#fcpreflection

Towards the end of my first year studying fashion communication and promotion I began to stop being terrified of InDesign and Photoshop and actually started to enjoy experimenting and playing around with all the features. I spent a lot of time over summer browsing different layouts and ways of presenting, I adore the search to discover these beautiful publications and it really inspires me to improve these skills further. Platforms such as Pinterest restore my faith in the internet and social media, the amount of ideas and inspiration that can be found on one website is pretty amazing and probably taken for granted as it would have been unheard five/ten years ago.

I love the research side of the course, and gaining inspiration from different places so I think and hope this will play to my advantage throughout this first term.

Although I embrace what the internet has to offer, I often forgot about my workbook last term. I used it more as a scrapbook for little prints and publications I found to be aesthetically useful but I forgot to offer any analysis or context for these things, so this year I must ensure to keep the workbook in mind.

In general, I wish to improve my general consistency and engagement. Although I really enjoy the course, living in Notts is definitely a distraction in itself, however I am confident that being settled into the city and new house will ensure that the next step of the degree is less daunting. I’m sure this is important as I doubt the workload will be decreasing!

Because of where I’m at and where I want to be, I’m going to re-evaluate my likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses and re-do my stop, start and continue.

Likes:

- I still really love photography and I feel i’ve come a long way with it. I understand lighting and angles a lot more and feel confident using Photoshop and Lightroom to create interesting pieces or effects

- I have also developed a liking for blogging and writing, before I saw it as quite a tedious task but now that I have found my footing in what I like to write about and what inspires me, I find it quite enjoyable.

- I still love producing mood boards and having a play around on Photoshop, I don’t think that’s something I’ll ever get sick of!

Dislikes:

- I still don’t like reading theory (of course)

- I also don’t like IT sessions. This isn’t to say I don’t like using the software or learning new things but I find it difficult to quickly follow along a lecturers instructions- I prefer to learn how to use a program through experimentation whilst sitting at home at my own pace.

Strengths:

- I would say Writing is definitely one of my strengths. I feel I am quite good at explaining theory and ideas in written form as well as writing my own blog pieces. One of my favourite pieces of work I have done was the deconstruction of an image by a photographer. I really enjoyed being able to research the piece and find cultural and social influences behind it.

Weaknesses: 

- Mood boards! Although I love creating them, I am still pushing and practicing frequently on grid and minimal layouts. It’s just something I can’t seem to get the hang of. I am never fully happy with a grid or minimal layout I have produced but I have noticed improvements as I practice.

Stop:

- Stressing! About deadlines, about not being as good at something as I think I should be, about not getting the highest grade (You get the jist) 

Start:

- Creating visual timelines etc of tasks, briefs and deadlines for room so as not to miss or forget something by missing it in my journal.

Continue:

STOP, START, CONTINUE

-What are your strength and likes?

My three main strengths picked up on are, strong yet simple presentation within reports, clear explanations and statements as well as new and unique ways to promote products. I enjoy within this module, writing the business plans and reports as well as coming up with new and creative concepts to apply when promoting a new business or product. 

-What areas do you need to improve on?

Three main things I would personally like to improve on are, better use of grammar and punctuation therefore a need to proof read more often is critical, getting to the point of my sentence instead of waffling as well as being able to be more adventurous and creative in my layouts and designs in documents.

-To make this happen you have to?

I will be proof reading more this year as well as getting others to, in order to gain various points to improve on which I may not have picked up on. I will also draft pieces more so this enables me to simply put forward the critical information only and as for improving my designs, I will look for more inspiration on platforms such as pinterest, tumblr or issuu.

-How are you going to keep your passions alive?

I love my course, I don't have this worry.

-What actions are you taking to reach your goals in the future?

As part of my birthday present me and my parents took a trip down to London for a few days. The main reason for this trip was to visit the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition. A once in a life time opportunity to see a large selection of some one McQueen’s best and most noted work. It was the most incredible exhibition, and I was blown away from the moment I walked in to the moment I left. 

McQueen’s pieces were absolutely breath taking, he was a crazy genius of epic yet perfect proportions who took the fashion world by storm! But not only were the collections breath taking; the staging, visuals and set designs were too. The curators and designers of the exhibition flawlessly created the perfect backdrop for McQueen’s pieces.        

First year is over and finished and it’s time to Look Back again.

At the end of our first module in February I created one of these posts including a stop start continue of the next steps that I felt I needed to take to improve and move forward in the next module.  My module 1, stop, start, continue looked like this; - 

Start being more confident in my ideas.

Start to learn how to use Indesign.

Start going to the library more, as it was an environment that I worked well in.

Stop doubting my abilities.

Stop only reading half of the assigned books.

Continue blogging regularly.

Continue using Pinterest.

Continue going to all my lectures and seminars.

Continue developing my photoshop skills.

Looking over this list now I feel that I was able to use the ideas about my abilities in it to enable and further my progression. I am now more confident with Indesign, and have used the library alot more. I blogged regularly during the second module to help create a space to be able to document my ideas and progression. I have also continued to  develop my photoshop skills to help both individual and group projects.  

Looking through my feedback from both modules has helped me to further pinpoint my strengths, weaknesses, likes and areas of improvement. 

I feel that sometimes we put our strengths and likes together, when they can often be completely separate things, if not sometimes similar. I think that my strengths are; writing, layout, social media, Photoshop, content finding/creation, working to a deadline, attending  & seminars. The things I like include; writing, social media, image finding, minimalistic layout designing, trend forecasting, styling. Opposite to both of these are the things that I could improve on; Lexical choice and wording, better knowledge and understanding of indesign, utilising workbook and blog more and coordinating them together in a more cohesive way.

To help make these improvements I am going to try to be more concise in my writing and stick to the brief more. I am going to spend more time using Indesign and getting to know the programme and how I can use it for different layouts and projects. I will blog about things outside of the course, rather than just things that effect that specific module or project; and speak to more lecturers about the uses and reasons for and behind the workbook. 

 To keep my passions alive over the summer I am going to continue to write and post on my personal blog. This helps me keep plugged into fashion, style and styling - whilst also helping me to maintain my time management and planning skills as I juggle my internship and personal life with blogging regularly. I also continue to read a vast variety of different magazines and continue to follow these and other fashion brands and outlines online and on their social media accounts.