Press Releases

A close up photo of an intricate laser etching of what looks like a hand-drawn dragon. The very narrow depth of field causes the top and bottom of the image to be blurred leaving only the centre in focus.

Launching the July 2023 Boost Membership

30th May 2023
"Launching the July 2023 Boost Membership"

Once again it’s time to announce the chance to get a free 6 month membership to DoES Liverpool.

If you already know what you’re doing then head over here to apply otherwise read on for more information about Boost membership.

Apply for Boost Membership

The DoES Liverpool Boost Membership was introduced to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our opening DoES Liverpool – the amazing coworking and shared workshop space in the Fabric District of Liverpool. Boost membership gives two people the opportunity to use the space free of charge for six months either with an allocated desk or by having 24-hour access to the workshop.

As things get increasingly difficult for people due to inflation, fuel prices and all the economic woes we’re dealing with at the moment we thought it would be worth pointing out that boost membership is open to anyone, even existing paying members. If 6 months free membership would help you out at the moment then feel free to apply, of course if you’re not already a paying member you are still welcome to apply.

Applications are open until 11:59pm on 13th June 2023, any applications received after this point will not be considered. We will endeavour to announce the winners within 48 hours.

We’ve now created a dedicated page with lots more information about Boost Membership so if you want to find out more just head over to there and take a look!

Launching the April 2023 Boost Membership

16th February 2023
"Launching the April 2023 Boost Membership"

Once again it’s time to announce the chance to get a free 6 month membership to DoES Liverpool.

If you already know what you’re doing then head over here to apply otherwise read on for more information about Boost membership.

Apply for Boost Membership

The DoES Liverpool Boost Membership was introduced to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our opening DoES Liverpool – the amazing coworking and shared workshop space in the Fabric District of Liverpool. Boost membership gives two people the opportunity to use the space free of charge for six months either with an allocated desk or by having 24-hour access to the workshop.

As things get increasingly difficult for people due to inflation, fuel prices and all the economic woes we’re dealing with at the moment we thought it would be worth pointing out that boost membership is open to anyone, even existing paying members. If 6 months free membership would help you out at the moment then feel free to apply, of course if you’re not already a paying member you are still welcome to apply.

Applications are open until 11:59pm on 12th March 2023, any applications received after this point will not be considered. We will endeavour to announce the winners within 48 hours.

We’ve now created a dedicated page with lots more information about Boost Membership so if you want to find out more just head over to there and take a look!

Launching our next Boost Membership Applications

10th February 2022
"Launching our next Boost Membership Applications"

Our first pair of Boost members are only a month into their membership but it’s already time to announce that applications for the next cohort are now open!

The DoES Liverpool Boost Membership is our way of trying to grow our amazing community, and give more access to people who might otherwise struggle to afford a full time membership. As a reminder what is on offer is:

  • Either a six month Workshop membership, meaning you can come into the space and use our equipment as much as you want for six months.
  • Or a full time allocated desk in our coworking space and access to the workshop, again for six months.

We launched the DoES Liverpool Boost Membership at the end of last year to celebrate ten years of operating the best coworking maker space in Liverpool. In this time DoES Liverpool has gone from a single small room with a basic 3D printer to taking over an entire floor of The Tapestry building in the Fabric District. We now have a dedicated coworking space, far more workshop equipment including many 3D printers, laser cutters, a CNC mill and various sublimation printing technologies. We have a whole room of textile equipment along with multiple meeting rooms and one of the fastest internet connections in the city centre!

What do you get with a DoES Boost membership? All the benefits of a standard membership. A “desk” membership gives an allocated desk for a person to store their belongings and access to meeting rooms, whereas a “workshop” membership only gives access to the space and use of the workshop area with a “clean desk” policy. What they both provide is:

  • A storage box in the workshop area to store belongings
  • Access to all of the equipment in the space, with free inductions where necessary (with the usual booking and availability constraints)
  • Access to our incredibly fast internet connection
  • 24 hour access

All of this will be available for free to two lucky people for six months from April. We’re opening applications today and will close them at 11:59pm on February 28th. Click here for the form. We will then do a random draw and announce the successful applicants on the 2nd March to give them as much time as possible to prepare for their membership starting on the 1st April!

To clarify, the following is not included with membership at DoES Liverpool:

  • Materials (e.g. 3D printer filament, plywood or perspex for the laser cutters)
  • Mentoring – people in the community will of course be very interested to hear about your projects and may offer their help but we do not employ support staff or technicians.
  • Access for all your friends and extended family – we would be happy to meet your friends and understand that sometimes a project might need a helping hand but this offer is for a single individual and needs to be treated as such.

It was great to see so many new names in the applicants for our first Boost membership but we want to spread the message even further this time. If you know someone who has an idea for a project but doesn’t have the equipment to make a real go at it then let them know! If you know a community of people who would be interested in DoES Liverpool and maybe haven’t heard of us, then spread the word!

First Boost Members Announced!

21st December 2021
"First Boost Members Announced!"

We are very happy to announce that we have picked our first set of people to get Boost Membership!

In the end we had 27 entries. Two winners were picked randomly last week and have now confirmed that they can take on the places starting in January.

We’ve asked them for a brief bio, so I’ll let them introduce themselves:

Kate James

A photo of Kate James “Throughout the lockdown I’ve found a creative outlet in working alongside community groups to mark how we’ve all coped with the pandemic in our own ways. Working with Collective Encounters, Friends of Springfield Park, The Drive L14 and The Lantern Company, I used a real mixed bag of materials, mainly fabric and woodwork, but also poetry, chalk and typography to create art that captures moments in time we can all relate to. I’m hoping to make full use of the DoES workshop to create something entirely new in 2022.” – Kate James

 

Lauren McGuffie

“A big warm hello to all of you, my name is Lauren and I’m the face and hands behind Little Chestnut. I currently make personalised gifts and homeware using a variety of paper cutting, vinyl, sublimation and toner reactive foiling.

I studied art at college and went on to complete a degree in Visual Art at university. I spent ten years working as a Visual Merchandising Specialist for a large global home furnishing retailer. This saw me spend time planning and implementing my designs not just in the UK, but in Europe and Australia.
I was made redundant at the beginning of last year and decided to take the opportunity to follow my passion and take the plunge to start working for myself.”

We’re really looking forward to welcoming them into the space more. While both have visited before, neither have spent much time at DoES yet and they’re both eager to get working on projects. If you see them while you’re in be sure to say “Hello!”

Unfortunately we only had two places to offer so we know there will be some people left disappointed now. We do hope to run this scheme on a regular basis though and there should be more information about the next cohort at the end of January.

For the geeks amongst us… as mentioned we had 27 entries. Six of those were for a full time desk and the other 21 for workshop membership. The Google Form puts the entries into a spreadsheet and we picked a winner by using “randomise range” on the rows. After that it was a simple case of going down from the top and picking the first of each type of membership, which brought us to Lauren and Kate. No rubber balls or extravagantly designed and named machines were involved, this time…

Accessing DoES Liverpool During COVID-19

26th June 2020
"Accessing DoES Liverpool During COVID-19"

A lot has happened since our last update on how we’re handling the pandemic at DoES Liverpool (including the community helping to keep NHS staff and key workers across the North-West safe by supplying over 24,000 visors!).  We hope you’re staying safe and keeping well.

With the visor project winding down (although still supplying visors to anyone who needs them) and the Government starting to slightly ease the lockdown we’ve been looking at how to reconfigure the space for better social distancing.

Our recommendation is still to work from home wherever possible, and only visit the space if you need to use the equipment which isn’t available elsewhere or collect post or other items.

Our landlord, Jason, has installed hand sanitizer stations in the communal areas for people to use on arrival.   We have handwash in the toilets and handwash and disinfectant in the kitchen area.  You should wash your hands immediately on arrival at the space, and wipe down any desk areas or equipment that you use at the start and end of your visit.

To help with social distancing we’re restricting access to some areas of the space.

Restricted Occupancy Areas

Everywhere is still usable, but certain areas where there is less room should only be used by one person (or people from one household) at a time.  These areas are marked with signs, like this one on the CNC room:

Door with "COVID19 maximum occupancy 1 person" sign

The restricted areas are:

  • The laser-cutter room (we have taken Sophia off the bookings calendar for now so that the room doesn’t get double-booked, but either cutter can be used)
  • The CNC room
  • The kitchen
  • The recess with the vinyl cutters and sublimation printer
  • The corner workshop desk and textiles area
  • The corner workshop desk and electronics workbench

These last two areas are marked out with tape on the floor, and are chosen so that you can either use the workshop desk or you can use the equipment (knitting machines, soldering irons, etc.), but there shouldn’t be someone at both at the same time.

Hot-desking

Given that our desks are too close together to allow people to maintain a 2 metre separation when sat at adjacent or opposing desks, people should stagger the desks they use relative to others.

To make that easier for people hot-desking, we have taped off some of the desks which shouldn’t be used.

Desk criss-crossed with tape to show it shouldn't be used

And have marked out the desks which are available for hot-deskers to work from like this:

Desk with a "Desk Available" sign

People with permanent desks are welcome to use their normal desk, and in most cases this fits in with the marking out of hot-desks that we’ve done.

However, in some cases you’d end up sitting next to, or opposite, another person at a desk.  If that happens, please work with each other to work out a sensible option.  Either using one of the other available hot-desks, or asking the person if they can move instead.

Finally, where possible open the windows to keep the space well ventilated.

If you have any questions about access, or any other issues relating to this, email hello@doesliverpool.com.  We are responding to communications, but only staffing the space on an ad-hoc, only-when-necessary basis.

As part of our preparation of the space, we developed the DoES Liverpool COVID specific risk assessment, which is reviewed on an ongoing basis as the situation evolves.

Corona virus hand wash sign

DoES Liverpool COVID-19 Plan

17th March 2020
"DoES Liverpool COVID-19 Plan"

Following the updated government advice regarding COVID-19, and the need for social distancing, we have taken the difficult decision to cancel all DoES Liverpool Events, including Maker Nights and Maker Days, starting immediately and until further notice. We will not be supporting external events as we will not have staff available to supervise them.

The space will still be available for use, although it will no longer be staffed and we cannot guarantee that access will be possible without a fob. Anyone who has a fob can access the space as usual.

We realise that many of our members use the equipment at the space to do their job and so we need to support them at an already tricky time.  That means that if you come in on an ad-hoc basis and don’t have the out-of-hours access but do have a fob, you’ll still be able to come in as you do now.  As there will be nobody around to take payment, please email hello@doesliverpool.com with details of what you need to pay. 

You should only come in if you need to work on something or to collect something from the space.  Please do not attend purely for social reasons.

The membership of our community encompasses a broad spectrum of people, some of whom fall into the “high risk” bracket posed by this virus. Please do not continue operating business as usual; we all have a duty of care to manage the threat this virus poses, if not to you specifically, to other more vulnerable members of society.

Please do not attend the space if you are unwell, especially if you have got a new persistent cough or a fever.  

It is everybody’s responsibility to ensure that the space is kept as clean as possible; as such we are requesting that you wipe down all surfaces before and after use, as well as other areas such as the fridge door handle.  Surface cleaning spray is available by the workshop sink in the kitchen. The space will still be cleaned as usual, this is an additional precaution.

It goes without saying that one of the best ways to protect yourself is to regularly wash your hands and avoid touching your face, especially when you have been interacting with other people and spaces.

If you have any questions about access, or any other issues relating to this, email hello@doesliverpool.com.  We will be responding to communications, just not staffing the space itself.

DoES Liverpool Online

DoES Liverpool was set up to stop people feeling lonely from having to work on their own at home. As such we want to continue to help you feel less isolated during this situation. We have a few ways in which you can stay connected to the DoES Liverpool community and we’d love to hear your suggestions too!x

Obviously that’s just a start.  We know that the DoES Liverpool community will be working out all manner of ways to connect and cope and have interesting things to share.  As always, there’s the #weeknotes hashtag for letting others know what you’re up to, and let us know if there’s anything you’d like us to share.

Finally, look after yourselves and keep an eye out for any vulnerable members of the DoES Liverpool Community as well as in your local community.

Liverpool Hannah Directory Collection Point Launch

26th November 2019
"Liverpool Hannah Directory Collection Point Launch"

Join us for the launch of a Hannah Directory collection point at DoESLiverpool. Over the next few months our community will help distribute the sixth edition of Hannah Directory, which launches during the week of Monday November 25th 2019.

In the afternoon of Friday the 29th November, Andrew Wilson will be delivering our batch of Directories which anyone can come and collect from our friendly co-working and makerspace and meet our community.

Hannah Directory highlights people and organisations doing great things in places in the north of England and we want our community to use the directory to build upon our links with other interesting and exciting individuals and organisations within Liverpool

DoES Liverpool exists to support people to do their best work, grow into the lives they want to lead, and to explore and create ways of working and living for the modern day in a just society; spreading making, tech, and the new possibilities of digital tools throughout Liverpool and beyond. We have a networked, rather than command-and-control, mindset which matches the ethos of the Hannah Directory. Our networks don’t just exist within the community, we link with people and organisations in other networks to achieve more collectively.

Hannah Mitchell who inspired the directory, talked of the “beauty in civic life” and for us beauty is something to watch unfold around people making things.

The six editions of the directory have so far featured well over a hundred people and organisations with the same enterprising spirit and this year it includes artists, musicians, community groups, digital technology companies, policy think tanks, a music festival and a volunteer-run cinema.

They are drawn from a huge geographical area from Barrow to Sheffield and Newcastle to Liverpool. Bringing them all together in one directory means ideas and inspiration can be exchanged between people and places in the north for the common good.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Hannah Directory is named after an inspirational figure from the north of England, Hannah Mitchell (1872–1956), a suffragette and rebel who tried to create ‘beauty in civic life’ in her work on public libraries, parks and gardens.

Images from DoESLiverpool are attached. More images are available on request.

For more information or comment contact hello@doesliverpool.com

Web: DoESLiverpool.com
Twitter: @DoESLiverpool
Instagram: @DoESLiverpool
Facebook: doesliverpool

For more information or comment on Hannah Directory contact directory coordinator Andrew Wilson on andrew@hannahfestival.com.

Web: hannahfestival.com
Twitter: @hannahfestival
Facebook: hannahfestival
Instagram: hannah_directory

DoES Liverpool Has Moved

2nd April 2018
"DoES Liverpool Has Moved"

 

DoES Liverpool has now officially moved to The Tapestry building.  When we re-open following the Easter holiday, on Tuesday 3rd April 2018, our new address will be:

DoES Liverpool
1st Floor
The Tapestry
68 – 76 Kempston Street
Liverpool L3 8HL

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped so far. There’s still plenty of cleaning and arranging to be done but if you don’t mind a bit of dishevelment then you’re welcome to come along and take a look. Our internet connection is active and the coffee will be brewing so you should be able to get some work done, although there’s a decent chance someone might offer you a paintbrush or mop!

This does mean that from this point our new pricing scheme is in action, as mentioned previously that is as follows:

Description Price Member Price
Single Day
(Workshop* or Desk)		 £12/day £10/day
Out of Hours Workshop £35/month £25/month
Monthly Workshop £65/month £50/month
Flexidesk £80/month £70/month
Monthly desk £180/month £165/month
Registered Address/Mailbox £99/year £79/year
Storage per cubic feet per month £3 £3

* – Gerald surcharge of £2/usage still applies

If you are interested in receiving the discounts mentioned above, or simply supporting our efforts, this page will show you how to become a member.

Any hot desk days you’ve previously bought are still valid in the new venue. If you have a permanent desk then we will work with you to determine where your new desk location will be. If you have monthly workshop membership then your storage box has been transferred and your membership continues in the new location.

If you have a registered address with us, please now update any records you have to use the following address:

Your Company
c/o DoES Liverpool
The Tapestry
68 – 76 Kempston Street
Liverpool L3 8HL

For the time being we will still be able to receive post at the Gostins Building but this will only be available for the next few months so we advise that you update your records as soon as possible.

As mentioned there’s still much to do so we don’t yet have glossy photos of our finished space, but below should give you a taster, together with the last moments in Gostins!

End. Of. An. Era. Goodbye Gostins, it’s been a fun 7 years. #weeknotes

A post shared by DoES Liverpool (@doesliverpool) on

Announcing our new home, and DoES membership!

22nd November 2017
"Announcing our new home, and DoES membership!"

It’s been over 3 months since I last posted something about DoES Liverpool’s plan to move, and what a busy time it’s been. We’ve firmed up our plans to move and we’ve also managed to get some new people signed up so that we can be a lot happier about being able to afford what is looking like an exciting expansion of the DoES Liverpool coworking space and workshop. We actually announced this in person during our birthday party and have dropped quite obvious hints and mentions on Twitter, but somehow posting it to our blog feels more official. I am very happy to be able to announce:

DoES Liverpool is moving to The Tapestry, a newly renovated classic building in what will soon be known as The Fabric District.

This move should be a great new start for DoES Liverpool as we work through our seventh year. DoES Liverpool will be always be DoES Liverpool, but with double the floor space we’ll be able to do that much more. We will have a bigger, better events space; multiple meeting rooms; quiet corners to take a call and a nice space to hang out, drink coffee* and have a chat. While still offering the best coworking and workshop facilities in the city! (* other beverages are available)

The Fabric District is across the city between London Road and Islington. The map below illustrates our old location (red) and the new (green), we’ve also highlighted Lime Street Station to show the great transport links we’ll continue to have in our new location.

Jason Abbott, one of the owners of the Tapestry, and a number of other stakeholders are really pushing to develop the area into a great place to live and make things. They’re trying to do it in such a way that doesn’t push out the great people who are already running businesses there now, hoping to embrace their work and bring more people, and customers, into the area!

They’re still working to finish the building, and once that’s finished we then need to get in and get the space ready for our own purposes. We’re expecting to have the keys at the beginning of January and will then work to get the space ready as fast as possible. We’re working on the plans for this but we’re really hopeful to get things done as fast as possible and to be in by February.

The move to a new space is such a large change for DoES Liverpool, our first move in over 6 years, so this seems like an obvious time to make some changes to our pricing structure.

One key thing we’re doing is making membership an official thing. We’re ever thankful to Francis Irving for suggesting the “Friends of DoES” scheme and now we’re bringing that in as part of our pricing model. If you setup a monthly £10 payment then you are considered a “Friend of DoES”, we truly appreciate the people that do this and we know that people like having this option to signal their support for DoES Liverpool and our mission to support a vibrant community of makers in Liverpool. See this page for how to sign up.

This restructure does mean increasing our standard prices but we’re going to take this opportunity to offer discounts on these prices to our members as well. The larger size of the new venue and the ability to offer 24/7 access means we can add a few more services to the list as you’ll see below:

 

Description Price Member Price
Single Day
(Workshop* or Desk)		 £12/day £10/day
Out of Hours Workshop £35/month £25/month
Monthly Workshop £65/month £50/month
Flexidesk £80/month £70/month
Monthly desk £180/month £165/month
Registered Address/Mailbox £99/year £79/year
Storage per cubic feet per month £3 £3

* – Gerald surcharge of £2/usage still applies

There’s a few new things on that list I can tell you about. The first is the “Flexidesk” option. This is somewhere between the hot desk day and the full monthly desk option. We really want it to allow people to pop in for short periods without having to stress about paying a half day for a few hours, or rushing out before their half day turns into a full day. It’s similar to our “all you can eat, but don’t take the mickey” workshop option that lets you come and go as you please but reflects the fact that we expect Flexidesk users to be in more often. We’re not going to be stressing about how often you’re in and we don’t want you to either, we just want to see more of you!

We’re now splitting the workshop offering into two, one for people who are likely to be in during the daytime and one for people who are more likely to be in “out of hours”. We’d expect this to be like peak and off-peak and have priced it accordingly, it’ll be interesting to see what changes when we have much extended opening hours.

Finally, we’ve come up with a price to cover general storage. We’re hoping this works out and is a fair price, considering our biggest outlay is rent – i.e the physical space – we really need to be able to recoup that cost and if you’re storing stuff at DoES you’re definitely making use of the space. All of the monthly costs already include some storage but if you find you need more, you can now pay us for it!

These price changes will help to make sure we can cover the running costs but getting the space ready in the first place and getting everything moved over is going to stretch our current finances so we’re also planning to run a crowdfunding drive to help us to cover that. There’ll be more information once we have a better idea of the costs involved.

We’re keeping the old prices until we move into the Tapestry but if you want to take advantage of the Flexidesk option you can do that straight away, just get in touch at hello@doesliverpool.com! Similarly if you have any questions about the move please get in touch. There’s so much more to tell about this story and we will continue to update you but hopefully we can alleviate any concerns you might have.

Finally lets close out with the current plan for room layout and some photos from within the (unfinished) space. This layout isn’t final yet and the furniture shown is just a guide but it’s still an exciting glimpse at the future capabilities of DoES Liverpool!

Is DoES Liverpool Moving?

29th June 2017
"Is DoES Liverpool Moving?"

More important news here! – 22nd November 2017

You might have seen in the news, or heard on the rumour mill, stories about Gostins Building (DoES Liverpool’s current home) being sold. It’s been on the cards for ages and is part of the reason why we’ve been looking to move and expand, but a planning application to turn the building into a hotel doesn’t sound like a new owner who wants to keep the building as a hive of alternative and interesting entrepreneurial activity 🙂

So, what does this mean for DoES Liverpool?

In truth, not a massive change.  On a practical note, the new owners have changed the opening times for reception, so the front doors will be locked after 5pm (from Monday 3rd July 2017).  We’ll have to sort out keys and a doorbell for evening meetups – more on this once we’ve worked out the details.

As to the bigger picture, it’s not ideal, but we’re weighing up two options for a move at the moment and either of those will work as a new home for us. One is the same size we are now and well within our budget. The other is twice our current size, which would let us fit more businesses in and expand the workshop (separate wood and metalwork workshops anyone?) and who knows what else? But we’d need to find something like an extra £1000/month to fund it. That’d be easy as it fills up, but we need a plan to get there.

How can you help?

Obviously we’re really excited about the bigger space and aiming for that. I’m sure we’ll be back with more concrete tasks as the plans develop but in the mean time there are two ways you can help out.

Firstly, become a Friend of DoES Liverpool. This is our bottom level membership, for people who want to support what we’re doing financially but don’t need any of our paid services. Either set up a standing order for £9/month (bank info is here) and ping an email to hello@doesliverpool.com to let us know, or click the button below to set up a recurring payment with PayPal:




Secondly, come and take a desk in the current space. That’ll help our cashflow and forecasting plus you’ll get to hang out with an amazing community of people and (most importantly 😉 ) get first dibs on desks when we move. If you don’t need a desk yourself, tell whoever you know who might.

And if you want to keep abreast of developments, join the community discussion group or our (lower traffic, a handful of emails each year) announcements mailing list:

Subscribe to our announcements mailing list

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