If you are looking for a design with meaning and engagement – Italian visual artist Valentina Ciandrini must be on top of your wish-list specialists.
Despite her young age Valentina, who masters branding, packaging and content design has a highly impressive list of international projects. By the age of 25 she worked for such big players as Unilever, Nestlé, Whurt and Benetton.
While remarkable talent and original vision are the essential components of Valentina’s success, early determination might have played an important role in her rapid carrier rise too : at the age of 12 she created her first brochure!
The worldwide recognition and demand do not come out of sudden: Ciandrini’s signature’s style, colourful, provocative and sometime quirky pushes the boundaries of our imagination, making us ask questions not always comfy to reply.
Her eye-catching digital images defy the “analog” art. Commercial and fun at the same time – that’s probably such a rare combination which makes the creations of Valentina so compelling.
Exclusively for FOXYLAB NY here is Valentina Ciandrini.
As a young girl, I was always interested in applied arts, and computers were also one of my great passions. I was constantly coming up with new ideas about hypothetical artistic or commercial activities that I could put into practice. I created my first brochure at the age of 12. When I was 17, I contributed to the set design of the play “Accidental Death of An Anarchist”, by Nobel Prize-winner Dario Fo. The following year I was mentioned in my city’s newspaper as Valedictorian for my class (highest grades at the “Federico Fellini” school of graphic design). I can therefore say that it all started from here.
I decided to go live in San Francisco and then in New York. Over the course of the next 4 years I became a digital nomad where I worked and travelled in different European cities, including Berlin, London and Santa Cruz. This experience offered me to the opportunity to come into contact with many interesting and inspiring people – some of which have become my clients today. I still happen to be a digital nomad – these days for instance,I’ve been surfing on an island in Spain.
Some time ago during an interview, I was presented as “The Italian visual designer Valentina Ciandrini specialises in quirky and colourful digital art, branding, packaging design and social media content. Her work is bright, bold and eye-catching, and her creative style is all about combining everyday objects, textures and patterns to create thought-provoking yet satisfyingly aesthetic results”. I find this definition to be very appropriate in reference to my style. I prefer a fresh and minimalist visual language, which is my personal expression of a neo-pop counterculture.
A selection of my works can be found on my website or on Behance.
My favourites are the ones included in this video and instagram posts:
Of course, the Masters degree allowed me to learn more about all these new realities and it has greatly helped me to improve my communication skills, as well as to expand my client portfolio. Nowadays I also manage social media pages both in terms of marketing and content. I think that this knowledge, today more than ever, is fundamental for those who work in my field.
As far as “Metaverse” and “NFTs” are concerned, I am extremely fascinated. Since my university days I was deeply intrigued by these topics, especially in relation to the socio-psychological aspect that the dichotomy real reality / virtual reality would have determined over time. I had also carried out an experiment to study its dynamics and consequences.
Speaking of NFTs, my first collection will be out soon on Opensea, and the 7% of all royalties will be donated to associations across the world that support Peace.
In the future, I would love to be able to collaborate with brands in the Metaverse. It’s nice to venture into new worlds. I have a lot of ideas about this that I hope to put into practice.
For a short time I worked for an Italian fashion company. Street Fashion is absolutely my favourite. I have always loved Graffiti and Street Art, which today is closely related to Brands and graphic design. I also wrote a book entitled “Writing and Street Art: origins, evolution and future between art, communication and graphic design”, where the last chapter delves into this. The book will be published by the end of the year by “Edizioni del Frisco”.
Jessica Walsh, Maurizio Cattelan, Leta Sobierajski, Yayoi Kusama, Andy Warhol, Magritte and many more.
I’m usually inspired by my surroundings and daily social events. I also follow the work of large advertising agencies and try to combine their adverts with an image in an ironic way to create a double meaning.
I’m always looking to create a conceptual look with a playful yet ironic meaning. The intention is to always have a message at the core, and to be able to transmit this message visually. I like the idea of making the viewer smile, but at the same time to also get them to reflect and think about particular issues (society, health, politics, sexuality, etc.)
I prefer freelancing because it grants me more flexibility to merge work and travel together. Also, I can more easily meet clients and designers from all over the world and keep an open mind. It’s extremely important for me to stay updated and focused, while keeping an open mind. On the other hand though, I sometimes miss the economic stability of a steady job.