We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aleksei (Alex) Koren. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aleksei (Alex) below.

Alright, Aleksei (Alex) thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I have been working for the same company almost 10 years, good company, good salary, good benefits, decent team. But over years the dynamic in the creative team, and requirements and expectations changed. We experienced lay offs, smaller budget for creative team, and bigger expectations of what we supposed to do. I felt that we were becoming less and less creative, and more and more content managers. Recently I had another company reaching out to me, with bigger salary, but it is a contract work, so less benefits, vacations, perks, etc.
but I talked with my wife and we agreed that even though it is a risk, and a bit of an uncertainty, but having less stress, being more creative and more relaxed makes it acceptable.
I submitted my resignation, and accepted new offer.
We’ll see in the future if it was a right choice, but I truly believe, that if we don’t take risks, and always try to be safe and secure, we can miss on change and development.
Let us be brave and accept the change, and let not the complacency and comfort hold us back from what we might become, and how we can make this world a better place.

Aleksei (Alex), before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Aleksei (Alex) Koren. I was born in Minsk, Belarus. I went to an elementary-middle-high school that had an art a major part of the studies. After that I studied Architecture in BNTU (Belarus). After Soviet Union collapsed, there were a lot of young Architects without jobs, so I found a job as a junior graphic designer and worked for 6 years in different advertisement agencies. For 9 years after that I worked as a volunteer in Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and later in US and Mexico. After all that my wife and I decided to settle in Houston, TX, and I had to restart my career as a graphic designer and illustrator. It was pretty rough first couple of years, since I didn’t have a lot of experience working in US. But slowly, I found a good company where I learned the process, how to ask right questions, value my work, and my contribution to the team, how to present my work and respect opinions of others. I believe that my faith, support of my family and friends, and desire to grow and to not give up, helped me on this journey. I worked for small and big businesses, even started my own business, but it didn’t grow as expected. I did almost everything over the years: posters, billboards, brochures, logos, vehicle wraps, trades how graphics, book covers, digital and traditional illustration, packaging, case studies, product sheets, infographics, presentations, interactive brochures, children book illustrations, even UX design.
I feel that graphic design is an amazing field, and nowadays it is extremely important to collaborate with other disciplines, as it will make your design stronger, clearer and better.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think just doing a good job as a designer, something that you’re proud of, and sharing it on social media, or with other designers or coworkers, maybe even when you don’t think it is great. Also being honest and kind to others, but firm and being able to say no, especially if it something that is deeply important to you, like your faith, your convictions, moral standard, or justice.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

At one point in my career ( long time ago) I felt like I am a great artist and designer, so I don’t have to bend or compromise, if I feel that something should be done certain way. But over time I realized that no matter how talented or wonderful you are, if you want to grow and learn, you need to accept that we all have our experiences and unique way in life, so we can always learn from each other, and make things better. So it’s not just about me or my way, but rather how we all can make things better for everyone else and that means we have to listen to each other and sometimes step back and see if maybe there is a better way, or better idea.

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkoran
• Other: https://dribbble.com/aliaksei-koran https://www.behance.net/alexkoran