We recently sat down with Senior Designer Jenny Johannesson to ask what inspires her, how she gets her best work done, and what a typical day at a cutting-edge design agency looks like.
What does design mean to you?
Design for me is creating something appealing and meaningful while still considering the functionality and what it communicates.
Where do you find your inspiration?
My biggest inspiration is the people around me but not necessarily the people in the same physical space. A lot is online. Like, there’s a lot of really great micro-communities growing on Slack and we share a lot of things, like privately, which I think is super cool. Of course, like I always keep track on what’s going on on Dribbble.
What is your typical day like?
My days here at the Ueno are generally not the same, because I work on such a variety of projects. It can be branding or marketing and sometimes products. Which means that the type of clients I work with is also very different because it can be a huge tech company or it can be more of a start-up. Which means that the teams that I’m working with are also very different. Which also creates different types of processes. That’s also what I find very exciting about working at an agency because I always get different challenges thrown at me.
When are you most productive?
I’m most productive in the office. Because I need my huge monitor, I need my full keyboard and I need to work with my Wacom tablet. I can’t comfortably design on a tiny laptop. It just, it doesn’t work for me.
How would you describe your work?
I want the users to feel something when they look at my design. Whether it’s fun or cool or elegant or just, I feel trusted. Therefore working branding and marketing type projects is where I get to shine as a designer. I really like to create that visual language that represents the different companies I work for.
Who invited you to Dribbble?
When I came to San Francisco, my friend Bojan Wilytsch, he told me “Now that you’re here you need to have an account on Dribbble”. So he sent me an invite. The community here is really strong so, it felt like I really needed to be on there.
What impact has Dribbble had on you?
Being on Dribbble has kind of helped put me on the map in the industry. Especially working for Ueno and being on the Ueno Dribbble team that has a huge following. Without Ueno, I would not have the amount of followers that I do have now.
I never imagined that I’d work as a designer because it doesn’t feel like a real job to me. People working as lawyers, accountants and electricians and what-not, all of those feel like real jobs, real adults should have—and design is quite different in that sense. So, doing design for a living is a privilege that no one should take for granted.
Follow Jenny on Dribbble and check out her Timeout interview.
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