Interviews with Karolina Petraityte

I studied product design in Vilnius Academy of Arts and at the moment I am doing my Masters there. I finished a Erasmus exchange course in Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. During my studies worked with product and spacial design projects.

I can not give a clear answer to that. I think it is some kind of creative energy inside me. It sounds stupid, but I really feel that way.

I chose to become a designer in 4th grade. Why? I do not know, but that idea stuck with me till today.

I design everything: products, spaces, interiors, graphics. But I wish to make a design studio only focused on designing new generation educational tools.

I am not a legend. But if I have a potential, i would like to be called that way only after I am dead.

Ability to see a bigger picture. A great designer has to be critical of his work and have an ability to see it in a bigger context.

It instantly catches you. You just enjoy what you see and sometimes it might be enough.

For teachers. To help them inspire kids to learn and value the knowledge they get.

I would become some kind of management personnel, because I have an ability to lead people.

Design for my is less about the beauty, it is more about a way you think. Design is a process of toughs, way of trying your best to image all possible scenarios and feel as a user would feel. Also it is all about the empathy. None of the greatest products were created only thinking about yourself. We are living in one world, and we need to design for all.

My family always was and is my biggest supporter. And I will be always thankful for my best art and design teacher Albertas Krajinskas.

How says that I am already great?

In the most simplistic but very very clear way. Straight from the first glace everyone needs to understand what it is and what it is made for.

I want to finish my Masters degree with a new potently event better educational tool.

Gather a group of people that have the same desire to design and open up a design studio dedicated to technology, education and design. And be known for our ideas and designs.

Designers should think more about environmental problems and educational systems. I think next step for designers should be a new sustainable way of creating and less destroying.

Amazing! Why did not I came up with that idea?

Team work and co-designing for me is a goal. In Lithuanian it is said: "Two heads are always better than one". I strongly believe that working together brings the best possible outcome. However, for me, with my heated temper it is hard to find someone who would stay beside me and would not take criticism as an insult.

My favorite colour is dark blue. It makes me peaceful and calm. If I needed to describe my favorite place it would be and sandy island with +20 degrees al the time, basically opposite of Lithuania, where I live now. All food is amazing.

Yes, it was so strange. And I always said that I will be a designer, but never talked what kind of designer. I only knew fashion design, but did not want that. So in a way I still cant put myself in any specific design field. For me all of them are overlapping.

When I was at 4th grade I told all my friends that I will be a designer and that stuck. After that I did not change my mind at all. I went to different art lessons, sewing classes until I found a teacher who tough me what is design and how it is not only fashion and graphics. From then I only focused on product design and went to Vilnius Academy of Art to get a professional degree in what I liked since primary school. So now I am a new baked designer.

Design for my is less about the beauty, it is more about a way you think. Design is a process of toughs, way of trying your best to image all possible scenarios and feel as a user would feel. Also it is all about the empathy. None of the greatest products were created only thinking about yourself. We are living in one world, and we need to design for all.

For now I am all about educational tools design. All lot of knowledge we get are from school and for some time in our life the only thing we know is school life. This is a good think because we are able to focused on learning on skill we will use all our life, but if the system of teaching is not evolving with in the same speed as our society- school is a punishment. And here I feel the need to shout about lack of updates in our school system. But it is not enough only to talk about it. We need to take proactive steps to ma a positive impact too. So for me it starts at my desk and first design sketches.

I often feel very inspired after a great lecture or a heated discussion. Nothing drives me better than a good open talk with people that dear to criticize my work and give me advice. As a designer you always have to be open and read between the lines, so if someone is expressing disbelieve- you did not present your idea in a best way. If you understand more than you hear- you can be inspired to create even better works.

Systems. Every thing needs to be in place and get in order with its surroundings. I try to always see the bigger picture. If your project is good for a particular use, can you make it more open? I love design because it follows deep hidden systemic structures that makes it almost perfect. If your creating something new you need to think about the past, about the present and why it is not already done and about the future impact. So in every little detail you need a strong argument for question- why?

All you can imagine. Each step of designing is different. So for me it is normal to feel all the negative emotions like disappointment, sadness, confusion and others during the designing process. It became a part of my job. But I feel happy and proud when the finale result makes happy my clients.

I have no clue. It is an never ending mystery for me because each time it is something different. It is almost 90% work and 10% luck for me but hen again it is completely opposite.

First of all, it should visually struck me in a positive way. I it a feeling it creates. Then it is all about the arguments: is everything thought about, does it work right, is it easy to use, is it needed and why, is it simple and clear and etc.

In the world were everything is almost already made designer needs to be always alert about the impact of his work. By creating something new, that is just something a little different, we need to take responsibility on our environment damage and what trends we push to society. By working on our projects we need to show an example of a more positive impact of design.

The future of design for me are two things: environment-ecology and education. By promoting good and ethical consumption we also need to teach the values and argument, why it is so impotent. I think the a big positive change in environmental issues need to come from the intelligence and ethic tough globally everywhere.

Almost all of my ideas come from personal experience. Bets ideas come from negative experiences that I can rethink and redesign. However, to work on those design and to complete them I almost every time get creative energy from just being happy and rested. Brains works better when they are healthy and not stressed.

In Lithuania it is always a struggle to explain what I work. I feels like no one knows that every single object surrounding them was designed by someone. Also many think that I am a designer so I do fashion design. That sometimes gets in my head, but in some cases it is an educational way to make product designers better known. I in a way hate that, but it is how it is for now.

Apple laptop, Moleskine notebook, table lamp which designer name I always forget, KitchenAid blender and my shoes (can't separate the best ones).

Empathy. All designers need it because if you are designing you need to understand, that you are not doing only for yourself, it is always for someone.

I don't. It it an ongoing problem. But when the time pushes you, it gets easier to decide what really is important.

Product designer? What is it?

I am always waiting for a letter to karolina@kpdesign.lt