Vala Rizvanolli
Q What do you do?
“I support a marketing team within a food broker company as a graphic designer. I wear a lot of hats as a multidisciplinary designer so what I do depends on the current need. Its best broken down into three categories, internal corporate design, client work for CPG brands, and design tools that are used to facilitate relationships between the company, CPG brands, and the retailer.”
What I design internally for the company varies from email headers to internal program logos to sales presentations. A lot of ideas get cooked up on how to market the company to CPG clients, so there have been some pretty wild projects that have come my way. I have even executed a can design for a mock canned water brand that I came up with for a sales video that we created for our natural sector.
The contracted work I’ve done for CPG clients has also run the gamut. As of late, I’ve designed shoppable display ads and sell sheets for different brands. I did get to creative direct a photoshoot for Vietnamese coffee brand Sang on my own a couple weeks ago which was a first. However I mostly support creative direction on video shoots that we have.
And then there is the in-between – the design pieces that are used to help facilitate relationships between our brands and retailers. One example of this was a quiz landing page that I got to design for a dinner that our company was hosting at the National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association (or NFRA for short) convention in 2023. There were several brands in attendance and Albertsons was the guest of honor. To break the ice, I designed an arctic themed landing page that showed a penguin illustrated in each clients’ branding as you scroll until you reach the 15 question quiz at the bottom all about ice and the like.
What I do when I get home is a totally different story. For one, I have been illustrating character poses for a friend’s animated TV show he is getting off the ground, called Bar Fellowmule. What I do for me though, is create designs and drawings that have to do with themes that I know most intimately, such as being Albanian, being a girl, the ocean, the eerie, and fashion.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
I finally ignored the opinions of the people I found myself surrounded by and changed my major in college from Psychology to Art. I stayed calm when my parents started to fuss at the sight of me working on a complicated conceptual net project or a Fiber Arts assignment. That’s when I learned Photoshop and Illustrator for the first time. I balanced working every other day at a distribution center to support myself and my parents and creating posters and magazine spreads once I got home at 10. I continued making art during the summer, especially the first summer of the pandemic when I finally moved out of my parents’ house. Most importantly, I bet on myself, my taste, and my ideas and believed a full-time creative position would soon arrive for me if I continued working for it.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
I haven’t truly committed to one discipline or another that I lean on in projects. I first gravitate towards illustration or expressive line work with a lot of projects, but I don’t think my work follows a predictable formula. What is most important to me is following an idea through to the end to truly determine if it is a good solution for the project at hand, even if it involves learning a tool or watching several tutorials. I believe my eagerness to go there keeps my work fresh and unexpected.
I also have so many identities that I truly feel connected to – Muslim, Albanian, Kosovar-Albanian, American, Southern-American, bi, anxious, socially conscious, etc. They conflict with each other but I don’t disparage a single one, and they definitely inform my work, whether individually or in combination. I respect all of the different groups I come from so much that I always try to represent them the best I can through art and design.
Q What are you working on right now?
I’m working on a series of Albanian words illustrated to look like the object they represent. The words I am choosing are specific ones that stuck in my mind as a child. It is important to me as I’m not fluent in Albanian so I cherish the amount I am fluent in. It is also reminiscent of the alphabet books that Albanian children read when they first start school, called an abëtare. Right now, I am illustrating the word “tentene,” referring to crocheted doilies in the Kosovar dialect, which my grandmother crocheted a lot of.
Q What’s your style?
My style is idealist yet a spin on real life. I can make things that are nice to look at without putting a ton of thought into it but I love referencing human nature or eerie parts of life the most. I believe work that is aware of what it is influenced and powered by is often the strongest. Also, art and design have real power to evoke change in our social and political fabric. It doesn’t even have to do so by explicitly referencing it.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
I wish I could focus on creating in an industry that didn’t strictly generate fiscal capital. I want to be tasked with representing a culture or sub-culture and do so in a way that’s not necessarily the most marketable but true to the themes that I work within.
I would love to spend more time manipulating photos in striking ways. I love film photos and want to mess with them more – I have a film camera that is a more obscure model that I’m just not savvy enough for so I will be replacing it with a disposable or one like a Minolta.
I also long to creative direct. I think it is the ticket to scratching the itch I have to manipulate a project into evoking certain feelings or recalling themes in an exact way.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
Not enough time in the day!!! I find myself saddled with “priority” tasks everyday, like cleaning and, especially now, updating my portfolio and looking for my next full time gig. I never seem to work in the time to let my creative expression flow without thinking about my obligations. I am getting better at getting to my creative projects more frequently, but I wish I was able to set aside time to create without feeling the need to do it in a productive way. I think my work would be better for it.
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
If someone were able to increase the efficiency of my every day, I would be so on board. The way I should be organizing my desktop files, meal planning, strengthening my skills, but also how I can focus on tasks at hand without getting distracted.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
It doesn’t matter if you think the art you are making is bad, it’s paramount to your sense of self and use of time to make the art anyway. I wish I could tell this to any version of myself from around age 10 onward. I am always so self aware and working through battles in my mind, but not enough through art. Of course, if I had made more art when I had more free time, like in high school, I could have advanced more as an artist and designer today. But I also just know it would have felt better to have created as a way to cope with the struggles I had growing up.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
I would like to gain more insight on how to stay true to making good design while still thriving in the current climate of our industry. I am interested in doing both and I think at least someone with more experience could lend some ideas on how to make that happen.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
I am looking for creative, more specifically graphic design, art, and taste-making opportunities that are more advanced than what I’m currently working on. I think what I mean by that is I’m seeking to be part of a project that is long-term and that takes several rounds of revisions or evolves as the project goes on. In this way I can create work that is more compelling. I want to have to get to know people and subjects in order to execute deliverables. I also am looking for opportunities that might require me to be on site at shoots or to travel. I at least am really really open to relocating for an opportunity.
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
My ideal job would be working on archival works for a fashion house or a major cultural or arts center. I once visited the Louis Vuitton store in the Miami Design District in September 2022 and they had paper flower installations throughout the store that I thought were so striking. The store clerk explained to my girlfriend and I that they were based on a line or an iteration of an LV design from decades ago. The artist selected this from the Louis Vuitton archives and created the installation as an homage. To create something current that honors iconic work would be a dream.
I would also love to be able to learn from someone that has earned their respect as a working creative person, no matter the discipline.
Q: What is your rate?
I charge $30-40/hour for design and/or illustration services.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
If you are looking for brand design, a striking campaign, illustration, or any graphic design deliverable, drop a line in my inbox at valarizdesign@gmail.com. We’ll create something magical. Bonus points if you’d like to make something unnerving or hark back to the past. Check out my website for what is in store.
Q Who is a creative you admire?
Romy Bourke: Instagram LinkedIn Website
Seeing her work for the first time in my first undergrad graphic design class reminded me of design that made me feel something as a kid and inspired me to create, too. I would recommend her because she always pushes the envelope to create unusual design, with all of the colors but in a way you’ve never seen before. It’s so refreshing and you can tell she loves what she does.
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Live as a person that is not ashamed.
This member profile was originally published in June 2024.