update-macaw-designs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/matthewrusk\/2014\/03\/30\/progress-update-macaw-designs\/","title":{"rendered":"Progress Update: Macaw Designs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I caught up with Ali Gillum for the fifth in our series of University of Exeter student business updates. Ali is the founder of a fantastic social enterprise called Macaw Designs, which creates beautiful bespoke iPhone, iPad, laptop and glasses cases. I last time wrote about Macaw Designs in March 2013 the foundations of the business were just being set-up; by Easter 2013 Ali had started designing the Macaw Designs website as well as locating a factory in England to produce her designs.<\/p>\n

\"Bespoke
Macaw Designs – Bespoke iPhone, iPad, Glasses & Laptop Cases<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By autumn 2013 Macaw Designs boasted four unique design collections and officially launched the entire brand in October 2013 in association with Her Campus. Since then Ali has been carefully building the brand by undertaking craft events as well as Popup Macaw<\/strong> events in Exeter and Durham. Sales have been building since launch, with Macaw Designs being selected by the University of Exeter to represent it at the SETsquared intra-university business competition held in Spitalfields Market in June. Ali will also take the brand to summer festivals like New Wine and Somersault, capitalising on the release of two new collections that are aimed at the male market. Post graduation Ali is looking to continue to grow her social enterprise, which has receive grant backing from the Innovation Centre and the UnLtd Fund, into a business that not only creates bespoke cases but also impacts local communities through running craft events. No doubt that next twelve months will be really exciting for Macaw Designs and I will keep you updated!<\/p>\n

\"Macaw
Macaw Designs – one of two new collections for men!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In terms of my week here at MGR Music we successfully managed to launch the Singing Lessons Reading<\/a>, Piano Lessons Leicester<\/a> and Guitar Lessons Winchester<\/a> websites, with our most exciting news being that we are nearly almost there in signing an advertising deal with a London guitar store for the for the Guitar Lessons London<\/a> website. This would be a massive achievement for us, generating a new stream of income that can be used to create more fantastic content. The week also saw us hire teachers in Aberdeen<\/a> and Oxford<\/a> which kept us on track for our two teachers per week expansion!<\/p>\n

Connect with Matthew via LinkedIn<\/a> or have a read of his whisky blog, where this week he reviewed the Laphroaig 10 year old<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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