REVIEW OF FINAL MAJOR PROJECT (FMP)

Student Name: Shantelle Hyslop           Pathway: Fashion & Textiles (Fashion Promotion)

Final Major Project Title: Creativity is the Cure

The final outcome of my project is a self-help book called ‘Creativity is the Cure’. The theme of the book is to express how to relieve you from everyday stress through creativity. Alongside the book I also made two posters and stickers as a promotional product. My final outcome slightly differs from my original project proposal. I originally stated I wanted to make a zine that focused on Artists with mental illnesses and how they dealt with their mental illness. I also wanted the zine to inform readers on mental illness and how to prevent/deal with it. I created a book instead of a zine as I felt it would look better and I have never made a book whereas I have created a zine before.

I have used my sketchbook and blog as a method to show my recordings. By using my sketchbook and blog it has allowed me to go back on the work I did and help me clearly see what the next step I could take into expanding my project.

The targets I have met from my original FMP plan are using internet and library research, visiting galleries and museums, clearly presenting my work in my sketchbook, having a book full of developed collages, showing development in Photoshop, knowing what format my final piece will be.

Developments that contributed to my final outcome has been working on loose sheets rather than a sketchbook. I feel as though working on loose sheets has helped me amplify my work and not feel restrained to a sketchbook. This development has then helped me know what the visual side of my project could expand from. I also think that visiting the bookshop, Foyles has contributed to my development as I was able to see what type of books are currently in the market and acknowledge the many different book styles.

I think one of the best pieces of advice I received from group review was to work on A3 loose sheets as it will help me expand my work and not restrict me to work to a certain amount of pages. As I was working in an A4 sketchbook at the beginning of the project I feel I was not recording as much as I could have been doing after the research stage. Working on loose sheets was better for recording my work and helping me develop and reorganise work. Another piece of helpful advice was to not focus my work on an Artist and their style too much and to do what I want in the sense of what I wanted to express. I feel as though I was too focused on referencing artists, that I was not making my project personal which I think was missing from my project. However, I still did reference artists but demonstrated it in my own work instead.

If I had to redo this project again I think I would have been stricter on how much research I needed to do and what I would actually use in the end. I think I may have collected too much research that I knew I would probably not use. However, sometimes that is the point of research and progress as it allows me what to pick out what I need to develop on. I also think I would not focus on what other people wanted me to do and just focus on what I wanted to do. This is because at the beginning of the project I was being suggested an array of things that were not helpful and just resulted in me being endlessly confused. By acknowledging these faults it will help me in future courses and careers by being more focused on my research and not centring my thoughts on other opinions all the time.