We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Valentina Favaro ("VF").
I am a life enthusiast, a person full of energy and the strong belief everyone has some energy to be given to the world. I love to explore everything and every field, I am really curios and hungry of knowledge. I think you can " stand to life, survive to it" just absorbing what's happening, or you can "live life" giving everything you can. That's why I believe the objects around us and, moreover, what we wear, should be kind to our body, giving us the feeling we need and, at the same time, making us understandable; expressing ourselves. I put my energy in what I do everyday, hoping to help others through things I create; also just with gestures or words.
Valentina Favaro Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Valentina Favaro.
Valentina Favaro Design - Materializing the Digital Transformable Fabrics 3D Printed
Designer Interview of Valentina Favaro:
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?
VF : My path started studying fashion design at Milan Politecnico, after that I decided to move to London to do my master at UAL, feeling the need of exploring more wearable technologies. I always wanted to be a designer, I feel the sense of beauty is in everything, we just have to put attention to it and give it form. I literally feel materials, like if they can have a soul, that's why I love to design, but moreover to research and explore new materials, applications and possibilities.
DI: What is "design" for you?
VF : As I was saying previously, for me design is to play attention when I am feeling beauty, when I feel emotions, to see how a material can be transformed and modified. Is at the same time expression and research, since I really believe designing we can help people have a better life: from an object which can make you feel better up to functionality.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
VF : I love to design for activewear, trying to understand our body and enhancing our performance. I also love experimenting with wearable technologies and 3d printing, which I believe can be paths to open new horizons on our clothes. Helping us and enhancing our bodies.
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
VF : My favourite technology as you can see from my work "Materializing the digital" is 3d printing. Not only printing itself but all the things around it, scanning the body movements, trying to understand what possibilities we have.
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
VF : At home, at my desk . A cup of tea, relaxing music on background, early morning or late evening.. just feeling myself.
DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
VF : On fabrics and on hybridisation. Putting together different answers and techniques, trying to build something new. I believe in cross fertilisation as a way to discover new possibilities.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
VF : I feel excited, powerful, I feel in love. That's why, as in every love, I also feel fear, fear of not being able to really reach what's on my mind, feel of failure.
DI: What makes a design successful?
VF : Functionality, simplicity, being different.
DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
VF : functionality, comfort, easiness, aesthetic.
DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
VF : From my point of view our responsibilities as designers are to put humans at the center, to really think for who we are creating something, to their needs, life and emotions. All this process has to be done with the interior consciousness that we're not on this planet alone, that we're not the planet. With all our skills we should be able to help and enhance our planet and different species, not to destroy the environment for our personal interests and goals. That, I think, is really important in the mind of a designer, since we are keep putting in the world new object( which one day will have to be discarded) while taking from it the materials we need everyday.
DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
VF : I think we're evolving to a better sustinability. Moreover after this pandemic episode I hope people will be able to feel we aren't as big we seem, how a little, invisible thing can change our lives in one second. I think sometimes fear can be good to make a change to a better way of life. I think we should start to hybridise different field, putting them together, to have more strength and skills. Maybe we can really help pur planet instead of killing it.
DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
VF : My inspirations come from everything I see, I read, I listen to, I feel.. They come from all my senses and perceptions.
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?
VF : My design style is kind of post human/ super functional. I feel the need to enhance our bodies and explore ways which are still unexplored. Sometimes this can create a sense of discomfort since people are not use to it, but I believe we'll early change our way of feeling, buying and wearing clothes.
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?
VF : I live in Italy, and I can say my country and my background have a huge influence in the way in which I design. I just need to feel and touch a fabric, to start creating in my head the whole design. But my background is also made by my experiences, and leaving in London really changed the way in which I design, it helped me feeling more free and myself, less "rules made". Actually my only regret is that activewear is really little present in my country, and I feel it is the product which can start making our lives better: that's why instead of escaping in other countries where It would be easier for me to work for more brands I prefer to stay sometime here with the hope of creating my own one, Italy based, activewear brand.
DI: Can you describe a day in your life?
VF : I am kind of hyperactive. I love to wake up early and go to bed really late, I am kind of a short sleeper. I usually work in the morning on designs, most of the time in the studio of the brands for which I am working. Late in the afternoon I work in a gym, where I usually also train for some hours, that's the other part of me, when I am not designing I am always training! Late in the evening I go back to my designs or I read a book or go out with friends.
DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
VF : I am young myself, but for what I can say up to now, what is helping me the most, is to believe in what I am doing while staying humble, always listening to different thoughts and opinion: you can always learn, moreover from what's wrong.
DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
VF : I always try to understand when I need a break. Often is really time consuming and after hours and hours you loose your clarity and you just feel confused and unable to choose. That's the moment in which I tell myself " okay, let's do something else", and while you do something different or when you go back to the project ideas are clear again, everything seem easy. Meanwhile there are moment in which you're in perfect peace, I call them my" zen moments", and that's when you have to keep go, forget to eat or anything else.
DI: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
VF : I would like to go forward in different paths. One is to create my own brand, another one to keep on exploring and researching new application fields. While doing this I'll keep working for clients to have a living but, moreover, to always learn.
DI: How can people contact you?
VF : They can contact me at my email (valeviky.vf@gmail.com) or on my instagram account @Valentina.favaro_design