DUKE high school was an interesting experience. We were drawing, painting learning about the history of type and art, creating stuff from cardboard and occasionally learning maths or English. I still felt like everything came way too naturally for me in the beginning, but it was enjoyable. I became very convenient with my skills and had a hard time trying to do better because no one was really pushing me to. Even though some teachers tried to, they dropped it too soon and let me do my thing, sometimes they added that I am “very difficult to work with” (I’m talking about art subjects here, in subjects like English or Advertising I was described as very hardworking).

My classmate once told me in a painting class “That’s the thing with you. You came here and knew and can do everything we have yet to learn.” Looking back, I don’t think it was true. I don’t think I was bad, but I do think that my art style was simply preferable for our particular teachers. But oh boy, it was a bad mindset I formed because of all of these circumstances. I wasn’t really improving, because there was no reason. And I was stuck.

During my second year in high school, I wasn’t drawing/creating stuff outside the school that much. We were creating so many things, I was drowning in them. That’s when I started leaning towards marketing and English. Then I signed up for Chinese classes, every Monday evening. I was also reading and writing a lot, helping my friends with essays for sociology classes and stuff. Anything to get away from visual arts.

This settled in the third year when we were choosing the “internships” we needed to complete to pass the year. I have talent in finding the weirdest internships — even though it doesn’t look like it at the first glance. First internship, I was working in workshops of the National theatre. It sounds fancy, but they really didn’t have much work for us. We helped with finishing one coulisse and for the rest of the days, we were chilling in the props room. For the second internship, I was working in a publishing house. I actually did a bit of designing in there — but mostly, my “boss” and I were having geography and history lessons and after that, I did some work in excel or running errands in a post office. Either way, I had my own little office, so it was great. Oh yeah, and I was allowed to publish a very short article in the magazine they were publishing.

source: https://www.kampocesku.cz/clanek/23955/kam-po-cesku-kveten-2018

For the rest of the year I started to shift back to visual arts, but this time it was graphic design. We did a bunch of posters, book covers and brochures — some turned out good, some not so much. I approached it in the same way as a did with fine arts and that simply didn’t work as well as I hoped. I couldn’t easily achieve everything I wanted, because I wasn’t proficient with programs and tools. I learned basics, which was required in school, but I wasn’t motivated (or maybe was too stubborn) to expand my skill. In the end, I was able to deliver the final product, even though the process was kind of messy. I liked the new possibilities of working in graphic programs, in digital format.

My English teacher was really proactive and often organized various events. She held a small literature conference once and since she was fond of me, she wanted me to design a program flyer, a brochure and name tags. I was thrilled because I really enjoy doing random tasks which should not be a priority for me at the moment.

(let’s NOT talk about that mess of a type)

Some more graphics I created in high school ⬇

design for a canvas bag