Keep healthy with sport! Es Lebe der Sport! Sportem ku zdravi!

Kat gets arty:

So my last post was Instagram photo of sketches for a poster. It is a fancy dress party happening near Zurich in Switzerland for Czech people and I guess other international friends of this group Folkor75,  which you can find out a bit about here http://folklor75.ch or on Facebook as an event. The promise of traditional food would definitely get me out of the house even I am not a great dancer. So feel free to share this with anyone you know in Switzerland, traditional dancing, or Czech and Swiss culture, who fancies having a great night out!

Whilst making this poster, it did make me think about how people or clients, in this case , communicate with each other and how if this communication is not going rather well, you can waste lot of time, effort and money, when not doing it the right way. That can also happen if there are more than one client. I was lucky to have this opportunity pretty much at the beginning of my design journey, so I could learn from it and I still think it is a shame that the project never been realized, but sometimes you have to accept that they are all individuals and they have to learn how to talk to each other first about what they want especially if it is a start up business. Then they can be ready to speak to an outsider and find common creative ground.  Mind you just graduated I didn’t have many people skills within the design industry either. Catering,yes. How to explain what is in my creative mind, no. I heard people in the past moaning about tradesmen talking to them about the process too much. Well I think it is a great thing, as when the invoice comes in, you know what you are paying for. But I guess there is a fine line, so I even I love to talk, I am trying to keep the balance right… I am still learning how to talk properly to my customers and I think you can never learn enough.

Whilst making this poster, my brief was to come up with an event poster theme: sport, trikolora and the phrase Keep healthy with sport! I am sure there is a better English version how to explain this expression, but right now I hope you get the hint.  So I thought Switzerland, Matterhorn, those little black silhouettes to show different sports etc. Well after clarifying the brief we got somewhere completely different: I picked up 12 most influential sportsmen of Czech\Slovakian history in action , put them around football pitch as audience and voi la using three basic colours whipped it up. For someone, who is not a graphic designer, great friend with Photoshop and has nearly retired mac, I don’t think this a complete disaster, but I leave you to judge for yourself.

Any thoughts? What would you do with the theme?

Kat xxx

Keep healthy with sport! Es Lebe der Sport! Sportem ku zdravi! (Poster is created using my design and images found via Google.)

Creative Saturday. Work in progress.

Today I am posting few Instagram (katerinatdesigner) sketches of a poster for a party, sports theme.  Work in progress. Anyone else  been up to anything creative? Kat xx

“I noticed in your CV that you don’t drive currently?”

Kat doodles about life:

So today’s post is actually about something that happened last week, but it is in my head ever since and it feels like when you hear a song, but it is on the loop. It is increasingly getting on your nerves and it shouts out loud. ” I noticed in your CV that you don’t drive currently?”

The time has come. I have been avoiding to this ‘skill to must have ‘ for certain (well most of them) jobs for the last ten years.  And I have managed to become very creative about how to get things done, how shift stuff around and how quick I can become compare to bus, car or train commuters. Me and my bicycle are pretty much one item and I quite honestly I use it and abuse it, but then I treat it to a good service twice a year. I have been told so many times by my close and very wise friends that having a driving licence is certainly “that” thing, which will get me a better job or getting me home without getting wet at 3 am, when I finish at work and the list of reasons why goes on and on.

Well apart from enjoying the countryside views on my rides there are two reasons why I still haven’t pass the test. Firstly I don’t want to get fat. Or more fat than I am.  Or shall I be polite to myself and say large instead. Everyone, who knows me personally can confirm I love to eat. Pretty much anything and I don’t mean junk food. I just love food. Full stop. Oh the colours, the smell, the experience. Oh yes. So to keep going with my passion I am absolutely fine with having to ride to work and out and about for an hour a two a day and get sweaty. Plus the extra motivation of being paid for it why not. Why would you want to become one of those people, who drives around and then has to go to the gym and pay for it in order to stay trim, when you can do it for free.  And secondly I am terrified, well of the speed car can go. You will be laughing that comes from someone, who loves watching Formule 1 races and finds it incredibly exciting. Well it is the same person, it’s me.  Somehow I feel that on the bicycle you are in charge of that speed you are going.  Plus that freedom of you can go anywhere and become part of a road or cycle path or just simply part of the pavement if the traffic gets a bit too much for example those massive three lane roundabouts.

Two weeks ago I treated myself a new A3 printer, scanner thing and got really excited about updating my portfolio. Exactly around that time local interior design company posted an offer of paid interior design internship. How fantastic, I thought to myself, thinking the universe is sending some positive messages. Great e-mail communication with the owner of the company since the start. ‘Great, keep going’ I am thinking to myself whilst resizing images in Photoshop at 4 am, when the cold shower comes in… the e-mail says: … “I noticed in your CV that you don’t drive currently?”… It was like slap in a face. My attempt of cycling to Bath or getting a train and cycling just outside of Chepstow may have made impressive impact of ‘ I really want this and I will do anything’. Unfortunately the job role involves visiting clients even further away from these locations in the middle of countryside. You will  have to carry mood boards and pieces of furniture around. I guess they may not appeciatte me turning up in cycling shorts either.

So here we are. The truth no one wants to hear. ‘Sorry you can’t get the job, because you don’t drive. But I will keep you on file.’ How lovely. There is a hope? Writing this post is somehow encouraging for me to go and get in touch with that guy with dreadlocks (yes that special bond between all people ever owning dreadlocks including me), who owns a driving school and drove past me few months ago. He seems like cool and calm kind of guy, who could help me conquer my fear. It may sound stupid as anything, but if that is beginning of me passing a test and getting on the road in order to get that better paying job, I better start writing an e-mail to him right now.

Fun card I created for a friend.