Hi, I'm Karolina but everyone calls me Kat!
My journey started as a child obsessed with colouring books and pretty jigsaw puzzles!
I moved to the UK with my parents as a youngling, and have always loved being crafty and creative.
My favourite subjects at school were Art and DT, which helped me progress onto Visual Merchandising and Interior Design in Windsor College.
Unfortunately we had to move towns before I finished the course, so when we moved to Swindon I took up Media Makeup, as I was pretty interested in the theatrical aspects of it.
After completing the year, I was sure makeup wasn't for me, and, almost like a guardian angel, one of the college tutors invited me to join the Game Design and Film Production course just next door.
During that time, I was more focused on the film side of it, but towards the end of the two years, I found myself working on graphic design projects above anything, such as re-creating existing album art and working with a band on their heavy metal logo. I also discovered my love for live event and promo photography.
I didn't want to go to university, so I took a gap year to get a clearer idea of who I was and what I was attracted to, and realised I was consistently gravitating towards my childhood hobbies - drawing, crafting and creating, as well as the novel (to me) photography.
After a year of working hard to improve my photography skills and really giving an honest go at being a graphic designer (it was baaaaaad), I decided it was time for me to get much needed help at Oxford Brookes University, where I realised I was on the right path.
I found my passion for creating crazy and disruptive designs that catch unsuspecting passer-by's attention.
Now, with a First Class Honours in Graphic Design, I am ready to join an exciting design studio as a graphic designer, focusing on logo design, branding, illustration and photography!
Here are some of my absolute earliest Photoshop masterpieces that I thought were incredible at the time. Some of them are actually a decent attempt, but with age, experience and years of incredible visual material, you tend to look back and see how much you've grown... Yup.
I decided to include them in this portfolio, because it feels like an honest look back at my timeline. It's the norm to just show the up-to-date, polished, flawless work, the stuff that makes the designer look like a superhuman and other artists wishing they were them. But we all start somewhere, and I really believe it's good practice not to be embarrassed of previous works, and to embrace it instead. Because without it, progress would not have been made.