Paweł Kuligowski

Crossing borders to make fun things work

About

I’m Paweł, and I’ve been freelancing my whole working life. I started out translating legal documents, went on to run the online edition of a luxury magazine, and now I design websites and build them with developers and AI tools. In every project, I take responsibility for the result, and that starts with making sure everyone is on the same page before anything gets built.

Skills

Getting ideas across

Clients, developers and designers understand each other the first time, so less gets rebuilt.

  • Sworn translator since 2007 (State exam). 2009–2013: EN–PL legal translation at CMS Cameron McKenna, where a clause has to mean exactly the same in both languages.
  • MA in English teaching; online tutoring since 2025: explaining one thing several ways until it lands.
  • 2021 and 2022 seasons: responsible for the guest experience at a remote hotel in Ireland.
  • Luxury Boutique: the link between the dev agency, the editorial side and advertorial clients.

Writing that does its job

English and Polish copy that readers understand and act on.

  • Editor-in-chief of the Luxury Boutique online edition: editing AI-assisted drafts, translating and adapting articles into English.
  • Advertorial client outreach: writing that has to win a reply.
  • neoneon.online: microcopy and content written alongside the design.

Turning needs into working products

From a short conversation to a launched site, owning the result.

  • Led the Luxury Boutique relaunch on a custom platform (end of August 2026): supervised the dev agency, guided UI/UX decisions.
  • neoneon.online: concept, UI, design system and user flows; built with AI tools, moved from Tiptap to Sanity with a Next.js frontend.
  • Founded a 360° virtual tour business (2019–2020) and a one-person pizza corner in a Warsaw pub (2023–2024), responsible for every stage.

Visual thinking

Deciding what people see first and where they go next.

  • 2017–2018: studied photography in London.
  • 2018–2019, LPP SA: e-commerce photo sets for Reserved, Cropp and House that let a customer judge a product in a second on a small screen; chose locations, worked with stylists and make-up artists.
  • 360° virtual tours (3DVista, PTGui): choosing where people start, what draws them on and how they move between spaces.
  • Today the same skill drives layouts, user flows and navigation.

Adopting the right tools early

Spotting tools that save time before others do.

  • Proposed translation memory (SDL Trados) for the law firm’s large bilingual document base.
  • Used DeepL Pro 2–4 years before the firm gave all its lawyers DeepL keys.
  • Works today with WordPress, Sanity, Astro, Next.js and AI tools for development.

Experience

Editor-in-chief, online edition, Luxury Boutique magazine

Dec 2025 – now

  • Led the relaunch: moved two years of content from the old WordPress site to a new server and a custom design, with only minor tweaks to navigation.
  • Brought the Polish and English editions together under one domain (luxuryboutiquemagazine.pl), replacing two separate sites. Added a new checkout and user accounts.
  • Changed the editorial line from basic AI-generated texts to sourced, in-depth articles on art and hospitality.

Founder, One-person pizza corner in a Warsaw pub

Sep 2023 – Dec 2024

  • Ran every stage myself: sourcing, dough, setup, cooking in front of guests and service.
  • About 40 pizzas a night, Thursday to Sunday, with regulars coming back twice a week.
  • A seven-year-old guest said it was “better than sweets”.

Receptionist, Remote hotel in Ireland

2021 and 2022 seasons (14 months)

  • Learned the hotel’s reservation system in about two weeks with no formal onboarding.
  • Kept front desk operations and the guest experience running smoothly for two seasons.

Founder, 360° virtual tour business

2019 – Mar 2020 · 3DVista, PTGui

  • Created tours for the Medical University of Warsaw, a top-tier apartment in central Warsaw and a new coworking space in Kraków.
  • Pitched and won two of the three projects myself, one through a cold call.
  • The apartment tour doubled the number of viewing requests.
  • The university tour was never published by the client; I kept the files and can show them on request.
  • Ended by COVID in March 2020.

E-commerce photographer, LPP SA

2018 – 2019 · Reserved, Cropp, House

  • Worked in a three-person team with a stylist and a make-up artist; responsible for lighting, shooting decisions and final photo editing.
  • Shot hundreds of clothing items to fixed daily volumes; designed and built photo sets and chose shoot locations.
  • Co-created two concepts for a seasonal capsule collection that went live after being presented to the product design team.

Photography studies, London

2017 – 2018

Freelance EN–PL translator; sworn translator since 2007

2004 – 2009 and 2013 – 2025

  • Left teaching in 2004 to start my own translation business; passed the State sworn translator exam in 2007. Legal translation for law firms and translation agencies.
  • Work came through lawyers who kept hiring me after moving firms, and agencies I had worked with since before 2009.

EN–PL translator, CMS Cameron McKenna

2009 – 2013 · global law firm based in London, one of the most recognised in Poland

  • Translated commercial, real estate and litigation documents on large projects.
  • Delivered a typical translator’s weekly output in two to three days using translation tools.
  • Proposed translation memory (SDL Trados) for the firm’s bilingual document base; used DeepL Pro 2–4 years before the firm rolled it out.

English teacher

1999 – 2004 and 2025 – now · online tutoring since 2025

  • MA in English teaching. Taught adults and children, including Cambridge FCE and CAE preparation.
  • Prepared two students who passed the English department entrance exams and went on to graduate.

Projects

neoneon.online Live

A blog about writing and UX, designed to be read: clean layout, legible type, self-explanatory navigation. Concept, design system, user flows, microcopy and content by Paweł; built with AI tools; moved from Tiptap to Sanity with a Next.js frontend.

This CV website

Designed by Paweł, built with Astro, GSAP and AI tools. The contrast with neoneon is the point: form chosen for purpose.