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Graduate costume design student Samantha Kluster displayed her work from UCLA theater performance

For most students on the cusp of graduation, spring quarter means frantically searching Craigslist for job openings, e-mailing resumes, and hopefully landing interviews.

For MFA design and costume graduates, it means a party.

Well, a showcase to be more specific. This past weekend was the third annual Design Showcase West, a final weekend of art displays and schmoozing before new MFA graduates go out into the real world.

The event is modeled after “Ming’s Clambake,” a design portfolio review started by Ming Cho Lee, a design professor at Yale. The “Clambake,” invites graduating students from colleges on the East Coast to present their work to professionals in the industry.

“(‘Clambake’) is on the East Coast, so (Design Showcase West) was started three years ago so we can meet Los Angeles-based people,” said Michele Miatello, a graduating MFA set design student. “It verges more on the film industry, so if you’re showing your work here, you probably want to work here.”

The event invited entertainment producers, designers and directors to come explore student works from UCLA, USC, Cal Arts and NYU. At best, some graduates land jobs. If not, they still agree it is an effective networking weekend.

“I’m not really expecting a job out of this, it’s just good to hear feedback and see what people from other schools are doing,” said Miatello before the event.

Miatello compares the showcase to a science fair exhibit, where each graduate student has a booth to display sketches, designs and models of their best work.

Samantha Kluster, an MFA costume design student, showed attire from the current show “Hot Mikado,” as well as a dress from “Fashion” – two UCLA theater performances for which she designed costumes.

For Design West showcasers, art and design have been enduring interests for them throughout their lives, though not necessarily through their education. Kluster, who majored in political science as an undergraduate, decided to return to her passion for costume design while in graduate school.

“That’s what I love about this program – it gives you the opportunity to be yourself. It’s not molded or stylized; they encourage us to be different,” said Kluster.

Although many of the industry representatives at Design Showcase West were from the film and television side of design, Miatello maintains that theater design is her preferred outlet for artistic expression.

“It’s a little more cerebral, and you have more artistic freedom. You have the ability to say a lot more as far as content.

“It becomes an artistic vehicle for personal statements and concepts,” she said.

As someone who recently completed the rigorous three-year MFA design requirements, Miatello has words of advice for recent graduates.

“Take a break from school,” she said.

“Get some life experience before you go back to school. You’re only 20, 21 years old and you pretty much live until you’re 80, so don’t feel like you have to be locked down and know exactly what you are going to do.”