Spark Off – Episode 5 – Valentina

PRELUDE

So I’m a graphic designer, I live with ideas. I’m working on mainly branding or just artworking. It can be a different variety of different things.

INTRO

Hello and welcome to Spark Off. Get ready to supercharge your creativity with our brand new podcast, where we have chilled out conversations with the awesome team who bring you alive with ideas.

I’m Zoe Hanson, the podcast lady, here to spark off all the stories that they share. And who doesn’t love a good story?

So I want to introduce you to Valentina,who is the graphic designer at Alive with Ideas. It’s brilliant to have you here. And now the first question, Valentina, is what would you like this episode?

Because it’s your episode. What would you like this episode to be sponsored by? It could be sponsored by getting a stone out of your shoe that’s been annoying you all day. It could be sponsored by your favorite film coming on the telly.

Or it could be sponsored by thinking there’s no milk for a cup of tea, but there is. I don’t know. What are you going to go for? I’m going to go for a couple of them.

So one is going to be the… I think because of my nature, probably the comedy store. The comedy store? Yeah, because I’m a clown. Do you go to lots of gigs then?

No, I like to watch… Yeah. Yeah, I’ve been once to a comedy store, actually, one one in this square. But I like to watch funny stuff. Yeah,

yeah. Where do you do that normally? Do you go to comedy gigs or? No, like you tour, be like just, yeah. Online, at home. Look,

we’re too busy to be going out to gigs, right? And what’s the other sponsor? The other one is like Marie Pierre with the self -growth nerd,

which is a podcast from like an ex -colleague of minor uni. They stopped to be like an illustrator and graphic designer, and she’s now a life coach. She helped me in a massive way like for like finding alignment with you within yourself or like what is your profession,

how you see it, where where you want to go, like change like a lot of my growth mindset, that whole thing, building confidence and all of that.

Building confidence especially because she has a program that was like actually like to be bold, so like taking like both decisions. Okay, so that’s what we need to go and listen to.

Yes. You need to send this to her as well because like you’re a big fan and you’ve sponsored this episode by Self -Growth Nerd. (laughing) – So I sponsored her.

– Right, right. So tell me about what you do at Alive with Ideas. – So I’m a graphic designer at Alive with Ideas and now part -timing three days a week.

I’m working on like different kind of projects and I just actually like started to get my hands dirty with like animations as well, which I had some knowledge like from maybe Covid time and now I’m like just refreshing,

mainly like branding or like just artworking, it can be like a different, a variety of different things. And I think you said that you studied graphic design,

is that what you did at university? I did first illustrations in Rome for three years. That must be an incredible place to study by the way.

Yes, yes it is. It must be quite creative and for artists like you’ve got art wherever you look at, so yes.

So three years illustrations, then I published the pop -up children book. Oh wow. Tell us about that. It’s about cities because I love to travel,

it’s one of my passions, main passion. And so for like the pop -up book we were asked to like create like a mock -up of a pop -up book.

It’s like a guide, a mini guide for kids. Yeah. Through like five, six different cities of the world and then like Tutor was really happy with it and she told me to go to Bologna Book Fair which is one of the main book fair for children and try to see like you might be lucky I can get one published and actually happened like the last second before the final day of the book fair where like Mondadori Publishing

which is basically the most famous publishing house in Italy but like it was co -produced with like an English one because obviously like for the contact for like building the pop -up book of course this was back in 2009 okay so the book is published and then what happens and then no basically nothing like a couple of like probably a workshop with kids.

But it did it spur you on to something else. So I started then like a course in graphic design, but it wasn’t like the same equivalent in the UK.

So if I wanted to come here and look for a job, I had to study again. So you had to do. So I did the London College of Communication then. Okay, and that was in graphic design?

Yeah, design for graphic communication. That’s where I met Marie -Pierre. I mean amazing stuff. So what is it that fuels your creativity?

What gives you that spark? What is it that sort of ignites that passion in you? A lot of things actually. The problem is that actually like there’s too much going on in my head like I’m constantly sparked by anything I see,

and like sometimes it can be like a bit overwhelming, but I guess sparked by anything, like it can be books, it can be like movies,

it can be like bookshops even if I go for a walk in a bookshop. The problem with me is that actually like I don’t, since day one when I started this profession I never found like one thing go design or typography animation now or like started to get into it and this is what actually like the market wants also for you to be but it’s also like a struggle when like sometimes like it’s overwhelming that you want to

start like this project this project this project no i got this idea i got this idea and then yeah so you end up with 54 ideas per project exactly like branding wise Is there a sort of type of client or an industry that you really enjoy working with?

I like mostly like independent clients. Yeah, not corporate, I would say. I like to translate a concept that they have in mind. I like to speak with the clients,

like see what they have in mind. How can I translate with something that is quite different from what you see around because every… into like a visual that can be like color and stuff but mainly like the color and stuff maybe they can come after is more like what actually the deeper meaning that they want to reach.

Give us an example of a client that you’ve enjoyed working with they’ve come to you and said right okay here’s the story what do you do walk us through it? The one I was like really really I’m proud of,

it was like Forney Tubes, which is a street furniture company in London. When I used to work at Generator Hostels, I used to work with this friend Ernest that then became the brand manager for Forney Tube.

So because we always like work very well together as a team generator in general at the time, he said they needed like a rebranding of the company where he just started. He gave me complete freedom with this project because he trusts me 100%.

There is a lot of respect in terms of decisions as well. And also, if we have to decide something together, we always come up in the perfect, I don’t know,

same wavelength. – Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re on a level. – Yeah, so this project was fun like it was divided into two different steps. So the first one was like an initial refresh and then like a proper rebranding.

So just to let the people like get used to like the fact that there was gonna be like something like quite different. Under his guidance obviously we like decision wise when it’s like I don’t know what do you think and like should we do this or should we do that but like he gave me complete freedom and we ended up like the first one it was more like an element visual rebranding keeping the same logo and the same

color the second one it was like a new logo like I did the animation we did like the podcast as well episode like graphics for it I did the mural like and painted amazing in the old office that they had in London into the kitchen and everything,

like a new palette. And now when I see it like on LinkedIn, for example there, because obviously like they needed my help just for the first bit, the branding. – Yes.

– Now when I see it live on LinkedIn, they obviously like people also like implemented some more animation like to social posts and stuff. I like it, it is like,

I’m happy. She gives you a bit of a buzz, right? – Yeah. – Makes you feel quite excited. – Yeah. – Like, I did that. – Yeah. – But I think that, actually, those being few and far between means that you just push yourself all the time to be getting to that point.

– Yeah, definitely. (upbeat music) – So what ignites your passions at life with ideas? – At life, for example,

I’m the same, like I guess like the research like part when I’m involved in the part of the research like for a brand or like when they trust me like for my wild creativity.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wild imagination. Do you ever have to sort of rein it in a bit? Do you ever have to sort of, you know, wind it back a bit and say,

yeah, okay, we can’t go that crazy. Yeah, like, yeah, like chill. Yeah. Yeah. What inspires you?

I’m not necessarily talking about work or just work, but what inspires you? Is it still looking at architecture, you know,

like in Rome like your pop -up book is it those things or is it you know you mentioned the comedy store what inspires you on a sort of daily basis obviously like listening to music like it helps me a lot to get into the mood of like being creative what do you listen to same problem with graphic design I’ve got there like I can listen like from reggae to electronica to I don’t know techno to heavy metal like reggae

and ska like actually anything I don’t have like one thing there’s not one song that you think right I’m that’s gonna get me in the mood no because it depends on the mood right like I and what you’re working on working on yeah like it’s just an explosion of different things like yeah sometimes oh I listen like a lot too probably I’m the only I don’t know if I’m the only Italian listening to this but like German

hip hop okay German rap because I am studying German this is my favorite language since I was a kid so German hip hop right yeah that’s how I started learning German German when I was younger and this is what sometimes like ignites me.

I never thought that we’d end up talking about German hip -hop when you sat in front of me. It’s actually really nice. What kind of layers do you think you have and you see in your sort of personal life or your day -to -day life that translate into your work?

– My daily life, like boldness, like bold lines, for why concerns like that, because I also like I do tattoos as well. – Ah. – Hang on,

hang on, hang on, hang on. You’re a tattooist as well. – As well, yes. – Wow. – Later, 24 /7 work. – Right, we’ve got German hip hop, comedy store and tattooist,

right? I was told I was coming to interview a graphic designer. These are things I didn’t think would come up. What happens with your tattooing? Like, is this a business or is this just something that you do for people that you know?

No, I mean, I’m in two shops at the moment. One in Walthamstow where I live. Yeah. They call Red Snake and one in Portobello, which is called Portobello,

the two empirtics. – Okay. – I go twice a week in Portobello, three times a week, I work for Alive, the rest I’m in Red Snake. – So do you find when you’re doing the tattooing that all of these other things,

all of these other talents and all of these other inspirations come in? – Yes. – Or a lot. – I hope that you’ve tattooed that pop -up book on someone. So this is going to be,

I think, Thursday evening, like actually like I’ve got one of the characters that was in the book. Yes. Which is kind of like my signature character since I was at the illustration school in Rome.

It’s going to be like a cover -up of Atatou. Okay. For the Atatou in bit, well, I love the most his more oriental style. So I like like the very traditional.

about symbology, what is going on. And every time people get to from me, basically I devolve money to Asia on Loose,

which is a NGO that operates in Rome as I had office. And it was my first, first job as a graphic designer when I was there. And that’s how I found through my,

basically a girl I used to live with, Valeria, friend of mine, we used to share the same house in Rome. She told me that she needed a graphic designer over there and they introduced this.

It’s an NGO and they have projects in Tibet, like building schools. They try to keep the Tibetan language alive because it’s another thing that is under threat and they do long -distance adoptions of kids elderly and monks like I haven’t started for like a long time the only thing I can do is actually like do like donations every month with the aim of like actually maybe like adopt a monk or yeah a kid I don’t know

eventually eventually eventually no look it just sounds like that you’ve got so much – You’ve got a lot of love. – You’ve got a lot of heart and a lot of passion to give to all of these things.

How have you kept going when you’ve faced challenges? – In life, I suppose. – In life? – Aye aye. – Aye aye aye. – Aye aye aye. (laughing) – Can you think of some time when you Well,

that’s the only thing we’ve got here. (laughing) – Is there a time sort of in your life where you think, okay, that was the biggest struggle, but that was the time that I look back on and think,

okay, that was when I was at my strongest or I had to be at my strongest. – Usually I think about my mom and keep going. – Yeah, too right.

I’m well done, you, look, You’re amazing. Even though my mum for 20 years didn’t know that I was a toying with. Oh really? Yeah, but there’s a lot of things. I just started to tell her,

like she hates them. She hates tattoos. Yeah, I can now say I started to tell her 20 years later. Well done, you. Do you always have to wear long sleeves when you go home?

I still have to, yeah. And long trousers. Yes, Yes, we share the same room. So, like, you imagine, like, the pain. What are your passions,

sort of, away from work? We’ve talked about the tattooing, the NGO in Tibet, you know, you seem to have lots and lots and lots going on. Yeah, it’s difficult to have something else.

Yeah, like literally sometimes I can’t even brush my hair, but my passions are like traveling if I can,

it would be like my biggest one. Where’s been your favorite? Oh, everywhere. I don’t know. You’re not allowed to have that answer now. Okay. Oh God. I don’t know.

Yeah, maybe like if I had one place like maybe actually I would like to go actually to Tibet to see with my own eyes or I mean like Japan that seems to be quite a buzz place at the moment Japan yeah do you think it’s sort of a bit of a creative hub at the moment yeah and like a stretch of history and like traditions and like really really really curious to temples and like really just stuff them like really

curious to learn more but I otherwise it’s like trumpet I started trumpet when it was like covid time okay I was like what is my favorite instrument like they I really would like to to learn I was thinking about a song that makes me happy all the time there is no one time that the song doesn’t make me happy and yeah it’s like mainly because of it’s basically because of the trumpet So I started to make my housemate

happy, buying a trumpet. I think that you’re onto something here, though, the trumpeting tattooist. Right?

I think there’s something in that, right? Well, I don’t know how to… Learning how to talk to, like… – With German. – But like, trumpet,

I’m very far away because I’m learning like from reading the notes. I was like I was never into like music so like it’s quite hard.

I was gonna say that’s really hard to learn as an adult because I think it’s quite hard as a child let alone as an adult because it’s almost like learning to read again. Yeah a language.

It’s something different. Yeah a new language. So What advice would you give to someone who is looking to get into the creative industries or let’s say graphic design?

I know graphic designers, they didn’t go to uni and they’re like quite successful. But my experience personally with like university was super positive,

like I always think about like going back and do like some I don’t know masteries or something because I was really happy to be involved to be like inside the uni like gave me a lot like I think it’s quite obvious as well you feed off creativity and you want to learn more yeah exactly I can see that with you and all of these things that you’ve sort of Talk yourself and you need that all of the time.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah I like to be like in an environment where like everyone is learning Everyone is learning from each other from I don’t know. There are like people from all over the world obviously like I was really happy like to have the chance to like be surrounded by like all these Super creative people from all over the world.

It was like a great experience. I met my best mate here, so I couldn’t be happier. If you were going to do a TED talk,

what would it be on and why? I could see you doing this by the way, whatever it is. I want TED to have because I talk a lot. I’ve been taught before that I can do long monologues for my ex -boyfriend.

You jumped him, didn’t you? Yeah, good girl. I’m still working on this question, but I think either like how mental health affect creativity.

How mental health affects creativity? Obviously, like the more you are productive when you are like mentally okay, right? Like for creative people it’s difficult to be like in a bad mind space.

Yes. If you’ve got like issues, I don’t know, like in your private life, home, health, I don’t know. How would you still be paid to be a creative yes when you actually like a suffering of mental health yes this is around the other way as well I suppose so how mental health affects creativity but how creativity affects mental health it’s sort of yeah they both give to each other don’t they yeah yeah yeah then you

have to be careful that know that Creativity is not eating you alive. – Right, right, right. And you especially. – Yes,

yes, yes. That would be really, really interesting actually, because people always talk about, okay, do this for your mental health, but actually flipping it on its head and saying,

okay, when you have bad mental health, this is what it does. That’s a really interesting subject because like if you are in a bad space with mental health how would how can you keep going like in a creative environment or does the creativity help you to like actually alleviate a bit like mental health does or makes it worse because then like you burn I think you need to do that TED Talk.

Okay. All right. I mean, it might just be another episode of the podcast. I don’t know. But it definitely needs to happen. Now I’m enjoying it.

Some absolutely fantastic insights there. Thank you so much, Valentina. Thank you. I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing all about Valentina and her creativity and where it comes from and what she does with it.

OUTRO

Now for all things strategy, content, creativity and workshops, Alive with Ideas is in your corner so check out their website and follow Alive with Ideas on LinkedIn to find out more.

Make sure you subscribe to the Spark Off podcast And thank you so much for listening.