Our next It's Nice That Graduate, meet Camberwell's Gaurab Thakali

You’ve probably already seen Gaurab’s work being chucked around social media for the last few weeks as everyone is going nuts over him since his prints went up at Camberwell’s degree show. Gaurab’s work has actually been on the site before, twice! Surely a record for any It’s Nice That Graduate. Personally, I think Gaurab’s work is some of the most exciting illustration I’ve seen in a long while. To see someone clearly passionate about a subject (jazz) and completely, unashamedly infuse every aspect of their work with that is extremely impressive. This is someone who is not borrowing off someone else, just carving out their own niche with a strong style backed up with knowledge. Gaurab Thakali is gonna go far, mark my words.

Why or who or what made you go to art school?

While at Sixth Form College I was thinking about the future and my tutor at the time pushed me towards going to art school. I went to a few open days and I was convinced by what they offered.

Tell us about your best project

I would say my final project at Camberwell. It’s a screen-printed concertina book about 52nd Street in New York based around the 1940s when bebop was taking off. It’s one of the projects I have most enjoyed working on, in terms of learning technical sides of printing and binding books. Last but not the least, it was about something that I really liked.

Tell us about your worst

Probably when I was in first year. I was learning to work in layers for print processes and it just didn’t go very well, I think it was the colours I picked. Since then on I have been very careful with my use of colours and making the layers look as neat as possible.

If you could show one person your portfolio, who would it be and why?

I think I would go back in time and show it to Van Gogh, because he’s just an incredibly skilled draughtsman and his use of colours, figures and compositions are just staggering.

What was the best moment of your three years at uni (extra curricular included)?

The best moment in the last three years was definitely being in the loop of the south London music scene – mainly jazz – and also living with some great friends and drawing with them, I learnt a lot.

A lot is changing – would you recommend art school to someone who is considering going?

It’s a really tricky one especially with the raised fees but then I feel like you meet a lot of interesting people through art school. However, I would personally recommend taking on apprenticeships and being in a circle with the art scene to meet people doing similar things.   

Finally, if your dreams come true, where will you be in a year’s time? 

Somewhere calm with a fully equipped printmaking studio, or New York just to check out the jazz scene.

Supported by Represent

We are very pleased that The It’s Nice That Graduates 2014 will once again be supported by Represent Recruitment. The graphic design recruitment specialists have developed a peerless reputation working with designers of all levels and matching them up with the right positions in some of the top agencies around. Represent’s support has helped us grow the Graduate scheme over recent years and we are thrilled they have partnered with us again in 2014.
www.represent.uk.com