Life lately, bank holidays and passion projects

On bank holiday Monday, I mostly spent the day at home. However, for a couple of hours, I did head out to Westfield, Stratford, in a thick polo neck jumper that says “I’m officially accepting spring as it is”. My stubborn self refused to wear a coat on the semi-cold, sunny day, a combination UK-ers know of very well. 

I didn’t expect Westfield to be too quiet as it was a bank holiday, but I also didn’t expect it to be as busy as it was. I popped into Primark to get some essential pieces and came out almost an hour later. A good amount of that time was spent in the till queue. I couldn’t just abandon my things and leave and so I listened to an hour-long talk on Youtube, whilst there. Best way to get through the queue.

With my shopping bag full of my much-needed essential goodies. I walked towards the nearest exit. One shop was enough for that day, I couldn’t handle another. Besides, it was exhaustingly busy inside the shopping centre. Once out in the open, I sat for a short while on the benches, listened to more speeches, enjoyed the free usage of Wi-Fi and some much-needed fresh air, before heading home.

Home truly is where the heart is. As of late, I’ve been enjoying spending more and more time at home in my own personal space. This could be due to my increased participation in passion projects, a term you’ll hear much more about. I first learned about passion projects last year through Instagram when I discovered various accounts sharing branding design briefs for made-up clients. At the time I had decided to create a social media design portfolio, so participating in briefs that matched helped me to add to my portfolio and much, much more. As time went on my interest in what I was doing grew. I started exploring different aspects of branding and marketing.

To begin with, it was challenging. You’d have a soft deadline to complete the work in. That deadline however gave me structure to organise my time. Thus giving me a previewed experience of working on real-life client projects. For inspiration, I’d look at what others had done and applaud them, as this was not a competition. By liking other people’s works, I learned more about logo design, the terminology used and breakdowns of the design process. The designers whose work I admired, I shadowed them on their method of working opening doors for me to learn new skills.

A year on I’m more than happy to share my portfolio to anyone who’s listening and not listening.