Design Thesis Research || ID Mission Statement and Design Philosphy
MISSION STATEMENT
Identify Past Successes
There are larger areas of success that I could refer to such as awards or success in interviews, but I feel that those successes do not speak to what I am trying to achieve as a designer, but rather what I am currently skilled at. The successes I am most proud of and which speak to the trajectory of my design career in the future are smaller successes that I’ve experienced in my personal life and include the following:
Helping several friends learn and establish their curly hair routines. My curly hair has been a personal struggle my entire life, and I know personally how difficult it can be to learn to care for and appreciate one’s own natural hair, especially when curly hair has often been rejected and ignored. Helping friends learn to care for their hair, and even just having friends that trusted my advice enough to ask, brought me immense joy and satisfaction.
Designing a brand and marketing materials for my place of work. I currently work as a sales associate at Angels Shoes stores and with the challenges COVID 19 has brought with the initial lockdown and June and the continuing slowed sales, me and my coworkers were challenged with the task of creating on online platform for the store. This included creating branding materials for the first time, in addition to a marketing campaign. I believe this was a success, because it involved creating work that spoke to the business’s true identity and their goals and values so as to create a stronger connection between the customers and the brand. Additionally, this success was valuable to me because it involved helping a small asian-owned business at a time where they were experiencing immense difficulties.
Styling my best friend for an upcoming wedding ceremony. Another small success, but this success brought me incredible joy. Helping my friend to choose an outfit for her mother’s wedding ceremony was a significant experience in my life as a designer. Something many of my friends have told me is that they often feel unsure of their fashion choices, though they want to be able to be bold and wear what they want to wear. When I helped my best friend, she had told me after wearing the outfit I had helped her choose to the ceremony that she’d never felt so confident and happy before, and it was this experience that spoke to how important it is to me that my design be impactful in the lives of others and help them to be happier in their own personal lives.
Becoming a CAM Mentor. I consider this experience to be a success because it allowed me to make an impact on the college experience of my mentee. Helping others is important to me, and in my experiences so far as a mentor, I’ve been able to help my mentees adjust to their new lives as college students and learn to manage and achieve their own goals.
Core Values
Happiness
Kindness
Empathy
Creativity
Honesty
Progress
Justice
Community
Of the values listed above, I most value happiness, both in my personal life and others. I’ve found that I am most happy when helping others achieve their goals and successes, and it is often the desire to make others happy that drives me to do my best work. For example, I recently decided that I had a passion for fashion styling after learning how happy it made those I helped to learn to love the clothes they wore and themselves in it. Bringing happiness to others is essential to me and creating designs that improve the lives of others and make them happier with themselves is a necessity to me as a designer.
Identify Contributions
Helping Others to Be Happy and Confident in their Fashion Decisions
Helping Other to Define and Achieve their Goals
Encouraging Conversation That Allows for Progress (Both in the Community and at Home)
Creating Spaces Where People Feel Safe and Comfortable to Express Themselves
Helping and Supporting Other When They are Experiencing Difficulties in their Lives
Creating designs that allow consumers to connect personally with brands and their missions
Identify Goals
Short Term:
Get a job as an in-house brand designer for a company that values progress, social justice, and sustainability.
Get a degree in fashion styling.
Long Term
To become a fashion stylist.
To launch by own clothing brand.
Write a Mission Statement
To create design that improves the lives of marginalized individuals, and brings joy to them in their personal lives and relationships.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
Definition: In one concise sentence, what design services will you offer?
I will offer the services of brand identity design and fashion design for the purpose of helping marginalized communities and promoting sustainable and ethical businesses.
Users: Who, specifically, are your design services for?
My services are for business that practice ethical and sustainable business, ideally smaller, independent, POC owned businesses so as to help individuals from marginalized communities.
Purpose: For whom? What problem or pain-point does your design practice/approach intend to solve? What difference will it make in the world? (Don't just stop at the first answer to this question! Ask, "Why?" five more times to drill down to a deeper purpose that both you and your customers and colleagues will connect with.)
My work will be made for individuals in marginalized communities, specifically for brands owned by individuals of marginalized communities. Often, these businesses lack the resources and knowledge of design to create pieces of branding and marketing that allows them to convey their message and their mission to their consumers in the same way larger brands are able to. My services will allow these companies to establish effective and compelling brands that speak to the core of their companies values, allowing their customers to connect to them and establish a loyalty and appreciation of them. This will allow smaller businesses and POC owned businesses to promote themselves equally against larger businesses.
Differentiation: How will your design services solve that problem or pain point better than the current solutions and designers?
Through my practice and emphasis of empathy and understanding in my design process. My passion for understanding the needs of both consumers and clients as well as my ability to weave together compelling narratives allows me to dive deeper into the core of their missions and goals so as to create an effective and intriguing brand story.
Value: How will your design services make the client's business and lives better? What benefits and results will it deliver?
My services will allow my clients to better connect with their target consumers, establishing brand loyalty and consistency and driving up product sales and customer retention. Additionally, helping these businesses to establish a solid brand will increase the sense of self-identity within the company.
Goals: What's the end goal? How will your success be measured?
The end goal for my services is to increase the sales success of these business, measured by the overall increase of their sales and customer loyalty.
My Design Philosophy
My work in branding and fashion design is done to benefit the growth of small, independent owned companies of marginalized communities, allowing them to weave compelling and effective brand narratives in order to create a strong connection between their brands and consumers, increasing brand loyalty.