Daily Inspiration: Meet Stephanie Kasprzyk

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Kasprzyk. 

Hi Stephanie, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I always enjoyed art in elementary and middle school, but I hadn’t truly considered it as a career option. The fear of being a “starving artist” has kept most people from pursuing creative paths. In high school, I had no clue what I wanted to do. I liked art though, but I was worried about having a stable, reliable career. Having previously attended a private school, I was encouraged to take certain career paths, but they just didn’t fit me. So, I had to do a lot of my own research and dig into creative paths and art schools. I found the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. As I dived further and further into college applications, I knew art was right for me, I just didn’t know what art was right for me. 

Initially, I began CCS as an undeclared major. Finding what I wanted to do – or at least start with – was extremely difficult. As undeclared, I did projects that related to different majors at the college. The project that most stuck out was the Product Design related one, so I decided I would start there. I always enjoyed learning how things work, how they are made, why things work and do the things they do. And for the most part, I was happy with product design. 

Outside of high school and college, I was simultaneously doing photography for the local hockey team my brother played for. While I was at the ice rinks for his games, I would see parents trying to take pictures of their kids playing, while still talking to other parents and watching over their other kids in the stands and paying attention to the action on the ice. Based on the pictures my parents and I were taking on our phones, I knew they weren’t high-quality photos. Then I saw photographers at tournaments who would take photos and sell them to parents right at the rink. I had just gotten a camera and I realized I could do that, too. So, I started taking photos during the games. Looking back now, the photos really weren’t that great. I was still learning how to use a camera and I wasn’t doing much editing. But as time went on, I improved greatly and shooting, and editing became one of my favorite things to do. 

During my years as an upperclassman at CCS, I also began doing portrait work outside of my sports photography. 

At the end of junior year, I officially declared a minor in photography and creative entrepreneurship. Photography because I love doing the entire process. Learning how to take better photos, edit better and more efficiently, etc. Photography is something I can easily get lost in for hours. Creative Entrepreneurship offers a bit of business background in relation to being creative. It also pairs well with working in product design and photography. 

But I slowly began realizing that I enjoy photography more than I enjoy product design. I feel a stronger calling, so I’ve been putting more of my time and focus toward photography. I’ll still graduate as a product design major, but as long as I have the skill for it, I can do photography as well. 

As graduation creeps closer, I continue to search for what I want to do, both in my career, but also in my life. So, the road has been a little messy, but trying to find what you want to do isn’t always a straightforward path. And in the grand scheme of things, my career is just getting started. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has not been smooth at all. The biggest, most over-arching difficulty has been finding what makes me happy. My mother always told me, “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” And while she meant that in a supportive way, it is pressuring to find the thing that makes you happy. 

When you are graduating high school at 18 years old, how are you supposed to know what you want to do for the rest of your life? You just got your driver’s license. So, I felt a lot of pressure about choosing the paths I take. 

It is also hard to figure out what you want to do when others critique your work and how good of an artist or designer you are. My professors place a lot of emphasis on getting internships. Then, when I applied for internships after my junior year and I wasn’t getting them, I became very insecure about my work. It was one of the factors that pushed me away from product design and closer to photography. However, I keep pushing because I have supportive people around me who do like my work, and I know there has to be someone or some company out there that likes my work too. 

As I began the transition from product design to photography, I felt more like I am doing what supposed to be doing. I am still really nervous about making those decisions. But as graduation grows closer, so does finding a job that I will hopefully enjoy. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve worked in many different mediums: painting, drawing, sculpting, ceramics, and photography (sport, portrait, nature). For my high school portfolio, I featured mostly drawings and paintings of endangered animals to bring more awareness to the cause. Sustainability and environmental awareness are something I still try to incorporate into my product design projects now. 

In product design, I design for more than just solving surface-level problems, often incorporating education, sustainability, and inclusivity. Products don’t have to do just what they are meant to do. A child’s desk can be more than just a place to do homework; it can also teach. Soccer cleats can be more than just cleats; they can offer more inclusivity to the sport. 

Having worked in so many mediums, I’ve learned and seen overlap in the artistic fundamentals (light, designing in 2- vs. 3-dimensional space, etc.). It’s also allowed me to be super versatile in my career. I’m not stuck with one medium; I can bounce around or combine mediums to accent each other. Luckily, photography overlaps with a lot of other mediums, especially product design (product photography). 

I have several projects and photos I’m proud of. I really love my Kippen Haus product design project. I also have several of my favorite photos on my website – specifically gravitating toward my sports photography. (https://stephaniekasprzyk.wixsite.com/portfolio) 

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I would deem my ambition to be the most important quality of my success. My ambition influences many of my traits including my organization, focus, and discipline. I always want to produce good work. Work that is good for the world – useful, sustainable, educational, etc. – but also good quality. With my work representing who I am and what I offer, I want to make a good impression. 

My drive has made me perseverant to challenges in my projects. Being in a creative field comes with a certain level of subjectivity. Everyone sees aesthetics differently. So, you face a lot of criticism in art school and the real world. It’s hard to learn not to take it personally when your work is so often a reflection of yourself. And while criticism does often get to me, I remain resilient. My work had been good enough to get me here, so I’m good enough to carry on. 

My ambition has also driven me through difficult times in my design process. As a designer, you often go into a project thinking there’s one solution, but as you research and develop that idea, it may not be the best solution after all. So, you are often times changing the direction of the project until it is right. That “right” feeling is usually instinctual for me. I know I’m there when it clicks. Sometimes it’s the first idea, sometimes it’s the 30th, but when I feel it, I know it’s right. That is when the project really gets exciting and I feel really connected. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stephaniekasprzyk.wixsite.com/portfolio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniekasprzykdesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephaniekasprzykdesign