My first year at university

For me going to university and moving out from home was a big deal and large step to take. Being a shy person, who has very low self confidence it was such a huge thing. But it was a great opportunity for me to take to gain my confidence and my knowledge, I was defiantly not ready to face the real world yet, I needed to stay in my little bubble of education and fun for a little while longer whilst I could and to also become qualified to be able to do my dream job.

Studies

Term 1
I'll start with the work side of it. In term one our first task was to do some street style. We were put into a group and we had to go out on the streets of Nottingham and find people who we thought had 'style', our group decided to base this around men. It was a fun task to get us into things and meeting new people. The second task was to make a mood board of our favourite designer/brand. This type of moodboard was cutting and sticking, I chose to do 'Givenchy'. Both these tasks didn't count for anything, I think it was just getting us settled and to get a feel for the course.

Brand Moodboard - Bottega Veneta
Anyway moving onto what we actually got marked on. We had to do a digital moodboard on a given brand, we were put into a group again but we all had different designers. We had to research the given designer and find out the past and the present of them (The Then and The Now) we had to present our brand and then afterwards answer a question of how each of our brands had commonalities. I achieved a 2.2 for this, which for my first mark I thought was decent.

Brand Presentation - Ted Baker
We were then put into another group of people and we got to chose a brand to do an in-depth presentation on. For this we had to do The Then, The Now and The Other. Basically this means we needed to explain the past of the brand, the current status of the brand and then come up with a new concept for the brand that they hadn't done before and find lots and lots of research to back it up with mock ups and things. We chose to do 'Ted Baker'. I really enjoyed this presentation actually, we even gave goodies bags to the lectures filled with sweets, leaflets and a cupcake showing that this is what we would hand out at our event for the brand. For this we achieved a 2.1.

Brand Zine - Marni
The last part of this term was an individual project and I really enjoyed doing this one. We had to do exactly the same thing as we did for the presentation but for a different brand and in the form of a zine. I chose to do Marni as they are such a stunning brand, I would love to be able to afford there clothes. Anyway I loved the design aspects of this project and I achieved a 1st which I am so proud of.

We also had to submit a reflective blog and journal alongside this. Overall I achieved a 2.1 for this term which I am very happy with.

Term 2
Straight onto term 2, as you may already know from my blog posts we went to New York towards the end of term 1. This was to contribute to our second term. This was such a wonderful experience I mean it is a Concrete Jungle Where Dreams are Made and it really is stunning!

New York Booklet
Our first task was to create a New York Trend Booklet and show the trends that we saw whilst we was there. This is pretty self explanatory but it was a fun activity to do as I had so many beautiful pictures that I wanted to share everywhere.

Fragrance Advertisement Analysis
For this task we had to chose a fragrance campaign image and critically evaluate the advert in 1000 words. This was using historical references and semiotics. I got a 2.1 for this.

Fragrance Project
The main project of this term was to be put into a group and come up with a new idea for a fragrance. We decided to do a hand-made blown glass sculpture that acts as a room diffuser. We were inspired by the blown glass artist Dale Chihuly when we saw his exhibition in London. We were able to make the fragrance our selves in a workshop and also collaborate with the product design first year students for them to design the bottles for us. Then we had to do a presentation about it. Which went really well.

Brand Launch and Promotion
The final task we had to do this year was to do a 3000 word report on the promotional activity for the fragrance brand we created. So this included a launch event and different types of advertising that we will do for the brand. This was an individual task.

Social

The social life at University can be very overwhelming, especially if you are moving to a new place where you don't know anyone. Luckily most people are in the same situation and in freshers week you will speak to pretty much everyone you see and most of them you will probably never talk to again for the rest of the year. But you will meet some great people, those who are there for you and those who you have fun with. I know that I have met some really great people. It's really great being in halls as well as there are a lot of people around who you see everyday and who you can go over to see easily. Not sure what it will be like next year when I am not in halls, I will say that I will miss it though. The halls that I am in is called Hampden Halls and it has a balcony at the front so when the sun is out we all sit outside and have a laugh, which is lovely. There are so many great people around to meet, so just get talking to everyone, what I do is ask them when they are next going out and say I'll come along with them.

Nights Out

Night's out are by far one of the best things at University. There are so many events on and different themes. I would say freshers week was just perfect and I have my fingers crossed that we get another one at the beginning of second year. The best places I like to go in Nottingham is Forum on a Monday, Ocean on a Wednesday and then Rock City on a Thursday or Saturday. Oh and the SU (Students Union) on a Saturday. Another great thing about nights out, is that you will also meet lots of people and especially when you are drunk you have the courage to talk to them, the amount of people I have spotted and just been like 'Hey, you do my course' and then your talking to them and all of their mates and you've planned a night out with them.

Nottingham Trent University vs. Others

I have to say, that Trent has been such a wonderful university to attend, for one the campus is beautiful and it's very easy to access everything as it is all located close together. Next is that in freshers week, we got freshers reps, which is people from the years above helping you move in, get around and hyping you up for a night out, they were really great and came round each flat every night making sure we had everything and drinking with us and having lots of fun. Then I would also say that the events they put on are amazing as well, there is such a wide variety of things to do like comedy nights and nights out in the SU with free things. I had my last day of term yesterday and they were giving out free popcorn and candyfloss and had games to take part in like a surf simulator, then at night there was a beach party on and it was really really great. It was the perfect end to a wonderful year at trent. Another thing that I love is when you go out on a student night the DJ will always shout 'T.R.E.N.T' and everyone will shout back 'WE ARE THE TRENT ARMY'. It's so fun when that happens cause everyone is together and enjoying themselves and shout it as loud and they possibly can and it feels like a family. So, I am very glad that I chose to come to Trent University. But of course I haven't been to another university but I have heard things and I do believe that Trent is amazing!!

What have I learnt?

So from my first year at University I have become more independent I have defiantly become a better cook, I can say that for sure! I have learnt to live on my own and to rely on myself for support as I didn't have my mum there constantly. But the people around me are so friendly and supportive of me I couldn't be happier for their help. I have really found that there is a place for me in the fashion industry no matter how much I look down on myself it's what I am passionate about and I won't stop till I am part of it. I can't wait for second year to see what is in store for me, I know that I will be doing a lot more work than this year and then in third year I will be very very busy as that is the only year that counts on my degree.

So, have any of you been at University this year? Did you enjoy it? What are your plans for the future?

I have so much to look forward to this summer, I cannot wait to start working on my blog more and to do my internship and just really build up my confidence. I also have to do a summer project for my course (they never leave you without work to do) and I also have a lot of reading to do to get my knowledge built up, but I am sure it will all be fun! What are your plans for the summer?

Thank you for reading, I know that this was quite wordy! Hope to see you soon, Sarah, x