Months of making ahead

New year beginnings. This year I hadn’t decided beforehand on very concrete resolutions. But I know of myself that during the first days and weeks – somewhere along the way – ideas will service and I start to see more clearly what it is I’d like to grow in or towards.

Now, this blog is about beginnings. And mostly it has been about beginning serious development of a clothing brand I’d like to start (one day I will), but also about how any thought or observation can be a beginning for further exploration or consideration in general. Which is how we come to the following;

My day job is good. It pays the bills and requires just enough effort. It gives me a perfect work-live balance so that it’s almost boring sometimes. But I’m good in keeping myself challenged (in work and live) so there is never a fear of complete boredom to be honest. However I do also like progress and personal development, hence I keep an eye out for job openings elsewhere. After all it is a career I’m working on, no matter if I like it wholeheartedly or not. Anyway; a job ad. sparked my interest and the role description (UX/UI designer) was suitable to my experience level and learning interests. Writing motivation letters is something I quite enjoy doing and as I don’t do it very often, I like to put effort and thought into them. Which I did for this job application too. But when I was ready to submit… they removed the ad. all together! Now I wasn’t late, they had just removed it before the final submission date without any pre or post notification. I contacted the writer of the job add and still send in my submission (only heard today, 2 days later, they will add it to the list).

Starting somewhere

It was really quite a shock when I found out the ad. I had been writing a well crafted letter too had suddenly disappeared. It made me question why I was applying in the first place. Is this REALY what I want to be doing? Should this be how I progress from my current work? What do I actually want my future to look like for myself? I could also put more effort into building that brand that I want to create, making the clothing I want to make and creating things that truly inspire and energise me.

Often I have to think back to feedback by Bec (about my ideas around starting a brand); that I can also just start making and doing things and figure it out along the way. My brand can also be what I’m already doing right now. Which is very true. I like the idea of sculpting a brand image, voice, name and identity beforehand as it’s a nice frame for making new things. But I shouldn’t forget I already have some of these things as well; the things I make I make with intention and consideration. A name would be nice to make it feel more tangible, but even that can be a working name for now (which I think will or should be Loose Threads).

I think that these lessons of the past few days have helped me to make more concrete the floating thoughts I had already had in my head. Maybe I will still be invited for this job interview – or I won’t and that’s also fine. What matters to me is how it has framed my thinking about making for the year ahead. And I’m taking clothing making and photography printing with me on that journey to see where it will end up later this year.