A new lecture series called 'Conversations on Design' at Nottingham Trent University has been created and its main aim is to gather people from the creative industries to come and share their experience with students as well as the public. The first one of them welcomed three Nottingham Trent alumni, which meant that as a student at NTU myself I was able to see where completing this degree could potentially take me and find out more about how the different creative industries link together. The guest speakers were:
Nicole Crentsil
She is a designer, the founder of the Black Girls Fest, but this list could go on and on as she doesn't label herself as just one thing. She mentions all of the roles that she had to do within her previous jobs. Many of the skills are transferable and that is what she talked about and how those helped her to find herself comfortable in completing tasks in jobs that she might have not thought about doing previously.
Henrietta Thompson
The creator of Harth, founding partner of Naked On the Piano, design columnist for the Daily Telegraph, author and editor in large of Wallpaper magazine. Her business that she co - founded with her husband called Harth got my attention as it is a renting website but instead of homes, it is for furniture, artworks and accessories. This idea is supposed to tackle the problem of people owning an excessive number of objects and instead of making and buying new ones, we can just borrow the already existing ones. One of the sentences on their website stood out to me and that is:
'Own less stuff, and surround yourself with things that inspire you'
At this moment in time this idea is needed as people are continuously looking for brand new things but often forget about the vintage or antique pieces which have so much more history and meaning. By being able to rent out objects we can easily change the look of our interiors more often and continuously look for new things that inspire us as well as add our part to the history of each of these objects.
Stuart Wells
The Global Head of Brand Marketing and Communications for Adidas (outdoor) talked about his time after graduating from NTU in terms of his emotional happiness. At one point in his life when he was working for his dream company AMV BBDO, he didn't feel very happy, and that is when he said he realised that there is a kind of 'best before' date. By this he meant that within this company he already achieved everything he wanted to and it began to feel boring; he needed a change to further develop.
5 TOP TIPS FROM THIS LECTURE:
Think about what you have and not what you don't. Don't worry if you don't have the same skills as someone else that is, e.g. applying for the same job. Think about the ones you have and how they make you stand out.
You are already an expert in something
You DON'T have to know everything. People will respect you more if you admit that you don't know something. You just have to learn about it and then deliver it to them to show that you are hard working and willing to learn.
Understand the culture of your consumer.
Polite persistence and passion will win.
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