Life as a first year FCP student

This is a post i've been meaning to do for a long time since finishing my first year at university, a whole 4 months ago, can you believe?  I've been so caught up in my summer that i've put university life and thinking about my course on hold for a little while, but now i'm ready and so excited for what my second year as an FCP student is going to bring. 

The best part of being a student? Well, along side the being able to eat and sleep whenever you want, without the nagging of a judgemental parent...absolute bliss. Loving my degree is definitely one of the best aspects for me.  I have met so many people, many of them being my friends, who say that they're not really that bothered about their course and would only go as far to say 'its alright' or 'average'.  I can't imagine feeling like that about my degree, especially seeing as its setting me back £9,000 a year! 

With that being said, there is always going to be some parts that I don't enjoy, but it's all a learning curve and helping me to understand my strengths and weaknesses.  The first part of my course I found quite difficult to get used to, coming from an Art Foundation background, I was used to being very creative, however, my first module brought with it quite a lot of theory work alongside experimentation into areas of the fashion industry I had no clue existed.  It was a strange transition period getting used to the more business side of things, as well as allowing my creativity to continue throughout my work, but after the second half of first year, I feel like I managed to find a perfect balance. 

Module 2 was very different than the first, it was one project and all group work.  My first thoughts were - group work, for 4 months... absolute nightmare. Luckily, I was put into a group with three lovely girls who all pulled their weight as much as me, we all had different skill sets and backgrounds so bringing them together helped us to develop a unique and interesting concept which received amazing feedback.  

I enjoyed my second semester a lot more than the first, as focussing on one project allowed me to work on the challenges I set myself at the end of my first module.  One of my major downfalls is organisation, I don't know why I'm so bad at it, but i've tried to be the girl with the day planner and it's just not me.  My second module allowed me to find my own way to organise myself, working within a group ensured I was meeting other peoples deadlines, meaning I wasn't just working to my own and had to find new ways to manage my time. 

Finishing my first year with a 2.1 was an extremely rewarding achievement, I felt like my hard work paid off but I was still left with plenty room for improvement.  I hope to continue developing my skills and perfecting my weaknesses throughout year 2 as well as trying to gain more internship opportunities in the different areas within my field. 

THE EDIT

Aaaaand i'm back!  Apologies all, for my brief hiatus, i've just been having far too much fun as of late, so my blog has been sitting on the back burner for a little while.  Forgive me pleaseee!!

The last you heard from me, I was absolutely loving life, after finishing my first year at university and just a few hours away from jetting off to Croatia for a much needed break in the lavely sunshine! Don't worry, I will be bombarding you with lots of photographs of my trip very very soon.

However, this post is dedicated to another one of my recent adventures, a two week stint in London Town and oh, was it a treat.  I took on the role as an intern for the first time, and after hearing so many negative comments around internships in the fashion industry, it's safe to say that I was more than apprehensive about it.  What was I thinking?! It was bloody fantastic!

I spent my time working with the fashion, ecommerce app THE EDIT.  If you haven't heard of them before, then get downloading!!! And no, I'm not just saying this because I loved my time with the amazing team and I maaay be only ever so slightly biased hehe! But seriously, the concept behind the brand is so unique, something I'd never come across before.  You can shop all of your favourite clothes, shoes and accessories from across 300 brands, how can you fault it! And, with the additional option to filter down your search, you can browse everything all at once with a Tinder style swipe functionality.

While working with the brand, I was given lots of different roles, from graphic design work, all the way to social media, and although it was all new to me, I found it exciting but also challenging when it came to putting my skills into action.  My first brief given to me was to re brand the parent company that powers THE EDIT, this involved me re creating the brand logo and coming up with a new brand name. Aaaah, daunting or what? But I managed it, and everyone seemed to love my work, which was such an accomplishment for me. Who said fashion interns only make coffee?

I can't thank the team at THE EDIT enough for everything they did to make me feel comfortable and useful, the skills I developed in the work place and just through living in London for such a brief time, are more than I could ever have imagined I'd gain.  I mean, I did sleep on a sofa for two weeks, so it's definitely fair to say I toughed it out but I would do it all again and twice over, for sure.

Now, I urge all of you fashion lovers out there, to get downloading here and definitely make sure you're following THE EDIT on Instagram, Twitter & Pinterest, for all the latest fashion updates and daily edits, selected perfectly for the current trends of the season.

Thank you so much THE EDIT, lotsa love for you!

becky x

GOODBYE FRESHERS

FCP first year is over and so are all the amazing memories NTU has given me.  I have absolutely loved every second of being a fresher and i’ve met some of the best people in my life, it only seems like 2 minutes ago since I was sat in my car on my way to move in, so scared I wouldn't make any friends.  Now i’m sat writing this post a few hours away from going on holiday with my 3 best gals, excited!

I never thought I would enjoy this year as much as I have, and I couldn't imagine me doing anything else.  Im so happy with how my course has gone this year and all the exciting things its brought so far, I cant wait for next year to see how much more I learn. 

Now I'm off to enjoy the Hvar sun, here are a few pictures of me with my favourite people 

x

FASH10106, CHECK

A quick view of my final portfolio for my second module at university, absolutely loved it!

VIVACE COMPLETED

After 3 months of hard work, today we finally pitched our brand in our final ever presentation for this year, thank god.  Its safe to say that presenting isn't my strong point, and I find myself shaking every single time, despite how well I know my script.  Regardless of how terrible I am, me and group received some amazing feedback for this presentation, none of which we ever expected! Some of the comments included were: professional mood boards, you understand the brand well, its clear you enjoyed the project, good use of models e.g brand onion and perceptual map, great visuals in presentation, concept is clear throughout, good primary and secondary research and good use of the breadcrumb along the bottom allowing the viewers to follow the journey.

So exciting! 

As part of our brief, we were asked to create a short film clip for our fragrance.  As our tonic is a new and innovative concept, we wanted to step away from a usual film and decided to create GIF's for each of our campaigns.  We created these using the stills from our photoshoot and edited them using Adobe Premier.  I absolutely loveee how these have turned out!

PHOTOSHOOT IN ACTION

Today we finally had the chance to shoot the campaign for our fragrance brand.  After we have been working at this project for over 7 weeks now we began to see our tonic come to life.  Opting for a quirky creative concept, we were worried whether it would actually work, without us ruining the studio with our powder dye.  Although we were really prepared with all our props, we probably should have done a test shoot. 

We were all so pleased with how the shoot turned out and even though it wasn’t exactly the same as the drawings, we were so impressed with the outcome as we really didn't think it would work like it did. 

We used a fast shutter speed to capture our detailed campaigns in slow motion. While all this was happening, Vanessa took lots of pictures, capturing the moment perfectly.