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October 12, 2020

Ozan Karakoc

Discover the interview of Ozan Karakoc, Winnetka, USA.

How did you become designer ?

Actually, I feel like I was born a designer 🙂 As the son of an illustrator father and a graphic designer mother, I got exposed to visual arts since I was a little kid. Country flags, car logos, newspaper layouts, magazine illustrations and those kinds of graphic elements were a big part of my childhood. I started evaluating things with their designs at a very early age.
Then, as you would expect, I started designing things as I get the pencil in my hand for the very first time. Before I started primary school, I already had dozens of issues of magazines I’ve created (that was a soccer magazine I named ‘Beautiful Soccer’.) Then I upgraded to a typewriter, then a computer, and my career officially started at the age of 15 with my first paid project.

How would you define your vision of design, your style ?

To me, good design is what actually works. You can’t design an elegant, sleek, luxurious brand identity for a company that sells hats for $5. Or you can’t design an approachable, standard, affordable looking identity for a brand like Louis Vuitton. Each brand has its own, unique story, and you should learn or discover that before designing anything. Then, you should let it shape your approach.
Therefore, you have to be a little flexible about your style. But overall, I can define my style as clean, minimalistic, and iconic.

For the future, what are your professional projects?

In terms of client projects, I can say that time will show us what is next. For side projects, I have some ideas that I’m in the process of developing, and probably launch one of them before the end of this year.

What do you like the most in your job ?

What I like the most is that I don’t see it as a job. It’s my ‘life’. Getting up early in the morning and starting to work is never a ‘task’ for me. I have never experienced the ‘Monday syndrome’. Design is what excites me, and what makes me feel good. I look at the world from a design perspective. I choose well designed products to use, no matter if it’s a car, a phone, a notebook or an orange juice extractor. I choose wine by its label design, I choose cat food by its packaging, and obviously, there are times that I’m fooled by good design, but I’m OK with that 🙂 That’s how big design’s role is in my life.

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