In the last 15 years, I designed over 500 books for the biggest publishers in Poland. Since 2008 I am a co-owner of a publishing house, Karakter. We publish twenty books a year, and I design almost every single one. They belong to different genres: among our titles, you will find highbrow literary fiction, non-fiction, essays, titles on design, architecture, and art. Hence, I get to try and play with various stylistic approaches. The design of some of the books is stark and minimal, others are much more exuberant. I have a soft spot for American book design, both contemporary and not-so: think Peter Mendelsund, Paul Sahre, Oliver Munday, Rodrigo Corral on the one hand, and Alvin Lustig, Elaine Lustig Cohen and Paul Rand on the other. But I am also very partial to Swiss and German restrained design (as practiced by Willy Fleckhaus and Jost Hochuli). I guess my work is somewhere in between: I like a book to be visible, bold, and daring, but I also feel that as a designer, I should discipline myself a bit.
I also dabble at illustration, and from time to time, I draw a poster on one of my favorite books. Surprisingly they are quite popular. You may want to check them out on Etsy. I live in Krakow, Poland, with my wife Magda (who works with me in Karakter), and two kids.
PS. By the way, my name is pronounced [pshemek]. Nobody, except for Czechs, can pronounce it correctly. Perks of being a Slav.
