How fast this year has gone! I really can’t believe it. I’ve been thinking a lot about the past recently, mainly because that’s what you do at the end of the year, and I’ve been at mum and dad’s house over Christmas and that always brings back random memories.

This year has been such a busy/crazy/weird/good one for me. I’ve been thinking, and I’ve actually achieved a lot more than I realised! So I’m going to go over my year in a fun month-by-month-look-how-great-I-am thing. Hurrah! I was also thinking of going over the year in terms of what’s happened in the world; news, trends, technology, etc etc, but millions of blogs have already done that, including this brilliant interactive day-by-day account on The Guardian.

January:

Was a bit of stuttery way to start the year. I was still working at La Senza for a couple of weeks, but my contract didn’t get extended, still not a commissioned illustrator. So basically graduated, unemployed, single, living with mum & dad. GREAT. But it got better! In Jan I did a huge self promo push, including How to Make a Self Promotional Mini Portfolio, started my Nonsensical Spam Comment Project, and went to an AOI Portfolio evening to give myself a little kick up the backside. It worked. I also did a Co-Creation Day in London for the Co-Creation Hub; love doing things like that.

February:

February I started working at Schuh (ugh… never work there), went to a few exhibitions, continued applying to a zillion jobs and trying to get freelance, and started my short course at St Martins, Immersion.

March:

March it all went a bit crazy! Immersion was going really well, I got a banner featured on Red Lemon Club, wrote lots more blog posts (was really getting into my stride now) and… got my job at Yumi! Pretty good times. I’ve been there 10 months now and although it’s very stressful, fast paced and ker-azy, I love it. I now do all the POS for the stores and concessions, website design, window and store graphics, assist on print design, swing ticket and label design, and everything else possibly graphics related, for Yumi, Uttam Boutique, Yumi Girls and Uttam Kids. It’s been a massive learning curve but I have SO much experience now, it’s great.

April:

In April I had my first commission for Amelia’s Magazine! Pretty good. It was 2 illustrations for The Book Club, which is one of my favourite places in East London. I also popped there for a Glug Notworking event with Noma Bar too. In other news, I was just carrying on with the new job, Immersion was still amazing, was meeting some great new people, and I also got involved in the Illustration Dust Collective.

May:

May was a busy one. I had an interview of me and my work published on the American website crushable.com, I did some work for Leith Festival, designing some posters for them, and went to another Glug Notworking session, this time at the Pick me Up exhibition at Somerset House, which was ace. I also took part in a Fashion illustration workshop at Sketchbook Magazine’s pop up shop, which was really insightful and so useful for my work, as I want to get into doing more fashion illustration.

June:

June was ace. I was commissioned by Cleo Magazine in Australia to produce some recipe illustrations and be interviewed too! So awesome. You can see the finished spreads here. I debated switching/combining my website and blogger to one big wordpress site, which I did, and which you are looking at right now. It’s had it’s pros and cons; traffic is better with my blog and work all in one place, but I still am unsure about the portfolio/blog weightedness. I also want a more custom, fluid website, but that’ll have to wait until I have time. Maybe next year! I site like the amazing Will Aslett would be perfect; take a look at his, it’s brilliant.

I was invited to the private launch of the new Turning Leaf/Basso & Brooke collaboration; the perks of blogging are nice sometimes. My work was also featured on various blogs, too. Good month.

July:

July was my birthday month, which is nice. I went to a free itunes gig, and the Ben & Jerry’s festival. I finished the big website transition, it’s still not perfect though. I didn’t do any illustration. July was a crazy month at work. Hmmm.

August:

In August, I got involved with HOUSE collective and PopUpHouse, the collective I semi-joined after we all left Immersion. I couldn’t get that involved because of work commitments (boo) and holidays etc, but I did design the Logo and graphics. AW10 was in full swing, at work I had designed the season’s trendboards, and Lookbook. Nice nice. I entered a competition by Central Station to have a new recipe illustration featured in a publication and design said publication; I didn’t win but I did still get featured! Amazing.

September:

I was commissioned by Amelia’s Magazine again during Fashion Week to illustrate some of the SS11 catwalk shows, here’s Bernard Chandran. This month I also started freelance blogging for Mindbubble; something which I’m so happy I’ve had the opportunity to do as it gives me a new challenge, deadlines, and the opportunity to be creative and succint in my writing. I write a 500 word (ish..) blog a month, so far I’ve talked about things like fashion, jam, branding, new year’s eve… all kinds of stuff. I love and it’s a bit of extra cash which we all need these days! :) The other great thing about September is I moved out to London! I’d saved up for 6 months and got myself an ace shared house in South East. Yay ^.^ 2 down, 1 to go…. (that being finding a boy type..)

October:

In October I illustrated for Do You Read Me Daily, I talked about Social Nature, and above all started the illustration collective Tea & Crayons with 5 other illustrators! It was my dream to start a collective, ever since graduating, and I can’t quite believe how much fun and how useful it’s been so far! We’ve got loads of plans in the new year, can’t wait to get stuck in.

November:

November was another crazy month! Looking back, I can’t quite see how I did it all. Probably explains why December fell off the radar so much. The big news is that my work has been picked to feature in the American book, They Draw And Cook, next year! Sooo exciting. I was featured on CreativeBoom’s Lookbook, became a contributor for The Cool Commenter, and was commissioned again by Amelia’s Magazine for the Launch of Proud Kitchen in Camden. I attended an AOI Head to Head event, which was really insightful and useful, really got me thinking about the future. And we formally launched Tea & Crayons into the world. Phew!

December:

December was a quiet one, and also not a quiet one. I didn’t do any illustrating aside our T& C weekly challenges (illness and work prevented me from that), but I did get taken on as a Trend Hunter for The Lounge Group, which I’m so pleased about! And am loving. I reviewed the Rene Gruau exhibition and talk I went to see at Somerset House, and Tea & Crayons got featured on the Tigerprint blog. Very good way to end the year! Work was crazy busy, working late a lot of nights to get things done before the Christmas break, mainly AW11 photoshoots and Tradeshow prep for Jan. Christmas has been a well deserved break; I’ve definitely had a busy year!

So what next? Well, I want to focus more on my illustration, self promotion, and get myself more commissions; namely paying ones! I really want to get stuck into Editorial as that’s my favourite, although it seems most of the attention I’ve got this year has been my recipe illustrations! Interesting. I want to continue with Tea & Crayons of course, and work on my website; I need a new banner and a whole new design. I need to be more proactive and even though I get shattered because of my full time job, I’ve got to stop coming in and watching telly all night. I’m going to set myself one thing to do a day; Write a blog post, do an illustration, sketch, research, whatever. Have to keep the momentum up!

Tomorrow I’ll do a proper Resolutions post. Until then…. Happy New Year!!! xxxx

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