1. What made you join Iteo? Tell us your story!
I was recommended by a friend who worked at Iteo as a developer at the time. I wasn’t looking for a stable job those days, as I was working as a freelancer, but Jerzy (Iteo’s CEO) persuaded me to come over and share a few words with the team.
I really liked the friendly atmosphere, and to be perfectly honest – working as a freelancer for quite some time now left me craving for some teamwork! Each time I talked to Jerzy, I felt more and more convinced and hyped for that partnership. Finally, I decided to go for it.
2. Do you remember your first day or first few days at Iteo? What was it like?
We were such a small team these days! These were the absolute beginnings of Iteo’s activity, we were all sitting in one office and I was the only designer in the room. When we started to increase in number, and developers of each team gained a separate room on their own, I began to migrate all around the office, sometimes working with the Android team, sometimes with the iOS and sometimes with web developers. That was a really interesting experience.
Initially, I was helping developers with the design we were receiving from external sources, but later on I started to work on our personal Iteo branding and developed our custom design. Emphasizing the importance of creating a unique visual identity brought great results – since then, the design team has increased eightfold and is widely appreciated for creating exceptional, modern design.
3. What is your biggest professional goal you would wish to achieve?
I’m not sure if I would call it the biggest – I have many goals I would like to achieve – but one of my aims is to create and be the part of a great, diversified, self-motivated design team.
I strongly believe in the importance of gathering the group of people that can compliment and can learn from each other. I’m glad that currently our design team includes specialists from many different fields – differences are what really stimulate the creative process. That’s just the beginning, but I can already see how much we learn and how great the results are. The design we create really stands out and is visible, what is the outcome of several minds with different approaches working together.
As for my more personal aim, I would like to create more interdisciplinary forms of art, apart from my digital design. I find inspiration in colors, lights, sounds, movement, all kinds of artistic incentives that really stimulate my brain. Exhibitions, concerts, happenings, I never have enough. I would love to not only be the receiver of such, but also the creator, and to affect viewers’ emotions as much as other artists’ creations affect mine.
Moreover, I’m all about travelling and taking part in conferences, recently we also started taking an active part as speakers at such. I remember the times when I used to attend such conferences and soak up the knowledge and excitement, now I would love to become someone to share all the experience and positive feelings. I cherish seeing that positive madness in young designer’s eyes!
4. Say the first thing that will come to your mind: Who is your biggest inspiration?
Such a difficult question for a designer! Colorwise, recently Baugasm and in general, from the movies I love Jim Jarmusch, and from the Polish poster creators – Waldemar Świerzy. On daily basis, as corny as it may sound, my mates from work ? In between all the fooling around and hard work too, we always push each other’s creative boundaries, we have something special going. But what gets my juices going the most I guess, would be the travelling, brings me the most inspirations of all, charges me with images I could never make up in my head artificially.
5. Who did you want to be in the future when you were a kid?
I was such a gadabout! I was travelling a lot with my parents, and later on, as a teenager and a college student, I used to hitch-hike all around Europe. I used to think that I’m going to be the next Pawlikowska. I even wrote a letter to her! (laugh) It was before Internet began to have all the answers.
Anyway, I moved abroad and everybody was telling me that now there is no return, the world of travelling will consume me to the very end. But I found myself so fascinated by all the museums, exhibitions and performances I have seen, that I started craving for more artistic knowledge. I remember seeing the exhibition of Polish Poster School at New Yorks’ MoMA. It triggered me to come back and learn art, as art was the only thing that might win over the hunger for travelling in my guts.
Fortunately, my current job allows me to be both a creator and a traveller at the same time.
6. If you were a fictional character (from a cartoon, movie or game) who would you be and why?
Yennefer from the Witcher series… Yeah, I know, it’s such a cliché to want to be a strong and independent woman who gets what she wants and do how she pleases, never grows old, ends up with Geralt and on top of that can also do magic ?
7. Imagine you are on a desert island. You can choose one person from the entire team to keep you company. Who would it be and why?
Kind of an obvious choice for me… with Kasia! (Kasia Ochocka, Digital Product Designer) because she’s just a blast to hang out with no matter the circumstances…and hot beach, crystal ocean, fruits… with some coconut alcohol we’d have the time of our lives ?
8. The most important question: iOS or Android?!
No surprise here! I’m an Apple baby. But it is mainly caused by the fact that their software is simply dedicated to designers. Any designing programs are launched for the Apple’s devices in the first place, and I’m really used to operating on them. No snobbism, just a more practical choice!
