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Vianey Diaz is a Houston-based graphic designer that specializes in print and motion design. Her work is influenced by minimalistic Swiss design and the grunge aesthetics of the new wave and punk era. She aspires to create unconventional, highly experimental designs in the same realm as designers like Wolfgang Weingart and David Carson.
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“People who are for AI are claiming that it’s democratizing art or something. But art\u2019s always been a democracy. It’s always been so accessible to anybody.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
TPP45S<\/span> Of the forty-five visuals you created, which is your favorite? Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ<\/span> Number ten [35\u00b020\u201953.5\u201dN, 80\u00b044\u201900.6\u201dW<\/em>] and forty-two [31\u00b012\u201929.3\u201dN, 121\u00b030\u201906.9\u201dE<\/em>]. [I like them] because of how they look visually\u2014a lot went into creating them. If you look their infrastructures up on Google Maps, they\u2019re huge, huge highway interchanges. But you don\u2019t really see that from eye level. They have such an interesting pattern when you look at them from a bird\u2019s eye view [which is conveyed in their symbols.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n TPP45S<\/span> Why do you think an artifact from the past could be relevant to you and your creative practice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ<\/span> It could be a source of inspiration\u2014just looking at stuff from the past and reinterpreting them into your own time to see how different it would be or how it relates to you or your environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TPP45S<\/span> Your winning project Carbon Fingerprint<\/em>, threads the infrastructure of the world\u2019s super highways into human fingerprints. You mentioned in your artist statement that you drove on some of the highways depicted in the forty-five symbols. Were driving on those highways the initial inspiration for this project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ<\/span> Maybe partly. I’ve lived in Texas for most of my life and really intricate highways are pretty common here\u2014especially in Houston. When you’re looking at them from the ground, they look brutalist. But, in a similar way to crop circles, when you look at them from above they make these really pretty patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially, when I was searching for a topic to do [for the project], my first thought was to look at stuff from a satellite\u2019s point of view. That’s how I got onto Google Images. I had already had a previous interest in how highways looked from a ground view. So when I saw them from above, I was like, huh, these look kinda like fingerprints. And then from there I built a narrative around that [idea]. <\/p>\n\n\n TPP45S<\/span> You contrast the excessiveness of super highways structures with the delicate nature of the fingerprints. Is excessiveness versus delicacy an element that is often featured in your design?<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ<\/span> In my design work, I do have an interest in line art. I really like minimalistic looking things. So that usually entails delicate lines and geometric shapes\u2014at a subconscious level I naturally gravitate towards those delicate, delicate lines that are simple, but when you start adding more to them turn into something complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TPP45S<\/span> Instead of naming the symbols after the highways they represent, you chose to name them after the highways\u2019 geographical coordinates. Why did you make this choice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ<\/span> I think mainly for two reasons. One of them is that I really like playing with contrasting typography against images. I especially like delicate typography against big images. The second, is I was thinking it could be sort of audience participation. People could look at the symbols and go \u201cHm, I wonder if this is actually something I could look up.\u201d If you put these [the forty-five symbols\u2019] coordinates in Google Maps, then it’ll take you straight to the highways that these fingerprints are [patterned after].<\/p>\n\n\n\n TPP45S<\/span> What does your project tell audiences of today and tomorrow about our current anthropocene and human impact on our planet? <\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ<\/span> We drive a lot. We have an overreliance on cars. We build more and more of these roads, but it just exacerbates the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TPP45S<\/span> Where did the fingerprints in this project come from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ<\/span> At first, I was just going to do line work of the [bird\u2019s eye view] highway intersections, but it felt too sparse. I wanted something that looked a little bit more full. So after thinking about how much they looked like fingerprints, I started adding these [fingerprint-like] lines around the highway infrastructures to flesh the symbols out. The fingerprints themselves are partially real and partly my imagination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I looked at pictures of actual fingerprints, and I looked at mine a lot. I played with ink and pressed my fingerprints to study them. I incorporated the textures I made [with the ink] into the project\u2019s actual fingerprints so they have this kind of faded look to them. So there\u2019s a little piece of me in every one of the symbols.<\/p>\n\n\n TPP45S<\/span> In Carbon Fingerprint<\/em>, you aim to portray how, the faster humans develop industrially, the more pollution we create\u2014which causes us to further damage our ecosystem. Do you feel like industrial development\u2019s effects on our ecosystem will continue to influence future designers\u2019 works?<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ<\/span> If we still struggle to balance advancing technology with our ecosystem\u2014with nature\u2013I\u2019m sure somebody will be. There\u2019s always been designers who are also activists and that\u2019s a trend that exists now and will continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TPP45S<\/span> What do you believe are the biggest challenges of this upcoming generation of visual artists\/designers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ<\/span> The first thing that pops into my head is AI. I’ve seen a whole lot of discussion around that. How people who are for AI are claiming that it’s democratizing art or something. But art\u2019s always been a democracy. It’s always been so accessible to anybody. But, anyways, there’s just a lot of back and forth. And then there\u2019s people saying it’s going to completely replace creatives and all that. But I think it could be a really useful tool for designers and artists. It’s just the problem of making sure it’s regulated and not being used to steal from artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TPP45S<\/span> The humans who created the Phaistos Disc\u2014if it\u2019s not a hoax\u2014will never be able to tell us what its forty-five symbols mean. But you are here with us today, to talk about your own set of forty-five symbols. What is it that you hope people take away from your project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ<\/span> I hope that people see how ridiculously intricate these highway interchanges are, and that the symbols make people self aware of our overreliance on cars. And maybe with that in the back of our head, maybe then we can collectively make a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIANEY DIAZ Carbon Fingerprint<\/a> Vianey’s Portfolio<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “People who are for AI are claiming that it’s democratizing art or something. But art\u2019s always been a democracy. It’s always been so accessible to anybody.” TPP45S Of the forty-five visuals you created, which is your favorite? Why? VIANEY DIAZ Number ten [35\u00b020\u201953.5\u201dN, 80\u00b044\u201900.6\u201dW] and forty-two [31\u00b012\u201929.3\u201dN, 121\u00b030\u201906.9\u201dE]. [I like them] because of how they […]<\/p>\nRead more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[109,96],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17791"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17791"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18841,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17791\/revisions\/18841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/number-10-300x300.jpg\")
35\u00b020\u201953.5\u201dN, 80\u00b044\u201900.6\u201dW<\/em> [10 of 45] <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/42-1-300x300.jpg\")
31\u00b012\u201929.3\u201dN<\/em>, 121\u00b030\u201906.9\u201d<\/em>E [42 of 45]
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<\/strong>Vianey Diaz is a Houston-based graphic designer that specializes in print and motion design. Her work is influenced by minimalistic Swiss design and the grunge aesthetics of the new wave and punk era. She aspires to create unconventional, highly experimental designs in the same realm as designers like Wolfgang Weingart and David Carson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Winning Project Open Call 22\/23<\/p>\n\n\n\n