This Week We Feature Young Professional Kadisha K. Willock
Our Young Professional for this week is the creative and focused graphic artist and fashion designer Kadisha K. Willock who wants not only to excel in the world of fashion and graphic design but also to pass on her skills and knowledge to children interested in the art forms.
Kadisha K. Willock attended the Ebenezer Thomas Primary School in Sea Cows Bay on the main island of Tortola and since those early days she admired an uncle of hers who had his own graphic design business.
“So from my very young primary school days my mom would take me to his shop and from there I was really intrigued with what he made and designed. This is how I got a passion for graphic designing,” she said.
When she got to High School Willock took courses in graphic designing and was taught how to do designs using Adobe Photoshop. She also had other art classes but said she enjoyed graphic designing the most.
Owing to her passion for the craft and her clear aptitude in it, Kadisha got the opportunity to design the t-shirts for supporters of that year’s Mr and Mrs Fifth Form at the Elmore Stoutt High School.
Willock said she did not want to attend college straight out of High School but her mother insisted that she did.
“So I attended the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) where I did computer studies but I was horrible,” she confessed.
Discontinuing her course of study at HLSCC after just one year, our Young Professional went away to Orlando, Florida, USA where she attended the International Academy of Design and Technology.
She spent four years at this institution between 2011 and 2015 where she earned her Associate’s in Science and her Bachelor's in Fine Arts while majoring in Graphic Design.
Fashion designer
Ms Willock said it has been hard getting her name out there as a fashion designer and her previous attempt at establishing her clothing line did not go as well as she had hoped.
“But the more work I do the more people see it... right now I do like business cards, and flyers, posters, Tortola basic logos and branding and stuff like that,” she said.
“Recently, I’ve launched my own clothing line. It is called Independence 21 and the whole theory behind the name is me being independent at the age of 21... being out on my own and starting my own business.”
The name of her graphic design business is Design 284 Creative Media. Kadisha also does some photography.
She knows what it is like to fall
Our Young Professional said each design for the clothing line, which caters to all crowds, has a story about some achievement or milestone in her life.
“I had actually tried doing the clothing line in 2014 while I was overseas but it didn’t quite work out,” she said.
Willock wants to see her clothing line being marketed both in the VI and overseas, including the United States and other places in the immediate future. She also wants to obtain a Master’s Degree in Marketing as she sees great value in pursuing this line of study.
Our Young Professional also wants to open her own after school programme for young people who are interested in graphic design as a serious career. This she wants to do when her business and practice become more established.
Her advice to youth
She advised young people not to doubt or limit themselves. “And we need to stop dreaming and actually get up and do what we want to do,” she said.
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