Agata Walas: Finding the hidden opportunities

15 Nov

INTRODUCTION

Agata Walas is a Junior Graphic Designer specialising in simple, but effective illustrative design that comes to life in the creation of brand identities.

Previously at Accept & Proceed, she now splits her time between working at Bond & Coyne and running Polish Design Scene - a platform that promotes emerging and established Polish Designers.

This interview took place over video call in September 2020.

What’s one thing you learnt from interning at Accept & Proceed, that you didn’t expect to learn?

Coming out of uni is all about you and your work. In the professional world, it’s the opposite. It’s not about you anymore. Everything that we, designers, do is for someone else - an end-user that will interact with the website, the product, or the marketing materials. This requires a change of mindset and egos must be left at the door. (I’m not saying that I had ever had a big ego, but I was always emotionally attached to my work).

Being part of a studio also means that the work will be collaborative. I mean people often say that they work well in a team, but is it always true? Working together means that we work on a common goal, despite any differences. It means that it’s not about one person's vision it’s about a wider perspective.

At Accept & Proceed I’ve learned to take feedback, adjust my design, and sometimes to work together on someone else's ideas that were better suited for the particular brief.

It's such an important skill to work well collaboratively. One that you can't always learn at university. Generally, I think I've always been a team player in my life so the transition wasn't too bad for me. I just didn't know if I'd be a good team player when it came to design.

“I mean people often say that they work well in a team, but is it always true? Working together means that we work on a common goal, despite any differences.”

Something we discussed at length, was the very closed nature of the design industry, with the majority of new positions unadvertised. How do you think young creatives can increase their visibility and stand out in order to find these hidden opportunities?

Currently, there are not a lot of jobs for interns, graduates, and entry-level positions. Early on in my career, I noticed how many studios rarely post job adverts, but bring new hires to their teams.

So what can we do to find the hidden opportunities?

The number one tip from me would be to use all digital tools that we have - LinkedIn, Mail, Twitter, and Instagram. Follow the companies that you would love to work for. Some studios never advertise their jobs beyond their LinkedIn and Instagram.

“Early on in my career, I noticed how many studios rarely post job adverts, but bring new hires to their teams.”

LinkedIn is also a great tool to connect with people and send them a quick message. I’m not a fan of Twitter, but it proved to be useful when searching for direct emails to people.

Put yourself out there and connect with people. And if you haven’t met in person, please don’t just send a blank invite. Craft a short but sweet message that will communicate who you are and why you’d like to connect.

Emails are still great to approach the studio and send your portfolio, because I can only assume that the reason many companies don’t advertise new roles, is that the right people approach them at the right time and get the job. Therefore it's important to stay in touch with studios, even if you get this email: “Great work, but unfortunately, we are not able to offer you an internship at the moment”. Now might not be the perfect moment for them to bring new people in, but two months later it can be.

Number two would be to not put on hold applying for any role that interests you. Especially now, the competition is tough. Quite often if you apply two weeks after the position was advertised chances are that the role has been filled already.

Polish Design Scene is a platform you started to promote Polish creators, but it has become far more than that. Tell us why you started and how it grew into a space to share people’s stories?

The global pandemic forced us to find new ways of running events and talks. Locked up at home in London, I was seeing many platforms moving to the digital space. During that time my thoughts often wandered to my home country - Poland. Polish Design Scene happened by connecting the dots. I didn’t give it much thought when I started. One evening after work I created the profile on Instagram and added three welcome posts!

At first, It was all about sharing one piece of artwork every single day. I’d known for some time already that we have amazing designers, illustrators, great studios, and other creators in Poland. Polish Design Scene is a platform that brings people together. I often get messages where people thank me because they found some amazing designers and artists that they were not aware of before.

The project was met with many positive reactions from the community right from the start. We have a few organisations that bring the community together. But frankly, the majority of them are in the capital - Warsaw. So those are pretty excluding in terms of who can get involved. Others offer only paid talks.

“I think the fact that I don’t have a relationship with 99% of the designers we showcase, works in favour of the brand. Often in the design industry, we see the same people getting so much publicity because they’re well-known.”

My concept for this project is quite different. First and foremost I wanted to keep it open to everyone. That means providing information to anyone free of charge. This is very important to me. Also, everyone can get featured on Instagram from a college student to well-established design studios.

I think the fact that I don't have a relationship with 99% of the designers we showcase, works in favour of the brand. Often in the design industry, we see the same people getting so much publicity because they're well-known. Which brings me to my second point...

We just passed the 10th episode on the podcast. The approach for this medium is quite similar in a way that I believe everyone has interesting stories to tell. A current student is equally welcome to talk about their struggles or share their advice, as a designer with 20+ years of experience under their belt is.

I think we all can learn from each other. And while it’s good to look up to people who are masters in what they do, it’s even better to get a diverse view of the Polish Design Scene. The concept for the podcast is to have an honest conversation about real topics that are often not discussed in the design community like confidence, contracts, change, time, history, etc.

Taking the leap into podcasting can seem terrifying, what drew you to the more conversational nature of a podcast, as well as blogging?

The need for those conversations from the community is what drives me. Hearing positive feedback is always a good source of motivation. I remember feeling very anxious when the first episode went live. After sharing the podcast on the platform, I turned my phone off for a good few hours and when I came back online, I was amazed to see people loved it!

Everything in this project happened very quickly. I didn’t have time to overthink all the silly aspects that could put this project on hold. Acting on ideas as they came proved to be the best working method for me. If I'd spent a few months carrying this idea in my head I'd have probably never made it happen. I'm glad I stuck with it, although I'm hoping to find some time by the end of the year to work on the identity system for Polish Design Scene.

“If I’d spent a few months carrying this idea in my head I’d have probably never made it happen.”

Who is one person from your industry that you believe deserves more recognition for the work they do?

That's a lovely question. I think we are flooded with talent on every level. I've met many creatives with beautifully crafted work in their portfolio. Whenever someone asks me this or a similar question, I like to say that I admire different people for different skills, but in terms of recent graduates I stumbled upon the work of Abbie Lilley and it caught my eye. Together with Lili Phillips they also run Nearly Studio.

What final words of advice can you lend to up and coming creatives, trying to forge their path in the industry?

Don’t lose yourself. We live in a world that is full of visual noise. It’s harder than ever to reconnect with yourself and be aware of what made you pursue graphic design in the first place. I believe that often we already have the thing that makes us special, but it’s buried deep, covered with the clustered images that we expose ourselves to daily. Each of us here is unique and has a different path in life. That’s the beauty of it. I highly encourage bringing this uniqueness to your projects and work on developing it rather than trying to follow a secret recipe to success, because no one method will fit all.

“We live in a world that is full of visual noise. It’s harder than ever to reconnect with yourself and be aware of what made you pursue graphic design in the first place.”

Recommended reading

The Evolution of Everything by Matt Ridley

Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut

Recommended listening

The Futur Podcast

Industry Leaders with Nikky Lyle

Creative Pep Talk

Recommended follow

Sebastian König / Ladies, Wine & Design / Future London Academy

Follow Agata

Instagram: @walasaga

LinkedIn: Agata Walas