Interview with Graphic Designer Helen Gizi

Helen Gizi is a graphic designer from Thessaloniki, Greece. She has been working in the design industry for 10 years now and she is great with designing icons, logos and supplementary graphics for various projects. The awesome projects she was involved in can be seen on her site, Vectorstories. Moreover, she also likes to design amazing freebies for another website of hers, pinkmoustache.net.

When did you start your career as a designer?

I’m working in design industry for almost 10 years, the first 4 years as an employee and the last 6 as a freelancer.

What is your educational background?

I have studied interior design while at the same time I was attending classes of free hand design at the Greek School of Art.  I’m a self taught graphic designer.

You’ve surely worked on several projects so far. What would be the most relevant ones?

The think that the thing that satisfies me the most is when my clients are happy with the result and when the result is something I’m proud of. For example, the footer cities for Porcupine Colors, was a project I enjoyed  working on. The communication with the client was excellent. It was like I was working on a personal project. Or the logo of Wireframe plus, the cooperation with the client was perfect and the result was totally satisfactory.

Can you name 3 designs from your portfolio you like the most?

I like the cities I designed for Porcupine colors and the nature posters. I know that these are only two but I haven’t put all my projects in my portfolio yet. Vector stories is online for only a week.

Our readers would definitely love to know what hardware and software you use when you create your designs?

I work on a PC and I use Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Adobe Photoshop, pencils, paper and a HP scanner.

What are the things that inspire you?

I get inspired by nature, books, magazines, music. I prefer to search photo galleries for inspiration.

When you began your journey as a designer you probably had a few role models, would you name two of your favorite artists?

I love many designers, but my favorite is Catalina Estrada. I find her work unique.

Designing has its ups and downs, what is the most difficult problem you ever faced as a designer?

I think the client who thinks he knows everything is a big pain in the ass or the client that want the perfect result without spending any money. Generally I consider a problem the clients who don’t respect your work and maybe they can’t even understand it.

What advice would you give to the newbie designers?

Must focus on what they really love. It’s really important to love the work you do for a living, because it can make you happy for the rest of your life. Of course it’s great if you are talented, but it is important to make your talent grow. Read as much as you can, search things relevant with your interests, work as hard as you can and try to become better every day.

What do you think your greatest achievement is so far?

I think my greatest achievement so far is that I have some “permanent” clients that believe in me and trust my opinion, although with some of them our cooperation didn’t start in the best way possible.

How much free time you have in a week and how do you usually spend that?

The good think with freelancing is that you arrange your own time. I usually work many hours every day and when I have spare time I draw, go out with friends and my boyfriend for a beer or watch movies.

What is your favorite PC game and how many hours you spend playing it?

I’m not much of a player, it’s easy to get carried away and I avoid them. I love Myst, nice story and graphics. When I want to take a break without thinking of work, I play playfish games on FB and then I go back to business.

I really liked this design: What was your drive to create it?

I really love nature, that’s why I have chosen to live away from the city. It really bothers me to see the bad things that happen everyday, people that think only about themselves (not even about their children), which are destroying and intruding everything around them. I just wanted to praise the miracle of nature and tell that we should respect everything that has been made so perfectly.

Check out Helen’s websites: Vector Stories and Pink Moustache.