The designer for VASE, a brand of unique LED light sneakers that have been a hit in Miami, reveals the keys to her success, and how she has incorporated elements from contemporary art, publicity, marketing and fashion into her 10-year career as a graphic designer, all with an innate creativity and incredible sense of aesthetics.
Victoria is Venezuelan by birth, yet she has worked in branding and packaging design with major companies from all around the continent, thus she has become an expert with an impressive clientele that trusts in her the management of their brand image. In this interview she sheds light into her creative process and into how she has become an important Latino designer.
Where does your affinity for design come from?
It has always been a part of me. I recently found a sketchbook from when I was little with a bunch of doodles and with a very resounding note that said: “Designed by Victoria Sain.” In school, I was the crafty girl of the class and the one who in math class dedicated more time into fitting all the information neatly into my notebook than to solve the actual math problem. I was born with severe myopia and I didn’t find out until I was six years old; I thought everyone else saw in the same way that I did until the day in which I used eyeglasses for the first time. This influenced my level of creativity and imagination in a positive way. It also let me appreciate, as if it were something extraordinary, the sharpness of colors and the angles in geometry. So, I like to think that I turned a misfortune into an immense aesthetic and visual acumen.
Out of all the fields of design you employ, which do you like the most?
It’s hard to pick one since I have managed to employ a synergy among all of them throughout my career. However, whenever I blend graphic design with interior design, I feel like I’m up in the clouds. I’ve experienced this with multiple projects, but the two that stand out the most have been VASE, for which I designed everything from its branding to its pop-up store, and more recently FarmaOriente, a pharmacy chain in Latin America for which I also designed its whole graphic identity as well as its first six branches from scratch.
What sets you apart as a designer?
The ease with which I flow from one type of design to another. The best example of this is VASE, I can say that everything from the naming, brand development, design and production of the LED Light Sneakers, to the remodeling of the food truck to be converted into our physical store has made this project the best representation of my abilities as a full-fledged designer.
What would you consider is your specialty?
My ability to work under pressure and deliver wonderful results stands out above all my abilities as a designer. Thanks to being co-founder for multiple commercially successful businesses, I have managed to develop a certain level of empathy with each new brand or client that I work with. As a graphic designer I am specialized in branding and packaging, and I also consider myself as an innovator in interior design for commercial spaces, given that two of my biggest projects have been started from trucks or containers that have been remodeled by myself. I think that what sets me apart is my intuition.
