Ciao! I’m Anja, an award-winning art director, designer, and marketer with a strong strategic mindset. For the past 13 years, I’ve been working in the field of advertising and branding.

I was once told that I’m obsessed with brands, so I made it my entire personality.

On a daily basis, I’m just a regular kid from the block who can’t survive without coffee, pasta, and gummy bears, and who fiercely defends the fact that carbonara is not a matter of opinion and that black is a vibrant color.

I wrote and illustrated my first storyboard for a commercial in the fifth grade. It was for Nokia N-Gage and it earned me a solid A. That was the moment when I realized I wanted to work in advertising, though I was still torn between that and becoming a professional diver. But we all know how that story played out.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working for two of the best European studios in marketing, advertising, and design: Design Group Italia (Italy) and Futura DDB (Slovenia). Being a co-founder of the award-winning brand I Like Tofu and founder of Bitchy Club has allowed me to develop a keen understanding of how to build a brand from the ground up.

Beyond art direction, I mentor and lecture, collaborating with Anja Svetina Nabergoj (Stanford & University of Ljubljana) and write columns for the most important Slovenian magazine in our field - Marketing Magazin.

I recently leveled up my strategic expertise at Miami Ad School’s Strategy Planning Bootcamp and finished that 10-week-long program with the Top Dog title.

Hope you’ll enjoy reading my content and please don't hesitate to DM if you have any question or just want a creative chat.

Your favorite art director!

Ob koncu lanskega leta sem si na seznam ciljev za 2025 zapisala "1 videocast", pa je vesolje malo spremenilo plan in je v začetku novembra v moj inbox priletel Larin mail s povabilom na Metro Minutke.

V daljšem zapisanem intervjuju in krajšem videocastu govorim o tem:

💬  kaj je bistvena razlika med produktno in osebno blagovno znamko,

💬 zakaj je Oatly res tak neverjetno dober primer, ko želimo spregovoriti o re-brandingu in tem kako komunicirati z vizualnimi elementi,

💬 zakaj bi morali več in bolj načrtno javno govoriti ter opozarjati na mentalno zdravje v kreativnih poklicih,

💬 pa malček tudi o tem kako in zakaj je nastala moja druga blagovna znamka Bitchy Club, ki jo še vedno rada uporabljam za primer.

Itak je 1 ura zame absolutno premalo, ko govorim o teh stvareh, ampak vseeno verjamem, da sta intervju in video nabita z zanimivimi informacijami.

🔗 članek z videom najdeš tu: https://lnkd.in/dBz-nWjt

Lara Paukovič in Metropolitan Slovenija hvala za povabilo ♥️

Anja Korenč

Journalist at Adria Media Ljubljana

Metropolitan Slovenija

Independent award-winning art director / ex DDB / Miami Ad School Top Dog 🐶

I’ve been told “Your work is not good enough.” or “You lack __ skills.” or “You should do this better.” numerous times throughout my career.

And it wasn’t necessarily at the beginning, it still happens today — despite my accomplishments and track record.

But it was always from people who were hiding behind emails, other people or have never even worked with me. Even tho they never had the capacity of giving the proper feedback, I believed them. Because it was easy. It’s always easy to doubt yourself!

Did these people teach me anything?

No. Nothing!

People who taught me the most didn’t sugarcoat any feedback, they were brutally honest yet exact, they showed me the way and they were patient with me. 

But most importantly, they saw me in action.

A friend told me that the most important thing is what YOU believe the truth is and how you present yourself to the world.

And that has been stuck with me ever since ⚡

In every interview there are quotes you prefer more than others.

I re-read the interview I had for Metropolitan Slovenija and chose quotes from my answers that resonate with me the most.

Enjoy!

Quotes From an Interview For Metropolitan.si

I was waiting for December to write this post ✨🎄 

While checking on all kinds of Christmas campaigns and seeing all kinds of festive marketing activities one question was spiraling through my mind:

What's the whole point of Christmas?

And the only answer I have is:

Authenticity in the purest form.

I'm Pisces which in translation means hopeless romantic with strong sense of nostalgia. And end of the year it's time when I'm particularly nostalgic. Because of that I'm a big critic to all marketing activities that don't meet even the slightest form of authenticity.

But I'm glad that every year there are some companies which understand the meaning of holidays and create masterpieces that bring tears to our eyes.

Let me highlight two, because these two stole my heart:
🎅 John Lewis - the importance of connection
🎅 Apple - nostalgia, magic and fairytale

But both are wrapped in an emotional narrative that leave you warm and happy.

In the world full of AI, I'm glad that some still seek for proper insights, ideas and real human craft.

🔗 You can find links to both videos in the comment section.
📸 https://lnkd.in/dAUaDMcy / https://9to5mac.com/

Think about the visual identity system rather than just visual identity‼️

The term ‘branding system’ or ‘identity system’ is widely used in the branding world, and when you, as a designer, receive the creative brief and strategy documents, it’s important to start creating with that term in mind rather than focusing only on a logo, fonts, few colors, and photography direction.

Recently I’ve put together two creative concepts for two new brands.

Designing everything with a system in mind helped me create visual elements that act like ‘bricks’.

These bricks allow me to put together visual communication that make sense, include all the hierarchical elements every visual identity needs, and create a playground for developing the various applications the brand requires.

A finished visual identity system should:
🍔 be easy to understand,
🍔 look simple and consistent,
🍔 be easy to use,
🍔 convey a strong brand narrative,
🍔 make designers using it be faster.

On the other hand, these kinds of visual identity systems are usually not easy to create. You definitely have to do your homework, which means a lot of research.

So next time you’re tasked with creating a visual identity, think about how to build a system. Put your hands in the mud, start digging, and come up with something simple yet magnificent.

——

👋🏻 Hey I’m Anja, an award-winning art director with strong advertising, branding, and strategy knowledge.
🎤 I’m also a speaker, lecturer, and columnist.
💌 Contact me if you want to talk about your project or collab with me in any way.

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