We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Victor Weiss ("VW").
Victor Weiss is a visual branding designer. Apart from the internationally awarded studio that carries his name, Weiss is known for his many contributions to the creative segment, strong core values and well established team. Creator of the first international Visual Identity Community, (A group that carries an outstanding 42 features on Behance) also a speaker on branding workshops in South Africa, Los Angeles, Dubai, and Rio de Janeiro. Weiss believes design is one of the most powerful forces in our lives, whether or not we are aware of it. He thinks design can make companies succeed as well as bad design can contribute to failure.
Victor Weiss Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Victor Weiss.
Victor Weiss Design - Oliv Olive Oil
Victor Weiss Design - Victor Weiss Visual Identity
Victor Weiss Design - Gamma Private Bank
Victor Weiss Design - Rb5 Vinicola Visual Identity
Designer Interview of Victor Weiss:
DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
VW : I was home-schooled by my parentes following a christian american long distance school called CLE. (Christian Light Education). At 16 I studied graphic design at a Brazilian course called Microway. I worked in support, sales and marketing in a software company called ImovelOffice for 3 years, in witch I was able to create important experience in negotiating and communication with clients and prospects. I then migrated into the design sector of the company where I would deal with clients and designers, creating briefs and directing the team, occasionally also working in specific design projects. After this, decided to start my own design studio, called Avitti Design, witch in a short period of time migrated into Victor Weiss Studio.
DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
VW : In Victor Weiss studios we are passionate about the process of creating visual brands. Being determined to make every project we undertake intelligent, functional and efficient for companies and people that look to stand out in the market. We incorporate history, values, mission statement and icons to create sophisticated, clean, modern designs that best represent the company concepts. Design is one of the most powerful forces in our lives, whether or not we are aware of it. We believe design can make companies succeed as well as bad design can contribute to failure. By hand-picking our clients, we can guarantee in a exclusive way our time and support in developing high quality sophisticated experiences.
DI: What is "design" for you?
VW : I actually love the Wikipedia definition of design, its so technical and yet straight-forward. "A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process, or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product or process. The verb to design expresses the process of developing a design."
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
VW : In my studio, we focus in visual identity designs. But we also deliver all kinds of designs to are VI clients. Such as, UI, UX, Motion, Stationary prints, packaging, and more. I'de like to continue focused in Visual Identity as I see a gap in the market for what we are capable of delivering.
DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
VW : Hard to chose, but I love the Tríave logo. The bird, a Cotovia, Brazilian bird, many people don't even notice or know it exists. There's nothing special or amazing about this animal, and yet, its full of symbolism and the way we designed the symbol on perfect circular grids, I just really enjoy the result, and the client loved it.
DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
VW : I designed a user interface for a real state website called Melato Imóveis. I'll never forget it. I remember making a pattern for the background. It wasn't that bad.
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
VW : I love letterpress, Behance and Illustrator.
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
VW : When I wake up after the first coffee. And after midnight, after the first energy drink.
DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
VW : Research. To research before designing is to sharpen a knife before cutting.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
VW : Depends on the project. All kinds. Happyness, sadness, pressure, anger, joy, excitement, and others.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
VW : I feel happy, I love seeying my ideas take life.
DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
VW : Same as above, results. To me, design is more than a pretty layout or interface. Its about the user experiance, both on physical in a packaging project, or digital on a app.
DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
VW : Designers work at the intersection of [cultural] trends; their problems are among the key problems of the overdeveloped society. It is their dual investment in them that explains the big split among designers and their frequent guilt; the enriched muddle of ideals they variously profess and the insecurity they often feel about the practice of their craft; their often great disgust and their crippling frustration. They cannot consider well their position of formulating their credo without considering both cultural and economic trends and the shaping of total society in which these are occurring. Design plays a complex role in modern industrial societies. Besides its explicit practical functions, design has implicit social functions. Designers not only create useful products and images but they also produce and reproduce cultural meanings through those products and images. The social context within which they operate circumscribes the choices designers can make in creating and marketing ideas. Only through understanding social and cultural contexts can designers comprehend fully their own roles in society. I recommend the reading of: Jill Grant and Frank Fox on “Journal of art and design education”.
DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
VW : We are never gonna be substituted, are value is growing by the minute and there are more prospects than capable designers out there. Who-ever is in this amazing industry will grow.
DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
VW : The main source of inspiration is Behance. Me and my team spend at least 2 hours a day there. Then other platforms like pinterest, instagram, dribbble. These are the digital references, we do love books as well.
DI: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
VW : I think our style is minimal. We try to abstract all unnecessary information and keep just the most important elements in a smart way.
DI: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
VW : I live in Blumenau, its a german colonization city in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil. Brazil is one of the countries with more talented designers of the world, I'm sure I have a load of cultural influence daily.
DI: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
VW : Forget the CV, focus on portfolio.
DI: Can you talk a little about your design process?
VW : Ask, research, imagine, plan, create, test, improve. Much like engineering.
DI: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
VW : My home-office, my desk, my grandfathers history books, the interior of my car, my batman decorative wood statue.
DI: Can you describe a day in your life?
VW : I wake up with my two year old jumping on my head, my wife makes me coffee just the way I like it, very strong so I can brighten up. After spending around 30 min with my family I go to the office where I work normally until gym time, where I pick up my buddy at his place and we head to our 2 hours work out. By the time I arrive home its dinner time, where I eat and spend a couple hours together with my wife and child and normally watching something on netflix or tv. Then I go to my home-office and work most part of the night. Some-nights I'll play a couple competitive matches on csgo with my friends. But mainly work, lots of work.
DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
VW : 1. Don't be afraid to start charging little. 2. If you're not able to do something, research and learn. Its the only way to grow. 3. Theory is as important as technique in design. Go deep into concepts, and symbolisms. 4. Learn how to understand clients, not only primary clients but secondary too. 5. Never give up, this area is amazing, but it takes time. 6. Networking is very important, good partners will get you a steady income of great clients. 7. Keep moving.
DI: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
VW : It involves a lot of pressure and expectation, that can give you anxiety crisis and even depression if you don't learn how to deal with it. As a positive note, you can work from home witch is always great, and also be flexible with time tables, I for example rather working at night than the morning, being a designer this is possible
DI: What is your "golden rule" in design?
VW : Pleasing the secondary client is more important than the primary, or even, us, the design team. (The consumer of the product, service or idea is the secondary client)
DI: What skills are most important for a designer?
VW : A good designer in our team needs to have good skills in Illustrator and photoshop. Be a quick learner and good listener. They have to understand that design has a process and by following it you get better results.
DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
VW : Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Dimension. Pantone, Microsoft Windows, Behance and Dribbble
DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
VW : Right now I work more than I should, probably around 12 hours a day. But I hope soon to be capable of spending more time with my daughter and wife and passing on some of the work to my team.
DI: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
VW : We often give a 60 day deadline for normal visual identity projects. But that can be doubled or cut in half depending on the project.
DI: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
VW : How to make less look like more.
DI: What was your most important job experience?
VW : I worked for 5 years in a company called ImovelOffice, first at support, then sales and marketing, then as designer then art director.
DI: Who are some of your clients?
VW : Rb5, Nagami, Taurus, VillaSalut, Tríave, Casanova, and 140 more.
DI: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
VW : In my studio, we focus in visual identity designs. But we also deliver all kinds of designs to are VI clients. Such as, UI, UX, Motion, Stationary prints, packaging, and more. I'de like to continue focused in Visual Identity as I see a gap in the market for what we are capable of delivering.
DI: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
VW : From Victor Weiss Studio you can expect amazing Visual Identity projects mainly focused from clients in Arab countries, Germany, and USA. We are also starting a new project focused in packaging in partnership with Matheus Morgan. The new studio is called Weiss & Morgan, you can expect amazing packaging coming from there.
DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
VW : I have a team.
DI: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
VW : We are designing and directing a visual identity and packaging, UI/UX, Archwiz, and more for a bank called Gamma. For this project we have a 15 creatives team.
DI: How can people contact you?
VW : Whatsapp: +55 47 9 9110.8339 www.behance.net/victorweiss www.victorweiss.com.br