We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Stefano Rosselli ("SR").
Stefano Rosselli is a freelance self-taught illustrator and visual designer, based in Geneva (Switzerland), whose specialties are digital illustrations, user interface themes, icons and logos design. His visual signature is defined by clean designs and colorful vector illustrations characterized by the use of simple shapes similar to what we can often see in paper crafts. Nature, characters, oniric scenes, sport, architectural constructions are some of his preferred aspects to feature in his works.
Stefano Rosselli Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Stefano Rosselli.
Stefano Rosselli Design - Two of Hearts Illustration
Designer Interview of Stefano Rosselli:
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?
SR : I am a self-taught illustrator and visual designer. As far as I recall, I’ve always been fascinated by aesthetic and very often I could be seen with a sheet of paper and pencil in hand, creating my own designs. During my younger years, comics and video games played an important role in rising my interest in becoming a professional illustrator and visual designer. This quickly turned into one of my dreams. But, in the end, I was discouraged by many people to follow this aspiration. All that led me on a different path until my passion unexpectedly caught me back. Indeed, while I was studying Educational Sciences at Geneva’s University, one of our professors asked us to work in small groups to create attractive pedagogical tools conveying knowledge about human brain related topics. In the group which I was part of, we decided to create a booklet and I offered to draw myself a series of illustrations that would go along with the explicative text. The positive feedback about the illustrations and the great pleasure I had in using my illustrative skills for an educational purpose sparkled again in me the will to make use of my design abilities in a professional perspective.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
SR : The kinds of works that I like designing most are vector illustrations and user interface themes. Concerning illustrations, characters (especially portraits), oneiric scenes, sport, nature, architectural constructions are some of my preferred aspects to feature in my works. About user interface themes, I particularly enjoy to create “dark modes” for applications, web sites or operating systems.
DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
SR : The first thing I designed for a company was a series of digital illustrations for e-learning. Given that I graduated in Educational Sciences, I was really delighted to use my design skills for this kind of project.
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
SR : This can vary from day to day, but I would tell that usually I am the most creative at morning and/or late at evening. At morning it can be due to the fact that in general I have more energy after resting well during the night and, at evening, there are less chances that I can be interrupted during my workflow or simply distracted by surrounding noises.
DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
SR : The inspiration for my works can literally come from anything surrounding me. Even when I am not supposed to work, if I see, hear something that may be interesting for my design work, I do my best to keep track of it (take a picture, sketch it, write down a note, etc.). It doesn’t necessarily need to be something related with what I am working on at the moment, it can simply be a potential inspiration for future works. Otherwise, I spend regularly time watching design works/items on the web (Instagram, Twitter, Google, Pinterest, Behance, Dribbble, etc.), in books, magazines or shops.
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?
SR : I would define my design style as clean, colorful and playful. I explored more this style, first of all because it has characteristics that I particularly appreciate from an aesthetic point of view, but also because of pragmatical, technical reasons as it adapts very well to many use cases, therefore it offers great versatility. Plus I really like the challenge behind simplifying something so what is central, essential could stand out. In few words, I would summarize my approach to design the following way: understanding the problems to solve, the constraints, the target customer's profile and finding appropriate design solutions that are clean, legible, singular, visually appealing and easy/pleasant to use.
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?
SR : I'm born and live in Switzerland. Personally, I have the feeling that my environment considerably influenced the way I design my works. Indeed, the main principles behind my designs share a lot in common with what can be considered characteristics of the “Swiss style”. No matter if I create an illustration, an icons set, a logo or a user interface theme, I’m very often aiming at making that design to look clean, simple, minimalist and precise. I have also the feeling that I “inherited” from the place where I am living that constant need to push myself forward, to always aim at doing better. This state of mind is clearly something which helps me to constantly improve the quality of my work, but at same time it can turn into an obsession and, therefore, a downside.
DI: What was your most important job experience?
SR : My most important job experience to date was when the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) of Geneva hired me in 2015 to rework the “Making Cities Resilient Campaign” visual identity for its 2016 re-launch. I was really happy and honored to bring my modest contribution to this international campaign.
DI: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
SR : It’s hard to only pick one, but if I have to, I would tell user interface design. I really enjoy this type of design work, especially because it can bring together many designs fields which I am particularly interested in, such as icons design, illustration, animation, layout or typography. But also because UI design is something really useful in everyday life. Operating systems, applications, web sites are more than ever part of most people’s life nowadays and will surely be even more in future.
DI: How can people contact you?
SR : The best way to contact me is by sending me an email. My email address is accessible on my website “www.stefrosselli.com”. Otherwise I can also be reached on platforms such as Behance, Dribbble, Instagram or Twitter (my username on these platforms is "stefrosselli"). But email is definitely the best way to go.