About me
I graduated with a First class hons in Textile Design from the University of Derby. Since then I went on a round the world trip, learnt to drive and started a career in a Project Management Office. I have been working at this prominent WW Cyber security firm for 2 years, first as an administrator and then moving into a project controller role, working below the PM. I maintain project plans, lead risk/issue/work package update meetings, monitor, analyse and advice on the finances/budgets and resourcing, produce monthly reports for business strategy decisions. I have recently been to San Jose and Florida to onboard other parts of the business to the same systems and am now controlling projects out there too. I enjoy the logical day to day tasks that this job offers and I think I bring a creative flair into a workplace full of geniuses. My dream would be to now transfer all these skills I have learnt into the operations department of a creative company.
I love of travelling the world, finding unique patterns and fabrics, numbers and budgets and soaking up information in museums!
Projects
- Zandra Rhodes Virtual PlacementFor this project I followed up on a concept suggested by my tutors. The idea is I choose a company and pretend I am working for them. I was able to experience designing a collection with someone else’s style for the first time. Although, I was still learning and experimenting with techniques new to me, in the back of my mind, I had an ideal look that I needed to bide by. Zandra Rhodes, I felt, I would be able to follow. I like bold and big and I tried to work in her way using silk. I also tried
- I'm like a bird!For my final collection at university I focused on my love for hand printing and the new technologies available. The theme of my project evolved from my own stylised representations of birds. I paid particular attention to patterns made by the markings on feathers and how these appeared when the plumage overlapped. I played with influences such as the South American textile technique called Mola, prints that accentuated the female form in the style of illusion dresses and op art/illusions (inspired by monochrome feathers). My large use of devore to reveal the silk backing to viscose satin was encouraged by the dominance of sheer fabrics on the catwalks. However, the aim was to combine the sheer and solid fabrics into one. In contrast to the delicate silk I taught myself how to cut vinyl on the laser cutter and then apply this to my fabrics. The finish is hard and shiny (like feathers in the light). I cross-referenced my colour scheme from the future colour pallets of S/S 2014 and from my favourite birds.
- The Bradford Textiles Society Comp. 2012This project stems originally from drawings from tools. I later brought in an ikat theme and the tools became less obvious, which I was thankful for. I started with digital prints and worked into them with flowing patterns. This project is the first to really get me stuck into using new printing techniques. I set out to have a go at as much as possible to create my collection.
- Monochrome feather printsThese are the monochrome prints from my collection. I was inspired by the black and white bird feathers and combined this with op art and illusion prints to create designs which play with your eyes! The 'illusion' part stimulated ideas of designing a full figure print for an illusion dress. This is a print which portrays things that aren't real i.e a narrower or curvier waist, a textured fabric, parts of the dress - such as the neckline - to be absent when in fact they are made of a sheer fabric.
Work history
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Associate Project ManagerCovance
Huntingdon, United KingdomFull Time
Delivering regulatory and global transformation projects.
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Project ControllerThales
- Cambridge, United KingdomFull Time
Worldwide role
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Skills
- Fashion
- Visual Arts
- Print Design
- Drawing
- Painting
- Exhibitions
- Design
- Textile Design
- Soft Furnishings
- Wallpapers
- Illustrator
- Photoshop
- Powerpoint
- Word
- Laser Cutting
- Microsoft Project
- Microsoft Sharepoint
- Administraion
- Financial Controller
- Resourcing
- Purchase Orders
- Project Management
- Prince2
- Printed Textiles
- Scheduling
- Planning
- Critical Path
- Business Strategy
- Internal Communications
- Agile Development
- Problem Solving
- Analytical
- Creative
Education
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Textile DesignUniversity of Derby
- Derby, United Kingdom
My degree course has confirmed how passionate I am about fashion and textiles. Before specialising in print, using both digital and traditional hand techniques, I also learned how to weave and knit using CAD programmed machinery. Experimentation with fabrics, chemicals and dyes resulted in my final womenswear collection being selected with twelve other candidates, to represent the University of Derby, at New Designers 2013. This was a very proud moment! My written dissertation ‘An exploration into the life-cycle and disposal of clothing’ exposed the global problems caused by throwing away our old clothes and the solutions available.
Skills gained throughout my degree course include:
• IT skills: Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite; Photoshop & Illustrator.
• Make informed decisions in response to information and experiences.
• Have a very high attention for detail
• Have a mature and responsible approach to working on my own initiative
• Plan and manage my own learning and adapt new developments in my area of interest
• Communicate ideas and information comprehensively and professionally in visual, oral and written forms
• Apply an understanding of audience, fitness for purpose and the implications of the solution to my independent studies.
• Show my ability to apply specialist textile design skills and use equipment confidently
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Art Foundation CourseCambridge Regional College
- Cambridge, United Kingdom
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Awards
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Travelled the world!!N/A
In June 2014 I embarked on a round the world trip that spanned 7 different countries; Texas, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore! It was my reward for studying for many years and also an opportunity for me to research other cultures in order to inspire me for the next step in my design work!
In every country I visited I made sure I was able to record and photograph my findings in order to feed into future projects.. The fashions, textiles, decorative arts and architecture were beautiful.