With Graduate shows being held throughout June, students are finally able to relax and enjoy the start of summer. I remember vividly how stressful the Graduate shows can be; producing work is enough to think about, without the wider curatorial and commercial considerations a degree show entails – in addition to thoughts about what to do after Graduating. I interviewed one of our Junior Interior Designers, Vlad, who talks about how he got his job at CADA through his work and performance at last years degree show..
Vlad Cretu | Junior Interior Designer at CADA Design
What University did you go to?
I studied Interior Architecture at the London Metropolitan University.
And where was your Student show based?
My student show took place in the Truman Brewery, in Brick Lane, as part of Free Range. Our show was
amongst a number of different Universities such as: The University of Nottingham and Brighton University.
What did you present?
I had a set of my more successful drawings from my final year, however the main focus was two perspective
drawings of the Peckham Library and Somerset House.
Did the University prepare you for the show? i.e press releases, business cards, networking skills?
In preparation for the show, I had printed business cards and had kept my Behance page as up to date as
possible. In regards to my University helping me, they offered very little advice on what to include and how
to approach this.
Do you feel you could of promoted yourself better? Through social media/publications etc.
I could have definitely done a better job on that front, having only used Behance to present my work online.
What did you expect to get out of the show?
In all honesty, I really didn’t believe it would be more than just another event, I certainly didn’t expect to
find employment so easily. Obviously there was a faint hope that I would indeed be contacted regrading
work, but I certainly didn’t expect the final outcome.
Did you have a certain client in mind when preparing for the show?
I have to admit that before the show things had been a little hectic, so I didn’t really have much planned
beyond getting the work there and presented. I certainly was hoping I would find somewhere where my
interest in hand drawing would be of use.
Apart from employment, did the show prepare/benefit you in other ways?
The show was a great place to spy on how other universities work and discover new ideas of presenting
one’s work. It was great to be able to talk to students from the other universities and get first-hand infor-
mation regarding the process of making a certain visual or using a specific medium in that process.
If you could go back in time, Is there anything you would of done differently?
I would definitely have worked more on my visuals and presentation. Looking back, I feel I could have
done a better job of those.
