Hi! I’m Ilona,
I'm a self-thought Product Designer, Entrepreneur, Creator, Occasional Tomboy and Adventure Rider.
I advocate for a decentralised work and am trying to find ways how to live with this type of advantage daily, and share the thoughts and experience with others.
I aspire to bootstrap my online businesses, while maintaining a minimalist, nomadic lifestyle in Europe or Asia.
Run a design studio - Fjers. Drop by for design + development service.
I'm a self-thought designer and am proud of it. By the time I started making my first steps in this industry, I was still studying Media Communications and playing around in Photoshop (Figma, Sketch or Adobe XD didn't exist at the time). Later in years, I've naturally grown to become a UI designer followed by UX and Product design.
Even though I didn't feel like that in the start, I tend to think I've got a good synthesis of analytical thinking and visual style, and that's a proper combo for such profession. I've also been always curious to understand how to create a product which would solve people's problems in one way or another.
I didn't take any courses or attend a university to learn digital design. However, in my first job, I had a Senior designer who mentored me through the processes. I believe that if you're really into this field, surely you can learn by simply googling your way through or setting a foundational ground for design by reading books.
As for the courses or bootcamps, I could recommend taking a look into these: Interaction Design Foundation, Dive.club, Memorisely, Designership.
If you're curious, take a look at my free Notion document of design resources and bookmarks over here.
Alternatively, if you want to book a 1:1 consultation with me on UX UI design, you can do it over here.
I've been on both sides of the barricade. Ideally, if you want to grow and learn more things as a designer, you should be seeking for an in-house position within a company. This will enable you to understand processes better and earn skills to work in a cross-functional team.
On the flip side, I'm an advocate for a decentralised, remote work, just because I've grown my sense of ownership and responsibility. This enables me to do the work and plan my time accordingly, also, be able to work from whenever and however I want. Yet, not all companies would allow such freedom for their full-time designers, so it takes time to find such a team/product and gain trust.
If no results come up, a solution for that could be a contractor's role - with more freedom, yet more responsibility and inner motivation.
Sure, you can submit your question via ilona@ilonadzen.com . If it's relevant, I may add it here for others to see as well.
