I really have enjoyed at least some aspects of every single assignment this year, whether it has been strengthening my writing skills in the critical journal, trying something completely new in trend forecasting or pushing myself out of my comfort zone in group work tasks. There are several projects, discussed below, which I feel have been particularly beneficial to me. My analysis of them offers a glimpse into what has been a year of immense change; upon reflection, the standard of my work has taken huge leaps from last year and my confidence in my own abilities/interpretations has been proven in the end results.
ASSIGNMENT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR
I created a VIDEO CV during the Brand Me assignment last term which was a really fun process. I hadn't handled professional camera equipment before so I took some time first to familiarise myself with the camera and tripod I rented from the photography studio in the technology building. It was good to have the opportunity to experiment and be brave with the content of the video, being creative with my shots and channelling my creativity into a new skill. The video CV is a really useful tool because it shows off my skills and experience in a memorable way and I can easily link to my social media platforms and include more information that doesn't fit on my traditional CV. In the past few months, I've found a lot of companies have been impressed by my video CV and I plan on recreating an updated version over summer to show off my new skills and experience.
I got to grips with Adobe Illustrator last term in the Typography assignment by creating a poster for The Vulgar exhibition at the Barbican Centre. Creating the poster involved a long development process as I needed to understand more about typography and watch a lot of tutorials on Lynda.com to be able to achieve my vision. I really liked that this assignment was based around a real concept that I could research about, rather than a hypothetical situation/brand. I even took a trip to London especially to visit the exhibition, which was really beneficial as I already knew so much about all of the different cultural themes which make up the concept of 'vulgarity'. My final poster demonstrated a lot of advanced programme skills including the use of vectors and shape effects.
I discovered this year that I actually really like marketing, having been a bit unsure about it during first year while I was still getting my head around the complex strategies and models. I completed two marketing reports this term - one of Coach and another on FRAME - which both resulted in two really extensive analyses of the brands, their performance and their potential areas of improvement. My approach to the Coach marketing strategy was much more creative, as I included in-depth detail about the tone and style of various adverts and the campaign overall. My approach to the FRAME marketing strategy, on the other hand, was much more theoretical and I really enjoyed doing a lot of in-depth secondary research into the Indian market. This assignment allowed me to find out a lot about a culture that in hindsight, I recognise I had a very limited understanding of. I even made contact with a top Indian blogger who I was able to reference in my group presentation for the module. I was so proud of my final marketing strategy report for FRAME that I had it printed at the end of the term and now I plan on taking it to placement interviews and keeping it to refer back to as a really great resource for final year. I created this marketing report really independently and I feel that I had a really confident understanding of its contents. While I've yet to receive my grade back at the time of writing this post, I know that I'll still be just as happy with the outcome of this assignment regardless of its mark. 
I also had the Fauna handbook printed off at the end of this term, which I completed alongside my group. The idea of creating a brand from scratch has been such an interesting process and along with the lookbook, it has been quite a mammoth task that I was very relieved to see the end of. Despite the sheer scale of the assignment, I definitely learnt a lot and it was a really enriching process to see mine and my group members contributions build up to make something really successful. I never would have predicted at the beginning of this term that the lookbook and handbook assignments would require me to work with a dog (albeit a really well behaved dog!) or style six looks in the Yorkshire moors during terrible, freezing-cold weather. Despite how stressful I found it at times, it was a very memorable and rewarding project. In comparison to the end of my first year of FCP, this year I am definitely taking away with me a lot more skills that I didn't have eight months ago in September. I finally feel less like a fashion newbie and more like a fashion professional, having proved to myself firsthand that I can undertake some really challenging tasks and produce outstanding content. My skills in critical evaluation have been strengthened this year by once again creating a critical journal, although using a blog rather than a physical journal to write in has been a lot more effective as it's been so much easier to get my thoughts across and I think it has really broadened my perspective in terms of the type of publications I can access and analyse. I have found inspiration in historical, cultural and commercial areas in fashion and used my critical eye to find connections in these topics. I've also found the value in reflective thinking as I have monitored my methodology processes much more closely in order to get the best outcomes in my assignments and I have been required to reflect a lot on the group work process which - despite its hurdles - has been rewarding overall.
With regards to technical/manual skills, my ability to use Adobe Photoshop, inDesign and Illustrator has really excelled this year. I've watched a lot of Lynda.com tutorials in my spare time to understand some more complex techniques and googled instructions for some quick refreshers on techniques I had forgotten. On Photoshop, I created lots of mock-ups using Fauna advertising including this double-page spread magazine advertisement (below) and I designed an invitation for the brand's event (left) in the Event Planning assignment. I feel that I could have bettered my skills in graphic design this year and I hope that I will be able to progress with this during my placement year; I'd really like to learn how to draw digitally and create illustrations, a skill which would have been really useful in terms of presentation and layout this year. Being able to use Adobe Creative Suite is definitely a vital skill when it comes to achieving outstanding work and I'm glad that I have invested the time to better myself. I did however, try something new by learning how to use Adobe Premiere as part of the lookbook assignment to create a promotional video for our brand. I have seen a lot of placement positions advertise this programme as a preferred skill so when I recreate my video CV this summer, I intend to use it again to strengthen my knowledge. At the end of this term, I printed and bound my Fauna handbook and FRAME marketing strategy with the help of the staff at the print buro. I now feel much more confident with this process and now that the experience will be invaluable in preparation for final year when it comes to the magazine production project.
This last term in particular has been really monumental in building up my own personal, transferable skills which I know will be of use throughout my placement year, final year and further career. I adopted a team leader role in the handbook and lookbook assignments - something completely unfamiliar to me at the time - and learnt very quickly and under intense pressure about project management and role allocation. The group work process was challenging to say the least and at times I did struggle to be patient with less active or engaged members of the group. It was frustrating to be involved in every element of the assignment while others held back and didn't bring work to sessions as expected and my group didn't meet and share our thoughts and ideas as much as I would have liked as often, I was the only one willing to come in to university out of hours. Despite the hurdles, we did work successfully overall as a group; we compromised where we couldn't reach agreements and listened to each other's ideas and ultimately, I'm really proud of the work that was produced and satisfied that I worked extremely hard this year.
Post a Comment