My Reflective Learning Summery- Bethany Hutchison

Thumbnail Design: Bethany Hutchison

Reflection is an imperative part of the creative process. By reflecting on my creative practise, I am able to evaluate my skills and weaknesses whilst highlighting and establishing goals as I move into my second year of university.

As part of BA1b our first project was to create a marketing report. As a Fashion Communication and Promotion student this project was initially worrisome as I am not particularly interested in the marketing sector nor confident in my marketing abilities. I decided to create a marketing report for Levi’s as I already had established brand loyalty with the company and therefore felt inspired to research the brand. When creating this report I struggled to stick to the wordcount. This is something which I struggled with throughout both my marketing and my fashion publications project. As I progress into second year, I hope to become more of a visual communicator by utilising drop-in sessions in order to obtain constant feedback and constructive criticism in regard to the quantity of my work.

A sample of my Levi's marketing report

Image Credits: Bethany Hutchison, Levi Strauss & Co.

Throughout this unit I have also refined my Photoshop, InDesign and editorial design skills via my marketing asset and my fashion publications project. In order to gain editorial design inspiration, I utilised the university’s library. Gaining physical references was incredibly beneficial to the curation of my groups magazine project and I hope to continue to utilise the resources provided by the university as I move into second year.

Levi's asset mock-ups

Image credit: Bethany Hutchison

As part of BA1b I have enhanced my collaborative skills. This can be most explicitly evidenced via the fashion publications project. Initially, upon starting this project, I was nervous as I was placed in a group with individuals who I had not previously worked with before.  However, I acknowledged from early in the project that without communicating my ideas I would not be satisfied with the project’s outcome. Within my group I soon became the leader pushing in-person meetings and creating deadlines. I became an individual who people approached in order to ask questions and to gain feedback which led me to adopt the role of editor-in-chief. I enjoyed this level of responsibility, and I am incredibly proud of myself not only for obtaining an elevated position but for balancing both my supporting document, editorial design, photography and article writing roles alongside my other projects.

A selection of my magazine sample

Editorial Design: Bethany Hutchison

Written Material: Bethany Hutchison, Yas Green

Throughout the BA1b project I have presented myself as an autonomous worker. This is explicitly evidenced through my Industry blog where I was able to communicate with individuals such as Suyin Haynes and Hanina Pinnick. By contacting these individual’s, I was able to gain first-hand knowledge into the fashion industry which subsequently strengthened the quality of my blog posts.

When creating my portfolio for the fashion typography and design project, I struggled with merging both professionality, creativity, and personality with one another. In order to support myself through this process, I used sites such as Behance to gain inspiration from other creatives. Allowing me to edit and, ultimately, produce a portfolio which I was proud of!

A sample of my Portfolio

Image Credits: Bethany Hutchison

A week prior to submission both my publication sample, pitch, media pack, design and typography project and the majority of my industry blogs were completed. Overall, I am incredibly proud of my time management skills and the outcomes of my projects and I look forward to continuing my studies in second year!