Nicholas Sedlazek

Visual Designer, Riala Studio

New York City

Design was never in the spectrum of possibilities in which I was aware of pursuing when I was young. But after a while, I realized that what I was interested in are apart of fundamental principles of design, and has allowed me to develop a craft within design.

One of the earliest interests of mine which I completed gravitated toward was photography. I feel this was a huge gateway into other disciplines I now pursue. I would, and still photograph the places I travel and focusing on large abandoned facilities and hospitals wit the intention of producing photography books and printed materials which I gave to my friends and build brands around. During this time, I was creating brand materials and holistic toolkits for companies and startups for them to build from a style guide. This was during the time I was attending the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, focusing of typography design under Mike Abbink, who taught me the craft of typeface development and brand strategy.

As this progressed, I found interests in user interfaces and what we as humans can produce with the materials we have at hand. How I could take digital interfaces and attach them and enhance physical spaces and objects. Growing up, I found interests in building motorcycles and mopeds. Holding onto this skill, I found myself adding a new dimension of interface and experience to these motorcycles and cars I would be tinkering with at the time. This took place during the second half of the my education, which was taken place at the Savannah College of Art and Design. As I was learning experience design and mobile application development, my projects ultimately landed me amazing opportunities to intern and work with Apple Inc, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and now currently at frog design. I am very thankful for the people who I’ve been able to learn from and the projects I have been able to work on.