Stela Kostomaj

Hi, I’m Stela, and I’m a second year Architecture and Interdisciplinary Student. In my time at UCL, I have contributed both art and articles to Era print editions. This year I worked as Era’s online graphic designer, making visuals for the Instagram and event posters. This role has led me to cherish Era as a unique platform in UCL for creative voices. As president, I would love to continue this involvement, and refine certain aspects of the magazine to emphasise this creativity.

Making Era’s graphics has given me an understanding of many aspects of the journal, including event scheduling, time management, print announcements and artist call outs. It has also shown the importance of social media for promoting ourselves as a magazine. I plan on boosting engagement with the journal’s Instagram by introducing more content, in the form of weekly recommendations from the Era community and curated culture guides.

Attending previous Era events has given me ideas on how we can nurture a sense of community between members. For example, I’d like to introduce new events, such as arts and craft nights, where members can engage in artistic activity while socialising, creating a network of creatives within the journal. In this way, Era could act as a means of collaboration: a group could make posters which could then be sold to fundraise or the magazine, for example. This would also help to prompt the submission of artwork.