Anastasia Tusheva

Nastya, Natalya, Aleksey, Darya!
Thank you for completing the test and welcome to Art. Lebedev Studio!

I read the sentence one more time, just in case, but the meaning didn’t change. It was high time to go crazy with happiness. I just had to turn sane by October 6 to start the internship with all seriousness. No kidding, it was Art. Lebedev Studio I got to intern at—bright, loud, unconventional, funny but serious, the best company in the world and the largest design studio in Russia, where incredible people lead by Artemy Lebedev himself create perfect things. To be honest, it was really heart-pounding to head to my first ever "normal" office job having anticipations like these.

The first things that I saw and heard at the studio confirmed my expectations: creative mess, technologists sleeping on coaches, terms and swear words flying around along with names of large client companies, everyone is on a first-name basis, and you’ve got a week to complete your first assignment. You feel euphoria and thrill.

Luckily, you are surrounded by people who answer all your questions, teach you and inspire you by their own example. They are nice, human people and it’s really cool to learn and work with them. As you work, you realize that the studio’s employees are not perfect, and you stop worrying so much about your professional immaturity—we all make mistakes, but it’s important to learn from them. You see that things at the studio are not organized perfectly, but they are constantly analyzed and improved. And you breathe a sigh of relief. There is nothing supernatural about the studio. They just have strict, constantly evolving requirements and only employ people who can meet them and grow with them.

For a month I communicated with manufacturers, dealt with paperwork, helped to maintain the studio’s online database and organize the library catalog, uploaded information about the employees to the studio’s intranet, worked in the café and submitted my ideas. I attended a lot of interesting lectures, read three awesome books, met wonderful people, and tried to get an overall idea of the studio’s culture and work process. We, interns, were excited to take part in the organization of a designer race and in the studio’s fantastic anniversary party.

I learned a lot in the studio and tried to repay by working hard. I wish to thank all the people who took me on board and helped me throughout my internship. I hope that I lived up to the expectations.

And a few words about the drawbacks. First, I now look at the world more critically.

Second, after learning from such an example what working in an office is like, it would be hard for me to put up with something less cool.