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Primary design concentration:
Online communications
Most preferred tool for designing:
My Moleskine and a marker.
1. How and why did you choose to
become a designer?
I think I was a designer before
I knew what that was or
that you could make a living doing it. Growing up,
my favorite thing to do was draw and write accompanying
stories,
usually about this blue monster I created. Officially,
I didn’t
start my professional pursuit in design until after
I discovered biology
wasn’t my thing about a year into my undergrad
endeavors.
2. Challenges you encounter as a
designer and how do you deal with them?
Being a designer requires you to
have the stomach for seeing how the sausage is made
in the business world. It can be pretty disgusting
and frustrating. The only way to deal with it is to
not let a bad client or a bad project define who you
are as a designer or a human being.
3. Your definition of an “elegant
solution,” that is, good design?
Good design is founded in convention
but not exclusively tied to it. It should break rules
and enhance the intended message, not obstruct it.
It should make some part of the world, however small,
a bit better and it should fit the context. Context
is everything. If you don’t know whom you’re
talking to, your design can’t be good.
4. From skills to values, what makes
a designer successful?
You need to have honesty, humility
and the willingness to except change. Success is boring
if it’s not moving the needle a bit.
5. How do you stay motivated and
grow personally and professionally as a designer?
I never stop looking.
6. For those aspiring to become
a designer, whatever the discipline,what is your advice?
Have the courage of your convictions.
Always have a “why” behind your decisions.
Never stop learning.
Develop a thick skin.
7. What is your quest in design?
There is a glut of bad design out
there, and good design for companies that don’t
deserve it (which in my mind also qualifies as bad
design). Money should not be able to buy credibility,
but all to often it does. If I can help change that
a little, I think I’ll be happy.
Stephanie Di Base is an art
director who recommends seeing the documentary film
Helvetica
and reading The
Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.
Her source of inspiration: "Design is based in
life, so more often than not I get inspired by getting
out and doing things not necessarily design-related."
Image courtesy of Stephanie
Di Base
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