BAM. you’re a Graduate.

Hi all! Shock Horror, I'm back on the blog.
I had a notably long 'break' from blogging, while which I was busy stressing and ripping my hair out during my last year of uni, trying to remain sane while creating a final collection which I could hopefully graduate with and be proud of.
Well now I can say that I successfully completed my degree, remained sane, and while I have the most awful habit of in hindsight never being completely satisfied with anything I have done, I made a collection that I was very much proud of. I also want to point out that as much as my need to nit pick work I have done, I very much like to view this a good thing. It simply means that I have this kind of personal expectation that each 'next thing' I do, which I might not be completely aware of at the time, will be a progression and improvement on my last creation and ultimately on my creative self so to say.

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, there's links in the side bar if you don't and would like to (I'd very much like it if you did too) you would know that I started blogging with three of my uni colleague's on our university's Fashion and Textiles Blog 'Cass Fashion'. We were selected by the course leader and were given pretty much a free reign to create content on pretty much anything we wanted, obviously bearing in mind the purpose and function of the blog we didn't decide to write articles on horse riding and astronauts.

Anyway, I have decided to post the content that I created on the Cass Fashion blog here to as a way to get myself back into the flow of blogging! We will only be blogging there for a short period of time anyway so I would like to continue blogging here thereafter as I create my new works and collections! Enjoy!

Original post: http://www.cassfashion.co.uk/bam-youre-a-graduate/ 

Writing this post for the new Cass Fashion blog just one day after graduation and whilst also just beginning to come to terms with the fact that my time as a student at London Metropolitan University is officially over is a slightly strange mix of feelings, somewhere between incredible excitement, achievement and slight disbelief. The past three years of my life spent at London Met have been undeniably rewarding. Studying has provided me with some of the most incredible moments, and unquestionably some of the most difficult. It has been three years of some incredibly hard work and a few sleepless nights, and for sure with this in mind graduation is a huge relief.

 Although, finishing the arguably easy life of a student and being thrown head first into the real world is definitely something of a massive shock. Suddenly you have to refer to yourself as ‘the young professional’ and the immediate pressure to put yourself out there in the real world can be extremely difficult.
From my experience the most difficult aspect upon graduating as a creative is being able to believe in your own work and creative abilities; finally being able to accept the fact that your work is as good as your competitors and co-workers. This is the time to come to terms with the fact that you before anyone else has to believe in yourself as much as you possibly can, there’s no room in the real world for doubting yourself and your capabilities. I have a gut wrenchingly annoying tendency to never be completely happy with pretty much everything I do, but during my studies I have learnt to translate this as a good way for me to push myself and carry on trying to make my work better and better, even if it does at times cause me a lot of stress and pressure. But overall I think as a graduate the most important thing you have to learn is to be confident!
One of the biggest achievements so far is definitely my first exhibition outside of a school show. Exhibiting recently alongside other Cass Students at New Designers was incredible, while networking with other students and people from industry was quite daunting, hearing people talking about, complement and tell you their opinion about your work is really exciting and has definitely helped me to be more confident in showing my work to other people.

Since graduating I have also met a collection of three other recent design graduates and after discussing the daunting feeling of going it alone we have decided to create our own collective called The Feral Line. I am incredibly excited to start working with a collection of such amazing designers. And so alongside looking for a studio (it definitely wasn’t until graduation that I really started to appreciate the awesome printing facilities at the Cass!) and getting ready for exhibiting with the Cass at the London Design Festival in September, we can spread the pressure of both finding exhibitions and the financial pressure that goes in hand. It’s also really great to be able to have some other creative’s to keep you going, we can all work off each other, help each other to keep going in the right direction and keeping this ball rolling!