Name: Karolin Eks Position: Wanderer
Connection with EKA: 2nd year digital product design student, organizer of design workshops.
1.What projects do you have on hand at the moment?
The topic of the spring semester’s special project is speculative design, where in teams we focus our eyes on Estonian design higher education in 2035. I’m terribly excited! I also give EKA and design workshops to high school students. Outside of school, I’m currently designing a sticker sheet for product designers and a sticker sheet for @teamperfectlanding. I also have half-finished paintings of mountains on the wall at home, which are eagerly waiting for me. In the real mountains, I learn to snowboard switch and when the snow melts, I become a skater.
2.What is your favorite stage of creating a product and what does it look like?
My favorite part of creating a product is seeing the product become my everyday life. At some point, when the project has lasted long enough and taken up enough of my brain cells, I will start to see the whole world through my project. It’s as if an extra layer or filter appears on life, through which I experience the world. The Baader-Meinhof illusion – cognitive bias, where newly acquired information seems to be everywhere around you, certainly plays its part.
3.Paper and pen vs digital media – which do you prefer?
Both! And that’s why I’m constantly stressed, because I constantly have a list in my head where my necessary marks are located. I draw and paint both on a tablet and on paper. It’s the same with reading – I have some works both digitally and analog. I haven’t found the balance point of ‘paper vs digital’ yet. I like freedom of choice and making a choice based on the emotion of the moment – that’s why I always have a laptop, tablet, diary and loose paper in my bag.
- What is/was your favorite project while studying at EKA?
What discovery did you make about it for yourself?
It’s hard to pick a favorite because I’ve grown exponentially with each project. The time spent with kursakas brings warmth to the heart the most. Discovery: Projects end, but people stay (insert heart emoji here).
- Guilty pleasure or “poor design or means of design”, what do you secretly like?
I like bright and neon colors. I also like fonts that are hard to read. A particular favorite is low-contrast text and background combos. In addition, I love ‘Polish’ design, 80s style and the expression ‘the more the merrier’.
- Something you wish you were a designer?
I would have liked to be Steve Jobs.
- 1 good read that has inspired you professionally? (book, article, scientific literature, etc. in print or online…)
“Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It,” by Mike Monteiro. Very easy to read, but at the same time very eye-opening. I recommend to everyone!!!
- Besides design, what else attracts you?
A sport I can do on some sort of table. The idea that you don’t have to be “good” at things to enjoy them. I will try to read 30 books in 2023. Psychology and cognitive shifts. Buddhism. Regulating the anarchy of the digital world. Yoga, cycling, economics. Immediate human experience, simplifying screen time reduction, educational systems, systems, logic, chaos. Returning to the roots. Everything behind the first three ‘why?’ questions.
- What experience so far has shaped you the most as a designer and how?
Looking back at projects that have been completed over time. It humbles me. Looking back, I would always do so many things differently, and I can see the mistakes I made very clearly. It shows that I am still learning and developing.
- Portfolio (or something similar) – Where can we learn more about your works and activities?
LinkedIn and CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karolin-eks-3b09ba151/
Come as a student shelter, write to me: karolin.eks@artun.ee
The portfolio will soon be completed as a website within the subject “Programming 2” ;).
