Feild of Ponies Follow-up

Julie Berube completed her daily Field of Ponies project on March 28th...

What are the biggest lessons/skills you learned from doing your project? Well I knew that creativity comes with discipline and that's why I was interested in the project. I knew I was going to launch my clothing label over the year and I needed a project like a 365 to get me into gear.

What became really clear is that creativity happens more easily within a set of restrictions. For example: make a pony with things that surround me. I have applied that concept to the clothing line and it has been super beneficial. One garment, a sweatshirt, one fabric in different colours and a bunch of trims. I didn't need much more to play around and produce my first collection.  The message is really clear, memorable and on a production level my costs are kept to a minimum.

I would say the skill that I have learned most has been how to handle the social media platforms. Skills that are so useful now that I have to promote my clothing label online.

The project has also taught me humility and indulgence towards myself. Sometimes the ponies came out really lame but I had to publish it anyway. It was part of the experience, to share with people that sometimes things aren't going so well and you just have to live with it.

In what ways did the project change your life? The project has given me confidence in myself and strength nothing less. To have people accompanying me during the journey has been the best thing for me. Now I make sure that I have people surrounding me during the creative process of any work I do. I use to work in a very solitary way before the project, now that has changed completely.

But the best part of it has been the joy and the laughter, and that feeling of being free and alive all through the year only because I allowed myself to play.

Now what? Now I'm working full steam on my clothing label, Field of Ponies, already preparing new pieces for next Spring/ Summer. I have some great collaborations coming up soon and I feel very excited about the future.

I am considering starting another 365 project but for the time being I will enjoy not having to deal with the stress of coming up with a new pony everyday!

Read Julie's original 365 interview HERE.

And see all of Julie's ponies HERE.

Field of Ponies

Julie Berube, a fashion designer from Montreal, Canada who currently resides in London UK is creating daily in her Field of Ponies project...

Why did you decide to do this project? I had my own womenswear label here in London for 6 years before having my 2 children and decided to put everything on hold. I'm preparing a fashion come-back for 2014, but right now I am mainly at home looking after my young daughter and son whilst I'm sketching and sourcing fabrics for my fashion line. I was looking for a project to keep me focussed on deadlines, to make me explore other mediums than the ones I normally use and also to generate a social media following (and get to grip with all the different platforms).

For many years I have been toying with the name "Field of Ponies" for a trade mark and when I got your book, I immediately new I had to make one pony a day. I'm not sure why, I know I have to do this project and that something good and exciting will come out of it (I've been asked to design T-shirts already!) My approach is to use stuff that I can put my hands on during that day. I don't want to buy anything specifically for the project nor do I spend too much time on it. I work fast and furiously!





How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I’m only two and a half weeks into the project, so it’s a little early to say how it has affected me. I try not to think about it too much because I want it to feel quite spontaneous. I find this challenging because I’ve had a small but faithful audience since day one – and I don’t want to disappoint them! I am very surprised at how people are responding to the project. Some have said it’s like receiving a gift every day and I hadn’t anticipated that reaction. In fact I thought they’d more likely be annoyed at seeing ponies every day on their Facebook feed! I feel it’s a privilege to provide my audience with a little smile every day, and bearing this in mind helps me to keep on going. I’ve had a lot of requests for t-shirts, which is something I will look into further down the line. I think what has changed the most for me since starting the project is that I now feel extremely connected to people. I haven’t been in an awkward situation as yet, but I think this will inevitably happen as I begin to create outside of my immediate environment. My motto is: start where you are, use what you have, do what you can!



You can see all of Julie's ponies on her blog or on Facebook.