AA2A introduces Anisha Parmar, a jewellery designer, who's work is heavily influenced by her heritage and her family's history. Straight out of university, Anisha worked as a junior watch and eyewear designer, for a luxury brand Gucci, 6 months later she and her team were made redundant. After this turn in her career, she struggled to get a job, which lead her to start her own company, whilst she freelanced on the side to support herself financially.
Anisha studied BA Multimedia Textiles, due to her love for working with the different materials; wood, acrylic and soft fabrics. This passion was what motivated her to create small body sculptures at the end of her MA studies, as she was able to use the different textures. The project 'Authorised Identity' for her MA collection enabled her to create a bridge between fashion and art. This inspired her to create pieces in a commercial sense, so she began making jewellery.
(Work from her MA collection 'Authorised Identity')
Her MA collection was inspired by her family's journey to the United Kingdom, and using the words and patterns found on passports and documentation which they had to file to move to the UK. This is a prime example of how her heritage and family has inspired her creative practice directly.
(Work from her MA collection 'Authorised Identity')
She created her own brand image, from designing her initial logo, to putting together her online look book, to photographing her products. She also created her own e-commerce website using an online website builder. This was due to her funds at the time, which would not allow her to hire a designer to create her branding.
Anisha mentioned that when promoting yourself as a designer and your work, to connect with your audience; through posting the successes along with the fails, just real life content. She also mentioned to not feel the need to use all of the social media platforms out there, and instead use what works best for you and your practice. With Instagram being best for creatives as it is image based, Facebook being great for a local business page and Twitter being ideal when wanting to talk about the message behind your work and the politics behind your work and business. A tip from Anisha was to use the platform which you enjoy using already, which in my case has to be Instagram.
Another tip which Anisha gave was to plan and schedule social media, as it is important to keep organised, this is definitely something that I will start using. She shared the different schedule apps for social media available in the App Store and which app she uses. Collaborating was also a big topic which Anisha kept coming back to, with the huge amount of creatives using social media, getting in touch is super easy and as she says the worst thing that's going to happen is getting a "No" in response. However, it is a good starting point, especially when creating small projects and getting your name out there.
Anisha's Top Tips were;
1. Show real life journey and process on social media
2. Enjoy creating the content for your website and social media
3. Never be put off using your heritage or identity as inspiration for your work
4. Ask for help and advise from other creatives
Anisha's talk has really inspired me to create more of a interactive social media account, which in my case is Instagram. As well as to create a website for my work and to just get my work out there and collaborate with fellow creatives.
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