This is a new feature we're going to try out. Student of the week will offer an example of some of the best students nationally, (or even internationally we don't know how popular this thing might get). It will give other students the opportunity to see how people are enhancing their CVs, through internships, work experience, additional courses, or even running your own business like our first Student of the Week, Kevin Adom. Here Kevin explains what drove him to create his own clothing line and the brand "Kingdom", which is rapidly expanding to be not only an online store, but a high quality media outlet.
"I’d have to say my first thought of wanting to start “Kingdom” was the first year of college when I began studying Media. Now, like 95% of the people who choose Media Studies for their A-Levels I instantly thought it would be complete a doss lesson and I’d get a decent enough grades to help push my UCAS points for my other subjects I was much more serious about. However that 95% of people including myself learnt really quickly that Media isn’t a subject which will have you plain sailing (contrary to popular belief).
Anyways, the assignment for the year was to create a magazine, more specifically design the front cover, a feature page and then write an essay on it. We’d discuss who our target consumer was, how we’d market it and our unique selling point for the brand. So all in all we were being tested on 2 essential skills; firstly our design ability and secondly our understanding of brand to consumer relationships. I felt I had a real knack for it and thoroughly enjoyed the idea of creating something and then thinking about how I’d present it to a consumer. I really took this project seriously so much so that I got a B in it (I got an A in my second year so it’s all good). I got home and downloaded photoshop and started fiddling about with it making really embarrassingly bad designs to start off with.
Fast forward 2 and a half years and I’ve been lucky enough to be in University, not studying Media but English Literature with Creative Writing and balancing it with Kingdom, being able to release a few seasonal collections along the way.
One of the main reasons I chose not to study Media in University was that I personally saw it as a field which appreciated experience over academic accolades. It’s a field I can definitely see myself working in after I graduate however but couldn’t envision myself taking the academic route with it further. Also I love English and writing, I’ve always thought about being a teacher but the thought of being in a room with a group pre-pubescent teenagers day in day out sometimes freaks me out!
Doing Kingdom has allowed a lot of doors to open up for me one of the most recent and helpful has been working with a marketing group and Converse where a collection of young male creatives talk brand ideas and are overseen by professionals in their respective field that mentor us as well. Apparently I can’t say too much about it but it’s really cool stuff! This is sort of what I mean by “experience over academic accolades” although I don’t knock any University students studying Media in anyway because there’s most definitely a lot of stuff that they know and have learnt that I don’t have a clue about, I just feel as if the path I chose was the right one for me.
My main focus right now is to finish University and get a Masters in English I really feel however that my degree ties in nicely into what I do individually because it’s about creating something but also understanding people, their motives, their thought process and acting on that. Whether it’s analysing a painfully dry chapter from Pride & Prejudice for hours on end or writing a novella it’s all about knowing how to read an individual, identify who they are and then display that to your audience.
Hopefully by that time I graduate I’ve managed to get a lot of field work done with different brands and marketing companies as well as expanding my own brand with creative endeavours."
For your chance to be featured as Student of the Week contact us via twitter @StudentCtheory
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