Jitka Hruzova

Please tell us about your work?

I have just recently gone back to the career of a graphic designer. I used to work in a creative studio near London, but I burned out, so I took a year out and did something completely different. I am very picky about the projects I work on. I also do other things on the side like teaching English and Czech online, and I occasionally volunteer – most recently in Sri Lanka teaching local kids English, yoga and also how to design their logo.

What is your design background?

I got my degree at the Buckinghamshire New University in the UK. The course was called Graphic Arts, but I know that it has been divided into two different courses recently. I had a wonderful time, while I was studying there. In my second year, I got to go to New York with my tutors, where we visited many studios and agencies. I ended up securing an internship at one of those studios for the following summer.

You wrote that you burnt out from design studio
work, can you tell us about that?

My “burn out” was caused by doing commercial work. For me, the nature of any commercial work is to earn money, regardless if the core of the project is doing good or not. I know I won’t do a good job unless I believe 100% in the project.

What type of freelance work do you do now?

I am currently working on a project, designing an app, that supports locally grown food, local gardening, community gardens and much more. And I just got a job for the Child.org, working a document for the schools in Kenya.

How do you find your graphic design clients?

Networking with people, mentioning to friends what I do and what kind of work I am looking for, and I spread the word in many Facebook groups. I am often amazed how small the world is and how connected we all are, I just put myself out there. You can be an outstanding designer, but if you are not an outgoing person you will have a hard time to find your desired projects.

You contributed a Chinese calligraphy course to
the Art Bundle for Good, how did you learn Chinese
characters?

I learnt this, while I was living in China. I don’t have to speak Mandarin in order to learn it. I purely learnt it for the artistic benefit and out of interest.

Can you tell us some of the artistic benefits of
learning Chinese calligraphy?

If you look at the description of my course you will find out that as well as other things you will spice up your brush technique, literally the way the Chinese calligraphy brush is hold is entirely different from any kind of painting technique (watercolour, acrylic,etc) I have learnt so far.