Rusinek defended her degree in 2006 at the Animated Film department under Professor Jerzy Kucia. Although animation is no longer her principle area of activity, the graphic artist does take on projects involving motion pictures. In 2012, together with Joanna Wójcik, Jarosław Moździerz, Tomasz Godfryd, Grzegorz Wierzchowski, Rusinek created a documentary film entitled The Toy Emperor. Made as part of the Munk Studio and Polish Filmmakers’ Association’s Pierwszy dokument programme, the film tells the story of a toy collector and combines traditional documentary with animation. In the film, animation is employed to make the protagonist’s toy collection, pictures on the wall and postcards come to life.
Joanna Rusinek’s day job on the whole consists of illustration work. She and fellow artist Michał Pawłowski run the Kreska i Kropka studio, which designs book covers, printed matter, brochures and posters, as well as logotypes and corporate identities.
As an illustrator, Joanna Rusinek’s output is extremely diverse. She designed the cover for Wisława Szymborska’s last volume of poems entitled Wystarczy (Enough), and provided illustrations for Dorota Combrzyńska-Nogala’s extraordinary book Bezsenność Jutki (Jutka’s Insomnia). The latter tells the story of a child in the Łódź ghetto, and chronicles the tragic wartime events, seen through the eyes of a very young Jewish girl living behind the wall. Rusinek says that creating illustrations for the book was both a difficult and painful task; the artist chose to keep the resulting drawings within a grey and black colour scheme, and endeavoured to bring out the warmth and kindness surrounding the young girl — from her loved ones — rather than focus on the tragedy.
Joanna Rusinek, illustration for Małgorzata Kur's Seahorse, photo courtesy of the artist
Another project which demanded a great deal of involvement was the illustration work for Agnieszka Frączek’s book Psotny Franek (Mischievous Frankie), written for children aged 5 – 7. It was published as part of a series aimed at encouraging independent reading. To make 'reading' easier for children who may still have problems with their letters, the book contains fewer than 200 words and is written in short sentences using twenty-three basic sounds. Rusinek explains that, in this kind of publication, the illustration tells the story and the pictures can be 'read' — this is why each picture must be full of detail and include minute features which may not be contained in a short text.
