Aleksandra “Ola” Wiecierzewska’s first semester with the Art + Design Department has been a time full of new experiences, a few challenges, and most importantly, sharing her talent and passion for design in the classroom. As a new Artist-in-Residence in Design, Ola taught Basic Typography (DES 303) and Image Design (DES 332) this semester and will be teaching Advanced Graphics (DES 430) and Graphic Design Systems (DES 202) in fall 2022.
She may already be a familiar face to those around Brick City, but in the following interview, Ola shares more about her creative process, her approach to teaching, and how she likes to spend her time outside of class.
Aleksandra, who goes by the Polish nickname “Ola” in more casual, everyday settings, moved from Poland to Springfield this past December to join the Art + Design Department. Ola explains that she had always been interested in teaching, but the opportunity to teach at Missouri State came along at the perfect time, and sooner than she expected, while finishing her doctoral degree at The Strzeminski Academy of Art in Łódź, “I had worked on the logo for the careers office with Agnieszka Skupińska, the career advisor, and she forwarded me the job posting that my academy received from Missouri State.” Ola already had prior teaching experience through assisting her dissertation advisor, and decided to try her hand at teaching full time, “I was thinking that it was worth a try. United States, Missouri — great adventure and a huge challenge.”
There were delays and weeks of waiting due to a Covid-19 travel ban, but Ola arrived in the U.S. only a month after travel restrictions were lifted. Despite this being her first time living so far from Europe, Ola shares that Springfield hasn’t felt too far from home, “Springfield is a bit similar to my home city; it’s quite cozy. I think I accommodated quite fast . . . It was very easy to settle in. I was greeted very warmly, and I received so much help from people here. Thanks to my new friends, I feel more at home here now.”
Ola’s first semester of teaching has gone well, even though it took some adjusting at first to settle into a new environment and courses organized differently than in Poland, “I needed to adjust my mindset a bit. But even though there are some differences, the goal is common for both systems, and what really counts is the quality of the work our students present.”
After navigating through those initial bumps, Ola has found a knack for encouraging her students to push themselves in order to grow as artists, “My students have many ideas, and we try to bring them to life . . . I try to encourage them to exaggerate, try different styles, and make bold decisions because after school there will be plenty of time to make proper designs following a client’s brief,” Ola shares.
“I think exploring their ideas is the most interesting. I tell them that there are not bad sketches. Even if the sketch is bad, it is still good, because you can run away from this idea. I am satisfied when they recognize their own ideas and which of them have more potential and why,” Ola adds. She emphasizes to her students that this process of experimentation is the most important part of the learning process.
Ola’s eagerness to learn is evident when she speaks of her own professional work designing for a marketing team, a creative design studio, and a software firm as a user interface and user experience designer:
Every experience was valuable. Through the years of my professional career I was designing logos, visual identities, packaging, visual communication for all media, websites, and applications. When you work for someone, you cannot choose only one specialization, it is needed to juggle the topics and tasks. This is what makes a graphic design job interesting. There is always context and new tools you need to learn.
When asked about her creative process, Ola explains that it is exactly that—a process, and one that often changes depending on the specific project at hand. Many sources of inspiration have influenced her current work, including her job experience and specific interests in the design field that have developed through her studies, “My most favourite design area is designing logos and visual identities. I got interested into vernacular typography and design styles—something characteristic for the place you work and live in,” Ola explains.
Even the history of graphic design in Poland during the 90’s has played a role in Ola’s current perspective on design, “After communism people started building their own businesses, and it resulted in wild local advertising,” Ola explains. After graduating from the Academy of Art in Łódź, Ola realized how much technology had advanced since then and how much new potential there was to elevate past designs.
This realization has turned into a personal goal to help small businesses improve their branding, “I am trying to develop an efficient method of designing visual identities for the small business industry. These are little projects, mostly side-projects, but I consider them as an opportunity to research and educate [through the] signs and adverts which are present in our everyday life. We all deserve good design—clients, designers, and our audience.”
When Ola isn’t teaching a class or working on her own design projects, she enjoys hobbies likely similar to those of her co-workers and students around Brick City, “I am a bookworm, so Meyer Library is one of my favorite places around campus. I also walk a lot, I draw, I do some crafts,” Ola shares. And in keeping with the theme of her time teaching in Springfield so far, Ola is always up for an adventure, even if it comes with a bit of a challenge, “Very recently I bought roller skates, and I am going to learn how to do it. If you see someone trying to survive on roller skates in the parking lot in front of Brick City, that’s probably me.”
Visit Ola’s website to view more examples of her work.
Taylor Ladd is a graduate assistant for the Department of Art + Design. She is working towards her master’s degree in writing at Missouri State University with professional interests in writing about art, culture, and food.