Exclusive Interview With Anna Wojczyńska From Vis A Vis Interior Design Studio

An Inspirational Interview With The Poland Top Interior Designer Anna Wojczyńska

Raised in the traditions of an interwar bourgeoisie family, Anna Wojczyńska lived in the house of her grandparents, surrounded by objects from the golden age of Polish craft.
Like her father, Anna Wojczyńska chose to study architecture and her career was accelerated after she designed the interiors of her friend’s residence in Sopot, and he was especially appreciated her modern bathroom design! Vis a Vis studio was founded in 1991. It was born in the time of socialism when the international design was barely known, the art of craft forgotten, and the only decent design places were folk art shops of Cepelia.

My Design Agenda has the opportunity to interview this Poland Top Interior Designer and we will share everything with you! Keep reading!

Anna Wojczyńska Career

My Design Agenda: How did you get involved in the interior design Industry?

Anna Wojczyńska: This has been my passion since high school. My friends knew it, so they started to ask for some advice, then for the whole project. It happened that one of them was highly talented in the business. He became quickly wealthy and entered high society. Then his rich friends wanted the same interior designer, so my business started to expand fast. Wealthy people quickly began to recognize me and wanted Vis a Vis service.

My Design Agenda: How would you describe your work style? Do you have any kind of signatures that help to identify your projects?

Anna Wojczyńska: Interiors with a soul? The soul is more important for me than any applied decoration – even the less or more “spectacular” or avant-garde. I change my style all the time depending on the site’s architecture and challenges from the client’s requirements.
I design a unique interior for someone who needs a zen space to adjust to overwhelming stimuli in his life. A distinctive design for a businessman to impress his business partners with his achievements. One for a person who dreamed their whole life about a palace-style interior encountered at the start of their career.
I must find a clue for those requests, make it functional, match it to the architecture and add the “soul” ingredient. Finally, the crucial case – when I hear from my customer after many years, even if they have no idea why – they still feel in my interiors very well. Then I knew that everything worked as I wanted.

My Design Agenda: Being in love with our work is always the key to achieving better results. Are you in love with this job?

Anna Wojczyńska: Without this job, my life would be unbearable.

My Design Agenda: What do you love most about being an interior designer?

Anna Wojczyńska: I love to have the moment where I know that I invented something brilliant, then I love the moment that my customer accepts it, then I love the moment when I see it done, and then I love to hear ten years later that they still love the space which I have created, and they have no idea why.

My Design Agenda: What is your philosophy on design and life?

Anna Wojczyńska: Not to make shortcuts. To do what I can as well as is possible and give an authentic, long-lasting value. To constantly push my boundaries. To be curious.

Anna Wojczyńska Inspiration

My Design Agenda: Which major international events do you attend/follow to get the latest novelties?

Anna Wojczyńska: PAD London, International Museums and Art Galleries, Milano Fair, Frankfurt Lighting Fair, Maison & Objet, follow web, Instagram. Be curious and attentive all the time.

My Design Agenda: How would you describe your personal decorating style?

Anna Wojczyńska: Smart, timeless, well balanced!

My Design Agenda: All artists need some inspiration to work, and interior designers are artists too. So, what or who really inspires you?

Anna Wojczyńska: The best thing is to follow an inner voice and my curiosity. Then the inspiration and epiphany can come from everywhere, a burned candle wax color mixture or a mood of a painting. A great project can start from a tiny piece of fabric or old wood. There is no rule. It is essential not to get lost in those inspirations and make a proper selection. It is the inner voice that provides guidance. When you create an art piece, it is the art that takes control over you. Later, it is important to be sensitive and authentic in what you do.

My Design Agenda: Inspiration is something that pushes everyone to create unique things. What makes you see the world in a different way?

Anna Wojczyńska: I think that for many creative persons, this is a mystery. We are like tubes, conduits, like a good radio that connects to the right frequency and transforms data into something unique.

My Design Agenda: If you had to pick one project around the world that you wish it was made by you, which one would it be?

Anna Wojczyńska: Nature.

Anna Wojczyńska Projects

My Design Agenda: How important is a perfect chemistry between you and your clients to achieve the best results?

Anna Wojczyńska: It is essential. Nothing kills more creativity and sucks out all your energy than lack of trust.

My Design Agenda: Choosing the best pieces to compose a project can be the secret to getting the best overall result. Although it seems easy, this is a delicate task and needs full attention on time to execute. Do you have some tips for those who do not know well how to start a challenge like this?

Anna Wojczyńska: Start with small projects. As soon as you see that you have succeeded, go bigger. Learn from your mistakes. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, be curious and experiment.

My Design Agenda: Do you think working with teams in interior design is better or worse than working alone? Why?

Anna Wojczyńska: Doing big projects is not possible without a skilled team. Modern technologies allow the verification of many ideas in an appropriate design stage. There is no sense in learning to be proficient in all disciplines to be a good interior designer. For example, I can have a vision, and to verify it, I need a 3D scene with all lighting calculations – but I do not need to spend hours mastering the shape of this 3D scene. My role is to see the overall image, have a vision, and give people working in my team the chance to add value to our work. The goal is to have a great effect in the end.

Anna Wojczyńska Future

My Design Agenda: Is there anything exciting that you are working on at the moment that you can tell us about?

Anna Wojczyńska: Yes. We are working on several projects now. One is an interior of a modern villa in the Polish countryside, and the other is an interior of an avant-garde villa on Paros, Greece. We are also working with the best, design-sensitive Polish real estate firms.

My Design Agenda: What has been your greatest accomplishment as a designer?

Anna Wojczyńska: The answer will not be as you expect. After all the challenges the job imposes, to still do it after so many years with the same enthusiasm as in the beginning.

My Design Agenda: What goals do you have for the future?

Anna Wojczyńska: I do not set goals as such. It is more the inner voice that attracts me and guides me somewhere. Right now, it would be the use of light and art.

My Design Agenda: Do you have a favorite project or a favorite story about one of your projects?

Anna Wojczyńska: The story goes back many years ago when Poland was not in the EU, and the offer of goods for modern houses was minimal, if not absent. Internet was not yet born. I was designing interiors of a residence for a very wealthy person. He also wanted to change a part of the exterior of his house. We traveled to Hamburg to select thin elevation bricks. In one of the building supermarkets, we chose thin elevation bricks exposed on some hanging panels. The issued bill included transport costs, which appeared to be very high. The order was very heavy and needed a huge truck. My customer paid for everything, and the order arrived soon in Poland. What was our surprise when it came! We ordered whole bricks for elevation instead of tiles presented on the exposition. The panels that we have seen were just an example of color and texture, but how we could know that – we came from a poor country with no shops of that kind. I was terrified, but my creative businessman decided to cut the bricks and have twice as many thin bricks as he thought he was paying for, and he immediately used them all. Since then, Poland has changed, but the lesson to check everything very carefully remained with me for all those years. Also, the need to deepen my knowledge. The curiosity for what is new. What is “behind the border”. My passion started in the libraries where, after leaving my ID card, I could borrow Elle Decoration (in the French Institute) or Interni (in Italian Institute). I flourished, and the new knowledge became the fundament of my future job. Gratefully the country changed, life changed, and we do not need to travel to Hamburg anymore to buy simple bricks. We can be free and not “Another brick in the wall”. To use that creative freedom and intuition is magic that happened.