Giulia Fagundes is a young designer from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who has made an impressive start to her career. After graduating in 2019 she was invited to become a partner at Studio Daó, where she started as an intern, and has recently decided to set up as an independent designer. In the last few years, Giulia’s work has been recognised across the design industry. She was awarded the Young Talent of Latin America by the Latin American Design Festival (LAD) in 2020, received a Golden Lion at the Cannes Lion 2021 Creativity Festival, and was selected as one of the hundred Brazilian creative minds that have changed communication for the better, by the MOOC Collective.
Curiosity and making change are what primarily fuels Giulia’s work. She often addresses political issues through her creative practice in the hope that design can be a way to ignite change. She believes that if we encourage each other to ask questions about the things we see in design – for example, references and rules that we take for granted – we might see things from a different perspective and create more diverse products. In Giulia’s words: ‘Design is a global profession, we have designers from all parts of the world, so let’s be open to references and projects from outside our familiar context.’
We talked with Giulia to find out more about her career journey to date, giving talks at events, and her experiences as a woman in the design industry.
Can you tell us about your journey into design and how you’ve got to where you are now?
I used to be that kid who loved drawing and creating things. I grew up dreaming of working in advertising until I heard about design. It happened when I was still in high school when I started a technical course related to visual communication. It was a free course funded by the government and at the time I throught it could help me get into a career in advertising. I learned that design could be more than just a word used to designate beautiful things and I y fell in love with the discipline. After that, I made the decision to become a designer.
I went to university – despite all the financial challenges of studying design at a private university – and I graduated in 2019. At that time, I was invited to become a partner at Daó, the design studio where I had started an internship two years earlier.
The following year, after hearing a lot about the Latin American Design Awards (LAD), I submitted my work to compete with other young Latin American talent and won the contest, which was amazing! This experience helped me to look at my work in a more careful way.
Today, I’m working as an independent designer. I really love how this way of working allows me to create a diverse portfolio, gain a wide range of experiences and collaborate with different people.
You were a LAD young talent speaker in Lima Peru. What was the experience like and what was the theme of your talk?
I used to say that becoming a Young Talent improved how I viewed my own work, and much of this is due to the way I had to prepare myself to present my designs to a huge audience and how they received it.
I was feeling very anxious and nervous, but I knew it could be a huge opportunity to distinguish my point of view, knowing that this is what makes my design different from others. Because for the most part our design narrative, references and way of thinking comes from the same place and we may deploy very similar methods and visual languages, everyone still has their own experience and perception to draw from.
When I started studying design, I was drawn ro the biggest names of design. How amazing they were! I thought I would like to be just like them. But I realised that being like them would be different from being who I really am. I didn’t study abroad. I didn’t like the same clothes. I didn’t like the same music. It made me very sad. Also, almost every single one of these names were white men. So I definitely couldn’t be like them. Since I had this perception, I started trying to think about what constitutes good design and what not. I also started to ponder who these people were that I used to admire, where they were from and what were their references.
My speech focused on opening the mind of the audience to these questions and underlining that if we don’t start questioning our own references, we perpetuate the problem. We will still have people who do l not believe they can be a designer just because of who they are.
“My speech focused on opening the mind of the audience to these questions and underlining that if we don’t start questioning our own references, we perpetuate the problem.”
You also spoke at the Typographics Conference in New York. How did this come about and what was the focus ofyour talk?
Yes, I did! It was amazing, I remember feeling super happy about this. My speech was related to the ideas I tried out in my LAD speech, but focused specifically on type. I talked about how I used to think that I wasn’t good enough to use type the ‘right’ way, but, over time I came to the understand that the right way is just what makes sense for each project, you know? And this opened my mind, allowing me to experiment more and think less about the rules that used to constrain me when thinking about type.
“I used to think that I wasn’t good enough to use type the ‘right’ way, but, over time I came to the understand that the right way is just what makes sense for each project…”
We love your recent project, Ebony. How do you usually approach a new brand identity project?
Thank you! I also really like this project. It was a collaboration with the designer Lucas Rodrigues and it’s always good experience to have opportunities like this one.
Being open to collaboration with someone is something that I used to think about at the beginning of the job. After having the first meeting with the client and understanding the scope of the brief, I already have enough information to think about what would be the best way to address the problem. This is an approach I’ve developed from working as a freelancer and of handling more than one project at a time.
Depending on the client and the project, I consider whether or not the project fits with me and what messages I want to amplify through design. If it fits, then I will start the project.
You’ve had quite a lot of recognition in the design industry for your work so far. What has the experience been like for you and are there any challenges you’ve faced?
The experience has been amazing but I confess that sometimes I still stop and think: “oh my god, is this really happening?”. And I know that unfortunately, this kind of thought is very common amongst people who don’t usually see others like them in this kind of place. Even knowing that, from my point of view, this self-sabotage is my worst challenge.
But in another way, this challenge has also been my main stimulus and fuel for change. When I have the opportunity to reflect, I try hard to challenge my self-perception and understand why I feel this way, without forgetting that I’m not alone in this. Bringing up issues like this has also connected me to a lot of other amazing people who share the same feeling, which is wonderful.
I always say that in design – and life in general – we never used to question what was given to us and this allowed things to continue in the same old way. So, if I can see myself in this place more naturally, more people like me can too, as that’s exactly what happened to me, so why not? And it really is wonderful to be here and to be able to share with so many nice people and reap good things that are the result of our work, and I look forward to more people being able to feel that way.
How has being a woman of colour impacted your career so far?
In my view, racial matters are completely integral to me as a black woman in the 2022 design industry and have impacted me in many ways.
As I said before, the fact that we are still a minority in this area, sometimes makes me think that I’m not part of it, you know? It’s embarrassing to see a post about references and there isn’t a single black woman, or an event that doesn’t have one of us either. Experiences like this make us feel like we have to always be on the lookout, always.
I realised how much I was being invited to participate in events just to occupy a space. That’s not cool. I usually say that I want to be invited to speak for my work. I want to be asked why I like to use orange or pink in my projects and not just to talk exclusively about diversity. The ‘Black Tuesday’ action really made some people look at this theme but in a very superficial way and often out of fear of cancellation by social networks. Many times it’s only about this. So, nowadays, even though I know the importance of talking about it I have struggled not to be reduced to a racial identity. I hope that black designers’ inboxes don’t fill with invitations just in the month of black consciousness, but every month of the year, and that yes, we do talk about diversity, but we are not obliged to talk about it – we can talk about any design related subject, we are designers too! That’s what I’m talking about.
“I realised how much I was being invited to participate in events just to occupy a space. That’s not cool. I usually say that I want to be invited to speak for my work.”
Our anxiety for change makes us feel even more connected. I also see that when some of us are occupying spaces we can inspire others who are up-and-coming! This is one point that I think is super positive. It’s also amazing when we realise that we don’t have to try to fit in somewhere. If a place was not constructed for me, I see that is their problem not mine.
Are there any women role models who’ve inspired you along the way?
Design is a kind of ‘bridge’ between a context and a specific audience. Considering that, I’m also used to bringing references from outside design into it.
I am inspired by artists such as Mariana Rodrigues, Heloisa Hariadne and Igi Ayedun, and writers such as Carolina Maria de Jesus and Conceição Evaristo.
Within the sphere of design, I’m inspired by Jessica Walsh, Paula Scher, Veronica Fuerte and the admirable Bea Feitler. I also try to look at the work being created by women near to me and I love the design by Gabriela Pires, Gabriela Namie, Roma, Laryssa Ramos, Tereza Bertinardi, Paula Cruz and many others…
Do you have any thoughts on how we can all make the design industry a more inclusive and diverse place?
Yes, for sure I do! This answer is going to be a summary of all the topics that we talked about in the previous questions and will serve as a reminder:
- Please don’t forget to question what is given to you within design — I mean the references, rules and other constraints that can benefit a specific group of people.
- Black people are not to blame because of the racist system that the world has been constructed around, so please learn and study it, as we are not obligated to talk about it to teach you.
- Everything in design is about context, so theoretically we do not have one design better than another it’s about what fits better in that context.
- We will be able to see different productions if we have people from different contexts and experiences.
- Design is a global profession, we have designers from all parts of the world. Be open to finding and working with references and projects out of your context.
- Not all people have had the same opportunities, be open to teaching and learning.
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