She/her | #womenindesign #designbywomen #pointofyou
Hey guys, first of all how are you?
Hey! Thank you for having us! We are both really good thank you – feeling super excited to be the ones answering the questions for a change hahah!
We are both feeling pumped up for the New Year and what it’ll bring! We hope you and the LTC team are doing well !
For those that do not know who is Imogen and Laura?
Imogen
I’m Imogen (she/her), a 22-year-old creative from Glasgow. I graduated in 2021 with a degree in Film and Media from the University of Stirling. From when I first set out on my 4-year journey to obtain that prized piece of paper (a degree certificate) I aspired to work in the creative field. I have always been ambitious and driven to make a name for myself.
My university experience was definitely not as depicted in ‘the movies’ and I definitely don’t believe that it’s a be all and end all. However, I had to push through and I’m glad I did it for myself. In my final semester I completed my dissertation (13,000 words, I know 🥲) on ‘The success the #MeToo hashtag has had on the development of online communities for women’. Since doing so, the research has really affected how I create and given me the understanding of the power of social media (for good and bad).
My journey with illustration and digital design first started in June 2020. It was during the UK lockdown, and having finished uni for the summer, I needed a hobby to pursue. I finally purchased an iPad and started posting my progress on Instagram. I was surprised by people asking if they could purchase my illustrations, so I bit the bullet, ignoring the niggling voice that is imposter syndrome, and opened an Etsy store. I’m so pleased I did, it taught me to trust in my skills and I now treat my Instagram feed as a giant portfolio for creative projects under the name Hija Design - ‘hija’ meaning daughter in spanish - a nickname my dad calls me. I was also asked to open a store with ‘Teepublic’, which features my designs on apparel and more… I also designed a front cover for ‘Disgraceful’ magazine – being able to contribute to other creative communities is something I’m passionate about.
So far, I’ve accepted the idea of not going straight into a job in the film industry, and realised this doesn’t mean I won’t in the future. Since graduating, I’ve been working in retail so I could move out and gain my independence back. I’m really excited about starting the next chapter and hopefully soon moving into a job more aligned with my degree. Despite my illustration work having to go on the back burner a bit until I settle into my new role, I’m so thankful that I have a project like ‘Point of You’ to allow my creativity to keep on growing on the sidelines.
Laura
I am an enthusiastic and innovative creative, who has a passion for craft. Alongside my love for photography, I also have a strong interest in graphic design and illustration, which can be seen throughout my work. I strongly value the importance of spreading kindness and positivity, as well as creating impactful projects.
I enjoy taking snapshots with my 35mm film camera and producing branding design for local businesses, although my passion lies within curation and publication design. Additionally, I enjoy uplifting others and community building through creating platforms and offering a helping hand. I recently curated the publication 'HerStory', this is something I hope to continue with as my career progresses, in various creative roles and passion projects.
Since graduating last year, after studying Photography, I have decided not to rush straight into a creative career. Currently, I’m a Barista by-day (forever trying to perfect my latte art) and a creative project juggler by night. When I am not trapped behind my computer screen, I can also be found drinking plenty of tea, at the beach, or watching way too many romantic comedies!
We are life-long friends based in Glasgow, Scotland.
You guys are quite the team, how did you meet?
Quite the team you say? 👀 You’re making us blush haha!
We actually met on Instagram; we stumbled upon each other's pages from being in the same creative community, when we were about 15 years-old. After connecting over our love of photography, aesthetic instagram feeds and common ground of sitting exams, we got chatting, and decided that since we live in such close proximity, that we should meet up and we've been good friends since!
You know how the cheesy saying goes ‘every blonde needs a brunette best friend’ - that must be why we work so well together 🤔 haha
We are super excited to be working with you, is this something you’re open to in the future. Further projects like this?
YES! We are so excited too! Absolutely, we are both so keen to collaborate some more in the future with other creatives and platforms. We may or may not have another collaboration in the pipelines…. Keep your eyes peeled! 👀
There is such a vast amount of inspiring communities within the creative industries, and we LOVE chatting and collaborating in any way we can!
Talk to us about Point of You Mag.
Point of You aims to be a space where she/they creatives feel celebrated, inspired and part of an online community. Counteracting the gender imbalance within the creative industries and inclusivity are at the core of our ethos. We focus on creating a safe space where women, trans and non-binary creatives can feel comfortable whilst highlighting their work and the opportunity to make connections with like-minded people.
Our ethos is to create an uplifting space that is not only for us, but also for our audience to benefit from. One aspect we never want to compromise on is inclusivity.
Why she/they creatives?
We felt there was a lack of creative platforms that weren’t just aimed at ‘women’ but also create equal opportunities for trans and non-binary creatives. We want our audience to make connections and find inspiration from the other amazing creatives we feature.
Point of You strives to build an inclusive community of all she/they creatives no matter their discipline, race or sexuality.
How did the project come about?
During her degree, Laura worked on a project called ‘HerStory’ and wanted to do something similar but expand it into an online magazine. This would’ve been a lot of work for one person, so we both decided to join forces to work on the project and bring our different creative backgrounds together: Imogen (film and illustration) and Laura (photography, graphic design and curation). We also have a shared passion for feminism, uplifting others and creativity. Launching an online magazine was exactly what we needed, having experienced graduating during a pandemic, and after much deliberation for the name, ‘Point of You’ was born. We’ve been friends since we were 16 – so it’s been a long time coming to pursue a project that we’re both so passionate about.
Talk to me about the branding, how important was this to get it right?
To us, the branding is a tricky element to perfect. In terms of our visual colours, when we started the platform back in July 2021, we were so keen to make it bold and eye-catching, so we just went for a handful of bright colours that we loved and rolled with it. Now, looking back, we think that it was imbalanced and a bit overwhelming for the eyes. We maybe should have sat on it for a while; put the branding more into use and into mockups before deciding that it was final. We were too impatient and keen to get the platform up and rolling. After a couple of months, we felt that it was a little too much – you live and you learn eh?
A couple of months ago, Laura did a small rebrand of colours, ones that are more subtle, and work well together. Our goal has always been to be inclusive, and therefore, we wanted the colour palette to be open and not reflect any gender stereotypes.
The logo came about after many ideas were discussed, “too pretty”, “too boring”, “too girly”, until we settled on a circle made of holding hands – this symbolises the coming together and joining of individuals in our community.
You were featured in Design By Women! Congrats on this!
Yes we have! A HUGE dream come true aha
Design by Women is so massively inspiring to us both, and we admire what Mary Hemingway is doing so much. It’s pretty cool seeing our faces amongst incredible designers on the website – it is definitely something we can tick off our PofY bucket list 🙌🏻
Do you believe the creative industries are diverse? How can we improve this?
We don’t believe that it is diverse, but progress is definitely being made. We think there has definitely been a positive shift within the creative industry to address gender inequality and lack of diversity, particularly in the last few years. Many amazing initiatives have begun recently and supporting them is a great way to start; however, there is still a way to go.
It is saddening that we still live in a society where women still feel suppressed in this way. We hope that our platform acts as a way of counteracting the gender imbalance within the creative industries because we focus on creatives that are less likely to have a position in the industry compared to their male counterparts. We think that networking is essential for smaller, start-up creatives to gain exposure. By supporting she/they creatives we are actively working to highlight a minority group within the creative community.
We also believe that if we use social media platforms in the right way, there are many other communities and movements out there that motivate and encourage women to thrive within the creative industries. It is also a safe space to share your work and have it seen by industry professionals.
Some positive platforms and movements that we recommend are:
Your platform of course
Design by Women
Ladies Wine Design
The Gentlewoman magazine
Laura talk to us about Remake.
This project is kind of a funny story actually!
If you don't know me and aren't familiar with what I do, I am a huge sustainable fashion advocate, and a lot of my work revolves around that and encouraging change.
The project came about after a zip on my favourite jeans broke and I was annoyed that I couldn't just go home and fix them myself; instead I had to send them to a tailor and wait for them to be fixed (I wear these jeans a lot, so being apart from them for 4 days was tough😂). I began thinking about how I should invest more time into teaching myself how to properly upcycle and fix my items, as at the moment, I can only sew basic things. This inspired the project Remake.
Remake is an imagined community-led platform here to help extend the life of your garments. I created this to encourage the community to buy less and create more. It is an online platform, with virtual workshops, tips and tricks on how to take care of your clothing items and monthly subscription boxes that contain sewing kits and upcycling goodies.
The intention of the platform is to encourage its followers to repurpose old clothes, teach them how to make their garments last longer and divert them from fast fashion, to the slow fashion movement.
This project was a lot of fun for me! After I shared the project, people actually approached me asking if I can turn this concept into a real thing, which is so amazing and massively unexpected – trust me, if I had the skills, knowledge and facilities to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Imogen you have an Instagram highlight called activism which highlights posts from the Black Lives Matter movement to campaigning for women's rights to safety, how important is this to you?
Yes yes yes! So anyone who knows me knows I'm very passionate and some may say..loud about women's rights and social matters. I studied a Film and Media degree at University but throughout my time there I took various modules; Poltics, Feminism, Digital journalism, that really sparked my passion for human rights and feminism. One main area I got very interested in was Intersectional Feminism, even since graduating I still find myself buying books about it. Speaking of graduating I even did my dissertation on ‘How the success of the viral #MeToo hashtag affected the development of online communities for women? - which I guess is very fitting seeing what Laura and I are doing now. I also was in debate society for a couple of years which really allowed me to develop my opinions and my own voice.
I think it’s really important to be consistent and speak out on social matters and issues. Which is why I use my social media platforms to highlight issues like women's rights or the blm movement. I have the highlight saved so it’s easy for anyone to access info if they stumble across it. It’s a good side of social media that it allows everyone to access information to educate themselves and develop a passion for human rights.
I want to start featuring more people on this platform so with this in mind, who are your standout creatives?
Ooh tricky question, there are so many!
Miriam Levi is an emerging Photographer, who is killing it
Maisie Benson is always doing amazing things
Emma Barber is an incredible Junior Designer
For my final question, what's next?
This question required a lot of thought haha! We try not to plan too much for the future, as the pandemic has proved that anything can come and throw a spanner in the works. For Point of You, we just hope to continue with what we are doing, grow the community, and inspire more people.
This post was made as a collaboration with Point of You Mag! You can see the feature of Megan the founder of LTC here: https://pointofyou.uk/megan-vickers
