#217 - ALEX PROBA, Multi-Disciplinary Designer and Creative Director
SUMMARY
This week Alex Proba, Multi-Disciplinary Designer and Creative Director of Studio Proba joins David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design to discuss her design process, finding her own style, the limitation and possibilities of a design style, blurring 2D and 3D works, spatial design, and much more. Enjoy!
ABOUT ALEX
Founded in 2013 by Alex Proba, Studio Proba is a New York-based multidisciplinary design studio focusing on product, graphic, environmental, and furniture design and artwork.
Alex is a multidisciplinary designer and art director from Lüdenscheid, Germany. She studied spatial and graphic design at the Akademie Mode und Design Hamburg Germany, and product and furniture design at Design Academy Eindhoven Netherlands. In 2011, she moved to New York, where she worked for a number of companies. Alex was an Art Director at Kickstarter and as Design Director at Mother New York. Most recently, she was an Art Director NIKE, Global Brand.
She has been recognized by Print Magazine for its annual New Visual Artists Review, selecting 20 international designers under the age of 30. Her clients include Target, AIGA, Oscar Health, Mother New York, General Assembly, Maison Gerard, Google, Kickstarter, Daybreaker among many others.
She is always curious about new interesting projects and available for freelance and collaborative opportunities!
HIGHLIGHTS
TIMESTAMPS
(02:25) Alex discusses her Polish heritage, upbringing in Germany, studying abroad Ohio, and education in interior architecture, graphic design, and furniture design.
I went to work for an architecture company in New York and then I realized, no… architecture is not my thing. It’s way too slow for me, I don’t think I have the patience. I quickly realized that I need that instant gratification. I want to make something and have it and see it. […] I decided to go back to school for furniture design. (10:42)
(17:40) Transitioning between different fields and following her gut feeling.
There’s no plan I ever made. I just made random decisions at the time. There was no logical explanation other than my gut feeling and interest. And that’s still the same case with the projects I work on and things I want to do. I don’t think about it too much. I just feel, “Cool. I want to make tables” [and then] I make tables. I don’t really ask myself too many questions about if it makes sense in my business plan or if it’s the right way or not. I failed a lot in life and I think that’s the key to going somewhere because once you fail, you figure out what’s next and where you want to be. I think without taking risks and doing that, you can’t go anywhere, in my opinion. (18:21)
(23:53) Working and living in New York City and flying to different cities for mural work.
(28:38) Her experience as art/design director at Kickstarter, Nike, Mother, and other companies; why she left those jobs; and her “art poster a day” project on Instagram.
It was kind of a reflection of my life and I learned to get rid of the anxiety of sharing work. I tried to rid of being judged for a bad design or a bad sketch. I just ignored it and kept posting. There was maybe 1,500 posters that I made and probably half of them I’m not proud of, but they’re out there and some people like them. Once the project became more known, it became more serious and I didn’t see an end. […] After the first year, which was my diary, I decided to do a second year and turn into ‘your’ diary—basically I asked the audience to submit things on my website: Their story [or anything]. […] Because my work is super colorful, I expected really happy stories and really funny things, but there were a lot of negative store and really negative stories and I realized that some people were using me as a therapist, as someone they could tell a secret to. (37:50)
(52:25) Alex’s studio and team. The development of her style.
(01:05:38) Her favorite type of project. Painting murals in pools and creating 2D and 3D designs.
(01:18:40) What inspires her work and the danger of being over-influenced by other artist’s work.
To be honest I think it’s really easy to be inspired by other creatives. We have Instagram, Pinterest, we have all that stuff that didn’t exist a while back. […] I feel now you have it everywhere and I try really hard to not be inspired by that. When I’m not inspired or I feel like I don’t have ideas, the one thing that does help me is calling my grandma, who is the only creative in our family. […] She’s the one creative family member, but also my biggest critic. Sometimes I’ll send her a new project or a mural and she’ll say, ”Nah, I don’t like that. You did’’t do well on that one.” (01:18:40)
(01:25:29) Alex answers the question, “I adhering to specific design style limiting?”
(01:32:30) The biggest challenge she faces in her work and transferring design knowledge to other team members.
Is that even possible? You can transfer knowledge for sure and you can transfer technique […] but I think transferring what’s within me and why I create those things, that’s hard. The ‘why I do things’ is a hard one to answer. […] Translating what I want in my heart, what I feel what I want to put on the paper to make this rug or pillow, that’s the hard part.
(01:47:03) Alex’s favorite color and why she wears all black.
