Illustration by Camille Wilkinson

The Article and Illustration by Camille Wilkinson details the complexities of a young fashion designer's journey to becoming a success in the fashion design industry.

Camille Wilkinson is a 25 year design industry veteran, currently freelancing in consultancy capacity in various phases of design and production. She welcomes direct enquiry via: cmllx@aol.com

Woe to the struggling designer - how do they get theirs?

They compete for contacts, funding, marketing, and following.

They spend 2-4 years fashion major in an accredited college of renown, internship in their final year

that leads to ground-up entry-level experience in a viable NY co. ...

When all they could have done,

(going the Celebrity Status Way),

is to the Manor been born...

Or cultivate their street 'cred',

or marry a spouse famous for sports,

or infamous for being in a rock music band...

A designer could overcome obscurity through Project reality show 'not-so-mellow' dramas,

or be the stylist for video vixen 'glamour' shoots,

or any of the other periphery 'MGM' cast of a thousand players and contenders

toward becoming the NEXT couture / designer

to present at the Big Top Tent 'really big' Show-

during a Market week of Magic.

Celebrity labels (celebrities of the aforementioned type) are cool and all,

but it would be nice to know there is a little more integrity to the branding

other than securing that the sun will never set on that celebrity's name game empire.

Well, in THIS 'Aesop' fable, the moral is:

There is Nothing that replaces research;

practice, interviewing for good advice even a little bit of knowledge going in,

about your market niche, and customer base that will yield results that endure.

Before enthusiasm blinds one to logic and sensible action, remember that following the first day of

strategy, success is not an overnight conclusion, without spit and grit ethics.

One's own commitment to lego-build The brand / The i-d / and The merchandise, is paramount to

achieving Empire Strikes Back status.

Barring being entitled to 15 minutes of fame that might lend us celebrity status,

most of us 'struggling' designers must come by our craft and success legitimately.

That is the norm, that is the constant.

And oh so sweet the victory when what one contributes to this industry amounts to something.

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Just Creative Design, Jacob Cass Interviews Veteran Designers About Staying Focused.

Design as you know is not like anything else in the realm of career choices. Most times you find yourself hoping that you were not chosen to follow the path which initially brings a lack of financial security and sometimes even lots of insecurity.

A designer's journey is one of self exploration and one that takes you through a series of mental and emotional Olympic trials. If you don't know it by now you've chosen the road less traveled. But be sure to realized that it's your road and you must travel it because once you arrive at your destination, there is nothing else like it.

Jacob Cass of Just Creative Design, which I'm a big fan, did a great post called Advice For Design Students in which he interviews creative professionals in the design industry giving some insightful advice on staying in the game no matter what. Good stuff, check it out - you're guaranteed to get that second wind you've been looking for.

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As I'm reading this article on search engine progress after 10 years of Google innovations.  I was prepared to answer the question "Is the Search Game Over?"  without  hesitation or delving into the article.  As Google's  self proclaimed number 1 fan I was sure that the search game was definitely over and Google the undisputed champion.   

As most of you know by now, I have an annoying tendency to read between lines and have a habit of superimposing most industries perspectives and ideas into the design industry.  The design industry, like Google has grown tremendously over the past 10 years and have introduced many talented designers and design companies alike to the grand arena of creativity.  As a designer and entrepreneur myself I am both fascinated and intimated by the influx of new companies that hit the internet running.   Part of my daily to-do list is to remind myself of my reasons and passions for pursuing my design goals :) 

I remember when Google was simply another search engine that wanted to be like Yahoo (at least in my eyes)  and initially they seem to be just one of the many.  But as they develop so did their brand and individual business model that eventually  separated them from the rest.  As a designer in the entrepreneur game,  the crucial lesson I've learned when starting out is to always believe that even though your product or service seems like the rest of them, you know that it's not.  You know that your creativity and service is unparallel to what others are doing and that it's like being in the marathon of the Beijing Olympics.  You stay in the pack until it's time to win the race, and that's when the second wind kicks in.

Designers should pace themselves, hone their skills and continue to be sponges  in this world of information  When it's time to break away from the crowd...you'll know taking with you everything you've learned and the experiences you've had to maintain your lead, like Google.   So... Is the search game over?  Not a chance in hell.  As Michael Arlington of Techcrunch so eloquently put it "If search was 90% solved, Google could look at a picture of me standing by the Eiffel Tower and know, without textual metadata, what's there. It could return results for a Barack Obama query that include all the videos he's in, again without relying on tags or other textual metadata. Natural language. Deep web searches. Semantic search. All of these problems are [still] unsolved."

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Designer Colleen Quen in 2004 was talking about aspiring to become an influential fashion designer in the industry and today she is just that. She has been featured in print and television and has transformed her fashion business from I can to I did. For More information on Fashion Designer Colleen Quen visit her website: colleenquencouture.com

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