We got the chance to delve in to the creative mind of Sonja Danilovic from the studio Nude, based in Perth! Nude has some beautiful quiet design coming out its doors, plus some painting tips (always to an audience!), remembering peoples names (or not!) and we get to hear about where the studio is going in the future. Lovely Perth gem - read on!
When did you fall in love with design and how did you get started?
I can't remember falling in love with design but I remember falling in love with art. When I was about 8 my dad was painting portraits on the streets in Italy and he let me paint him, I had a crowd of people standing around watching me, and when I finished I got an applause, it felt pretty normal for me to paint, I didn't really get why they applauded. In regards to design, I was in year 10 and they gave us a big book of jobs descriptions to look through, I picked graphic design, it sounded like something I would enjoy, so I just stuck with that, it was either going to be that or geology, wtf.
Tell us about your typical working day/week now.
Mondays I hang out with my baby, the rest of the week I get to work around 9ish, we have a coffee together and have a chat or get straight in to work. It's not very structured, if things get too hectic, we play ping pong. I never work on one thing at the time, if I'm doing something creative, I always have something a bit more mundane to work on, just to give me that break.
Which three people in the design industry would you pick as mentors and why?
This is going to sound bad, but I just don't follow the industry much, and I'm really bad at remembering people's names. I'm a really visual person so I see things and designs around that I really respect, but I don't dive deeper into who made them.
What advice would you give students starting out?
It's ok to start out with a shit job, like cutting out cars at John Hughes, as long as you don't get stuck there. I worked at other mediocre places, but when you get an opportunity to create a new brand you really have to embrace that and push the boundaries, I feel like you can do great work for pretty much anyone, the client or the account manager or whoever can butcher it later, but that creative process of ups and downs is what's important and pushing yourself all the time.
It's ok to start out with a shit job, like cutting out cars at John Hughes, as long as you don't get stuck there. I worked at other mediocre places, but when you get an opportunity to create a new brand you really have to embrace that and push the boundaries, I feel like you can do great work for pretty much anyone.
Whats the big goal in the next five years?
For us it's to stay small and boutique, and have quality clients that really value design. We like collaborating with other creative people, so thats something we want to keep doing.
