01/06/10
Trend-setting Kingston graduate is entrepreneurship finalist
Creative director Joanna Feeley is a world expert on predicting consumer trends. From what we'll be wearing to how we will style our homes, Joanna and her company Trend Bible are at the forefront of trend forecasting. Last month (May), Joanna was named as a finalist in the ‘If We Can You Can' entrepreneurial challenge 2010, which aims to find the top entrepreneur in the North East.
The 34-year-old, who graduated from Kingston in 1998 with a BA in Fashion Design, has always been one to stay ahead of the crowd, even lining up a job in New York before she'd completed her course.
"I knew there would be a lot of competition for jobs, so in my final year I spent my grant cheque on a flight to New York over Easter," says Joanna. "I didn't even have a complete portfolio, but I wanted to work in New York and was determined to get in there first, before the recruitment consultants came over and visited us in Kingston." She secured an interview and by her second day in the Big Apple had landed a job as a menswear design assistant. "They told me to go back to Uni, finish my degree with good grades, and they'd sort out my visa, so that's what I did."
After a successful couple of years in New York, Joanna returned to the UK to work for Top Man, before joining trend forecasting firm The Bureaux as head of design. "Trend forecasting was what I'd always longed to do"' says Joanna. "But there are only a couple of hundred jobs in it worldwide, so I knew I'd have to gain plenty of experience first." The role involved visiting clients and giving presentations around the globe, from South Africa to New York. "It was brilliant, but hard work," Joanna smiles.
By 2007, Joanna was keen to return to her home town of Newcastle upon Tyne. "I realised that if I wanted to work as a trend forecaster there, I'd have to set up my own company to do it." She established Trend Bible, and by a "happy accident" of "the CV landing on the right person's desk", secured Tesco as her first customer, advising on menswear, womenswear, childrenwear and home interiors.
The business boomed, and today's clients include Nokia and Asda. "We now focus on home interiors, as there's a gap in the market there,"' she adds. "The recession hasn't hit us too hard as we can help companies to save money – it's a time when they need trend forecasting more than ever." Trend Bible carries out extensive consultancy, and also sells its forecasting manuals around the world to customers such as JC Penney and WalMart.
"I've got happy memories of Kingston," says Joanna, who now has a young son. "The course was very serious and business-like, but that proved to be the perfect grounding for real life. It was a fiercely competitive environment, but we had fun at the same time."
For more information on Trend Bible, visit www.trendbible.co.uk. For the If We Can You Can Challenge 2010, visit www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge.
