Saturday 27 April 2013

Portfolio Visit 3

The last portfolio visit I went to was Andrea Lord, who makes beautiful handmade gifts and accessories.


I think that this was the visit I enjoyed the most and one that I got a lot of good advice from. She told me that she really enjoyed looking though my portfolio and thought it had a good flow and wasn't too miss matched. I started by showing he the BMW work and explained how I made the work, she seemed interested in how I created the rubber block prints and thought I was nice to see that I had made and carved the block prints myself. As I was talking though my portfolio she was really impressed that I was a surface designer and that I liked to draw and she was impressed with my drawings, especially the birds and the feathers.
I showed her some of the purses I had made, I was a little nervous because she creates beautiful products to a really high standard, she said that they were great for my first attempt, but showed me how I could improve them even more in just a couple of minutes, she grabbed a knitting needle and just pushed out the corners to square them off and make them more presentable and professional, then she just cut some of loose threads off and told me that now it was fished and looked much more professional and people would buy them. I found this to be really helpful, that if I would have spent a few minutes longer finishing it off it would have looked much better. I also showed he the devore fabric I had made using the skull prints, she loved this and I told her how it would look nice for a scarf, she loved this idea and could see it working, she then said it would look fantastic as a blind as the light would shine through the skulls and create shadows on the wall. She told me that my work could be really commercial especially the skulls because of designers such as Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen, and being commercial isn't a bad thing and she could see people my age range buying the designs and products I had made.
She seemed to enjoy the FMP work, and told me that I should try wrapping paper, and loved all of the colour palettes of my work. She was impressed to see that I had actually made the products myself, and she could see them in person, as some visits she has done in the past they have only mocked them in Photoshop.
I asked he about how she had started, she told me that she had started on small markets, making small amounts of work, no more than five of each item, she did this to get an idea of what would sell and what people are interested in buying.
I found myself talking to Andrea for ages, she seemed really interested and passionate in what I was doing and my work and even asked if I was doing a dissertation and what it was about. She gave me loads of great advice that I will definitely take on board. She said to make the most out of the facilities I have at College, such as the print room. She also gave some some great advice and tips on how to finish my work to a high standard, making tags and stickers and even showed me how she makes and prints them herself.
I really enjoyed talking to Andrea and felt she was really passionate about what she does, she gave me a lot of confidence and made me feel really proud of how far I had come and my work. Although I was dreading these visits I can see why we have to do them, I walked out from this visit feeling proud of what I have achieved in the past three years.

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