We had our cross course crit a couple of days ago, I knew what to expect because of having the same last year, though this year I guess I was put in a different situation because I now had 1^st years to discuss my work with too. My group was actually made up of four 2^nd years, three 3^rd years and only one 1^st year! We each took turns in talking about our work up to date and just talked generally about what were up to at the moment. It’s always good to talk to new groups of people, because It’s interesting and helpful to know their opinions especially if they have some suggestions which could benefit my work. I got quite a good response from the group, to be fair it wasn’t the most talkative of groups, and I probably would of liked a bit more of a discussion about each individuals work. I came away from the session with the influence to do more work, and especially more experimentation, because my ideas aren’t good enough without more visual props. Next week we start putting up our work in the end of term exhibition.

I got an email back toady from Selfridges and John Lewis...both aren’t looking for any temp work, they each said they’ll contact me if they have any further in the future, which is absolutely rubbish because I was looking forward to getting involved with that field of work! I think I need to start smaller, perhaps some shops in Manchester.

A few days ago I emailed a few companies regarding works experience or even just any type of help they might need in the coming year, I’m really interested in Visual Merchandising and decided to ask around at department stores like Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and John Lewis. I emailed all three stores and now I’m just waiting to hear back, I reallyy hope they have some vacancies, because I think this could be a step in the right direction with what I want to do. I’ve always loved the window displays at Christmas time especially, I like the mechanical moving toys and the bizarre scenario set...I think this is something which connects quite nicely with my style of work. This year so far I feel very panicky about the future, and that’s not something I generally worry about, but It’s sort of dawned on me that I should have some idea of what path I’d like to take, but I have NO idea! So I think doing some work experience with Visual Merchandising should give me a feel as to what the job would entail, and even just to give me a few contacts for any future plans.