Published by Juan Verano

I hope to create this blog to present myself, first and to be able to share with the rest of my peers in University my experience as a creative person. Since I was little I felt a bit different and different I was but not in the way the rest thought it. I could see things in a different way and even draw, nobody ever taught me how to. Even my granny, who taught me how to read and write before going to school, would compliment my handwriting saying that I was drawing the letters… When primary school was over I wanted to carry on my secondary studies somewhere that would allow me to access university later. That meant tuition fees every year, travel expenses, books, adequate clothing and my father wasn’t able to help me with all that at the time. The crisis of the mid’70s hit us hard coupled with a massive flooding that forced us to move in to my grandparents’ home. No panic, I said to myself and decided that I would go to the secondary institute to gain access to university. I should work for it, which I did. Since the summer after primary I was already engaged in painting murals in bars, quickly designing logos for the growing strawberry industry and others. People started to see what I was capable of and from then on I was never short of commissions. With the money I was earning I had enough to fund my studies and even to enjoy my free time. Then I finished there when the Military called me to join. I couldn’t refuse. Although I didn’t want to go I had to. It was that or going to prison, so I went for a year and a half. It was quite hard in the beginning, you are in strange place not knowing anyone and you miss your family and friends. But it’s easy to make new friends specially in hard conditions (ish) and although it did scramble my chances of going to university I will remember it while I am alive like one of the best experiences I had. Towards the end of my military career I was having a break during the summer. I bumped into my dad in one of the many trendy bars along the beach and while having a drink together he went to ask me what were my plans for the coming future now I was to leave the military. He went further and asked if I wanted to carry on with my studies or go to work. I replied that I was more inclined to round up my education before going to work and that I still wanted to pursue something within the designing industry. I told him how some colleagues in the quarters had been taking fashion design enrolls since it was something new and thriving. I did propose the idea of enrolling in the Sevilla branch of this very well known academy just to minimise costs. My father said no. Now that I was in Madrid I should stay there and that’s how I started my Fashion Stylist degree in 1986. After the first year my dad thought I was having much fun in Madrid and cut me off. Back to self funding, which I did manage the following year in Sevilla. By then the fever of the designer’s clothes was a bit over and everybody had turned into retro/vintage and things like that. I kept surviving on my freelance graphic designer activities, also interior design. It was when I was commissioned to do this big project on my own that could see the opportunity. It was an underground nightclub from the mid 70s in need of an update. I did work flat out alongside builders, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, welders engaging with every one of them and getting to know their trade as if it was my own. The communication was fluid and direct so there was no room for mistakes. That was very enjoyable and hard but it did pay off. The result was tremendous and so it reflected in my dividends. With those earnings I decided to come and live in London (Sept.1995). View more posts