AN INTERVIEW WITH TYPE DESIGNER
But then I understood that graphic design was a thing and the thing was, I was a graffiti punk girl . I really liked letters so I knew that I wanted to draw letters,
But then I understood that graphic design was a thing and the thing was, I was a graffiti punk girl. I really liked letters so I knew
But then I understood that graphic desi gn was a thing and the thing was, I was a graffiti punk girl. I really liked letters so I knew that I wanted to
on her time in design school
I was working and teaching, so in total I did it in five years, and not in four. When I started to teach, I couldn’t overlap classes. I was a student at night two times a week, and then was a teacher at night three times a week, so it was like I couldn’t resign from anything or stop doing anything. I was doing it all together all the time.
For 10 years I assisted in the graphic design course and typography course, and then when I did my master’s, I had to teach the master’s class in 2018. I resigned from both classes, and only stayed in the master’s because I needed time to do everything. I was working, I was teaching, I was trying to be a type designer. I just couldn’t do everything, and I started to feel like I’m not doing anything completely. So I stopped teaching in graphic design and only stayed in the master’s in type design.
The most valuable part of it all was meeting the people who at the beginning were my teachers, and afterwards I was teaching with them. Most of them encouraged me to do something else. They told me to go and do any course in calligraphy, every course that you can find.
By Daniela Garcia
on her upbringing
I’m from Argentina, I’m from Buenos Aires. I’ve always lived here. 10 years now I’ve lived in the capital city. Before that, I was living on the outside, but not like in the countryside. It’s something like right in between. My family is from there, and they all live there. And from my siblings, I’m the middle sister one from 3 sisters. So nobody expecting anything from me. I was the one without travels. I love being in the middle because I’m the middle point between my sisters every time. For everything, from opinions, to fights, to ideas on presents for my mother. I’m the one that says it’s okay. Everything is okay. Keep the calm, keep the peace.
On her creative start
At first, I was more interested in fine art. I was super excited. I took a lot of drawing courses. My father hoped that I would become like a painter or sculptor, or something like that. When I was a student here in high school, you could choose a focus. So I chose the one that contained art in the name, and then it was nothing like art.
Instead it was journalism, photography, TV, radio, graphic design, and things like that. It was like art oriented but not fine art oriented or anything that I was hoping for. But then I understood that graphic design was a thing and the thing was, I was a graffiti punk girl. I really liked letters so I knew that I wanted to draw letters, and so I asked my type design teacher in the university “What can I do to do this for the rest of my life?”.
She told me, “you need to study graphic design”. I said, “No, I don’t want to”. I don’t want to do that. I want to draw things. But in the end, I tried it. So I took graphic design. And it felt good to be around other creative people. But I think you can end up being a type designer from different pathways.
on her parents and design
They were shocked because they didn’t understand. I didn’t even understand what it meant to be a graphic designer. It wasn’t that popular 10 or 20 years ago, and I remember my father went to his work and asked if the company had a graphic designer and he came back and told me, “Okay. It’s okay, do whatever you want. But if you want to go and pursue fine art it’s okay too”. And when I signed up for the masters in type design, he was like, “Okay, I understand. But still, if you now want to go and study fine arts, that’s okay, also”.
I don’t do fine arts. I’m not an artist, but the many, many things that I wanted to do, I do with letters. And he understood it because he lived with me being a graffiti girl. He only told me once, “I’m not going to take you out if the police catch you. I’m not going to take you out”. I said, “Okay. I won’t get caught then. I will run fast”.
The only one that had a conflict because he didn’t understand until the end was my grandfather. He understood architecture but was like what is graphic design? And when I took the master’s he said, “You’re going to study to write?” and I responded “No, I’m drawing letters”. He just said “Why? They taught you that in second grade”. My mom, I think she knows that I do letters, that I draw letters, that I draw something. And she still doesn’t understand why people pay me for that and I can live with that, or that there are people inviting me to another country to talk about what I do.
“My idea of success is that I’m successful because it’s me and I didn’t have to be someone else, somewhere else to be what I am. I’m moving forward.”
A few years ago, I came back and gave a lecture in that same course of typography. I talked about my work and I saw their faces like proud parents because they knew me when I was a student, and that I wanted to draw letters. So when I came back like, this is my portfolio, and this is what I do, and this is what I think, and I saw their little faces of pride.
So I think the most important part was meeting people. I think college was a good place to connect with people, to understand that I’m not alone, that there are other people having these conversations. Here at the University of Buenos Aires, it’s a really big university, with 200 people in each class and groups of 40 students. So when you go and try to get feedback for your work, it’s a whole wall of work of the thing that you need to do. And everyone talks about everything. Teachers, students, and it’s not just about you. It’s about the whole thing.
I learned that I really like to be around people who are really passionate about something. When I find someone that is really passionate about whatever they like, I really like to be around them. I have type designer friends, but they are not my closest friends, because in the end I don’t want to be surrounded by people doing the same thing, consuming the same thing. I like to be around new things all the time. I think it has to do with graphic design being like one big career where you can end up being an editorial designer, or a graphic designer, an illustrator, or even work in branding or motion design.
I decided to call myself a type designer. I had already released my first font and I won my first award as a type designer. It was Ascender in 2019 from the Type Directors Club and the award was about new people in the industry. The submission requested that you send six type projects, and I managed to have six. So I applied and won. And I was like, “Okay, I’m a type of designer”. That same day I went to my email and added the words type designer under my name. I thought “I’m officially a type designer starting today”. At the time, I had squarespace for my graphic design work, and I archived everything. I uploaded one or two fonts that I had. I started posting as a type designer, and it worked. The moment I decided to become a type designer, I never stopped drawing letters. I never, never stopped.
“The moment I decided to become a type designer, I never stopped drawing letters. I never, never stopped.”
on her Latin american culture
Latin American type designers, we have really different journey to “success”. But personally, I didn’t go anywhere. I studied here, I live here, and now I have my foundry based here in Buenos Aires.
My friend, Cecilia, was really different. She studied in Mexico, but then she moved to Barcelona, got a diploma there, and then she was getting her masters somewhere else too, and now she lives in Spain. She always talked more about the idea of leaving Mexico and grabbing new opportunities and everything. I don’t agree with any of that. I love her, we are friends, but for me in that sense we are not alike.
I don’t think we need to move to understand the things that make us. She talked about moving to Spain and then grabbing really hard onto all Mexican culture as inspiration. I’m grabbing my Argentinian culture without leaving here. I’m not going anywhere. No, I don’t wanna go.
The context of that talk, for me at least, was that my story is like this. I grew up in Buenos Aires, I studied and stayed in Buenos Aires. I never went anywhere else, until I was already a type designer. And I still don’t have to move. I don’t want to. I don’t feel like moving and being uncomfortable.
In some other places you can find a foundry who gives you an internship, or maybe even a freelance job. We don’t have that. Many other foundries are just like me, one person doing everything. So when I decided to become a type designer, I had to decide by myself, learn a lot, and start to do it all by myself. I became a foundry because I’m here.
“We need to find a way to put ourselves in everything that we do, and that is not the same if I do it than if you do it.”
on her advice for students
My idea of success is that I’m successful because it’s me and I didn’t have to be someone else somewhere else, or someone else to be what I am. I’m moving forward to be the best version of me, but never something else. When I was younger, I thought that my other classmates were better than me, because they understood something that I didn’t. I like to draw letters the way I draw them now. And I don’t follow the same method that they taught us. I have the fortune to be surrounded with people telling me to continue doing it, and if it fails, it fails.
I will give that advice. It’s not about being perfect, or being successful, or having followers, or anything like that. I think people can relate with you if they can relate with you. I like when I see the work of anybody and I like to feel that I’m seeing something. We need to find a way to put ourselves in everything that we do, and that is not the same if I do it than if you do it.
If people choose to work with me, it’s because they find something interesting in my way of thinking, or my way of solving things. Try not to force yourself into the idea of how you are supposed to be, because we don’t know that. It’s about learning yourself, and that’s a lifelong thing.
