Hrvoje Grubišić

Hrvoje is the head of design at an award-­winning, full service digital agency Degordian.

In addition to leading a team of 13 young experts that include designers, motion graphers and frontend developers, he is also the lead product designer at Mediatoolkit. During his career he has worked for global brands like Lufthansa, Heineken and Dell. Hrvoje would describe himself as a typography junkie and his major passions are visual conceptualisation and digital interaction.

10 questions for Hrvoje Grubisic:

• What did you do before becoming a designer?

  I was very passionate about drawing and sketching since childhood. Also, I was very much into music, playing different instruments for years. When I was 14, I made my first website ­it was a collection of my sketches and illustrations. Since then, I knew that I wanted to work as a designer.

• Where do you turn for inspiration?

  I get inspired when I move away from the dynamics of everyday life ­ that is why traveling inspires me the most.

• Which are your favorite studios, designers or agencies?

  Huge, Hello Monday, B­Reel, Focus Lab, Jason Fried, Aarron Walter, Tobias van Schneider, Marc Anderson…

• Is your city a good place for designers?

  The design scene in Zagreb has been evolving in the last couple of years. We have good design studios, meetups and design oriented events.

• Which technologies are you excited about in 2015?

  Mobile domination, TV interface and application growth, I see a lot of potential there.

• Do you listen to music while you work? Describe your playlist.

  Music has been one of my main motivators. Listening to music is one of the best ways to disconnect from everything and focus on the project and the playlist depends on the type of work I’m doing.

• What are you cultural influences? (Music, books, films, ideologies, etc.)

  A lot of art & design movements influenced me in my design career. I am a really big fan of Bauhaus, Cubism, Pop art, Art nouveau.

• Have you got an academic background or are you self taught?

  I’ve studied at the Faculty of Architecture School of Design where I had the opportunity to listen to lectures by Nikola Gjurek, the founder of Typonine Type Foundry, from whom I’ve learned a lot about typography. Most of my experience in digital and web design came from working with clients at the agency where I’m currently employed.

• What do you do in your free time?

  I like to keep creativity present in my hobbies, like music production, drawing, hand lettering… I really enjoy freeing my mind with music and disconnecting from the world, this is where most of my good ideas come from.

• Where do you see the industry in 5 years?

  Mobile and wearables will dominate, technology is growing rapidly and there is a lot of interesting work waiting for designers.

• Are you working on any personal projects?

  I’m currently working on a personal project that will be finished soon. I think personal projects are really important because you get to create freely anything you imagine, this is where you test your skills.

• If you could give one piece of advice to newbie designers, what would it be?

  Feel free to experiment with new things, design has no limits.