‘You have to understand everyone’s strengths and weaknesses to have a successful outcome’
Lindy Staadecker brings her passion for about showcasing the work of talented designers to her role as an LCC industry mentor.
Lindy Staadecker returned to education in her late 20s to study BA Interior Design at London College of Communication, ready for a change of direction. The experience opened her eyes to an issue that lots of young creatives encounter — feeling “underestimated and undervalued” as they embark on their careers.
This ultimately led her, in April 2019, to establish Space to Show, a curated marketplace and directory for independent designers and artists, showcasing work by some of the brightest emerging talents in the industry.
Coming from a marketing background, Lindy’s world of social and sales involves of finding rising stars in the design field and promoting their products for sale via Space to Show. As she sees it, she “basically has the fun job” as she takes care of social media and marketing while a partner focuses on the more technical aspects of the operation.
Prior to this, Lindy co-founded Seekers of Design, a design-focused online multi-retail platform for fledgling brands, selling clothing, homeware, children’s goods, art and other products to both consumers and the wholesale market.
Her desire to champion young design talent has also led to her volunteering her time and energy to LCC’s Industry Mentoring Programme, which she describe as “a lovely give-and-take” experience, fostered in part by her connection to LCC and passion for what it does.
She says mentoring is not just about her sharing her own knowledge, experience and insights into the creative industries. She also gets a lot from it herself as she spends time with “the next generation of talent”.
Lindy believes that being passionate about what you do is the key to a successful career – otherwise, the enthusiasm one feels after graduating risks being diminished by the day-to-day demands of your job, and it becomes a way of earning a living but not necessarily something which continues to excite and stimulate your creativity.
She also places tremendous value on collaborative working. “The success of any project, especially in creative arts, depends on every person in the team working well together. You don’t have to like the people you work with, but you have to understand everyone’s strengths and weaknesses in order to have a successful outcome — realising this was a turning point for my career.”
As a mentor, Lindy knows that graduates setting out on their career journeys will makes mistakes and get things wrong, but they also have fresh perspectives and new ideas which make them extremely valuable to employers in the constantly evolving creative sector.
Lindy’s advice on how to keep those creative passions burning is to not be afraid to change jobs, move around, work for different companies and clients, to seek out new opportunities and challenges – even change careers if it is the right thing to do at the right time.
As she says: “You spend more than half of your time at work” – so make sure what you do doesn’t feel like a life sentence.