My name is Sonia Sobol and I have been in the graphic design field for over 5 years. Since more than 2 years I also work on websites and user interfaces. My main workplace is Quality and Usability Lab at the University of Technology in Berlin, but I also work as a freelancer.

My interest for designing begun at a very young age. I used to be a creative child and very passionate about art. I was always smeared all over with paints and always ready to use the walls of my parents flat as my canvas.

As 12 years old I developed interest for photography and photo-edition and started my own online gallery. I was spending my free time photographing nature surrounding my house as well as my dogs and cats.

At the age of 16 I joined a hand drawing course and was attending that course for 3 years.

At the age of 19 I moved to Germany to start an independent life and begun architecture studies at the University of Technology in Cottbus. During that period, I got to know most of the graphic programs I currently use. My passion for graphic design increased drastically. I had a lot of fun during the logical and graphical part of project development like preparing sketches, views and layouts for presentational purposes. I was fascinated by the possibility to give the client and the engineer the basis to communicate more effectively.

At some point I took the decision of moving to the capital of Germany, where I was working part time and started a new course of studies – media IT. It is offered by two big universities – the University of Technology in Berlin and the Free University in Berlin. It combines mathematics, computer science, sociology, elements of psychology and marketing. I found that the course would be a great match for my profile and could work out very well with my graphic design abilities.

After one of the first big projects, I was contacted by my professor who offered me a job as a graphic designer at the Quality and Usability Lab specialized in working on the interaction between humans and technology. That is how humans perceive media and how they interact with IT. I saw it as a big opportunity for me and a field where I can combine the knowledge from both courses of study – architecture and media IT.

What my normal workday looks like? My work stack is quite broad which makes every day more interesting and far away from routine. I mostly work on print designs for marketing purposes of projects developed by my team, I work also in the team on UI and UX designs for websites and tablet applications, I prepare pitch decks and powerpoint presentations where I focus on their visual design; I develop logos and other vector graphics; I also work on animations and video cuts. As a freelancer, I’ve been also working on Instagram grids and social marketing for small companies. I’ve been working within interdisciplinary teams at my workplace as well as with teams from different international universities and companies. 

I think communication is the crucial part of being a designer. I put a lot of effort to clarify each point of a project with my colleagues and clients. I can communicate fluently in German, English, Spanish, and Polish. I can also understand and read basic Russian.

I feel greatful for working in a field that I can call one of the biggest passions of my life. 

#Photoshop, #Illustrator, #CSS, #JavaScript, #HandDrawing, #Photography