What a wild card!

Katerina Boyadjieva
Illustration and Visual Media

Going into the DPS lectures I thought I knew that I wanted to find internships closely related to motion graphics and animation. I was set on what I wanted to do from the beginning without realizing that it might not be the exact path I’m interested in. Starting the year changed a few things though…

I started off my DPS year with going to Senegal, Africa, as part of the annual Route Artlantique. Spending the better half of July travelling through a completely new country changed my world view and goals for the better. It was a humbling experience spending a couple of nights in the eco village Ndém and sleeping under the stars, showering with buckets… And that is just one of the places we stayed at. Experiencing the local culture and taking part in it is something that will stay with me throughout my whole life. Working with the local artists was refreshing and motivating. We went back to the roots of crafting. Every single one of the workshops sparked my creativity, I became full of ideas that I can’t wait to turn into reality. I also realized that I don’t want to do just animation. I like to be able to combine my different skills and create art that pushes people to think, change, question what’s happening around them.
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Going back to London after this trip I set my goal to expand my search for internships, as previously I had only looked at animation and motion graphics, which to be entirely honest was a truly discouraging experience, as they’re really competitive fields and only the best of the best get selected. But I knew that going in. Another discouraging thing is that there’s also really not any internships for image makers. Most companies offer graphic design internships which in my experience for the most part require you to prepare presentations and be able to do layout, which is far from what I’m interested in, and to be frank – something I am definitely not good at. So, one of my goals for this year is to become better at layout. That is why one of my self-initiated projects for this year is to create a zine, that was inspired by a series of photographs I took on the beaches in Senegal. The name of the zine is ‘Thiéboudienne’ and it’s about the problem with overfishing in this part of the world.

What is encouraging about DPS though is that you have the time to concentrate on different passion projects and take on all types of freelance work. Mine now ranges from designing tattoos to creating animated intros for YouTube channels. I have the time to take on many different opportunities to expand my skillset and find out what I am really interested in and how I want to continue my career path after graduation. Which is the main reason I wanted to be part of DPS in the first place. My interests are ever changing and although I like being in flux, I would love to have a clearer mind of what I want to do by the end of my year in industry.​