Reflecting on the year, I have been more focused on actually going out into the real world and finding employment, or doing work experience, rather than dedicating myself fully to the extended practice module. I do feel that I neglected the university modules in the initial months, but as the year went on and I understood my direction, skills and focus for the year.
I have demonstrated specific knowledge of the professional and contextual world I plan to enter by undertaking a variety of work placements, seeing what works for me and what doens’t. Learning from previous experiences and evaluations, fashion and photography have always centred my personal interests, with I now have identified to be the direction I want to professionally pursue. Through networking with photographer Harrison France, styling freelance became more than a hobby, with positive feedback from both clients and magazines affirming my knowledge that there is skill there. The specific location of my practice is womenswear styling for editorial, which is where my personal interests lie. Stylists such as Grace Coddington, Tom Van Dorpe and Sara Gore Reeves are living my dream lives just by working hard and maybe being a bit ruthless, but ultimately never giving up, which is why these three are at the top of my ‘try to meet in 2019 list’. I had the pleasure to interview Sara Gore Reeves from Harpers Bazaar, after contacting her through Instagram and Linked in as someone to meet whilst in New York.
I have learnt from this whole process of university that I do have big issues related to stress, resulting in me to panic and get extremely anxious when there is too many things going on and not enough time to do it. By being thrown in the deep end at LRFS I have had to control these demons and have realised that other people (collaborative practice) is extremely good for my wellbeing as I can keep it together, and professional, when other people are involved.
By developing a simple personal promotional strategy I can present myself as a creative professional without the cheesy ‘student pattern/colour pop’ aesthetic which is a popular trend within student and graduate self branding. As I am slightly more simple in my ways of dress, favouring for a monochromatic palette allows colours to be built yet positioning me as clean, quaint and timeless (drawing reference from French fashion brands with this black on white convention). By giving a minimalist and clean aesthetic, the emphasis is placed on the images I produce, along side the information to contact me via. The main concept behind the business card is to allow me to personalise each card as I meet people, mainly with my trustee silver pen relating to the fact I’m always wearing silver jewellery, to incorporate my love for networking, socialising and customising!
The strategy is to be proactive in the working world. After receiving feedback from both the LRFS Directors and Angie Smith Stylist, it has been noted that my personality is one of my best assets. This face to face connection is how I want to do business and it allows collaborative relationships to be formed (often quicker and better), whilst showing old-fashioned values in an increasingly digital age which was also mentioned to be one of my USP’s. To accompany this, I have also been distributing look books throughout the year, yet sadly with no responses. This has also proven to be expensive, espcially as the print finish in digital print isn’t the best and as this is not my area of specialism, I’m unsure how to improve it without going to a good supplier. I did look into The Newspaper Clubs mini range, which could act as small newsprint portfolio, but costing over £200 for minimum orders. I also have multiple online platforms to give a universally accessible way to see what I do, mainly over Instagram and Linked In. I do also have a website with a custom domain (www.jennifersedona-creative.com), something I’ve found very handy for interviews and creative meetings/applications. However, due to cash flow issues, managing the website and domain at £20+ per month is becoming too much of a stretch, so alternative and cheaper methods will need to be explored if cash flow remains the same. When I have more budget, I plan to expand on my business cards by improving the print finish (i’ve heard Moo is good?) and will avoid Vistaprint like the plague due to consistent pixilation from them. Furthermore, I am so very close to 1k followers on Instagram, so that is the obvious platform to pursue as it is the fastest growing image sharing/social media in the world.
The reason for submitting late was down to my own carelessness - in the manic of not being able to access/print my final design boards, my stress got the better of me and I was so upset trying to sort it with the tech people I completely forgot to hand it in. This is a big error on my part and in the future I'm going to set alarms closer to the time of the deadline, rather than just relaying on myself to remember (even though this sounds obvious, you never know). I hope I don't fail the module because of this, I can only hope my engagement with industry will help pull me through.
The reason for submitting late was down to my own carelessness - in the manic of not being able to access/print my final design boards, my stress got the better of me and I was so upset trying to sort it with the tech people I completely forgot to hand it in. This is a big error on my part and in the future I'm going to set alarms closer to the time of the deadline, rather than just relaying on myself to remember (even though this sounds obvious, you never know). I hope I don't fail the module because of this, I can only hope my engagement with industry will help pull me through.
