Artsthread is a brilliant platform to put work onto, and currently during the pandemic, they have opened up a lot more competitions to enter. I entered the I-D and Arsthread global design graduate show 2020. The competition closes on 30th July and it has been great because it encouraged me to upload my work promptly and hopefully I will be chosen.

I feel I have a strong portfolio uploaded at the moment, showcasing my designs, and as I come to the end of the degree I will be uploading selected parts of my finished portfolio too, as it is a good place to link to future employers so they can easily see your graduate work.

I have also kept up to date with other students work, to see what competition I have and I have come across some incredible portfolios which have in turn, inspired my portfolio designs. My favourite student was Mia Layzell as she has produced a very wholesome, and strong portfolio, short and to the point, which is what I want to aim to upload.

I entered the ShowStudio competition to be entered into the Class of 2020 graduates and our university was lucky enough to feature on their website, as well as I was one of the chosen students to get showcased on our section. I am very pleased with this, and I feel this is a great place for our work to be seen by industry professionals, and hope it brings us opportunity.

https://www.showstudio.com/projects/class-of-2020/fashion-design-university-centre-colchester

I am very pleased with how my PDP presentation went. Although it was done through zoom, and I felt it was very strange, I did think I presented a well rounded presentation clearly outlining my future plans. The only criticism I would give myself, is that I speak very quickly and could have slowed myself down a little,e but I do feel this was due to nerves, and I did the best I could.

Looking at other successful instagram accounts has been a great source of research for me and how I can push my personal fashion account.

I have chosen to look at @lucytiffney on instagram as her account is very successful and she has over 57k followers. Her account is very bright, and you can instantly see her style through the images she uploads. She ensures to include images of her work, which form a strong brand identity, and she has a mixture of videos, photographs and instagram TV. The account clearly shows that she is a print/ interior designer, as she includes murals, tea towels and her home design projects. It connects to the viewer at a personal level, as they may aspire to have a home like hers, which is can easily be achieved with her wallpaper. There is a clear explanation and link to her shop in her bio and her profile picture shows who she is straight away.

Overall this is a great account, and the way she uploads and keeps a story continuing throughout her instagram is what inspires me and my account the most.

All arts Universities have seen the cancellation of their final year degree shows, which is hugely disappointing, however many universities have decided not to let this stop them from promoting work. Many have postponed their shows until later in the year, and all of them are using instagram to promote their students work.

Alongside that, a lot of them are collating graduate films, as well as pushing students to enter Artsthread, Offcut, and New Designers competitions.

Throughout lockdown I have decided to create a Depop account and I have been spending my free time making bikinis to sell when I graduate. Making bikinis and working with stretch fabric is a huge passion of mine, and I felt this was the perfect time to push this idea further. I hope to continue this venture when I graduate and possibly even turn it into my own small business.

Instagram has been the best platform for me personally to display my graduate collection, as I can engage well with followers and promote my work to many different graduate platforms. Through instagram I have entered a few competitions and been reposted many times by different graduate 2020 accounts, which has promoted my account for me. I am going to continue to post on my fashion account and promote myself and my work there, in hope that more opportunities and competitions come out of it.

Through the connection with DartDesign, me and 3 other students were lucky enough to be interviewed for the BBC and have our work appear on BBC LookEast, as well as in the East Anglian Daily Times.

This opportunity was incredible for us. We had a zoom call individually with Mike Liggins from the BBC, who asked us a variety of questions on the current situation for graduating students. He then put together the amazing piece on us which was shown on BBC LookEast on 15th May 2020 at 7pm. This did catch some attention and a few students got messages regarding their work and whether it was for sale which was great! It also included our instagram handles, which helped us gain a few followers too.

Sharon from DartDesign also got into contact with local newspapers, and the EADT decided to run the story Undergrads under lockdown. This was another great piece for us, and outlined our individual projects, and again gave contact information if anyone wanted to get in touch.

I am thoroughly pleased we got this opportunities, as it got our work out there, and helped us collate work as we would have been doing during that time if the fashion show hadn’t been cancelled.

We had another guest speaker today, talking about social media presence. Deimante is a content creator on instagram under @tomboy_a_bit and she also runs a motorcycle apparel company http://www.twowheelsempire.com. She spoke to us about how she started from studying fashion and textiles at UCC, to becoming a photographer, then to her social media account. She has over 60K followers, and she gave us a lot of tips on how to make our instagram look professional and grow our following. I showed her mine and she gave me some tips on how to improve it. I feel she was very honest about the accounts and I am going to take on board her critiques to improve my own instagram account.

The first two years after graduating my plan is to work for Lucy Can’t Dance as a seamstress and really push my career through the work I do there. From there I would like to then go part time for 2 more years and start to create my own personal small business making swimwear. I would then like to have that completely up and running by the 5th year, and possibly be thinking about starting a family, so long as I had a successful small business that would allow me to work less hours as I had a child.

If I could not start my own business, I ideally would love to continue to work with Lucy and grow to be a huge part of her business, taking on a lot of the workload and have some authority.