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Interview with Paulina Grondal |
Home > Designer Interviews > Paulina Grondal |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Paulina Grondal (PG) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Paulina Grondal by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
PG: I haven’t thought about being designer until High School. I was always picturing myself more as a journalist or someone who work in media communication. But the moment I realised designing is also communicating I decided to become a full time designer. I have graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland. I have Bachelor Degree in Animation and Master Degree in Typography and Editorial Design. I also attended a year course of Sculpture. During university years I had been involved in teaching animation, preparing workshops and participating in Animation and Film Festivals. I gained my first professional experience working on TV and Digital Campaign n in-house advertising agency. All this previous experience gave me confidence to start working on freelance projects as a side gig.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
PG: I work independently.
FS: What is "design" for you?
PG: It’s art but with more analytical and less emotional approach.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
PG: I work in a field of motion graphics, so of course my main area of expertise is animation, motion graphics, and live footage. But I am truly passionate about illustration and art direction too. I wish to work more on brave, experimental projects, that combine different techniques e.g. live footage, found footage, stop motion, clay motion etc.
FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
PG: Once I worked on new TV commercial for trivago. I was a creative, responsible for the storyline, art direction and creative direction. Together with a great team of people we shoot a commercial casting ballerinas . It was the most beautiful, soft and charming piece of advertising I have ever made
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
PG: TV Ad for trivago Global campaign
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
PG: Paper
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
PG: At 6 am in the rainy day.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
PG: I like both my designs feel unique and relatable
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
PG: I try to feel the emotion that my design wants to convey. Music helps.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
PG: I look for the next project.
FS: What makes a design successful?
PG: Good design is a perfect combination of form and content.
FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
PG: Is it understandable? Is it new? Is it interesting? How does it make me feel?
FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
PG: If you work for a gasoline company charge double and give back half to charity that tries to save the world.
FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
PG: The future of design is in hybrid content - relentlessly mixing styles, from memes and high quality productions and media, from print to VR to produce pieces of content that possess unique language.
FS: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
PG: My last Exhibition was in Krakow, Poland June 2018.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
PG: Whenever something makes me to stop I try to investigate and try to understand what's in there.
FS: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
PG: I do not like to have one style. I like to find a suitable way to represent the concept. I always try to bold which means to embrace pink sky or black and white composition.
FS: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
PG: My design culture is a safe harbour where I can always come back but I have been living abroad for years now so my approach to design is a multicultural mix.
FS: How do you work with companies?
PG: I ask questions. I try to learn and understand they culture and craft design as the result of two ways conversation.
FS: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
PG: Trust a designer as a professional and do not hire someone only to replicate what you already have. Companies can select a good designer by exposing him to the problem they want to solve and not only by looking at his portfolio pieces.
FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
PG: I design with my hands. I physically attached post-it to represent structures.nOnce my room is covered i try to organise and describe my thoughts.
FS: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
PG: Chopsticks, it is a design you cannot improve. Vinyl spinning never fails to mesmerise me.Wooden speakers and lego mini figures.
FS: Can you describe a day in your life?
PG: What ties together all of my days is staying curious, keeping a lot of post-it and visual diary.
FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
PG: Read books, seek knowledge, go to museums.
FS: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
PG: Positive is the chance to apply your knowledge to a great variety of projects and different endeavours. Negative aspect is having to explain all over again how design is not there to only make things pretty.
FS: What is your "golden rule" in design?
PG: Apply all the rules and find the one to break.
FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
PG: A fine balance between vision and passion.
FS: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
PG: Usual Adobe Suit, C4D, camera but also pen and paper.
FS: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
PG: I am setting up monthly, weekly and daily goals and try to achieve them.
FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
PG: Usually couple nights more that our first rough estimation
FS: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
PG: Same as I was asking other designers : " How to find next client?"
FS: What was your most important job experience?
PG: My most relevant job experience was to work as a creative lead in advertising in house agency. I was responsible for whole video ad production cycle, from preparing storyboards, working with copywriters, through supervising art during shooting , to hands on post production and final delivery to channels.
FS: Who are some of your clients?
PG: I have been working for global brands like trivago, for companies representing game industry like Zeptolab, small design studio and independent producers.
FS: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
PG: I am truly passionate about illustration and art direction. I love to work on courageous, experimental projects, that combine different techniques e.g. live footage, found footage, 3d, stop motion, clay motion etc.
FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
PG: For now I am focusing on opening my own motion design studio, where I could hire talented people from all over the world. After achieving that I will set up next goals.
FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
PG: I work alone, occasionally with some trusted partners. I think co-working is difficult, especially in the field of art and design, where sometimes might be difficult to find objective arguments in discussion. But if you menage to find a great partner that complements your skills you literally won a lottery
FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
PG: I am currently working on couple projects but they are all on a very early stage.
FS: How can people contact you?
PG: Simply send me an email to paulina.grondal@gmail.com
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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