This is me. (Picture of me doing sh.t) You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation. To really know what happened, we gotta take things from the start.
It all started when my mom met my dad. And they fell in love, and they had me. Hi, I’m Nicole. And my life? Is kinda crazy - nononono, scratch that. Ehm ehm, again. It all started when my mom met my dad. Then they fell in love, went on a vacation and then boom. (My picture) Happy little accidents everybody! I was born in Prague in 2000 and everything was beautiful. Well, except it wasn’t. My parents divorced when I was 6. Soon enough my mum found a different man. My step-dad! - and with him, we moved to different part of Prague and I changed schools. Beautiful little family who gets along really well, right? Wrong! We never got along very well, especially after 2008 when my brother Václav was born, and with that, my parents decided that Prague was not a great city for having small child, so we moved to Pilsen! Just a heads up, I seem to live only in cities which start with the letter P.
Well anyways, I started going to school in Pilsen – 3rd one at 9 years old mind you – and everything was going good. Just two parents with two children living peacefully in Pilsen… two? Did I say two children? I meant three. In 2009, my sister Kate was born. So suddenly I have two more siblings (read - children to look after) that influenced me in the way, that I had to take on a lot of responsibility by looking after them when I was about 10 years old. In that school in Pilsen, I met my best friend, Maky. She is going to be really important later. In 2011, my mum signed me up without me knowing to 2 grammar schools. I was like, aight cool, let me try the exams to get in just for fun. Welll, I got accepted into both of them. So I was changing schools again I guess? And I started going to Masaryk Grammar School in Pilsen with specialization in foreign languages for 8 years until I graduated. Nothing big happened in those 8 years, well except maybe that I got a boyfriend and after graduating I moved in with him to a completely different city yet again starting with the letter P. Can you guess which one? (Kahoot music) It was Pardubice! Funnily enough, I got accepted into school in Prague and Pardubice, so I was like YOLO, I’m gonna study at two colleges at the same time! Spoiler alert: I didn’t. But after one year living in Pardubice we split with my then-boyfriend, so the logical thing for me would be to move to a city where I have my school, right? RIGHT? So anyways I moved back to Pilsen and that’s where I am now! Living and thriving with my own business, going to school by train. But you might be wondering. How the heck did you go from focusing on learning languages in grammar school to art school? Good question! And to answer that question, we have to look at 2 major “AHA” moments in my life.
So how did it all start? Well, when I was small - scratch that - younger, I was sitting with my dad and my grandparents, and they asked me what I wanna do when I grow up. And I said “Well I really like drawing and math, what can I do?” To which they said “an architect could be nice for you”. And I took that, and I lived by that. I was gonna be an architect. Did I care about buildings? No. Did I care about building structures? No. But did I start studying everything regarding architecture, how it works, different styles and also what schools and colleges regarding architecture are there? Also no. So you might see where the problem was. So the big moment was right about when I was 17, when I was looking at colleges I should go to, and I came across study field “graphic design”. It was like a lightbulb in my head, HEUREKA even. I didn’t have any experience with graphic design, but it was something I could see myself doing and actually enjoying, since I have been drawing since I can remember. The next AHA moment was about 3 years later. I was studying graphic design, the field I wanted, however I didn’t know what exactly I wanna do. I was stuck in life, stuck in relationship I didn’t enjoy, stuck in a city I didn’t know and like, stuck without friends. I was basically just existing, not enjoying life. So I broke up with my boyfriend, packed my bags, moved back to Pilsen and generally turned my life upside down. The biggest change however came in August 2020. Do you remember my best friend Maky, the one I told you about? She kind of acted as a detonator. Well we were partying one night, me post-breakup, her post-breakup so you can imagine how it could have looked. And we added a photo to instagram, and one of her friends texted her that they would like to meet me (spoiler alert: he’s one of my best friends now). That’s the first piece of the puzzle. The second one is that the exact same night we played a lot of drinking games and one of them was a drinking card game. Thanks to this night and this night only, I got the idea to make a card game and also got to know the person who helped me start it all, hence the best freind, and fast forward a year and half later, I have my own business.
These are the main events that helped me shape who I am today. I found myself and found what I actually like to do. Based on this, I can very specifically answer these questions: Why do you love what you do? I love freedom, and creating is freedom by itself - I can just unleash and be myself – no problem I love to see how other people react – if they like it, if they like playing my games, what they think about it and so on I love seeing my work and being able to be proud of it What do you believe in? What´s your design philosophy? I believe in the people around me – you should surround yourself with better people, and you yourself will be better I believe in myself - kinda cliché, I know, but genuinely I believe that everything will be alright. If it’s not a life-threatening situation, it’s going to be a-okay, and you should have fun doing whatever it is you’re doing! Design wise? - I like to believe less is more, just look at this presentation! The main thing is the idea behind it, and also how passionate people are about the project. Design is barely ever perfect - it might be right now, but society and the world changes, you never know whats gonna happen. Just look at these examples. Corona beer? Could they have predicted world-wide pandemic with the same name? Probably not. Or Apple. Apple’s claim used to be “Blows minds, not budgets”. That didn’t age well, did it? So don’t stress that you don’t find the perfect design, cause in the long run, it never can be! (But don’t you dare use this as an excuse to not try your best) And finally, Who inspires you? I believe that we all are just a reflection of the people around us. Any words you might start using because someone else is using it, any little habit you pick up for example from your parents, or even a thought you heard from your teacher and are using it. We all mirror different people in our lives, we take their parts, and make them ours. Like a giant never-ending puzzle!. So in order to be creative, surround yourself with the people that inspire you! For me, it can be basically anyone, from teachers, to classmates, to random strangers on the internet even. But mainly, it is people around me. I can see the work and dedication they put towards something, and I am always happy when they achieve something. It gives me the booster shot to be better and try harder.
So in conclusion, I think my design story is unique in the way that I didn’t actually have a plan for it. I was just diving head first into situations and hoping for the best outcome. Sure, there were times when I hit bottom, where I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted, but remember, all you gotta do is just keep swimming and you’ll make it. And I can gladly say that it all worked out for me.
Thank you for your attention and see you next time! Bye!