Interview with Karolina Styczeń

Zsófia Szatmári-Margitai

February 11, 2020

Proud mother of two cats, movie maker, illustrator and graphic designer. Currently work at creative agency in Kraków, Poland. At HOLIS’15, I was responsible for graphic design of our product.

Let’s start with a quick question, what are your three first words related to HOLIS?
COMMUNITY — people who share VALUES, willing to CHANGE, people who all have different backgrounds.

Please, share with us your most memorable moment from HOLIS?
Hard to choose — I think evaluation part, when we looked back at what’ve done during the week was amazing. See all paths we get through to reach the point where we were in the end. Everything we did wrong, every “great idea” we have.

Could you tell us about what did you learn and gain from HOLIS?
First — I try not to decide before the design process about the result. What we did on HOLIS we analyze everything, check every possible hint and then we talk what we can do with everything we collect before. I ask more questions, than I used to — everything I do (coordinating, designing or something else) is more complicated in the beginning, but it makes whole process easier.

And talk about the other side of the coin, what are those things what should be improved or changed in HOLIS?
As a participant I was happy with everything! Maybe there are questions about marketing and communication (HOLIS quit Facebook… I understand and support this decision, but people use Facebook).

Have you ever recommended HOLIS to someone, if yes, for whom? If not yet, for whom would you like to suggest to participate?
When I speak about HOLIS always recommend it! If I have to do it now — I recommend it especially for students — I never have a chance to discuss design process at the university like I did on HOLIS and now I use all knowledge and experience learned there in all my projects.

If you need to explain HOLIS to someone, how would you do it, in your opinion what is the essence of it?
1+1+1+1= it’s not four, but more! :)

What still puzzles you about HOLIS, what do you always wanted to ask about it?
No idea, hope I can see HOLIS people on HOLIS again!