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Introducing Urska

Urska is our shiny new person at Paper

Introducing Urska

As it’s customary to introduce yourself when you first arrive/join I want to write a short introduction as the newest member to the Paper team.

My name is Urska and I come from a small chicken shaped country nudged between Italy and Croatia known as Slovenia. As much as I love my little country I decided to leave it 5 years ago when I joined the Erasmus exchange program which brought me to Scotland where I stayed for two years studying interior design at the University of Dundee. The knowledge and experience I gained got me a job in London where I lived and worked for a year and a half. Craving new challenges and brooding those design experiences I decided to do my masters in Digital Experience Design at Hyper Island, an institution with a Swedish background. It’s a world wide organisation which has a one of its bases in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. And that’s where I chose to study.

Learning about Service design, UX, Experience design, Business transformation, Design research, agile thinking, design thinking and many more realms of design I have found my definition of what/who I am as a designer and what design means to me. Design for me is a glue that shows people how creative they are and what they can achieve if they approach/see their problems through the tools, thinking and use of design.

Finishing my masters I had an opportunity to meet Paper and work with them as a freelancer. They offered me a permanent position in their studio and now I’m writing this small introduction about myself, or rather my journey of how have I got to write this introduction.

This is a short description of me and how I ended up where I am today, in a creative, supportive environment eager to learn new things and to use my knowledge and skills.

How was the experience of applying and interviewing for the job?

It was quite spontaneous, from the way I found Paper, having my first interview, joining them for a week in their studio and finally becoming a new member of the team. I got the time to meet them, saw how they worked and their current projects. I think I clicked well with all of them, and so far have been enjoying the journey.

Looking for a job was an interesting period of time, where waiting and applying for different jobs, takes up most of your time. Applying for Paper started on Twitter, seeing the studio was looking for a new freelancer and applying for that position first. The Paper guys were all understanding of me being in another country (I was in Slovenia writing my dissertation at the time) and not being able to come in to have the interview with them in person. We did it through a Google Hangout instead and it went well.

What are your interests in the industry?

My main interest is culture and people. How can we improve their experiences, find how we can help them and what they need? Each client has new and different interactions with their own unique culture, work environment and systems. Getting to know them and help them is my favourite part of working in the industry.

Tell us about your experience at Hyper Island

Hyper Island, was an amazing experience. It gave me an overview on the realms of design world. It was an intense learning period and immersing myself in each different project, trying to take everything in, in a short period of time. Now I’m ready and excited to share my knowledge as well as improve it in a commercial environment.

What do you want to do at Paper and in the industry?

I want to learn and work with different clients. Creating meaningful social projects that will improve our lives, society and communities using my skills as well as gaining new ones. Paper creates an environment where people can grow, develop their skills as well as work on their interests. I feel lucky to be a part of this type of working environment where personal growth of individuals is as important as creating good solutions for clients.