'Redjotter' for Design Studies.

Last Friday’s lecture left me feeling positive, motivated and maybe a little scared for the future.

 We had a guest speaker, Lauren Currie, who was previously a product design student at the University of Dundee, she later went on to complete the Master of Design course and has now started her own business called ‘Snook’ which specialises in service design.

The lecture was entitled ‘Studio Unbound- Designing Your Network’. It was about how the internet and its tools can help you connect with people that seem out of reach and getting yourself known to potential employers or people who may be interested in your work. Lauren or ‘Redjotter’ as she is know online spoke from self experience. She believes that blogging, tweeting and skype-ing helped her, along with her determination and hard work, get where she is today.

I really liked some of her tips about how to get noticed online. She suggested signing up for twitter, so I did! I was a little against twitter before but thought I’d give it ago and now I actually think I like it. It’s still early days though and I’ve only tweeted twice so far but I’ll keep it up and see how it goes. I also liked the idea of creating a name and an avatar to use on all my sites which people would then recognise as my symbol. This worked well for ‘Redjotter’ the avatar she uses is a photograph of her writing with her nails painted red. She said that sometimes when she’s out people will recognise her as she is wearing her signature red nail polish. I think this links with what she was saying about turning yourself into a brand just like other brands they all have a symbol that helps them become recognised quickly.

 It was great to have someone speaking to us who has been in our position and has experienced the difficulties of looking for work experience or a job after graduating.  She was very encouraging; she seemed to have a “go get ‘em” approach to life telling us that if you work hard enough and do a little bit extra you will go a long way. I always feel I hold back instead of creating my own opportunities especially when asking for work or help. She made me think maybe next time I should just be bold, take her advice and ask that person I need to connect with out for a hot chocolate, it couldn’t hurt.

Thinking about the future I do want to get that job that makes me happy so I better start now and if there’s anything that can help my chances of that I am more than willing to do it. So I better start blogging more!! Lauren’s lecture was good as it felt like she cared and seemed like an approachable person. If she wasn’t doing service design she should move into motivational speaking! There was one thing I was left wondering though… did she get to speak to Ewan Mcgregor?