Sarah Swindell

Main take aways from the lecture/ seminar:

BE INNOVATIVE

-Think of new ways of working

-Develop unique strategies and ideas to stand out

-New services

RESILLIANCE

-Thick skinned and can't be too sensitive, especially when setting up a business

POSITIVITY

-See the future as bright

-Do something you are passionate about

-If you made the wrong decision, don't worry you can always change and evolve

The value of working in person in a post pandemic world.

Sarah talked bout her team working in person and how this is the preferred way of working for her team. In fact the team only worked remotely during the pandemic for 5 months. Sarah implied that this was an employee led move with the younger team members asking to return to the office. I think this is an interesting point as with the future of fashion seeming to become much more digital and virtual the trend within Watermelon Creative was the opposite. They value the physicality of the workspace to do their jobs.

This physically is arguably incredibly important for training and education. Sarah highlighted this fact that it is hard to find trained designers at the moments, particularly in the wake of covid with many new designers having less industry in person training and therefore less technical industry skills. The physical workspace in this case also appears to aid creativity. One contract within the company seems to rely on many different designers with many different specialisms coming together to complete the project. This shows a really collaborative way of working and when this is in person the possibility for creative ideas increases.

This collaboration within the workplace feels really exciting and I think I would love to have this aspect in my work in the future. I think it also encourages problem solving and thinking outside the box.

This plays a wider role in the industry with collaboration being a hot topic in the fashion industry. It has become a way for brands to access different markets and expand their customer base. Sarah highlighted 2 main collaboration types, marketing led and product driven.

This means that the collaboration is either mostly for the marketing of the two names together or the actual product with 2 brands coming up with an exciting collaborative product.

Sustainability

Before the lecture, I didn't understand much about the world of licensing or licensed products and my understanding of it was limited to the stands of Disney t-shirts I have seen in brands like Primark. I know that Sarah works with a lot of different and exciting brands, not just high-street but I wanted to ask about the sustainability implications of licensing.

I asked: "Does licensing perpetuate fast fashion?"

YES was Sarah's answer.

Image: https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/worlds-biggest-primark-opens-complete-14274684

Particularly the area of licensing that deals with mass market production. And this is not the fault of licensing, it is more of a reflection of the wider industry. She also highlighted that sustainability can't lie at the feet of designers, the responsibility is shared across the industry and perhaps is even more weighted towards consumers.

Although I don't have a solution, I have an issue with this.Ultimately when companies continue to provide product and services and market them in the way that the fashion industry currently does, can we really blame the consumer. Also sustainable efforts can be over marketed allowing the consumer to believe that they are buying a responsible product but in actual fact, that product can just be part of the problem (greenwashing). I think licensed products maybe feeds into this more than others. When considering design for longevity, I am considering factors such a timelessness. No matter the quality of the product, people outgrow certain brands and certain franchises move out of fashion or are replaced by the next big thing. How can that be sustainable.

Education of the consumer by brands is perhaps one of the best things that they can do to aid sustainability whist still producing. This is the only way to change consumer behaviour. As an industry we cannot expect total consumer led change if the industry doesn't lead the way on both these changes and education of consumers.