BA. PETR ŠIMON 

Motion & Graphic Designer 

📖 MŮJ PŘÍBĚH: OD DISCIPLÍNY K TELEVIZNÍ GRAFICE

My story in a nutshell It all started back in high school. I wasn't the type to just head home after class and sit around—all my free time went into floorball. Playing in the top junior league meant my life was a constant loop of school, grinding at practice, and weekend games. That was pretty much my life until my junior year. Looking back, that intense routine really taught me how to stay resilient and not just throw in the towel when things don't work out on the first try.

Stepping out of my comfort zone and heading to the US I absolutely loved floorball and it basically defined who I was, but as graduation was getting closer, I felt like the whole routine was draining me rather than pushing me forward. I hit a point where I just needed a massive change. So, I decided to break out of my daily grind and left for a year to study at a high school in Maine. I wanted to get a fresh perspective and figure out what I actually wanted to do with my life. It really forced me to grow up and get independent. My English got to a point where I could just talk to anyone naturally, and honestly, having that extra free time at school is what made me realize how much I love creative work.

Uni life and getting a British degree in Prague When I came back from the States, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. My next steps led me to Teesside University (at Prague College), where everything was taught completely in English. It was a huge shift and a totally different world compared to traditional Czech schools. It wasn't just about designing stuff—we had to constantly talk about our work, present it, and actually defend our creative decisions in front of everyone. It gave me a great conceptual foundation, and I graduated with a British Bachelor’s degree (BA) knowing that I wanted to dive headfirst into motion design and video.

Real-world TV experience at TV Barrandov Right after uni, I jumped straight into TV production. I thought school had me fully prepared and nothing could surprise me, but the fast-paced TV environment immediately proved me wrong :D. Since they didn’t have an in-house graphic designer before me, everything fell on my shoulders. It gave me a ton of freedom to pitch and execute my own ideas, but it also meant I had to answer for everything. I definitely didn't expect that during my very first week on the job, I’d be presenting the visual identity of a brand-new show right in front of the station’s top management. It was a trial by fire, but it forced me to adapt quickly, take ownership of my projects, and deliver under crazy deadlines.

Eventually, I settled in and became a core member of the team. I was responsible for producing most of the motion graphics packages—from the initial concept and 3D modeling in Blender all the way to the final broadcast assets. I also managed the self-promo graphics for the entire station. Some of my favorite projects were the visual identity for a well-known documentary show by Josef Klíma and bringing a popular game show called Šťastná 7 back to life, where I even got to design the whole 3D studio look. It taught me to be 100% independent. To handle that massive workload, I built standardized templates for the daily graphics, which saved us a ton of time. I was coordinating with production every day and dealing directly with clients for ad formats. TV was the ultimate school for delivering polished results under immense pressure.