ON TREND PRINT DESIGNS SS18

It's been a while since writing on this blog, but with less than 6 month's left of my education I thought I would try my hardest to document it more. I'm still offically on holiday leave from university as consolidation week came straight after the christmas period - with a deadline looming and FINAL MAJOR PROJECT around the corner, I wanted to gather some inspiration together.

I have decided to use my FMP to create a very commercial portfolio in hope to meet the desires of possible employer's after graduation, with this in mind I gathered visual inspiration from a shopping centre local to myself today. Looking at interior prints in high end and high street shops to see what should be expected of me, Here is what I found:

THE TREND-FORECASTING TALK THAT FINALLY ANSWERED MY QUESTION...

Throughout my time at university so far, the question always on my mind had always been; Should I specialise in fashion or interiors? For so long I got swallowed up in which would get me the better job, which would lead me to a job that is more local to me? These questions was leading my practice, to build my portfolio to suit the job I thought I needed. All I knew is that I had a passion for design, mostly digital and screen print. I also have a passion for trends and curating them together along with the research behind them. Did this make me different? I did not want to specialise in a certain thing, I wanted to focus on my passions and what I love doing. This all fell into place today.

Today, a guest lecture and group tutorials were lead by Victoria Redshaw, the person behind Scarlet Opus the trend forecasting agency. Before I attended the lecture, I knew it would be right up my street. I had a good feeling about how I would feel and think about the words she would speak. Scarlet Opus are a trend forecasting agency that work in the interior sector. They attend trend exhibitions around the world, hold seminars and talks, organise trend tours for people to see the world of exhibitions or trade shows through their eyes, they do workshops and work with the media a lot; all while working on current projects with clients and creating seasonal trends. 

To understand what they did as a company was a big relief for me, I never even thought it was a job. This job is all my passions rolled into one. Victoria made us aware that in the industry its not who got the best grade, its about who has the biggest passion and portfolio to back up that passion. It was a weight off my shoulder to say the least. To be in the position that Victoria is in would be my absolute dream job and it has finally answered my question. 

Fashion just is not my forte, why should I try and pursue something fully , that I'm not as interested in when I could excel at something else I really enjoy? I want to put my focus onto interior and lifestyle trends and designs and it feels so good to have finally made up my mind! 

If you are into trends then check out Scarlet Opus website/blog, Victoria really is so knowledgeable and is such an expert in her field. I really enjoyed the lecture she held today where she talked us through her companies trend research process, A new upcoming trend from Scarlet Opus and then held also held small group tutorials where she gave advice and feedback about our BA theory project for our future directions module. I was extremely happy with the feedback I got and with how I presented my ideas. This work is defiantly a passion of mine and I will be updating my blog more frequently with current project developments to share everything!

Thanks again to Victoria, it's been a good day! 

FINAL YEAR IS UPON ME

Browsing through Facebook today when it popped up on my memories - 3 years ago today I was getting the last bits ready for my final major project exhibition at barnsley college  and I was extremely excited to be heading onto a new adventure at Huddersfield University. Its flown so quickly, it's such an odd time, the people from my year who went straight into final year have finished university for good and I'm so excited to go to the degree show and see how much amazing work they have produced. The people who went on to have a placement year/gap year are all just receiving their emails with information about our induction to final year. It all feels so real now, surprisingly exciting though. The past year has been up and down with no real set routine for me, yes some people who had amazing placements and experienced some great opportunities this past year will have such inspiring stories to share when we all get back to class however all the real good placements are down London and if you cannot afford to live there on 1/3 of your student loan then its not really going to be that great. Some people like my self just needed the time away from education, I'm so glad I did. It's been hard but it's really opened my eyes. 

During this placement year, I've set up my own handmade interior business then decided it wasn't what I wanted to do, moved in and then back out of a pub whilst working there too (managed it alone for a brief time too - how fun that was), I've worked for illamasqua and realised even though an amazing opportunity that it's not what I want right now as I've started my own freelancing makeup business which I love more than anything in the world. Makeup is my passion and its something I am good at. I love working on a weekend making people feel beautiful and meeting new clients who become good friends. I have such big plans and dreams for my little business but for now I'm just enjoying it. I've used my gap year to focus on gaining confidence and qualifications in makeup by doing a makeup course. I soon realised when trying to find work experience for placement year that there is nothing suitable in my area. This gives me heart palpitations when thinking about what I'm going to do when I graduate, I do not want to move away and maybe I won't even want to carry on my career in textiles just because theres nothing suitable around here. Makeup is my calling and that is what I will carry on doing, I just love it. So as you see it has been one roller-coaster of a year. 

Since receiving the email for my induction to final year I have been super excited to get back into a routine, back to the grind, the hard work and mostly to see all my girls I've missed them so much. So heres to going back to the adventure and working my arse off to get the degree I've worked towards for the past 5 year. Don't give up on hard work! 

HONEST ADVICE ON GOING INTO PLACEMENT YEAR

Placement year’s are an optional third year on a four year (sandwich course) which are to be used to go out into the big open world on your own and gain work experience. Sounds perfect really, You get a year out of an intense 3 year studying, You get to gain employability skills that will majorly benefit you after graduation and most importantly you get to understand and learn what you like about the ins and outs of the different parts of the fashion and textiles industry.