Past events ⁠— Pilot

2.04.2022⁠—30.04.2022

Sasha here. I started with a simple concept — meet fellow creatives in the morning & enjoy some good coffee and chat. During the first month we had 4 meet-ups in Prague and one event in Bratislava with a total of 19 creatives taking part.

The concept of 6-7 individuals, each with unique experience but with a shared passion for creative work, brought together around the table worked. Each time conversations sparked, topics were discussed and contacts got shared.

All it takes is an open mind and a little bit of sincere interest in the people around your table. I’m extremely grateful to everyone who made this experience possible by coming to the meet-ups.

Made the events special:

Design & Branding: Pavla Kolarova Alina Shupikov Katarina Sopkova (Saaatchi &Saatchi Slovakia) Anna Sun (ByAllMeans studio)

Illustration: Alena Brunhilda Andrea Davalos Martina Fishmeister Stanislava Karpova Ani Lamberova Katarina Malikova Lucie Vanisova

Character design: Anastasiia Chagina Product & environment design : Marie Doucet

Project management: Diana Hezel (dm Slovakia) Lenka Mezulanik (Creative Dock Prague)

Photography: Jonathan Curry Martin Sirotny

Creative work commissioners: Sandra Pázmán Tordová (Nota Bene Slovakia) Tata Ulasenka (Hi, art! store)

My bond with Slovakia started with Sandra and Nota Bene magazine - an NGO that helps homeless people to earn a living and get a home. Naturally, we talked a lot about NGO work including ways to keep emotional balance while working with hard issues as this one as well as how creative work can help the NGO cause become visible and relatable to common people.

In this context Katarina introduced her competition work for Young Cannes Lions which was focused on helping refugees crisis in Ukraine through helping people relate to what a refugee goes through, but in a kind and compassionate way.

Made the event special: Jonathan Curry Diana Hezel (dm Slovakia) Sandra Pázmán Tordová (Nota Bene Slovakia) Martin Sirotny Katarina Sopkova (Saaatchi &Saatchi Slovakia)

Why is the illustration profession not even listed between salary research for creative professions? Is it possible to be an illustrator full-time or does it have to stay a side-hustle forever? Where can motivation be found to produce quality work when the project pay is low? These questions are discussed anytime more than one illustrator gets together and on April 23rd it was 7 of us.

We also talked about the possibility to initiate our own illustration festival that would be better managed and promoted than existing ones in the area.

Made the event special: Alena Brunhilda Andrea Davalos Martina Fishmeister Stanislava Karpova Katarina Malikova Lucie Vanisova

We talked about motivation to start a personal project or even a business that serves a good cause, how to manage your social media and news intake to stay sane in times of heavy and tragic news.

Anna introduced us her project of colouring pages for Ukrainian refugee children created in collaboration with other Czech based illustrators. Tata — about restarting her business while being a refugee herself — she fled Belarus with her family at the end of 2020.

Made the event special: Anastasiia Chagina Ani Lamberova Tata Ulasenka (Hi, art! store)

For the second event we talked about how changing the direction of a creative career takes time, the changes in approach to creative process that allow individual creatives to work in a synergy rather than in a hierarchy, and how a 350 people corporate can be managed in a punk style while imagining and building purposeful companies.

We also talked about approaching change and looked at a psychology tool that helps implement a change into life in a step by step way.

Made the chat special: Marie Doucet Pavla Kolarova Katarina Malikova Lenka Mezulanik (Creative Dock Prague) Lucie Vanisova

Over a cup of coffee we talked about experience of working while travelling as well as experience of working while on holidays and generally discussed the evergreen work/life or life/work balance topic.

We also talked about education and how demoralising the professors blunt and cruel criticism can be along the lines of - “You will never make it in this profession”.

Anna introduced us to the app Native Chats she’s been working on which instantly translates between people speaking different languages, which these days in particular can be a helpful tool for communication between volunteers speaking different languages while working together on Ukrainian borders.

Made the chat special: Katarina Malikova Alina Shupikov Anna Sun (ByAllMeans studio) Lucie Vanisova