Once upon a time, … no I’m kidding! When I was a kid, I remember being totally into arts and creation. I had this need to make something, whatever that could be with whatever I had. And that included drawing and coloring. I could spend hours with a couple of A4 papers, drawing what would go through my mind at this moment.
In between, I got caught in figure skating, and therefore most of my free time would be dedicated to it. However, there was a turning point I encountered at the age of 15. While I kept telling my parents that I would want to become a professional figure skater, my parents knew that even if I became a professional figure skater, there will be an end to it at some point in the future. I wish the energy I had when I was 20 would have remained the same over the years, but let’s be honest here: our body is not made to perform sport until we hit 100 years old. That’s how I faced an ultimatum with my parents. They would agree for me to keep on skating and following my dreams and reach my goals, but before, I would have to choose a “normal” job to study so if something would happen to me, I would be able to catch up with that original study.
I first wanted to be a photographer, but when I saw I had to be good at Maths, I instantly refused to do it! And that’s naturally how I directed myself towards a graphic design study program.
This was long ago! I started my school in 2000 and graduated in 2002 with an average grade of 15 out of 20 points which I am still very proud of.
In parallel in 2001, I started my career as an artist, and as opportunities came in, I kept doing it. After graduating, I started working full time in the show business and therefore, graphic design became soon my second activity. While being on tour I did not have the time to take on projects, but between tours I very often worked on different design assignments. This would keep me up to date with the trends, the technics and of course practice.
When I stopped touring in 2010, that’s really where I started to dive back into graphic design. The stability of not being on tour helped me create a network around me and start finding little gigs, but not only. In fact, I had my own company and having done this study program helped me develop my brand and take care of the online/offline communication of my business without having to hire a designer for it.
In 2016, With new ideas, come new projects, and my partner and I decided to move to Porto to build a business together. Since we started putting our project on paper, I took care of the creation of ANY materials we needed to promote our business. From website to videos, from Instagram post to Facebook banners, this gave me the confidence to develop my graphic design skills beyond what I already knew.
In 2020, as the pandemic hit the world, our business was put on hold. During lockdowns I took the time to perfect my skills and learn more and more. I managed to find some very interesting projects to work on, and after 2 years of pandemic, I decided to step out of the company we started back in 2016, to fully dedicate my time to graphic design. And that’s how now I can say that I’m a freelance graphic designer.
More than 20 years after graduating, and because of my atypical journey, I gathered experiences from all around the world, making me rich of ideas, cultures and knowledge that I can now share in all the different projects I work on in graphic design. The moral of this story is: Listen to your parents! They are right… sometimes but more importantly: follow your guts! That’s where you encounter happiness!
