Interview with Verónica Vicente Ruiz

Verónica Vicente Ruiz ("VVR") interviewed on Wednesday, 14 June.

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?

VVR : I am a graphic designer specialized in the food industry, specifically in rebranding and packaging. She mentors professional graphic designers and is an associate professor at Cesine University Center. She graduated in BB.AA. from the University of the Basque Country and with a master's degree in MBA & specialization in marketing. Winner of a bronze PENTAWARDS, International Packaging Design Award in the category of sustainable food packaging, winner of an Iron in A'Design Award competition in the Packaging Design category, winner of a National Design Award ANUARIA selection for best logo of product and winner of three ARCAPACK National Packaging Design Awards, two selections for best food packaging and best "ecofriendly" packaging, reduction of materials, recyclable, sustainable production, respect for the environment. Art director and founder of Veralidad studio, before creating her own studio, Verónica was co-founder of Que tono de verde.

How did you become a designer?

VVR : It is a story that comes from my adolescence... while I was studying compulsory education, my teachers told me that I was not worth studying, so when it was time to do high school I was not able, and I listened to what they said and I went to do Administrative studies, when I finished these studies I had several months off and since I didn't want to be without doing anything, my sister who was studying fashion design at that time told me that there was a graphic design course why not look at it. And I looked at it. And I enrolled. And I studied it... and I fell in love... with this profession. Discovering design was when I was encouraged to study for an art degree, already focusing on creativity, with wonderful teachers, it was my first contact with creative people. When I finished and realized that I was not bad at it, on the contrary, I was encouraged to take the entrance exams for the prestigious University of Fine Arts of Salamanca, I passed with flying colors and entered the university. Five years later, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, I returned to the world of design, I began to work in studios and design agencies in my autonomous community, but I quickly realized that in agencies and studios I was not going to be able to develop the work that I liked them and I was missing parts of my profession that I needed to deal with, like talking to the client. This is how my first studio with my sister believes that she also turned to the world of graphic design and now I have my studio where I have wonderful clients and my own creative process adapted to my needs and without losing sight of the client's needs.

What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?

VVR : My priority when designing is always the same: to visually convey what the client wants to communicate in their brand or in their packaging, which is why I give a brief and a moodboard to the client that they must fill out. This is one of the main aspects of my design process, and it is what helps me define an appropriate strategy for each client. This strategy is what defines the idea or concept of design and is the key when designing. As for my technique, it is purely digital, I don't do sketches by hand and something I need before starting to design, properly speaking, is to have all the elements to develop the project, hence in my workflow before starting to design the client You must also send me all the material for the development of the work. When presenting the first proposals, I include texts to the visual forms so that the client better understands the concept and the reasons for my decisions regarding their strategy or design. I have my workflow very defined so it is divided into three steps: management, production, delivery. This is how I keep a constant in all the projects and I activate each step as I progress in the project, in such a way that I know when I have to create or just send emails with feedback.

Which emotions do you feel when designing?

VVR : The most exciting phase of the project is always the time for pure and hard design, the first moments after the previous investigation is when everything flows in my head, I have more information and I am more inspired, it is my moment of creative lucidity and it is when I have I have to start designing because the muses have knocked on my door and want to come out in droves. And what I feel when designing is peace, sometimes mixed with euphoria (especially when I see that everything fits). What I like the most when I am designing is the feeling that the job has been well done, that what I have designed is exactly what the client is telling me in the brief, which is exactly what I had in mind for that client. and that it is perfect.

What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?

VVR : I have to admit that my training was classicist and that has influenced my way of seeing art and design, because I am always looking for the purity of the forms, which for me are in a minimalist style, it may be an inconsistency, but for me makes sense. One of those influences and skill is the treatment of color, I know how they are created, how they are composed and I apply it in my work and it helps me not only to create broader color palettes, but also to understand how to print and how to work in printers. Like the composition, I have internalized the basic principles so much that I apply them without realizing it, something that has made it easier for me to see composition mistakes at a glance. As a designer, my favorite style is minimalism, surely influenced by the history of art from my studies at the Bauhaus school, and especially by the artists of the Artistic Avant-garde era, which was a real discovery for me.

What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?

VVR : My idea for the future is that my business continues to grow, with better clients and myself as a designer. I don't have a route because like a good ant I go little by little and step by step. In the future, what I want is to make a name for myself in graphic design, it's not about being famous, but recognized as a good professional in my field. When I grow up I want to be a prolific and creative graphic designer with my own design studio where I will work with freelancers from different places. I want to be remembered as a good graphic design professional. Right now I would love to design a package for any traditional product from my area, those products that seem to come from tourists, but are the richest, made with a lot of tradition and know-how, I would love for a local business that sells one of these products to revolutionize its packaging. A thousand plans for the future regarding design is to continue growing as a designer, to continue learning, researching, innovating... the limit is in the stars...

What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?

VVR : What I would say to fellow designers who are just starting out is to gain experience, to work hard, not to give up, to keep going, because with hard work and perseverance marvelous projects come out. The warning I would give them is that they learn a lot, this profession never stops learning. To become someone in this profession, you have to work, work hard and not give up, because many people don't understand what we do and we have to fight against it every day. One of the things that I have never been told about in any conference or training is creative blocks, be careful with them, because they can embitter the most wonderful profession there is. Never forget to fill your creativity with experiences. The best advice I've ever had in this world is knowing how to set limits for clients, saying no, it's necessary, and even more so when clients think what to do with drawings.

You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?

VVR : Well, to tell the truth, I didn't think I was successful until a few weeks ago a fellow designer told me that she wants to get where I am, that she was GOD (it's a bit of an exaggeration). As I am a freelance and I am in my cave, I think that I do small things that here from the living room of my house nobody notices my little things, but it is not like that, people see what you work on, and I am not referring to making noise in social networks, I mean answering a question from a colleague on a Tuesday at three in the afternoon, I mean answering a Telegram from a group of designers to help a colleague... Days after this colleague's comment, another designer from the other side of the country told me something similar, that's when I believed it, that's when I realized that I was doing well, that I was reaping the fruits of all my work and my effort. My biggest piece of advice that I tell my students is that we are all creative, don't judge yourself badly, don't treat yourself badly, don't compare yourself to others. We each have some abilities and a way of doing things and of seeing our creativity.

What is your day to day look like?

VVR : The first thing I have to admit is that I am privileged, because I work in what I like and under my conditions, starting from there I have to say that my day-to-day happens like that of any other freelancer, I answer client emails, I review feedback and I correct and design new projects after researching. I am the mother of two small children, so first of all I take them to school, then I go back home to work (I am freelance), I take advantage of their school hours to be able to work in silence. As a good freelance I answer emails, work in my own business and serve my clients.

How do you keep up with latest design trends? To what extent do design trends matter?

VVR : I consume a lot of design online, be it design contests such as articles, interviews, etc... Although I admit that I don't have my own style and I don't follow trends when it comes to designing, but I focus more on the tastes and needs of each client. I don't usually reflect trends, especially because I like timeless designs that remain modern over time, maybe that's why I like the minimalist style so much because it allows this. As for inspiration, I always take it from the previous research that I do before starting to design, I am a designer who prefers that inspiration be caught sitting at the computer and that helps me when it comes to getting motivated.

How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?

VVR : For me, for a design to be considered good, I must see quality and originality. Regardless of whether it follows fashions or not. Personally, I prefer and consider timeless works better, but depending on the sector, fashion rules. To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea... I should say that I have to be very creative and abide by the standards that the consumer demands, but I'm afraid that a successful job in the world of sales may not be so successful in the world of sales. world of designers, and vice versa... a design is liked very much in the professional world, but it doesn't work in sales...

How do you decide if your design is ready?

VVR : A few years ago I would have answered this question differently, now if I know the answer and if I know when a design is ready, it is easy when that design brings together all the aspects that the client wants to communicate in it or the strategy that I have defined for the brand is reflected in that design at first glance. If I can a design is complete, the problem is that someone else can develop that design in a different way and he would change or improve it, but not its creator. My work ends when I believe that it is developed correctly, when nothing is left over or missing, and I never, ever improve work that has already been completed, I have finished with them and therefore they are finished. Whether the project becomes a success depends on many factors beyond my control, above all that the client is happy and the client keeps that design intact over time.

What is your biggest design work?

VVR : Óleo Olivia has been my unicorn, it has given me a lot of joy since starting with the design the first time, which for any designer is a source of pride, up to the different awards that it has won nationally (Spain and internationally). The apple of my eye because I have managed to reflect exactly what the client needed with a super well-defined design strategy.

Who is your favourite designer?

VVR : I must say that due to my training in Fine Arts there are certain artists who for me were the forerunners of graphic design, who are the ones I have as a reference. Artists like Alfons Mucha, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Eugene Grasset etc... who, although they are totally contrary to my way of designing, I can't help but be inspired by their idea of texts as unity, compositions, etc... Of course the Bauhaus school, I love minimalist design, it was inevitable that I like the Bauhaus theory and style. And the artists of the 20th and 21st century that move me are Herbert Matter, Paula Cher, Saul Bass, Burno Munari,... Like Spanish designers whom I admire, Alberto Corazón, Cruz Novillo, Chema Madoz, Pepe Gimeno, Daniel Gil or Isidro Ferrer. And in other disciplines I love Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and the wonderful Zaha Hadid. As you can see, I can't keep just one, because as a good art history student, each and every one has something to tell and you can't buy or choose just one because they all have their own context.

Would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?

VVR : I'm afraid my life isn't very inspiring for future designers, but I'll try to talk a little about it... I don't have a favorite city, I live in a rural environment and I love discovering new cities and cultures, so every time I travel I can't stop thinking that the last city I visit is my favorite city. If music is part of my creative process, and also depending on where I am in that process, I have different music lists that help me concentrate or motivate myself. More than my culture, what affects my projects and designs is my cultural knowledge, but not only of my culture but also of others, which I apply without realizing it. I live in a small town of 300 inhabitants and right now you can see through my window the rocks (lapisces) of the Cabárceno Park in Cantabria, Spain, a magical place for those who appreciate nature. I firmly believe that if a society has more access to culture, it can have a more open mind and be more empathetic and thus achieve a more advanced society. For more than twenty years my life has been linked to design and the world of art and creativity.

Would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?

VVR : I hope that when asked if it is easy to work with me, my clients will answer yes, to date, in the feedback they give me I have had no complaints, I think it is because my work process guides them with my emails on how we are going to to carry out the work, in addition to giving them a work schedule so that they know at the moment that we are in the project. I don't subcontract suppliers, we all work under the same client, so we don't play the tricky phone and I can focus on my designs. What I usually do is provide my clients with co-workers that I am comfortable with, usually freelancers like myself that I try to help. The main challenge of my profession is the ignorance of clients, having to educate them in design and in my profession, the fact that they do not value design in their companies. I think that to be a good designer the main thing is to have aesthetic taste, someone who knows how to handle a design program is not a designer if they do not apply concepts such as composition, color theory, psychology theory, etc...

What are your philanthropic contributions to society as a designer, artist and architect?

VVR : I firmly believe that co-worker designers are not competition, which is why I share with my professional colleagues not only my prices (something very frowned upon in my sector) but also processes, internal documents, etc... that way we improve both. I believe it is important within the profession not to denigrate it or speculate on it, but to value it, that is what I try every day in my business. That is why in my business I have a part that is mentoring for professional designers, to help other colleagues. I teach at a university created by CESINE, where I share all my knowledge with my students and contribute my values to my profession to my community. Whenever I can, I attend design events and conferences, either online or in my city, and I even give one or two, always highlighting my profession.

What positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?

VVR : The visibility that a professional design award gives has an impact that is making my business have other types of clients who are more aware of design. The benefits of participating in a design contest are visibility, customers and this brings money, simple and clear. In addition to giving you a cache and creating a name for you in the world. Not to mention that by receiving prizes of this level you can raise the costs of your services. For a designer it is important that her work is recognized, either because of the ego that from time to time comes in handy, that they remember you, that you have quality and that you should not continue comparing yourself with other professional colleagues. If you want to make a name for yourself in the business, one of the best ways to gain recognition is to win professional design contests. I feel very honored not only to be the Designer of the day but also the recognition of my work, which is the best reward for me.

Verónica Vicente Ruiz Profile