Design as equally an creative, artistic pursuit and a strategy tool
I am a designer at work and heart and committed to design for life. I have worked with all forms of visuals - I have created mostly loads of UI but I have tried my hands on illustration, infographics and science graphics. I have also developed workshops help various professionals (from academia to industry) evaluate visuals and their emotive impact, prototype visuals and illustrations and discuss different branding styles (see my Medium posts and my Workshops list) . However, that does not mean that my job is limited to visuals and interfaces. On the contrary, I love visuals exactly because they grant you access to a different form of thinking. While designing, I am reflecting on the business model and the potential customer, on the processes in the fore- and in the background. I am spending months materialising your business into icons, forms and images that your target customer will tap on, engage with and have an opinion about. After discussing every detail with product managers, developers and business stakeholders, I get to talk with your target customers through user studies and I onboard your team on the user perspective and prepare the next iteration. As I am getting deeply involved with the business of my customers, I have to make sure that my customers understand the impact of design, support design initiatives and invite designers on the strategy table.
Reason, coherent thinking & analytics
I apply a rational, data-based approach. This extents to being a design system initiator and ambassador in the companies I’ve worked (see ToolSense and A1 projects); mapping out service design and processing key analytics (see Clariness); performing requirements analysis (see paper); applying successfully agile methodology and applying strict prioritisation (ToolSense, Bank Austria). Moreover, I have years of experience following the scientific approach as a researcher (ITI in Thessaloniki, Eindhoven University of Technology, Philips Consumer Lifestyle in Eindhoven and Leuven and AIT in Vienna) and an electrical engineering background with focus on Machine Learning and Multimedia Processing.
Boldness & kindness
To lead or follow with boldness and vulnerability is my commitment to the people I work with. Boldness is a key value I hold. And I believe boldness and vulnerability go hand in hand. Boldness is the gap between your comfort zone and where you want to get. Thus, boldness requires willingness to explore your fears and boundaries, in other words understand your vulnerabilities. In every chance I had to be part of a team, lead a team or mentor colleagues, I found it very useful to work on my emotional boundaries and always strive for authenticity. Boldness is required to sometimes communicate unflattering messages to your colleagues, to convince that a certain project shall (not) be a high priority, to inspire, to risk and to accept a failed experiment. Having said that, I also hold space for comforting emotions, kindness and generosity at work. Overall, as a note to my future clients and collaborators, expect from me -and hold me accountable for- strong work ethics, forthrightness, and a kind and compassionate attitude.
My final commitment is to acquiring new knowledge and improving myself. The personal growth movement has been one of key cultural influences for the last ten years, starting with the Tim Ferriss podcasts, back in 2012. This means that I regularly and habitually reflect on my behavior, my knowledge gaps and limiting beliefs and work on overcoming them. Through this process, I learnt to see feedback as an exercise in humility and as input for growth. Specifically, some of the fields I have pursued growth in are: Design Systems and other UX design topics (list of certifications here), Branding, Art & Design History, cultivating a stage presence and teaching, information design, agile methodologies, strategy, etc. Moreover, I am invested in developing my writing and thus refining my thoughts on design topics that I am passionate about.