Coffee Chat: An Interview With Dalius Stuoka

Today our author Justas Markus talks to the award winning graphic designer Dalius Stuoka.

1) Tell us about yourself?

My name is Dalius. I am a 25 year old self-taught graphic designer from Lithuania specializing in logo design and corporate identity.

2) When did you start your design career and where?

It all started in… maybe 2006. I believe this was the year when I started learning my first graphics based software (Adobe Photoshop CS2). My main goal back then was to learn web-design and so I started participating in some local online design contests.

Soon after that my interests started to widen and I have decided to learn CorelDraw software specifically for the creation of vector graphics for logos, business cards and other graphics that design contests are put up for.

I actually have been uploading my works to DeviantART (https://kntz.deviantart.com) from the year 2007 – and it clearly shows how I got better at it. Some of the first designs there are really bad, ha ha.

3) Who inspires you to be a designer?

I like creating things. Logos are especially fun to me, since they’re like a puzzle. Each client has different needs, taste, requirements – and you have to do your best to come up with a perfect solution for him. It’s really more like a game than work to me.

I get inspiration from a lot of places, for example a good idea in advertisement inspires me, also awesome movie posters, great calligraphy, photography, architecture or just art in general. I especially enjoy creating clever logos, logos that have meaning or deliver a certain (hidden) message. It’s fun!

4) How does your work day look like?

I usually wake-up around 10 AM – I do not start working until after noon, or even longer than that.

I found that writing some tasks for the day down on a piece of paper really helps. I do not know the psychology behind it, but it somehow really obligates you to accomplish those goals.

If I do not have any motivation to work I prefer to inspire myself rather than trying to force myself to work. Forcing creative work is just not a good way to go about it. I had a lot of creative blocks during my design “career” and working through it was never a good solution.

I like to think that our brain is like an engine and it needs fuel – inspiration – to create quality stuff. You can’t just force it run on fumes. Back to my work day – it’s pretty hectic – I do not have a set work day like the 9-5 format.

I would create a design concept, send it to my client, and take an hour or so break if I don’t feel like creating anything other at that moment. Obviously, there are also some days that I can just design all-day non-stop. It’s really a very flexible schedule.

5) What are you currently working on?

I currently have a few projects, most of them are logos only, some with corporate identity attached. Logos for fitness oriented projects, live event merchandise project, a couple health related projects, a travelling theater project and a couple others.

6) How do you manage your time?

This is one of the areas that I feel I am not very good at. I try to take each day at a time. I do not create any schedules or anything like that, I just like to write down things I have to do and I try my best to do them.

7) Where are you currently based and what’s next?

I am based in Panevezys, Lithuania. I don’t think too much about the future. I have but one wish – to continue working this job that I enjoy.

8) Working in the office for company or you’re freelancer?

Freelancing and want to stay that way.

9) What are the tools you can’t live without?

Pen, sketchbook, CorelDraw.

10) What is your latest project?

My latest project is creating a wordmark for a home-related (selling/managing houses) website that will be launching this year.

Some sneak peeks to my work on this project:

Catch Up With Dalius

Portfolio: https://www.stuoka.com
Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/dalius-stuoka
Twitter: @iamDalius