PDP: Action plan

Personal Development Plan

This is a report to summarise the progress I have made in my first year as a Fashion and Textiles degree student at Colchester Institute. I will review my progress, achievements, motivation, possible improvements and future plans to achieve my goal.

Now I have almost reached the end of my first year, I plan to reflect on the skills I feel that I need to succeed to reach the grade I want and what I can do to gain these qualities if not already possessed. Here are the qualities I find necessary:

·      Time management

·      Organisation

·      Commitment

·      Motivation

·      Passion

·      Technical ability

·      An open mind

·      Determination in order to succeed

What am I good at?

·      Paying attention

·      Note making

·      Time management

·      Fashion construction

·      Photoshop and Illustrator ability

·      Social skills

What could I improve on?

·      Organisational skills

·      Working to a quicker standard

·      Textile application skills

·      Confidence within myself and my work

·      Using lectures in practical research and technical applications

What could help me improve?

·      Practising on presentations and public speaking

·      Be more open minded in terms of textile applications

·      Create a time management plan

What could stop me from achieving improvement?

·      Balancing my part time job along with university work

·      Balancing my personal life alongside university work

What is my motive for learning?

·      I am passionate about fashion and textiles

·      My future career

·      To succeed in my work and everything I do

What is my ultimate goal?

·      Achieve high qualifications

·      Aim for my dream job

Short-term objectives

·      Successful completion of my first year

·      Understanding the course requirements for the future

·      Expand knowledge and skills

Medium-term objectives

·      Keep an open mind on new experiences and projects

·      Develop and expand knowledge and skills

·      Challenge my learning abilities

Long-term objectives

·      Complete my degree with the highest possible grade I can achieve

·      Consider business courses to expand my knowledge for my future career

·      Successfully achieve a name within myself

Looking back on this year I believe that I have successfully improved and grown not just in knowledge but as a person as well. I am determined to progress further and develop my skills more in depth in the years to follow. My future is one of my main motivational stimulants which I plan to keep reviewing and reflecting on until I achieve my long term plans and ultimate goals.

PDP: Overview on the semester

After succeeding in my BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma course in Fashion and Textiles with a double Distinction* and Distinction, I was unsure where and more importantly what I wanted to do, so I took the more so ‘safe’ option of staying at my College and studying a BTEC Diploma in Foundation Studies in Art and Design and completed the course with a reoccurring Merit grade throughout my work. It was during this year that I was confident that I wanted to continue my passion within Fashion and Textiles and develop my skills further with a university degree. After visiting Colchester Institute I was made aware of the wide range and high standard of facilities and opportunities it held for students and potentially me. Being just a train ride away along with industrial contacts, high-end resources and group of welcoming and positive teaching staff, it seemed silly not aspire to study here. Now I have almost reached the end of my first year, I plan to reflect on the skills I feel that I need to succeed to reach the grade I want and what I can do to gain these qualities if not already possessed.

Unfortunately after nearly 4 years of studying Fashion and Textiles, I am still not certain which of the two mediums I enjoy more and wish to study further into my second and third year. Because of this realisation In my second year I aim to continue as I am using both mediums to create a high standard and wide range of work. I also aim to create a time management plan to balance my part-time job and studies to ensure that I keep on top of my and produce the highest standard of work possible.

After qualifying from this course with a satisfying degree level, I ideally want to pursue my passion for Fashion and Textiles in my own line of work to create and successfully run my own business, being a clothing label where I will design and sell my own creations. This has always been a goal of mine and I am extremely motivated and determined to achieve it. I have also considered the path of teaching, to be able to give back the knowledge and skills that I have achieved in my years and maybe influence and/or inspire others. I understand that I must stay focused and motivated for fashion and textiles to achieve my goals by pushing myself to achieve higher techniques and abilities. 

In conclusion, I believe that I have grown increasingly as a whole in my first year. I have learnt many new techniques whilst rediscovering and developing techniques that I have used in the past. By facing different environments I have tested my fast learning ability and my confidence as a person. I have a newly found selection of knowledge that I plan to utilise in my work throughout my second and third year. The course has also allowed me to gain new confidence within my own work and as a person, which I will develop on and aim to improve more throughout the rest of my degree.

PDP: Views on how my presentation went

We had our presentations held at the Minnories Gallery (Colchester), infront of our PDP leader, a member of staff from Firstsite and our Studio Module leaders. Our presentation was based on the progress and documentation from our Studio module, the brief being Firstsite.

I was last to present my work, my partner Gauge went before me, who did incredibly by the way, (despite what she thinks!) as did everyone else. I used my research on the Georgian era to start the presentation - however looking back, I probably should have started by talking about the brief and our visit to Firstsite, then going on to talk about my chosen surrounding building and how it ties in with the Georgian era. I went onto show my powerpoint presentation on Georgian fashion, style, news and history which I had previously made and presented to a selection of my peers at the beginning of the project. I continued by presenting my own interpretation of Firstsite in sketches using different mediums such as masking tape and biro. I switched between platforms, showing ideas on my iPad, sketchbook and technical file. I went onto presenting my design ideas for the jumpsuit which led me to discuss the processes of making the garment and the struggles me and Gauge faced.

All in all I was fairly pleased with my performance despite my nerves which often get the best of me in similar situations. I felt that the previous presentation I performed (my Critical and Contextual powerpoint on Chanel) helped me a lot and I felt like I had improved in terms of speaking and performance in front of a crowd because of this.

I was extremely relieved to discover that I and Gauge had passed, along with the rest of our group. Although I didn't receive the highest grade, I am pleased with my progress since the beginning of the year thus far.

As a often shy and nervous person, I find presentations and public speaking extremely nerve-wracking and difficult. But I believe that the work and tasks set out for me this year have helped me expand my knowledge, become more independent in my own work and gain confidence in myself and work. However, I am still keeping in mind that I am only in my first year and have the time and space to develop and improve my skills in the future. 

First print patterns

Here are some of my first print patterns which I created on photoshop. Using my motifs from the previous post Motifs for print design that I had scanned onto the computer. By selecting just the black line and deleting the background and any similar colour, I copied and pasted onto 30x30cm Photoshop files. By using rotating, mirroring and layering techniques I came up with various print ideas. 

Although pleased with my prints thus far, I do believe as first drafts, they do need more development and structure. I plan to go back into these patterns to add more colours, layers and possibly clusters.

PDP: Presentation plan

As part of our Personal Development Planning module, which ties in alongside our Critical and Contextual module, we were set the task of making another presentation, this time in front of a slightly bigger group hosted at the Minnories Gallery in Colchester. The presentation, like the last one had to last the duration of 8-10minutes, presenting the work from our Studio module. We are allowed to use our sketchbook, technical and research files and iPads and any other relevant work. The presentation requirements are:

After reviewing the requirements and the relevant work that I have, I came up with a plan which I plan to learn and follow for the presentation:

• Start off by talking about Firstsite visit
• Continue Firstsite topic by talking and showing research 
• Talk about your chosen surrounding building (Hollytrees Museum) Discuss the era
• Show Powerpoint presentation on Georgian era through iPad
• Use sketchbook to show Firstsite sketches, talk about development and how you used the inspiration of relevant artists (David Hockney etc) to create your illustrations
• Talk about how you started your design journey (jumpsuit stencil on sketches)
• Go on to talk about research from pages in sketchbook on womenswear and menswear fashion in the Georgian period and how it has helped you finalise your designs
• Show final four designs for your jumpsuit 
• Final design (show skills used on illustrator to create this - talk about the influences)
• Construction plan for the jumpsuit (illustrator again - talk about why you drew it out)
• Show the construction processes in technical file. Discuss mistakes and how you and Gauge resolved these.
• Talk about jumpsuit itself and pros and cons. Room for improvement?
• Using research from beginning of topic to start in depth research for print and motifs (sketchbook)
• Inspirational prints to create colour palette (iPad)
• Beginning of prints (iPad)
• Talk about your development throughout the year. What you feel more confident within (textiles or fashion?)