Chiara

Q%Do think about your future in detail or do you just go with the flow?

A%I have ambitious and vague ideas about what I want to do in the future. But I usually wait for whats coming. I try to live in the moment and work, and work and work and If I see an opportunity, I just take it.

Q%Could you specify your “vague Ideas” a bit?

A%Creative Director, or a videographer actually. I would be willing to travel anywhere in this world for my ambitions, or something that I am pursuing. But it’s hard to imagine where Im gonna end up in the next five years. I might go back to London or stay in the netherlands …

Q%Get a Job or full-time studys?

A%I prefer to work alongside my studies. It not only gives me more pocket money, it also gives me more experience in managing my time, and learning things outside of the academic field. It helps me to step away from my studies from time to time. I think thats really important- Having a life outside of your studies. You can be many other things then “just a designer”

Q%Whats your thematic focus right now?

A%The topic of my latest work is self destruction, punishment, love, guilt and shame. I chose it because my study programm pushes us into the discomfort of working with your personal topics. Since you get very simple and vague tasks, you have to fill them with yourself. This also helps a lot with my personal development in a way, beacuse dealing with myself in this creative context is a way of personal reflection too. At the same time, it helps me constructing my creative identity more, finding my own style within my personal life.

Q%What have you learned so far?

A% I learned a lot about how to get going from an idea to a concept. Another helpful thing was Teachers telling me wehre I lack. They dont pat me on the back and say “oh I love this”. They are just constantly critizising and pushing me and my work, until they have no further questions about who I am as a creator.

Q%What would you have missed sofar, if you studied something else?

A%Conceptualizing. It helped me being more critical, to push my concepts to the limit and improove. It made me question everything in a different way—not just myself, but also the relations of the people arround me and the enviornment, sometimes even on a global scale.

Q%Where would you like to work?

A%I would really like to have personal projects and work for indipendent brands or magazines,

or indipendent studios. I would like to have some creative freedom and be acknowledged for my own style. Where? I dont know. I prefer bigger citys. As long as there are certain connections within the industry.

Q%For what has to be space in your life?

A%Personal space. Work has to stay work—I want it sperated. I need time only to be with myself and take a walk, but I also want to keep up with my social life and hobbies. Would be nice to have my own studio to make music, for example.

Q%Do you feel financially safe?

A%Well as a young artist living in the netherlands, I am probably not. But Im lucky, beacuse I have work. I feel secure enough to keep up with the studys, but of curse there is also stuff I would like to but can’t—going to nice restaurants or getting more clothes for example.

Q%What does your studies not prepare you for?

A%Theoretical knowledge, mostly. Design software like the Adobe stuff for example. I feel more comfortable working analog, and right now Im still surviving with “Affinity”. The teachers dont mind that.—But it will probably affect me later on. But i dont stress about it too much. If I need it later, I learn it by doing.

Q%Specialize or allrounder?

A%I would rather do a bit of everything after uni, since Im still learning and developing my creative identity. But later I would like to specialize. I guess im just waiting for that spark that tells me: THIS is what I wanna do. For now, its nice to discover whats ourt there. 

Q%Can Design stay your hobby if it becomes your profession?

A%Design is such a broad thing. You cant make every single cool fascette of it your profession. So even If I work as a Creative Director, i can still make collages in my free time. I dont worry about that. Also my Design interests wander from one point to another from time to time: But I dont leave what intrigued me in the past, I just pile up all those experiences.