For all that are not quite sure yet, if in fact is possible to enrich their skills and create business opportunities, and to do so entirely with proper engagement or for those who need an incentive to engage themselves in something similar, we bring you the story of young Split local Pavle Sviličić and his interesting project „One vector diary“.

Pavle graduated from Splitu School for design, graphics and sustainable development and from Music school Josip Hatze, after which he went on to Zagreb to study Graphical technologies and design: „After college I continued living up there. I am glad I had an opportunity to be in the core of Zagreb becoming an ‘European metropolis’. I moved back to Split three years ago for love and a quieter life style. I have to admit that my first year back was a complete shock in cultural, business and creative sense; it seemed like everything in Split had died and that there was an overall stagnation, it took me some time to re-adjust.

What made me happy was an opportunity to work on branding and arranging the interior of restaurant and wine bar Diocletian’s Wine House in Nepotova, of which I’m truly proud. However, after starting to work as a designer for one company, I was disappointed by the amount of discouragement of creativity and quality in doing the work. This undid me completely!“

After he resigned, he began, as he admits, mostly from boredom to go to interesting lectures and conferences on the Faculty of Economics. There he met Ilija Brajković, the owner of Akcija – agency for digital marketing, who offered him to work for them. „They collaborated with marketing giants  and entrepreneurs and an excellent designer was extremely needed. So I began outsourcing for Akcija, which was very interesting! After a while they decided to move the company to Zagreb, and I of course, stayed in Split“, remembers Pavle.

For the past seven months he has been employed by Department for informatics in the Office of State Administration of Split-Dalmatia County, where he works on internal applications and maintains the network system. However, he realised that alongside work, one or two hours a day could be put towards his own project, which could give him a new dose of creativity and purpose: „I realised that Split is lacking designers focused on new technologies; most of them do not envision IT as a fertile ground for work, at the moment web is the top that is being worked on, while web applications and similar are not highly known. New technologies should guide each new designer in a new, more innovative and more creative future! So many new ideas in IT sector; if you do not keep up with them,  you get stuck in a rut of everyday. Today all information are much more accessible and it is a shame not use that.“

This is where the story of project  „One vector diary“ begins, in which Pavle, for each day creates a new illustration, that is a new vector graphic, which describes what he lived through that day. „I wanted to create a new daily pattern of work for myself, to visualize a new daily idea, be it cycling, running or watching a good movie. The point of the project was to complement myself. Because I started following the trends in IT sector, I realized that I needed additional knowledge, things I previously did not know, so every day was a heureka!“, explains Pavle, adding that he is persistent in his intention, so the third of the project had already been completed. In the first phase, as he points out he wanted to explore himself and his way of work, in the second he wanted to introduce to people with what he has been doing, while the third is dedicated to showing the entire idea as a great project for any young designer because “you work on yourself everyday so you have to learn new things and expand your thinking.”

„It is interesting to see how people respond to my work, which I post on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I have acquired more than 2000 followers and 7000 likes without much effort. Besides, this project has helped me a lot because I got a lot of business offers, so I worked on iconographies  for web, mobile applications, social networks and portfolios, simple enough people see what you do every single day, follow your growth and decide to hire you in the end! With all of that my portfolio has grown considerably! For all these reasons I recommend to all young designers to tackle similar projects!”,  our interviewer conveys with enthusiasm , continuing with the advices: “Just do the work! Even if you think you are not on the right track, by doing the work you will find the way. Don’t look for guidelines from those who talk a lot, and do little, but from people with experience. Also, learn to say ‘no’! It is important that freelancers, and in general people in creative industries find themselves in those industries and learn to say ‘no’ – not because they can’t do it, but because they do not see themselves in it.“

We at Startup.hr are honored that Pavle decided to dedicate one of his vectors to the idea on which we are collaborating – the idea of promoting Split as a Mediterranean silicone valley and Split IT lifestyle,  for which a few corners of the world are a real competition. With pride we present to you day 132 of Pavle’s diary „One vector diary“, and it is a special joy, that precisely this illustration, or vector graphic will adorn our visual materials, from shirts to posters:

A vector illustration

The front of T-shirt

The back of T-shirt

If you would like to own a Startup.hr #splitlifestyle T-shirt, enter your info in  this form, and we will make sure that some of the local IT companies sponsor the printing of the T-shirts.

We hope that you will look up at Pavle, listen to his advices, and continue to follow #onevectordiary and also engage yourselves in new design projects!