Leave fear aside, clean tears away! Tell God “Here I am, use me” and he'll give you assignments that will make your life fulfilled. Now dress up to work!
Fashion/design students and assignments
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Being a fashion student is a matter of pride in itself. You see people degrading or disrespecting fashion as a career. But hello! Who will design clothes for you then? Who is gonna experiment with fabrics that allow you to buy good quality garments at a cheaper price? Ever thought about this? Judging a fashion student’s life while being a non-fashion student is easy. You think there are no books, no theory and no practicals, but only drawings, fashion and glamour. Well, it's not all lies but it's not the only truth also. Fashion students not only have syllabus books but also extra out of syllabus books because those can be a source of inspiration. They don't only have practicals inside the college but also have to work in industries and export houses for better knowledge. They don't only have theories, they have ASSIGNMENTS. Yes, it is in bold letters to emphasize the importance of assignments. Students in fashion colleges have to deal with hundreds of assignments. Assignments are considered to be the expression of your creative mind and you can imagine a fashion/design student without a creative mind. By reading till now you must have understood that I am here to advocate the importance of assignments. It is not only the nerd’s thing, it's about the life lessons that prepare you for the real world.
Importance of assignments
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Remember the dialogue, “Life is a race”. It is. I am not saying about competing with others but competing with yourself. You need to run fast and catch up on new things, and assignments are the best way to learn new things. It allows you to research more and more. When you research, you come up with new ideas. Doing back-to-back assignments honestly seems difficult. But trust me doing assignments honestly changes your mindset each time. Meeting deadlines, fulfilling faculties' expectations and also learning other subjects side by side is tough. But you see, you can't be creative with little knowledge, you need to expand your mind to grasp more and more and only that will help you to be a worthy person in the future.
Role of assignments in the journey of changing an Individual into a Professional
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Fashion/Design is a subjective thing. We all have our personalities. Some of us love pastels while some of us love darker hues. At this, we have assignments that make us understand our personality. What we love and how we can be able to love even what we hate. Design/Fashion colleges make sure that you learn every single topic and so we are assigned assignments each week. That’s not easy stuff. Being creative every single day is not an easy job. Sometimes it is excellent work while sometimes it's a redo. Do the work again and again until you become the best of yourself. Faculties are not our enemies. Maybe we think so, but they know this to prepare you for the worst. In colleges, it's only about marks and grades but in the real world, it is about someone’s hard-earned money. Till now you must understand why I am advocating assignments. It is hectic but it is also true that it's worth doing. The human brain always grasps the visuals faster rather than the verbals. This is why doing practicals are important. Fashion/Design colleges give students different assignments in every field, which are not only limited to pen and paper but they need to experiment with fabrics, they need to deal with clients and karigars and master ji, they have to organize events, they need to be vocal with random people to capture moments. Sounds fun right? Yes, it is until you are an extrovert or you have excellent verbal communication skills. But when every single student shows up, they expand their boundaries. It's not always about winning the show, sometimes just showing up makes you the happiest. All these assignments prepare you for the real world.
Benefits
Assignments are important and necessary in every field. Not only fashion design but fashion communication, textile design, knitwear design, accessory design and whatnot. Hundreds of stick figures, at least 30 motifs in block print, and at least 50 embroidery designs are some of the assignments which I have faced personally. These things are not easy. But why are they necessary? So, when you work with a brand, you are assigned a job with a pretty deadline. And when you have already worked under immense pressure in your early 20s, you are ready to tolerate and meet any deadline so far. It makes you ready for the real battle. As a fashion student, you need to come up with a new inspiration every week and you are now habitual of finding inspiration in everything. Every single stream is prepared for the worst conditions in the real industry because of assignments.
Why do we hate Assignments?
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So, we can now discuss some points that we must have felt while doing assignments. Why do we hate assignments? Because this pressurizes us so much that sometimes we lose our temper. The remark ‘Redo’ breaks our confidence. The immense pressure doesn’t let us sleep. 100s of assignments lead to the wastage of stationery or fabrics and coming from an Indian middle-class family sometimes we can not afford such wastage. This leads to the feeling of an inferiority complex in many students. Being kids they fail to manage timing and they fail to give their 100%. So they blame external factors for their failure. These are the main reasons why students hate back-to-back assignments.
Conclusion
I hope you have now understood both sides of the coin. Now how these assignments change an individual into a fashion/design professional. With each assignment we have something new to learn, it can be a skill or a bookish knowledge. All these teach us and prepare us for all the scenarios that can happen in any way. The habit of never leaving your assignment incomplete will make you a focused and dedicated person. Meeting all the deadlines will never leave you disappointed. Working in every condition, and improving your skills will open up better opportunities for you. It will make you disciplined and more committed towards your work. Work-life balance is important but you see work still comes first. Whether you are a brand owner or working for someone else, College puts pressure on you so that you can become a better person in future. you just need to understand the importance of assignments and find every possible way to do it honestly. Taking it as a headache will surely create problems but showing up with all the labor is no big deal.
This article consists of every possible situation a fashion/design student can face. Looking towards them with a positive perspective will give them the confidence and belief to tackle their biggest fear.
Thank you
Written by - Urvashi Sharan