Takeover Tuesday with Angelica Baini
Q&A with Angelica Baini, a Multidisciplinary Designer and Art Director working in Los Angeles.
Q&A with Angelica Baini.
Read time: 10min
Madison Caprara:
Hey, Angelica! Can you give us a little introduction to who you are and what work you do?
Angelica Baini:
I am a Designer, Motion Designer, and Art Director, currently living in Los Angeles. I moved here in 2017 from the 305 - Miami. When I was in Miami, I was working at Univision for their explainer department at Fusion.tv. I started as an intern, eventually moving my way up to overseeing many of the works that came from there. Then, I got an opportunity to work at BuzzFeed LA, after which I went to work in social media advertisement, but finally decided it was time for me to go freelance.
Madison Caprara:
Miami! Tell us about your upbringing. When did you start gravitating to the art and design industry?
Angelica Baini:
Originally, I was born in a small town in Italy and came to Miami when I was four years old. My mom is Nicaraguan, so there are many influences in my personal art that stem from both cultures: Classical and Contemporary, Magical Surrealism, and then of course Art Deco which is huge in Miami. I think I was drawn to art because I was a lonely child. I was always occupying my mind with drawing and creating.
Growing up in Miami, I got into design after being exposed to the graffiti that I would see on highways and overpasses. When I was about 12 years old, I would try to replicate those letterforms and make custom drawings for my friends' binders in school. That eventually led me to the art of Graphic Design. There’s a book called Fadings: Graffiti to Design, Illustration, and More. It really changed my life. I went to New World School of the Arts for Graphic Design but ended up double majoring in Motion Design after discovering Vimeo and Art of the Title.
Madison Caprara:
Now, looking at your personal style, it seems that you lean into 3D typography work. What attracted you to it?
Angelica Baini:
When I work with typography, I see a whole story developing in my head revolving around type. I think about mood, time period, and feeling. In terms of pushing my typography in a 3D direction, I have always loved experimenting and have been using Cinema 4D for quite some time. It just felt natural to create these stories in a new medium. Recently, I’ve been messing around with the Oculus Rift so pretty soon maybe you all will see me push towards a virtual reality direction….that’s if I stop playing a million rounds of Beat Saber, of course.
Madison Caprara:
I have to ask, do you hate Helvetica?
Angelica Baini:
I actually quite enjoy the font, I think I lean more towards Neue Helvetica Pro 93 Extended Black. It’s bold and I like it! The font I hate the most is Myriad Pro, when it just shows up on my screen screaming that a font is missing, it feels like it’s mocking me.
Madison Caprara:
Century Gothic or Verdana are my go-to’s. I’m not sure what that says about me.
Is there anything in particular that stands out as instrumental to your education and growth as a type designer? Maybe a person, course, or another resource?
Angelica Baini:
As a Type Designer, I was mostly self-taught when creating fonts. I picked up this book called Designing Type which had very good fundamentals on what to do and what not to do for type. From there I started learning Glyphs App which had a lot of great tutorials on the site. It led me to create my first font, MARINA.
Madison Caprara:
It’s still really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that people such as yourself create completely new typefaces.
Let’s pivot over into your art direction! What has been one of the most challenging things you’ve experienced as an Art Director?
Angelica Baini:
I have always valued quality over quantity, but with social media, quantity often is the priority. It doesn’t leave a lot of space for experimentation or solving things in effective, beautiful ways. Also, I think art direction has a different meaning to different people. Some people view it as pitching and copywriting, but for me, it’s all about concepting visually. That’s where I prefer to put my effort!
Madison Caprara:
Speaking on visual conception, tell us a bit about your creative process. How long does it usually take to create and execute once you have an idea?
Angelica Baini:
In my personal work, once I have an idea I love gathering a lot of reference images. I go all out with the Pinterest boards! If I am building a simple 3D scene it can take a couple of days, but if I decide to make a full animation, it can take a week or longer because of rendering, etc. Octane is a huge helper. For making custom fonts, the longest I’ve taken is six months. That might sound long, but large font families can take years! I get obsessive with the kerning, spacing, and adding extra glyphs. Because I’m now freelancing, sometimes I’m booked on shorter projects. For those projects, I have to think a lot more quickly.
Madison Caprara:
And do you primarily work solo? Have you had any collaborative projects?
Angelica Baini:
Unfortunately because of the pandemic, I am working mostly on my own but I definitely love collaboration. I think in the past when I was working on explainers, it was very collaborative; working back and forth with scriptwriters, design, and animation. With my freelance work, the projects are mostly bigger productions, so they require a lot of collaboration.
In terms of personal projects, I love to collaborate with friends and other artists. I have an amazing group of art school friends, and we’ve done a few short films and comics. Lately, since being stuck at home, I balance a lot of different ideas with my partner who does motion and art direction as well. It’s been helpful to get a quick second opinion.
Madison Caprara:
It’s always great when you have that support system of like-minded people backing you up.
What do you love most about your field of work?
Angelica Baini:
What I love is that I’ve been able to jump on a variety of different projects throughout different industries. I’ve been able to work in news, social, gaming, etc. Along the way, I have met so many great people who have inspired me.
Madison Caprara:
On the flip side, are there are any negative traits or attitudes within the industry that you would like to see change?
Angelica Baini:
Yeah, the industry is still very much male-dominated. I hope to see a better balance. I definitely think there should be more opportunities given to BIPOC, Women, Queer, Gender-expansive people! We need to hear different stories and learn from other leaders.
Also, 3D in general is a field that is very tough to get into because of the expenses of the programs and equipment. It’s very costly. I would like to see it be more accessible and easier for others to break into.
Madison Caprara:
So, accessibility and inclusion!
From your vantage point, where do you see the future of this industry heading?
Angelica Baini:
Ultimately, I see art and design heading in the direction of creating with compassion and empathy in mind. Designing for good, and better causes. Working for companies that have the same values as you do.
Madison Caprara:
I love that for us!
Pivoting back to your creating process, where do you usually go for inspiration?
Angelica Baini:
As much as I love going to the internet to browse for hours - mood boarding - I think the best inspiration I get is when I take a break and go outside for a walk or just do something else. Lately, I’ve been really interested in making my own textures for some of my 3D pieces. I’ve been going out and photographing things. When I am outside, I start to notice so many details that I don’t usually notice when my vision is being consumed by the computer.
Madison Caprara:
And is there anything special we can look forward to seeing from you in the near future?
Angelica Baini:
Definitely! I am thinking about working in Substance Painter and expanding what I learned there into a short film soon. I’m really looking forward to collaborating with others on this!
Madison Caprara:
It was great getting to know you, Angelica! Wrapping up, do you have any closing advice or statements you’d like to share with the readers?
Angelica Baini:
From experience, anxiety would always hold me back from jumping into things that made me uncomfortable. It is in that discomfort where I have found growth. Moving to LA was very tough the first couple of years, I’m not going to lie. Here, finding a reasonably priced apartment with a parking spot and AC is a luxury! If you all choose to dive into something, it can be hard in the beginning, but things will work out. It’s also important to try to build your community of artists because ultimately they will help support you to continually learn, grow, and push yourself.