Launch your career in fashion with a short course

We caught up with aspiring fashion designer and marketing associate, Antonino Benitez, to hear about about his recent short course experience.

To develop his skills in fashion design, Antonino joined our Introduction to Fashion Design Online Short Course and Womenswear Design Online Short Course.

Antonino tells us about what inspires him creatively and shares some examples of his unique and vibrant work. Read more about how a short course can help you kickstart your career in fashion design.

If you're interested in a career in fashion design, take a look at our guide on the role of a fashion designer for some tips on how to break into the industry.

Antonino’s background is creative; his parents ran a fashion magazine and encouraged him to follow his passions, although he wasn’t always sure which creative pathway he wanted to pursue. Taking a short course in fashion design helped him realise his ambition to pursue a professional career in the industry.

“I’m really glad I stumbled upon these courses - I didn’t realise how much of an impact it would have on me in terms of defining where I want to go in the future," says Antonino, who studied online from his home in the United Arab Emirates.

Finding inspiration

Originally from the Philippines, Antonino often draws inspiration from his cultural background and feels that his early experiences as a “third-culture kid" have helped shape his voice as an artist and designer.

While studying on the Introduction to Fashion Design Online Short Course, Antonino was required to produce a fashion collection based on the theme of 'a place you like'. To begin with, Antonino’s interpretation of the theme was primarily focused on the concept of the family unit as a place of safety and security, but later evolved to reflect more personal elements of his life and upbringing.

The course taught him that “when it comes to designing a fashion collection specifically, the influences that you draw from or the things that you are inspired by don’t have to be so one-dimensional, you can juxtapose them with other ideas that are interrelated."

Building confidence

Antonino found that taking a short course helped him feel more confident in making his design ideas a reality. The experience taught him that “creative people already have their own ideas – it's just about finding a system or a way to channel those ideas. Before the course I found it hard to do that, but learning the different techniques to drive design elements was incredibly valuable to me.”

Going forward, Antonino hopes to continue working towards a career in fashion design and looks forward to sharing more of his digital art and design ideas on his Instagram account. He is already thinking about further study in fashion design and plans to take more short courses in the future to expand his knowledge and experiment with new design techniques.

Antonino offers some useful advice for anyone trying to break into a creative industry, “my advice would be to just start something - I think a lot of people can be afraid of choosing a creative job or profession because sadly creative jobs can be perceived to be less important than other careers – but that is really not the reality. Stay true to yourself and start building on the future you want.”