Is Digital Life Becoming Reality!?

Early examples of graphic design can be found in ancient manuscripts—and even in prehistoric cave paintings. With the invention of the printing press in Europe, humanity was able to reproduce text, art, and design on a mass scale and at relatively low cost. The ancestors of modern companies noticed how such visual elements could influence buying behavior and raise profits. That’s how modern graphic design was born.

Today, the graphic-design industry spans many different disciplines. It’s an exciting field that constantly evolves, but its adaptive nature can make it hard to pin down exactly what graphic design is—and what kinds of work professionals do.

Graphic design is a form of applied art that usually combines typography, illustration, photography, and printing to convey an idea or message visually—for the purpose of informing, persuading, or educating. It also plays a key role in creating a company’s visual identity, covering all graphic images and “visual” components of a brand’s image. Anything clients can see and link to your business can be part of that identity (logo, business cards, email design, product packaging, website). Graphic design also has a major role in creating NFT tokens, which represent unique assets in the digital world.

Today we’re talking with Stefan Prodanović from Design Stockers, who is also its founder. Through this interview Stefan will share his business story and clarify some of the terms we’ve mentioned—terms that many consider the digital, and perhaps real, future.

‍Virtuo: Stefan, you’re 26, and for almost two years you’ve been running your own company. Tell us about your beginnings and how you entered the world of design.

‍Stefan: I started doing design about ten years ago. At first I created 2-D elements for mini-games, then 3-D models, and later found my place in graphic design, which is what we still do today. The moment I began packaging my knowledge into services for various clients was the point when my hobby started to take the shape of a profession.

‍Virtuo: Since you worked as a freelancer for a long time, give us a comparison between freelancing and operating as an LLC—name the pros of each model!

‍Stefan: Aside from the bureaucracy that an LLC brings, there isn’t much difference. Switching to a legal company structure was necessary for business growth and hiring staff. The biggest change is in the work itself: nowadays I do less graphic design and spend more time on management and organization—tasks that, honestly, aren’t so demanding when you’re freelancing on your own.

‍Virtuo: How long have you been in business, how many people are on your team, and what activities are currently in focus?

Stefan: We’ve been around for about a year and a half and currently employ six people. We provide various graphic-design services, but logo design and creating NFT collections are our two primary areas.

‍Virtuo: Could you explain the concept of NFTs and their potential from your viewpoint?

‍Stefan: An NFT is much more than a picture of a monkey, the way most people might see it, because those pictures played a big role in promoting NFTs—mainly due to the high prices at which they sold and still sell. Those images are just the collectible side of NFTs, where someone is recorded on the blockchain as the owner, enabling quick, easy authentication of ownership—something traditional collecting can’t match. Also, the artist behind a project can receive royalties from resales of the work. The real potential of NFTs lies beyond that—in applying smart contracts in the real world and moving paperwork and protocols onto the blockchain.

‍Virtuo: The arrival of the Metaverse is being announced. Is that a solid prospect for designers like you, and can we expect demand for your services to expand?

‍Stefan: The Metaverse certainly sounds exciting, but we are still far from its real implementation. Many companies are developing their own versions of the Metaverse, and we don’t know how compatible assets from one will be in another, or whether third-party imports will be allowed and to what extent. Coding and 3-D realization play a bigger role in building these spaces, but if companies like Facebook leave room for advertising in their Metaverse—and they certainly will—that will create extra room for designers and demand for their services.

Thank you, Stefan. All that’s left is for us to admire the energy, enthusiasm, and courage of this young entrepreneur and wish him a long, successful career bridging the digital and real worlds!

Enjoy the gallery of works by Design Stockers—the NFT Factory!