Matej Hrček: a designer who is very satisfied with Mac
»Without a good technology and the consciousness of its possibilities, even a very good designer's idea comes out in a pretty bad shape.«
Matej Hrček devotes a great part of his life to designing. First he attended The Faculty of Electrotechnics in Ljubljana and later The Faculty of Architecture. »During the studies of electrotechnics I was missing the creative elements and that is why I decided to study architecture as the graduate of the electrotechnics. I must say, it was a good decision,« explained Matej. Already during his studies he got working experiences in the lab for the desktop publishing at the Cultural Artistic Society France Prešeren, where he collaborated at projects supported by the Institute for the open society. Here he met Mac computers for the first time. They were very expensive at the time, hardly accessible for the distribution and mostly imported from America.« Few years later he started to collaborate with Gospodarski vestnik, where he was setting the info graphics, different enclosures, adds etc. He collaborated with different publishing houses –Študentska založba, Društvo Apokalipsa, Maska etc. – where he design books and took care of the Layout and PrePress. He collaborated at designing and forming of the Beletrina’s Dramatikon, which is special because of the creative layout of the text that should facilitate the learning of drama texts for an actor.
Today he works for the marketing department of the Slovene representation of the German company BSH house devices. This company was founded by Bosch and Siemens, and it is specialized for the production and distribution of domestic appliances. »As a graphic designer of trademarks of home devices Siemens, Bosch and Gaggenau, I take care that their products are on Slovenian, Albanian, Bulgarian and other south-eastern markets represented uniformly and are in accordance with global creational guidelines,« Matej described his work for a company BSH Slovenija. »Most often I deal with the design, layout and PrePress of different presentational catalogues for individual lines of products, with adaptations of adds, with fliers for authorised vendors and with other printed matters.« In the company a lot of attention is devoted to saving of the energy, which demands the development and the upgrading of the concepts into the creative communication adjusted to the market that would successfully report this idea. That it why during his working time he tries to bring many options for the creative thinking, where he finds a lot of support from his co-workers in the marketing department.
He is also employed in the family company Biro Stara Ljubljana, which takes care of the graphical design, layout and PrePress of the magazine City Magazine. The magazine such as City Magazine according to him has to follow all the newest designer guidelines on the European market, because it wants to offer more to its readers. This is even more important at the special edition of the City Magazin, which is mostly devoted to designing. The Apple Hardware and Software are very helpful for the whole team that prepares both magazines. »In Biro we do all the work on 15 different Mac computers. We have everything, from Mac Pros to laptops MacBook and MacBook Pro. We don't have PCs,« Matej described his working environment. Biro Stara Ljubljana d.o.o. uses the Apple solutions for projects of architectonic, spacial and urbanise planning.
For almost ten years he does his work on Mac. For the transition from the PC he decided because of the problems with the hardware and unreliable functioning. He couldn't afford that at his work and that is why the decision for a computer transition was simple. He likes the programme working environment, which offers the Apple newest operational system Leopard OS X. Later he tells that his field of possibilities for bigger working efficiency was expanded with functions, such as Time Machine, which saves all the important documents, in Quick Look, which enables the preview of the contents of documents without running additional programmes. Searching for saved files on the computer facilitates the tool Spotlight, which he described with one word: »Excellent!« During his work he wishes to concentrate on those things that are really important. »At that time I don't want to be worried about anything else.
The Apple operational system influences positively my work, besides that on Mac all the necessary tools for my work function better than on PC,« he adds. At the moment he does all his work on the laptop MacBook Pro, which no matter where, serves him as the functionally whole mobile office. He often uses it in the combination with the 23-inch Apple LED Cinema Display screen. He often variegates his work with listening the music with the programme iTunes. When preparing for printing he uses programme packages QuarkXPress and Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Standard, the final look of his work he checks with the help of Xerox WorkCentre printing machine. Sometimes, mostly on journeys, he still uses his old 12-inch Apple PowerBook G4 laptop, which still functions perfectly despite its old age.
When preparing for printing he uses programme packages QuarkXPress and Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Standard, the final look of his work he checks with the help of Xerox WorkCentre printing machine. Sometimes, mostly on journeys, he still uses his old 12-inch Apple PowerBook G4 laptop, which still functions perfectly despite its old age.
»Without a good technology and the consciousness of its possibilities, even a very good designer's idea comes out in a pretty bad shape,« says Matej. »I was always interested in new programmes, their improved ways of functioning and possibilities that they offer at work. In my profession such education is very important.«
The energy for the new achievements he gets from ''windsurfing'', which is one of his great passions. If he had possibilities, Matej would variegate every week with surfing. The moments on this adrenaline regenerator, he later experiences with help of the programme package iLife on his Mac.
Tools that he uses:
- Apple MacBook Pro 15,4''
- Apple LED Cinema Display 23''
- Apple PowerBook G4 12”
- Xerox WorkCentre 7655
- Leopard OS X
- Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Standard
- QuarkXPress 7.5, 8.0
- Linotype FontExplorer X