Interview with Julia Wagner

Julia Wagner ("JW") interviewed on Monday, 20 May.

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?

JW : I had been working as freelance interior designer in Estonia since 2013. I created interior design projects for private and corporate buildings, designed furniture and also created 3D visualisations. In 2015 I completed the architectural visualisation course in online school CG INCUBATOR. I moved to Germany the same year and I started working for an Interior Architect company in partnership with architect's bureau of Christian Weise in Goerlitz. I also took part in international competition of interior design Eichneglobal Art Battle where I was selected for the top 20 and therefore implemented my project in central Berlin in the brand new apartment. Thereafter I was offered a position of a Lead of 3D Interior Design Department in Raumbild GmbH in Munich. After almost a year I moved on to another company working as interior designer. Our team worked there for such a big clients as Allianz, Adidas, IKEA, Leaseplan etc. Currently, I’m a freelancer interior designer living in Munich.

How did you become a designer?

JW : Especially talk about why you choose to become a designer, and then how did you started about being a designer; steps you take, maybe education or work experience you had? Also mention what drove you to be a designer? Was there someone that effected your decision or was it an internal drive to do good by good design? What originally made you want to be a designer, artist or architect? What started your interest in art, architecture and design? From early age before starting primary school I used to enjoy painting constructing, making clothes for dolls. When my mother was at work I used to rearrange/reconstruct the furniture and paint on the walls. After that it was decided to send me to art school so I could implement my creative energy without destroying household. Close to graduation I realised I would like to become an architect but later on, following my passion for details, I decided to study interior design. I graduated from Euroacademy Tallinn in 2010 receiving BA in interior architecture.

What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?

JW : Top 3 aspects of the design process for me are: mood boards, 3D Visualisation and 3D Planning, and Project management. I try to integrate these aspects in every project. I think it is very important to use in my workflow new technologies, latest industry developments and software tools along with hand-drawings and sketching when appropriate. It is also very important for me to continuously develop my skills in using available tools and sometimes even switching to new programs if they better improver the workflow of the projects. I believe that the future of Interior Design will take advantage of the digital technologies and will allow clients to see their future interior in a form or VR (virtual reality) or AR (augmented reality) for a better experience and feel of the space.

Which emotions do you feel when designing?

JW : During the designing process I experience strong flow of energy and strength, realisation of making someone’s world a bit better. The most exciting phase of design process for me is generating ideas and developing concepts, 3d visualisation, and the production stage. This includes choosing materials, furniture, lights, colours, visiting furniture showrooms, hardware stores etc. and then supervising a construction process. When my design ideas become live, I feel a mix of emotional uplift, happiness and a bit of a sad emptiness as if it was the end of an exciting journey. However, there is always a new project with new exciting challenges which fills me with new energy and new emotions.

What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?

JW : One of the most important non-design skills is ability to listen to and understand the customers as well as skills of proving the design concepts, looking at the challenges with a critical mindset, ability to present the projects and highlight the advantages of solutions chosen by designer. My interest in psychology, which has built up since I was a teenager, helped me strongly in developing the aforementioned skills. I also had a great chance of implementing these learnings in practice during my work as a Marketing Manager back in Estonia. Travelling and hobby photography developed my world outlook and observation skills. The greatest influence in the beginning of my Design profession were my teachers in designing from Tallinn Euroacademy: Vladimir Anshon, Anastassia Maelson, Urmas Halling. And later collaboration with a very talented architect Christian Weise and his amazing team in Goerlitz. And offcourse I’ve got the greatest inspiration and influence from designs of other famous artists such as Karim Rashid, Marcel Wanders, Zaha Hadid, Patricia Urquiola, Jaime Hayon, Bauhaus school, Diana Balashova, and my teacher in Visualisation Artyom Kupriyanenko

What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?

JW : In the previous years I have been mainly focusing on design of private living spaces, offices and production of interior concepts for advertisement. In the nearest future I am planning to focus on and deepen my experience in design of public spaces such as shops and restaurants. This is relatively new area for me and very exciting. In particular, I am very interested in design of shop windows and balanced combination of merchandising with design. Furthermore, I would like to continue my design blog (de:former) on Instagram and focus on creating 3D concepts.

What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?

JW : I think that every aspiring designer should remember that designer profession comes with a lot of stress, workloads whereas creative part of the project usually takes only a small part of the whole work. Bad time-management can also bring more stress and the whole excitement and joy of creating the design vanishes away very quickly and makes it very hard to distance oneself from the work on the project and relax in the free time. Every new project is a unique challenge and there is no universal formulas or mathematical equations in how to create a successful design. Therefore one should always approach every project with a fresh sight and mind to be able to actually produce a design which is truly desired by a customer. Therefore routine-lovers are more likely to enjoy technical drawings and more repetitive tasks, which is also part of designer’s work. In other words, every aspiring designer can find his own niche in the workflow of a design project – it is important to find what you really love to do the most. From my point of view it is very important to be open minded, have genuine interest for everything new, consistently study, back up your projects, ideas, photos and documents on cloud everyday. Try always to have handy a notebook and pen, study foreign languages, continue your education and take advice only from people who you admire and who inspire you, avoid negative influence and people who don’t believe in you, look for mind like people and co-work with them.