Janine Kopatz

SHORT BIO

I grew up in East Berlin when it was still weird. When everything was shifting from 'how it used to be' to 'what could be'. Back then Berlin wasn’t a tourist walhalla, but it exuded beauty and ugliness, regained freedom and new ways of expression which shaped my young mind.  

After spending most of their life in the USSR, my parents were hungry for the world. To them ‘freedom’ meant going wherever you want to go. So we spent our summers travelling to foreign cultures or moving home to different countries in Europe. The constant changing of my surroundings taught me to keep my mind open, to always trust my gut and to question what seems evident. 

Expanding my horizon is still my fuel. I love to learn and experience as much as I can and I tend to move on to new things once I feel I got the knack of it... a tendency that turned me into a Jacky Of All Trades. But graphic design somehow stuck with me over the years and it remains a precious skill in my life.

Virtually anything can spark my fascination: biology, sociology, language analysis ... but I chose to follow my desire for aesthetics and studied Visual Arts. This turned out to be one of the most important decisions in my life, because art taught me to really pay attention to the world around me. Creative projects provide the perfect context to make the most out of my researcher's attitude and associative mind.

I'm currently:
working as a (freelance) graphic designer
teaching students at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences
the co-founder of a Belgian Waffle House in Mexico
participating in different research projects about inclusion