Ximena Ureta (CHL)

ADVERTISING GOLD MEDALIST AND BEST OF THE BEST iJUNGLE GRAPHIC DESIGN AWARDS 2018

xureta@vtr.net 

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1. Can you tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from, where you studied, and where you are at now?

I am Chilean; my country is located in the extreme south-west of South America. I live in Santiago, the capital, which is in Chile’s central zone and it is blessed with a Mediterranean climate, with well-defined seasons and rainfalls concentrating only in winter. My country is renowned around the world for its wine production. Its climate permits us to grow healthy vineyards and produce high quality wines. I feel privileged to be able to contribute as a designer to the creation of wine packaging that is well-known globally, drawing on our immaterial heritage, our culture, our art and legends as well as our “crazy” geography that identifies us as the world’s longest and narrowest country in the world.I have been working as a graphic designer actively and uninterruptedly for more than 25 years in Chile. My experience in packaging designing for Chilean vineyards is extensive and I have managed to specialise in Chilean wine and champagne labels distributed all around the world. Currently, this is my main activity. I focus on highlighting and enhancing the virtues of Chilean wines and sparkling wines. I have studied etching, aquarelle and oil techniques at different times and I have applied these skills to complement my work as a designer.

 

2 .Why did you become a designer?

When I was little, it was very obvious to me that I would become an artist or a designer because of my affinity with drawing, painting, watercolors, portraits, typography, photography and art exhibitions. Those were my interests.

 

3.What designers / things do you admire the most and how did they influence your work?

The Dutch Theo Jansen is one of those people who create with absolute freedom. He has a scientific background and has even affirmed that “the frontiers that separate art and engineering only exist in our imagination”. His works are large kinetic sculptures called strandbeest, beach beasts. These are gigantic frames made with plastic tubes, recycled bottles or wood. They look like prehistoric animals. These beasts are a wonderful sight, they move along the beach pushed by the wind. They look like real beings, with a life of their own. The relationship of his work with the sea and the wind is very beautiful. His reflection, “It was not me who made the animals: I just followed the rules dictated by the tubes with which they are made”, is very interesting.What we call creativity it’s mysterious. There is something interesting in Jansen’s reflection as the creator of his work. It makes me think that maybe these laws of harmony and beauty already exist, you just have to decipher them and they do not always have a rational or logical order, but rather unconscious and unknown. Perhaps a designer rather than a creator is only an encoder, a decipherer of something superior and previous. 4.What qualities should a good graphic design have? Well, like so many professionals who live off their work they should possess many qualities. A good designer should be persistent, patient, creative, intuitive, and free at the moment of creating, empathic, meticulous, observer of other things, but also a lover of beautiful things, an observer of light.

 

5.Can you briefly describe your job.

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 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. 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 favourite 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.

 

6.Best and worst part of your job. 

the best thing is when after trying hard to find an idea, I finally get it. The worst thing is the lack of time.

 

7.Quick Answers.

Favorite movies: Spring, summer, autumn, winter ... and spring again. Favorite musics to work: Jazz Favorite Hobbies: Photography Magic wish: To be able to fly

 

8.What is the best piece advice you’ve had, in regards to graphic or otherwise.

For a person to become an expert talent is not enough, but rather the amount of time dedicated to develop his/her vocation.