How have you grown?
I think that over the course of this semester, I have grown significantly.
When I first entered the course, I had no idea what I wanted to pursue after high school. I knew that I was passionate about design and art, but there are so many different pathways with design that I didn’t know what to do. I was excited when I found out that there was a magical course called “IDC” where I could decide what I learned, what I created, and how relevant it was to me.
I decided that I wanted to make a range of feminist merchandise, this let me combine graphic design, fashion design, illustration, and product design, as well as marketing, branding, business and entrepreneurship. This project was a big step for me, in the sense that I was being open about my feminist ideals and before then have been too shy to talk about them.
I now know that I want to combine graphic design and illustration, as well as continue my Etsy store and make new products for it frequently. I also grew a lot as a designer, and the reality of this project (the fact it was actually going to be real and people were really going to see it with real eyes and everything) was a huge motivator for me. I think that this was a big step for me, deciding what it is that I want to do after high school. I found something practical, but also something that makes me incredibly happy and really proud of myself.
That was another thing I learned; how to be proud of myself. I am feminist and vegan; two things that can easily start heated arguments. I don’t like arguing or fighting, so I never used to bring these things up and if they did come up I would find a way to bury them, or laugh them off as if they aren’t 2 of the most important changes the world needs to make. This project showed me how to put myself out there and be proud of who I am, not ashamed of it.
I also learnt that when I am proud of myself and put myself out there, people notice. That all this time I was expecting negative attention when it becomes known that I’m feminist or vegan, but in this case I saw that was not always true. I met a ton of other feminists at school, and was not “accepted” despite my feminist views, I was supported because of them.
I learnt a lot about time management. I never used to take my own deadlines seriously, whether it was promising myself I would study for a test or cleaning my room. Since starting this course, where I not only had to set my own deadlines but also follow through with them, I have become more efficient. My grades and reputation as an Etsy seller were on the line if I didn’t hand in my deliverables on time. I have noticed that since starting this, I have taken my own deadlines and goals seriously. I created a schedule for myself and worked hard to finish things on time for this course, but I have also carried this skill outside of the classroom and use this new-found efficiency to be productive with other tasks. I am more efficient with homework from all of my classes, not just this one course, as well as at home with personal goals and chores. It showed me that my goals are serious, and deserve to be taken seriously. I got to see the reward from committing to those goals and accomplishing them, and think that this was an important learning experience for me.
I learnt a bit about the business world as well. I’m obviously no expert, but I did learn about the process of manufacturing products, marketing them, and selling them. I made a marketing campaign, and priced my products accordingly (I profit approximately 80% of the sales), and learnt how to appeal to my target market. I learnt about making commitments, to myself, customers, and manufacturers/business partners, and that there are consequences to not following through with those commitments. One example would be that I promised myself that I would keep up with online marketing but I didn’t follow through with that, and I suffered the consequence of only selling 2 products on Etsy over the semester (but I have since sold an additional 9 products on Etsy) and that was largely due to the lack of marketing I did. I assume that the majority of Etsy sales that I made in the last week were because of the feature I recieved on instagram that promoted my Etsy store.
I improved the quality of my Etsy store significantly, and it will forever be better because of this project. I put a lot of work into it, and am really proud to show it to people now.
My group changed our CBL project topic, which I think was also a growing experience for me and my group. We committed to a topic that we were not all passionate about, and one that we couldn’t see change in in our community. We switched to Pet Mills, and saw a lot of progress, This showed us how much we really can do when our hearts are invested in something. We received support from over 1,800 people all around the world and brought the issue of pet mills in Ontario to the attention of our peers. Again, the reality of this project was a huge motivator and showed me not only how to make real change; but that it can in fact be done and it is incredibly rewarding.
