 |
Today's featured designer is Ximena Ureta. Ximena Ureta is the creator of iconic designs such as Paper Flight, Marques de Casa Concha and Leyenda. |
| We had the rare opportunity to interview the exalted designer Ximena Ureta who was recently announced as the Designer of the Day by the A' Design Award and Competition. Ximena Ureta is the creator of iconic designs such as Paper Flight, Marques de Casa Concha and Leyenda. We got exclusive answers to our questions about Ximena Ureta designs and design philosophy. |
 |
Ximena Ureta, how did you become a designer?
Ximena Ureta : Since I was little I have Always been very fond of drawing with a pencil and charcoal. I like analytical and very detailed drawings. I especially liked drawing the human figure, in particular portraits in black and white. I soon discovered that pencils come in a wide range of varieties, from 9 H to 9B, I discovered the incredible smell of wood when you remove the tip and I became fascinated with the roughness and different thicknesses of paper. Then I learnt about watercolour, chalk and oil pastels, oils, acrylics and then, as an adult, metal engravings. I have always liked to make sense out of figurative shadows. I would find faces in locks on gates and doors. I would search for shapes in clouds, illustrate beautiful long dresses in inverted wine glasses. I've always liked to explore stains with my eyes closed, shed my consciousness when I start painting. Since childhood, I have been a perfectionist and I am also very hard-working. My complete dedication to all I do is part of my discipline and rigor. Just to say that this laborious and silent approach to the things that I did earn me the nickname of “little ant” that my father gave me when I was still a little girl. My father was a lawyer who loved poetry, especially Pablo Neruda’s, our Nobel Prize winner for Literature. When I was small, I learned by heart long verses and recited them just to please him. It was thanks to him that I learned the harmonious music of the words. My father also loved classical music. Beethoven and Vivaldi took over my house at weekends. My mother since she herself had been a child played the piano and also loved to dance. I am not quite sure where the relationship with art and design surged from. I only know that it lives deep within me. ... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, what are your priorities, technique, and style when designing?
Ximena Ureta : There are many things that I like about design and art. A design in the formal world must have fonts that are harmonious one with another as they help to create the personality of a project. Letters in themselves are wonderful illustrations. It is my absolute priority to use them correctly and delicately. It is also interesting to address a design from the artistic point of view, to explore different techniques in order to find the appropriate language. My favorite tool is always a brush with black ink on great quality paper. I love paper and its textures. Everything becomes more beautiful on good paper. All I have ever designed finally ends up on paper. A good seal and folium always touch me deeply. Digital tools are helpful to represent ideas and this way I can explain to others what I'm designing. The mock-ups in Photoshop are very useful and can express really well almost all the technical resources and colors that I want to use... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, which emotions do you feel when designing?
Ximena Ureta : It is an energy that rotates internally. It commences soft and light. I think that it feeds from my breathing because they both march to the same beat. Eventually, one learns how to surrender peacefully. An inner strength that seeks light... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, what particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?
Ximena Ureta : What I value most in me is my perseverance - even more than I value talent. I don’t know if I am talented but I know that I am disciplined. I like to see my ideas grow thanks to searching until I find them. ... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, what is your growth path? what are your future plans? what is your dream design project?
Ximena Ureta : There are several projects in my mind involving major challenges. Projects with clients that I should address this year. As well as personal projects such as "Paper Flight" which I hope to complete. I'm working on a project called “silent design or design without words". I am very passionate about it. Designs with universal ideas that call for inclusion, which can be enjoyed by people from all over the world from different cultures including adults and children. Designs of peace, sensory and intimate, which convey tranquillity. That invites the viewer to stop and just to look. Only that. I'm happy with what I do. I like the creative freedom I've managed to achieve so far. I know that my clients trust me. It has been a very rewarding process. In the future, I would like to bring together lots of silent designs and make it possible for them to fly. ... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, what are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?
Ximena Ureta : Perhaps I could say that technological tools are very important but that nothing compares to what I can do with my hands...
Ximena Ureta, you are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists, and architects?
Ximena Ureta : I don't consider myself successful. Perhaps I would just like to say that I strongly believe in randomness and when I design I often do so with my eyes closed and find things in places where my consciousness would never let me go. The same happens with gestural typography or colour spots. It's funny what happens when I do it. The laws of harmony do not always act in a predictable way. This tidy harmony does not always act in a predictable manner. Perhaps these laws already exist and the only thing we must do is to decipher them. But they don’t always have a rational or logical order but one that is unconscious and unknown. Perhaps a designer is an encoder or a decoder of something superior and prior. It is interesting to find more than the predictable. Nothing worse than common places... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, what is your day to day look like?
Ximena Ureta : I prepare lists so as not to forget all the things that I must solve during the day. I set myself daily targets. I'm very rigorous when it comes to meeting objectives. I organize important aspects during the morning. In the mornings, I feel more energetic and I have more clarity to efficiently answer design questions. On the other hand, I try to bring together all the meetings in one day, to have enough time to design without interruptions... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, how do you keep up with the latest design trends? to what extent do design trends matter?
Ximena Ureta : Trends have never mattered to me. Nor do I know where my creativity comes from. My nature remains a mystery to me...
Ximena Ureta, how do you know if a product or project is well designed? how do you define good design?
Ximena Ureta : A good design is an expression in itself, it speaks with dignity and elegance. Its resources are original. It should surprise and may even make you smile... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, how do you decide if your design is ready?
Ximena Ureta : My experience and my intuition tell me when the right moment comes. The creative process allows me to see how my projects have matured to the point that they can speak for themselves. ...
Ximena Ureta, what is your biggest design work?
Ximena Ureta : There are several pieces of work that have been important for me. I think "Paper Flight” is very special. It says a lot with very little. It is a visual poem without words, it has a sensitive and essential spirit. A fragment of liberty. A pause. A tribute to simplicity, to the fragile, to the minimum. The small interior space of a visual haiku. I am working on more pieces along the lines of "Silent design" or "Design without words" and I believe that I can make a contribution here. My work is universal and multicultural. An invitation to unconventional creativity and sensory exploration without frontiers. "A rain of wings and star, where flowers and leaves journey as one flock."... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, who is your favourite designer?
Ximena Ureta : These days I'm observing and reading the work of Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect of modest, ecological and sustainable philosophy. Pioneer in the use of plastic, paper, and cardboard used in his works. An utmost master in lightweight construction. Famous for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard tubes. His work with emergency housing as a design solution to house natural or man-made disaster victims is very interesting and creative. The simplicity that characterizes this great architect makes his projects magical. Shiregu Ban, paper, cardboard, and composition... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?
Ximena Ureta : I love and I carry with pride my culture. I live in Santiago, Chile, South America. I think I have a harmonious life, I have managed to achieve a lot in design, as well as in my life as a mother and as a woman. I like my sensitive nature, my female essence. I love silence as well as working peacefully. I believe that my work has a lot of me embedded in it and of my way of looking at life. I want to go back to basics, to what is essential. To what can be done by hand in detail. To the micro, to the instant. To stop. I wish technology would not destroy paper. I wish that paper would not destroy trees. I appreciate working with certified companies that want to be sustainable and respectful of the environment. I can see that my designs and I are made of the same raw material... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?
Ximena Ureta : I would like to be able to design things that harmonize with people’s everyday lives. Small spaces of peace and beauty. That is my mission as a designer. Harmonize and gratify. I do it with small teams of designers, I like to delve deep into my projects without losing control of my creations. I work in silence... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, what are your philanthropic contributions to society as a designer, artist and architect?
Ximena Ureta : I donate my work especially to artists, poets, musicians and photographers who want to undertake a creative project. I have exhibited my work at universities that teach design in Chile and I have worked with students from various universities in my country.... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, what positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?
Ximena Ureta : “Design Award & Competition” is a human platform and high level technology. It is quite surprising, the impeccable reception and specific classification into different categories as well as its broad multi-disciplinary and top-of-its-class judging panel. Also the possibility for the awardees to get close to a global audience made up by adept and specialized press. Thank you so much for all the work. I want to thank this incredible competition for giving us, international designers, the opportunity to present our work to be dignified by you. It has been a wonderful experience, thank you.... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
Ximena Ureta : My studio permanently works on the development of packaging for Chilean wineries. I have been Concha y Toro’s consultant for the last 10 years, working on many of their brands such as Marques de Casa Concha, Trio, Diablo, Casillero del Diablo, creating products such as Leyenda, Reserva Privada, Reserva Especial and Devil´s Collections. It is really interesting to promote, from the design point of view, these globalized brands and many of them world-renowned. ... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, what is "design" for you?
Ximena Ureta : Design, as such, is a creative activity and a result of an investigative process, whose aim is to make objects to be both useful and aesthetic as well as solve a specific problem. And, although the usefulness of the object is fundamental, my work must also be beautiful so that the relationship with the user will be both durable and harmonious. ... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, what kinds of works do you like designing most?
Ximena Ureta : I like working with designs that must be beautiful, designs that pose some kind of a technical and creative challenge, I love creating designs that identify the companies that need them and I like presenting original ideas that can be resolved by the production team. ... |
 |
Ximena Ureta, what was the first thing you designed for a company?
Ximena Ureta : I first worked on a cover of a mass-distribution magazine in Chile. I designed an illustration that got excellent reception. It was my first experience as a designer when one of my designs was distributed to such a great number of people. For the first time, I experienced the feeling of being the visible face of a company and, furthermore, with editorial content. It was wonderful!...
Ximena Ureta, thank you for giving us the opportunity to interview you... To learn more about Ximena Ureta and check more designs by Ximena Ureta as well as to see more Ximena Ureta designs such as Paper Flight, Marques de Casa Concha, Leyenda and Azur visit designeroftheday.com/?223469 |
 |
| We hope you enjoyed our interview of Ximena Ureta. This interview was made possible by the contributions of A' Design Award and Competition - The World's largest and most influential design accolade. A' Design Award is an annual, international design award open to both concept stage and realized works by designers, artists, architects and brands worldwide. A' Design Award and Competition aims to create a public awareness and understanding of good design by promoting the best designers such as Ximena Ureta and their design works worldwide. Visit designaward.com to learn more. |
 REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY:
https://competition.adesignaward.com/designer.php?profile=223469 https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=67954
https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=79209
https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=67933
https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=67953
|
|
|
| |
 VIA:
designeroftheday.com/?223469 |
| |
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: |
|
|
CLICK HERE TO SEE EVEN MORE |
| |
SEARCH
|
| |
|
This article was added on Monday, 13th of April, 2020 at 12.28 pm by author 
