Hello Giampaolo, thank you for joining us on Talking With The Pros, can you please gives us an introduction about yourself and how you got started in the design industry?
Hi, I’m a Graphic Designer from Rome, Italy.
At school (Istituto Statale D’Arte) I began to study sculpture and jewelry, but even if i loved traditional arts i did not feel it was my way, so i was almost reconsidering my career as an artist when i began to be intrigued by Photoshop and Digital Art, i really liked the idea of doing something creative with my computer and make this my job, so I went back to school and after finishing my study at the Istituto Europeo di Design (Graphic Design), and after internships in few agencies in Rome i started working in the field in 2006, but only 2 years ago i begin to take it more seriously, to develop my skills and to use 3D programs, i have worked for clients in Italy and the Netherlands and my work has been featured on websites and publications about design and typography.
2. Your “Bio Type” piece quite amazing, can you take though the design process behind that piece?
I was playing with a plugin for Cinema 4D mainly used by Architects to generate plants for garden design, so i came up to the idea to use it to create text, each letter took about 3 hours of rendering on my old Mac, for this i chose a short three-letter word. The rest of the work is classic photo-manipulation.
How long does an average piece take you to complete?
It depends, if it’s a job for client, after a long talk with the Art Director, i begin to do some research on the Internet, to collect ideas, then i create 2 or 3 proposals to be submitted, the proposal that is chosen then passes into a completion stage that can take from 1 weeks to a month. For personal work there is no rule, if i have a strong idea and a clear final vision i can finish it in 1-2 days, as it was for my series “Highest Peaks,” but most of the time, unfortunately, not so fast.
Which project of yours would you say is your favourite?
I would not say a project but a style in particular, it’s probably the style I used for VOID, Highest Peaks and Olympic Games 2012, i like that retro futuristic style at the moment, but maybe in the future my taste can change, i like trying new things.
What do you think is the most challenging part of your job?
Work on a project and at the same time seeking for new clients and all the aspects less creative and more administrative.
You use Cinema 4D for some of your projects, how important do you think it is for designers to learn a 3d software?
For me it’s very important, but a lot depends on the style that you are interested to achieve, for example if you’re into fashion design or vector illustration maybe you don’t need, but surely it is always useful to learn new things, for a designer it is important to know new tools that can open the doors to new ideas and mixing various media often leads to interesting results.
When you are in need of some inspiration where is a common place you go to?
In a folder on my hard disk where i collect all the works of artists who inspire me, taken all around the web, but i also collect books of Graphic Design and Typography, and by nature i am a very curious person. I always thought that i must feed my mind with the greatest possible number of beautiful images to facilitate the synthesis of beautiful ideas, so i browse relentlessly.
What would you say is the most important lesson you have learned since you started designing?
Never be discouraged, especially looking at the work of most advanced designers and think that you can never achieve those results. Those people have spent a lot of time polishing their skills, it’s like a sport, you cannot expect to run 50 km after a short training time, you must train your eyes and your brain as you train your muscles.
Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
Freelancing, working for an agency or in-house for a good company, the important is to keep to do what i love to do.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to interview you, do you have any final words for our readers?
Work hard but at the same time keep it fun, thanks you so much for the opportunity.
To view more of Giampaolo Miraglia’s work check him out at www.giampaolomiraglia.com or at his Behance profile