Interview with:Tom Lenartowicz [tomlenartowicz]
DESIGN
 | What is your specialty? Graphic Design — design for print, editorial and web. |
| Where can we view your portfolio online? http://tom.thrilly.com or email tom@thrilly.com to ask for a PDF portfolio. |
| What made you interested in design? I have been interested in design and art from a very young age. The way information is presented fascinates me. I am inspired by all sorts of things, which help form my ideas and approach to design. I believe having a life "outside" of design is also of great benefit in order to gain a wider perspective that aids the creation of quality design with an integral meaning. |
| What has been your professional career path? I graduated with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design from University College Falmouth in 2009. Before university, I had started my own clothing brand and was founder/editor of an online snowboard magazine. Since graduating, I have worked as Asst. Art Director and Designer at Method Snowboard Magazine in Biarritz, France. I am now freelancing in Oslo, Norway while seeking studio work. |
| Have you received any awards for your work in the field of design? In 2009, I was selected as a finalist of Emerge — the graduate graphic design showcase of the London Design Festival. |
| What is your motivation? What makes you get up in the mornings? My motivation is life in general. However, my immediate aims are to gain further experience within the design industry and to work on some self-initiated projects. |
| How would you define your design style? I wouldn't like to say I have a particular style at the moment. Since I am a recent graduate, I would like to think I am still developing myself as a designer and am open to all opportunities and clients that come my way. Each design project deserves a fresh outlook and its own unique style in accordance with its brief. |
| How do you promote and move your work? Through networking, my website http://tom.thrilly.com and all the other usual outlets. |
| In which new areas would you like to experiment? I'm open to most things. There are certain areas I feel particularly comfortable with and other areas where I feel I could improve or learn from scratch. I would like to experiment with more print making methods, improve on photography techniques and get to grips with CSS web design. |
| Shapes, color, concept: where do you usually begin when conceiving a design? It completely depends on my knowledge of the project/client to begin with, and what the brief is. It's exciting to work on something that has been rarely touched upon and uninfluenced by other design as it allows for a completely wide-open approach. Although it's equally as fun to create design by which an often-used subject or project is given new life. |
| What are your sources for documentation and to generate ideas? As I said, I'm inspired by all sorts of things. Photography is one great way of personally seeking inspiration in all sorts of situations. It's also hard not to be influenced by design that is so readily available across so many websites and internet blogs. So I would say, as well as actively involving myself with reading certain design magazines or books (and other related areas), the wild world web provides a lot of food for thought. |
| What is your favourite type of customer? Friendly, open-minded, understanding, adventurous, enthusiastic, willing to learn... |
| To a certain point, is copying justifiable? I read a good article about this recently — if only I could remember where from, so I could copy it down. |
| List some things you dislike seeing in design. I'm all for anyone who wants to involve themselves in design to do so, but it sometimes gets quite frustrating and disheartening to see just anyone throw some images/text/colour together on Photoshop and count it as good design. |
| Do you believe the newer generations are better at designing? That's a pretty hard question to answer. There's definitely a lot more design these days than there used to be — just with the many media platforms available to us now, and the demand for graphic visuals in all manner of guises. I would say new generations are getting better at designing for a broad range of disciplines, but whether the quality of the design is better is arguable. What's for sure, is there have been amazing designers and there'll be more amazing designers to come. |
| With which type of client would you decline in working for? Any nationalists or racists. Anything that negatively affected its audience in terms of health or values. There may be other clients I would disagree with, but I don't want to start excluding too many people just yet. |
| Which software applications do you most utilize in your work? Abobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop and Dreamweaver. |
| Up to what point do your designs reflect your personality? Can design reflect your personality? I'm not totally sure. |
| If you weren't a designer, what would you be doing? Probably something not so far away from design. Maybe illustration, photography, film-making or marketing. Or a snowboard instructor. |
| Can you see yourself in this field twenty years from now? See me in twenty years. |
| Which design resources online do you frequently visit? Lots of studios' and other designers' websites/portfolios of which I find new ones most days. Various popular blogs such as FFFFound!, It's Nice That, a few friends' blogs and more. Although I try not to spend too much time crawling through the mass of design on the internet. Even though there's a lot of great stuff, it can become a little overwhelming. |
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Tom Lenartowicz
Oslo, Norway
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