Thursday 15th January 2015

We had such an amazing lecture this morning, which left me so enthusiastic in my work. The lecture was from designer Amy Deacon, a past student at NUA. Amy graduated in 2011 but it took her a while to find her feet in the textile industry. After graduating, Amy Deacon showed her work at new designers and had a few write ups on it in magazines, but she did not have a job. Whilst working part time at a bar, she spent about one and a half years on different placements in the design industry. Although these were not paid placement, Amy has said that these were the most important part of her career so far as she learnt a great deal on the job particularly vital computer skills. These placements were completed across the design sector in white stuff, m & s and tesco, where she is current working as part of their F + F clothing brand.

I really enjoyed Amy Deacon's presentation, she was so enthusiastic about what she is doing and very honest about her experiences whilst at and post university life. It has made me think more about how I am working currently, perhaps I need to show a little more enthusiasm in what I am doing. Some of the tutors are not sure about whether I have chosen the right course for this, the final project, but I must prove them wrong and really show that I can produce the goods. Her enthusiasm was infections outs and I now need to get get down to some serious research!

There were a few key ideas I picked up from the lecture which I think are important wherever you are, just a few things to contemplate no matter what you are doing...

- research is key.

- be condfident, even when you don't feel like it.

- experience is only good if it is relevant.

- learn, quickly!!

- what do you need to get to where you want to be?

- don't give up.

These are keys which I believe are really important. In this project I need to keep fighting and holding onto what I am aiming to achieve. I want to achieve, but I also want work which is going to help me and my future. At the same time I do want to pass uni so need to tailor my ideas to fit their criteria also.  If I am going to do well, I need to cover both ideas and I will have a set of work which I am proud of 😃

Also today, I had an individual tutorial based upon my industry report and how it is going so far. As far a I thought, it was nearly there but my tutor had a very different opinion. She said that I had just about all of the content in there, just that the structure was not what the uni was looking for, that I need to re-jig my writing to make it more reflective and evaluatative. She said to go back to the guidelines for the report writing. Which will help me further and to remember that this is a piece of university writing, not a sixth form essay! 

I find this very hard. I have been going through some of the report after the tutorial and I think I understand, but the original report was written from the guidelines, it was how I interpreted them. It is hard to churn out a 5,000 word essay when you haven't written a proper essay for 3 years, so of course I am going to resort to what I know best!! I just think as far as the structure goes, I am going to change it, but a little more help at the start of my writing would have been more beneficial.