Welcome to my digital logbook. Here I document my creative journey.
The entries are chronologically organized and differ in their nature depending on the type.
DOC-01311
DEUS: 088/26812—81
REX-13: 978-0882681/283
My Time in Fashion School
Every semester taught me something new, not only about the craft but also about myself. Fashion school taught me about the creative process, from drafting patterns to constructing garments. I learned the importance of concept development and how to translate abstract ideas into physical products.
The time I had in school has shown me the real depth of creation. Digging deep into my experience as a human and trying to extract a message and meaning out of it, to then turn it into a physical embodiment of all of that.
My fascination with philosophy became apparent as I was researching concepts and reflecting on my life. Abstract concepts within philosophy are a difficult subject to draw physical representations from. I learned this the hard way, often being disappointed that my final products were lacking the depth that was present in my concepts. Over time, I developed a better sense of how to connect and express my ideas into a garment, yet I always felt like there was a gap between what I envisioned and what I made. I now know that it’s a natural process of becoming better at anything, this gap was an indication that I had the eye to recognize the shortcomings in my work and served as ground for improvement.
When I just started, my initial goal was to document the entirety of my school experience and share the lessons learned, with the hope of being useful to someone who’s also starting out on a similar journey. This plan however, did not go through. Balancing school projects with a part-time job was a constant struggle. The intense workload often left me overwhelmed and made me stretch myself too thin, resulting in numerous burnouts. It was a valuable lesson in prioritizing tasks and the importance of rest.
Post Graduation Takeaway
I have been thinking and preparing for this moment since I started school. Now that I’ve graduated, the real challenge begins. Overcoming the pressure to establish myself as an independent designer and the uncertainty of the approach that I’m taking to get there is always on my mind. Yet despite feeling like I was thrown into water without knowing how to swim, I’m excited about the future. Being unchained from having to submit school projects gives me an opportunity to focus on sharing my journey and building myself as a designer, using the lessons I’ve learned to inspire and help others.
I’m sharing this entry simply because I want to make a point that graduating from school doesn’t instantly make you a successful designer. I was sure that by the end of my three years I would become a popular emerging designer, yet I was humbled by the sheer amount of work that is yet to be done for me to get to that point. Graduation is just the beginning of a much, much longer journey.
Now What?
My vision is to make my journey an open book, sharing my experience of learning to be a better designer, a better creator. I want to turn my online presence into a diary entry that showcases the struggles, the losses as well as victories and ultimately displays the progression of my creations. All I’m trying to do is to elevate the standard of the work that I do, refine my tastes when it comes to how I approach my art and preserve all of that for posterity, to become a resource for those who want to be better.
With that in mind, my goals remain the same as when I started school: learn how to design and make meaningful clothes and share my lessons with the hope of being useful to someone who’s on a similar journey.
To put it simply:
- ELEVATE THE STANDARD OF THE WORK THAT I DO
- REFINE MY TASTE AND MY EYE FOR DETAIL
- PRESERVE MY LESSONS AND JOURNEY FOR POSTERITY
In order to achieve this, I’ve created a roadmap.
My Creative Development Roadmap
How I’m planning to spend my time in the near future, focusing on refining my craft. This will change over time as I shift what skill I want to focus on. For now I want to become proficient at crafting design concepts.
- INPUT
- In order to create truly interesting designs, I want to surround myself with good design and input that into my brain. To do this, I am starting a Research and Development Dossier, doing deep dives into artists, designs, images, themes that I find interesting and sharing it for your inspiration.
- PROCESS
- The input will be processed and used for Conceptualizing purposes. One of my goals in the next 3 months is to build my concept building skills, so I will be using my R&D respond to it and translate it into physical ideas that I will present.
- OUTPUT
- Of course, none of this matters if no clothes comes out of this, so Processing and Output go hand in hand. The concept leads to physical creations, whether it’s clothes or accessories or even something else, regardless, there has to be an output. This of course is recorded and presented.
- REFLECT
- The final part of creative development is reflection, this is where the Logbook comes in. Sharing and documenting my idea development, goal setting and self discovery is a key component in making all of the work stick in my head. Why make it public? Because if I was to start over again, this is the type of stuff that I wish I could read and learn from.
Content Plan and Post Architecture
This goes hand in hand with my development roadmap, that way the things that I learn end up as the content that I can share.
- LOGBOOK ENTRY
- The logbook is not limited to the website, I want it to be dissectible and transparent. This is why I will be posting the bullet points and the overall theme for each entry. I know I write a lot and not everyone wants to read all this, I’m surprised you’re still reading at this point. But in order to keep everyone updated, these logbook entries will do the job.
- R&D DOSSIER
- To put it plainly, this post is a curated collection of images and resources. I’m interested in experimenting with video as well as images, maybe doing some commentary or deep dives into things I find interesting.
- OUTPUT SHOWCASE
- This is what comes out of everything above, the final creation, the physical embodiment of all the input. Whether it’s a garment or an accessory, or maybe a form of media, it’s shared. Partly because I want to show the result, but mostly because it will make me finish the projects I start, I have a habit of leaving floating projects.
Final Words
I remember in great detail the day when I submitted one of my last projects in school. On my commute back home I felt an overwhelming sense of uncertainty, anxiety and nostalgia. A chapter was coming to an end and going forward, I was solely responsible for the rest of the story. Writing this entry however, and reflecting deeper on my experience in school has put things in perspective for me. I’m deeply grateful for the lessons that I learned, for the connections I’ve made and for becoming the person that I am right now. The story starts now. Thank you for reading and joining me on my journey, until next time.