Catharina Bruns of workisnotajob. won’t let you hate your work
Catharina Bruns creates print and screen designs, logos, illustrations, and brand identities for a living.
But with the moniker workisnotajob., her company is more than just a design studio—it’s a movement inspiring people to live a creative life and fall in love with their work. With her inspirational shirts, posters, and other cool products, workisnotajob. aims to ignite a paradigm shift in how people approach “work” so that they’re not just reporting to a “day job,” but, rather, contributing their skill sets and passions to the world.
After graduating from Universität Hamburg, Bruns moved to Canada, Austria, and Ireland, working in search marketing and visual design for other companies. “I was chasing the one career that would let me contribute and allow me to create something meaningful,” she says.
“But then I came to terms with the fact that everything that was expected from me in my nine-to-five did not make me happy,” Bruns says. After two years of working for a large Internet company, she resigned in August 2010 to start workisnotajob., and she never looked back.
“I had to learn that you must create dream jobs yourself, because no one else knows what you dream of,” Bruns says.
So how, exactly, do you create a dream job?
“It’s rather simple if you love what you do—you’ll never see it as a job; it’s your lifestyle,” the Hamburg, Germany-based Bruns says. “Do the work you are born to do.”
DIYBA: How did you come up with the concept of workisnotajob.?
Catharina Bruns: My former job looked great on the outside, but there was little self-fulfillment on the inside. When I think about it now, I always lived by that concept but looked in the wrong place, and that’s why I was always unsatisfied with my “career.” It’s that thing people have who are unhappy in their jobs not because of what they take from them, but because the jobs don’t offer the opportunity to give any of what really lives inside of you. Soon your job doesn’t matter enough, and you feel you can’t contribute in the right way.
What are your tips for loving your work?
1. Work. Find something you love and work on that. Live your art, feed your heart.
2. Be yourself. To be your most authentic and inspiring self, all you need to do is do it your way.
3. Make time to explore and play. This is crucial to the creative process.
4. Conquer convention. Be flexible and willing to think new thoughts. You can reinvent yourself and how things are done anytime.
5. Have fun. Enjoy yourself and trust the process.
DIY Business Association 
