Has anyone ever told you what actually happens after art school? The ‘are you going to be an art teacher?’ question is commonly asked by friends and family. What else is there really? This week Central Station has asked art school graduates to share what they’ve been up to since their graduation in the Life After Art School series.
Bryony Strange is a recent fashion graduate of the renowned Edinburgh College of Art where she spent 4 years honing her pattern cutting and design skills and living off of Tunnocks teacakes.
Throughout my final year at Uni I was fortunate enough to show at London Fashion Week in February as part of the Vauxhall Fashion Scout and F.A.D Fashion Futures Award. I also had work featured in both The Times, Scotsman, and The Metro as well as show my graduate collection at the Truman Brewery, East London as part of Graduate Fashion Week.
Since then, however I felt that I needed a bit of a break from the intensity of my final year and so decided to stay on in Edinburgh for a few months rather than move straight down to London with most of my peers. I already had a fair bit of experience working in retail and so I managed to secure a sales position at an upper market fashion store fairly quickly, whilst applying to more design and events related work. Unfortunately, Edinburgh doesn’t have the biggest fashion scene so there wasn’t a great deal of work available in those fields.
I worked my way around this however, and did a few voluntary styling jobs with local designers and small brands. Although the fashion scene in Scotland is relatively small it is also very supportive and a fairly close network. After following key players in the industry on social media, I came across a Managerial Retail and Events position with Scotland Re:Designed for a Limited Edition pop up store supporting new design and talent within Scotland. Although the position is still within retail (something I initially wanted to break out of) it has given me a great deal of confidence and responsibility and requires a great deal of initiative.
Working with Scotland Re:Designed has been a fantastic opportunity which has introduced me to so many key players within the industry both in Scotland and further afield. Now I have had some time away from design, however, I am itching to get back into it and so I am currently on the lookout for studios and design based residencies to create a new mini collection. One of the downsides to the fashion industry is that it can be difficult to break into a paid entry level job/internship and so I hope to gain a larger portfolio of work and experience before applying to assistant design jobs either in the UK or abroad.
I think there is always a bit of pressure to instantly move to London or that the perfect job will appear soon after you graduate, but unfortunately that’s never the case, in creative industries you sometimes need to be a little more proactive. I also think that there’s great potential and support for creativity, especially in Scotland.
Comment below or on Twitter using #LifeAfterArtSchool & mentioning @CenSta with your experience after art school.
Stay tuned for updates from art school graduates all this week. In the meantime see a preview of what to expect from the Life After Art School features here.
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