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Session 3
Three Personas as Lifelong Learners
Members: Hande Akyıl, Yeşim Demir Proehl, Umut Südüak, Ayhan Fişekçi
Yeşim Demir Proehl (YDP): My girl’s name is ayşe. She is a
graphic design student that wants to become a professional
and believes an advocacy of design. She lives in Istanbul.
Luckily, she has taken elective classes on design when she
was in high school which is I believe that we do not have it
in our high school system. And then she had five years of
university education. In the first four years in the school, she
had taken courses. She also worked as an intern in a design
studio preferable by the credit system. And then, she had
taken seminars and workshops as part of her education.
Then, for one year of her university education she has to work
in an office outside of Turkey. Preferably in universities that
has links with some studios abroad. While she was a student,
she becomes a member of her association JMK. After she
graduated, she starts working in a design studio meanwhile
she keeps on following conferences and workshops local and
abroad. While working five years in a design studio, she had
established networks with local and abroad designers. In the
mean time, she started organising events with her associated
designers. So she likes to share information. And all of a
sudden, she gets married and have a baby. After ten years of
given story, she stayed with her baby for three years because
she did not have anyone else to look after for her. She also
could not work at the same time. There was also an economical
issue because the country’s economy was not that good.
So she had to stay in the house, but she wanted to share all
these networks and all these experiences. But eventually, she
started teaching in private and state schools. Meanwhile,
as she was taking care of the baby and working as a teacher,
she continued working as an associated member at the
board. So baby is four years old. Then she founded her own
studio preferably by herself or with a designer friend. She
also kept on practicing by being called to the juries, conferences
and seminars. And she kept on sharing information. After
the years she spent on her association, she started working
at the board on ico-D the international design council. In the
meanwhile, one of the things which I could not add here was
that she has learnt at least two languages willingly. Turkey is
a country where English does not come automatically. The
small yellow papers however, are the credentials acquired by
working in workshops and seminars. Because first she had
a diploma. Becoming a member of a community for me is
definitely credentials. Giving time for searching for it, is an
investment to yourself. Actually credentials for me is an investment
to yourself. Networking with abroad and local designers
and organising events are definitely one of them. Starting to
teach is also credentials. Thank you.
Umut Südüak (US): He is a graphic designer although he had
to study a six years program in a university. Five years of his
education had to be in Istanbul and one year must be abroad.
In five years time, he had to attend to seminars, workshops
and earn credits by the regular system. After six years of
education, he continued his education. These yellow stickers
signify floating credentials during his education. Therefore,
when he needed a credential, he could select from any of
these. Thank you.
Ayhan Fişekçi (AF): We have a fashion designer. She
started her education in the Mimar Sinan University.
She went to an exchange program in Domus Academy.
This is an ideal carrier path. She made a workshop with
Hüseyin Çağlayan in Milano Fashion Week. After that,
she had an internship in Koton in Turkey. After she had
a certification from IMA İstanbul Fashion Academy with
London School of Fashion, she started to improve her
skills and abilities. During her education, she had taken
painting courses, drawing courses, Spanish courses and
photography courses. She traveled to local and abroad
countries. She got a master’s degree in philosophy and
critical studies. After that, she started her job in Inditex
group in the retail sector. Inditex group has brands like
Zara, Pull and Bear, Bershka, Lefties and more. She also
had taken online courses in the company. She had business
networking. After that, she decided to have her own
brand but she had to learn about marketing, sales and
finance. She also wanted to be an instructor and consultant.
So this is our story. Thank you very much.
Q&A
Cİ: I would like ask these three groups a question. How
do you think these personas reflect the work you did in
the previous sections? Did you think any of these relations?
Lets remember the works in the second section in
formulating a system of road maps? How do you think
these personas fit into these roadmaps? Do they really fit
into? Did you think about that way? How do you relate
your own persona? If so, how can we test the system?
US: I think they do fit into our personas. Because the
current educational system offer six years to test it. In the
last section we have talked about the whole system and
we offered some ways of looking at it.
DG: I also believe that these personas relate to what we
talked about in the previous sections.
Cİ: But I wonder how did we create such personas in
relation to our on-going investigation?
DG: It uses all three of these personas by the same stepping
stones as a roadmap in the former stage.
Cİ: So you are saying that these personas can exemplify
the system you created in the previous session.
DG: I think so yeah.
AS: I think the baby idea is very good because in theory,
it was a retarding element. So it created an issue for the
path that she had to change certain things. From there
new competences and opportunities spread up. I think it
is very nice to have this last session. I think it is now up to
all of us to extract the conclusion that we all need.