Placements
You have the option to take a sandwich year as part of your course, which gives you the opportunity of applying your learning, developing new and existing skills and increasing your knowledge and experience while immersed in the fashion industry. Your Placement team will you with information about the process of applying for placements with useful information through their Wordpress site and current vacancies via the Placement Portal. You are also recommended to use the specialist links via Finding and Applying for Jobs in Interior Design to source vacancies.
Competitions
Getting involved in regional, national and international competitions is another excellent way of ensuring that your work is regularly viewed by the wider art community. Relevant competitions include New Designers and FX Design Awards.
Freelance and self-employment
It is extremely common for people working in the creative sector to be self-employed either full-time or on a part-time basis whilst combining it with employed work; the latter is known as a portfolio career. Designers tend to be independent, creative thinkers and are often self-employed and/or in occupations involving project work and short-term contracts with both small and large organisations. The website Young Creative Council allows individuals (including students) to register for freelance work.
Being self-employed makes it essential that you network and promote your work (and yourself) as much as possible.
If you would like to find out more on how to advance your project then why not contact the Enterprise Team who provide lots of free professional advice on a range of topics including writing a business plan and where to find start-up grants. This facility is available to students up to five years after graduation.
NESTA is a UK innovation foundation. It helps individuals and organisations develop ideas through.
There is further information available on the AN, Own-It and Artquest websites.
The Essential Guide to Business for Artists & Designers (Alison Branagan) provides useful practical advice for artists and designers wanting to create their own freelance businesses.