Vivian interview with Irene Piazza
Irene Piazza is a Motion and Graphic Designer based in Richmond, Virginia. Look and enjoy her portfolio!
Vivian: Okay, so first question, could you please introduce yourself and then also any sort of like, freelance work or anything you're doing right now…what jobs you have…stuff like that?Â
Ire: Oh, wow. Okay. I'm Irene. I go by Ire, and I'm from Italy. Umm, What jobs do I have right now? I mean…so I am currently teaching. That's my main source of income. And I'm in grad school. So I've been working on a lot of my grad school projects lately. On the side, I also do posters for events and like concerts for my friends and people I know, and sometimes I do them for some businesses at VCU. One tricky thing about me is that I can't technically work in the U.S. outside of my, outside of the university. So it's more of like…freelance?
Vivian: Projects?
Ire: Yeah, projects.Â
Vivian: That makes sense
Ire: Because I was actually asked to do a whole brand identity for a coffee brand and I had to deny it because-
Vivian: Is it something to do with a VISA or something?Â
Ire: Yeah, my VISA only allows me to work in the university.Â
Vivian: That makes sense.Â
Ire: So, that's like, my main source of income. I also am going to be tabling at the Richmond Zine Fest.Â
Vivian: Oh, wow!
Ire: So I've been making work for that, and I'm doing a workshop at the Richmond Zine Fest the day before the Fest. So I've been planning and prepping for those. And for an independent thing, I have this project called Pressed Poetry, which is a letterpress poetry printing.
Vivian: You said earlier you were talking about, like, collecting poems.Â
Ire: Exactly. I can show you. It's an independent project where I collect people's poems. Pressed Poetry (@pressed_poetry) • Instagram photos and videos
Vivian: Oh, wow that's cool.Â
Ire: Yeah, and then I like, we paste them around the city. And I haven't done it in a while, but I just started printing a new poem. So people send them to me anonymously. And I just print them in the letterpress or I screen print them sometimes. But these are all letterpressed.Â
Vivian: I’m so excited to try to find one of these now.Â
Ire: Yeah! I mean I'm going to print more and hang more. But for a while, they were like, some people would just send me photos when they would see them. And like some of them, especially where we pasted them, they lasted so long.Â
Vivian: And I would think this isn't a thing that people would, like, I feel like flyers sometimes people tear down. I don't think people would tear those down.Â
Ire: It depends. They definitely get torn down, but, I think it's the beauty of the ephemera. The ephemerality of this project. So I don't feel bad. It depends on the areas like, in Carytown, they tear things down so easily.Â
Vivian: Really?!
Ire: You would think! Yeah, right?
Vivian: Carytown is so, like, small business. Yeah, no, that's wild.Â
Ire: But then in other areas, stuff will stay for a long time, which is really interesting, because people don't care as much I guess, about aesthetics. Yeah, so this is an ongoing project that we're working on, and I really want to get back on it. It's just like school has been so busy for me.Â
Vivian: I can imagine.
Ire: Yeah. So. Yeah. And I have recently made a poster for my friends for a show that happened, and my partner is a musician, so I make posters for him, and I'm currently making his business card.Â
Vivian: Yeah that's all my friends too are like…Hey, since you do art…and I'm like, okay. So yeah, I get that.
Ire: It's good. It's just difficult, especially working with like, broke artists because I feel like I really don't want to have to charge them. I don't know. It's weird.Â
Vivian: Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. I did want to ask, where in Italy are you from and how did you end up in the United States, like, why VCU?Â
Ire: Yeah, it's so random. So I'm from Florence. So I was born there, grew up there, and I came to VCU in undergrad, actually, back in 2016. It was a very random thing. I actually studied abroad in Indiana when I was in high school.Â
Vivian: Oh?
Ire: Yeah, it's very random. When I was a junior in high school, and my host father was the head of the printmaking department of Indiana University at the time, he introduced me to a lot of students at IU, art students at IU, and I was struggling with, not struggling, but I really didn't like the teaching system in Italy, the creative teaching system. It was just very strict, very, very strict, not very creative. And there's not a lot of funds for the arts where I'm from. So I decided to apply and my host father is the one who recommended VCU to me. Cause he told me there was a good school, and I applied to a few other schools and then I decided to come here in the end for many different reasons. For the funding, and I really just like Richmond, and I liked that it was warm. Because I liked a lot of colleges in the north…and I was like, I don't want to be in the cold. So I decided to come here and then I went back, I graduated and I worked here for a year and then I went back to Italy for four, three years..And I worked there, and then I decided to come back for grad school for many different reasons. One of which was the funding thing again. And they had the assistantship, the teaching assistantship program, which basically…it allows you to start teaching, which is something I was really interested in. And I also just really missed Richmond and my friends. So I decided to come back and it was like, you know, two birds one stone, because I love VCU and I love Richmond.Â
Vivian: Yeah, I'm so glad that this just got like, recommended to you and then you ended up loving it. That's so cool.Â
Ire: It was so random. The whole time in undergrad I was like, what am I doing? Because I was one of the few like international students. But especially I didn't know anyone else from Europe that didn’t have dual citizenship. Yeah, so I was like…Why am I here? Like literally, we have public education where I'm from, but I loved it, and it worked out, and I’m still here, but it's getting harder…to do…Â
Vivian: Like, all the laws and everything government…?
Ire: Yeah..So far so good.Â
Vivian: I did want to ask…I mean, like, not related to this, just personally. I think I'm gonna try to study abroad next fall in Florence. They have, like, VCU as a partnership with a school there.Â
Ire: Yeah, SRISA! I used to work there!
Vivian: You used to work there?Â
Ire: Yeah!Â
Vivian: Oh my gosh! I was going to ask, is there anything specific about, like, Italian art or Italian design that I should look more into that's cool?Â
Ire: I don't know…
*There was visible excitement here*
Vivian: I mean, not to open, like…a huge box...Â
Ire: No, no, no. So, in Florence, there are actually some really cool studios. So there's this one that's right in Florence called Monogrid. Which is a really, really cool creative agency. And they work a lot with the brands, with fashion brands. But they do a lot of really cool interactive…I'm talking more about like design more than, like, history of design…but…and also another really, really cool thing is called C O L L A (@colla_colla_colla) • Instagram photos and videos. And they do like screen printing design. They do, like, designs, but it's a studio that's in Florence, and I totally recommend checking it out when you're there.Â
*I included this part of the conversation so you guys could get access to these links!*
*a lot about Florence*
Ire: …There are a lot of students, like American students. And you’ll be fine like a lot of people speak English…*more about Florence*
Vivian: Yeah. That'll be helpful.Â
Ire: You should totally go! It's cool.Â
Vivian: Okay, well, a couple more questions I have to ask you just for this.Â
Ire: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And is that recording?
Vivian: Yeah, it still is.Â
Ire: Okay, perfect.Â
Vivian: A couple more questions. What advice would you give…and I guess this could be like, for Italy, for the United States, or for both. What advice would you give young people starting out in graphic design? Like, kind of career direction?Â
Ire: Yeah. So I would say... I mean, try things out and see what sticks. Do, like, don't be too, too picky about the projects that you take as long as they’re things that you're passionate about. I mean, when you start, you're going to have a wide range of projects that you might, that people might ask you to do, I do want to say try not to undersell yourself or undervalue yourself because you start out, um when you start out, you might think like I have no experience, but you actually have all your college experience. Like that can be considered as work experience. So, don't be like, oh, I just started, like, no, I have, like three years of graphic design experience, because that was like my school, you know.Â
Vivian: That's good advice because I've always been of that mentality. I'm like, well, I just have to like-
Ire: Nooo no no!
Vivian: -like get any job when I graduate.Â
Ire: No, but also don't be too picky, because one thing might lead to another. And be like, talk to everyone. Talk to people, that's another thing that I learned. The best way to get more experiences is to move from one thing to the other. Like, your first job is not gonna be your job forever. So don't feel too pressured. Like, I feel like every time I go into a job, I'm like, oh my gosh, what if I don't like this? And I'm like, you're not stuck in that situation. You can always change. So try things out, see what sticks, and another thing…apply, even if you don't think you're qualified for something.Â
Vivian: Okay.Â
Ire: Because you might be, they might train you, and also fake it till you make it because you can always like learn things once you're in the job.Â
Vivian: That's true, that's true. And that kind of goes with when you said don't undersell yourself because it's like, just kind of shoot for the moon.Â
Ire: Yeah. And like, it's also good to have like a scale of like, how much you're charging people based on who they are too, Like, it's good to have different budget based if like, you're working for a company, you're going to have a higher budget than if you're working for, like a random person or a friend.Â
Vivian: I never considered that either. That's interesting too.Â
Ire: Yeah, cause companies have way more budget. And like, you're going to learn it once you start working for an agency. Companies pay so much for design, but it's clear that, like, not everyone can aim for that, especially independent artists. What I was saying, like, my friends that play music, I think it's still good to give value to your work, but like see the range, because I've definitely undervalued myself, but I've also overcharged. Whenever people are like, what's…and I understand that it's like design is worth getting paid for and it's a lot of work, but also like figuring out what the sweet spot is and thinking about what your sliding scale is. And also another thing, like, I landed a really good job when I was back in Italy. I was telling you guys earlier [my class], like, I was working for a fashion brand doing the in house design work. It was so fun. I would go to the shootings, I would go from Florence to Milan, I did two fashion weeks.Â
Vivian: Oh my gosh.Â
Ire: Yeah, we would make like, we would make the gifts for the influencers. I did menus for dinners for all these different VIPs.Â
Vivian: That's fun cause that’s variety, too.Â
Ire: It's so much variety. But how did I get that job? I applied on LinkedIn. Like, I found the job on LinkedIn, and I applied through their website instead of the automatic LinkedIn. And I got one interview, then I got a second interview, then I got three interviews. And wait, three or four, three interviews. Three rounds of interviews. And I got it and I was like, why am I here? But, it worked out. Like, I was worried that I wasn't qualified, you know, it's all these thoughts that you have…and they're really in your head. And then you realize everyone else around you feels the same way. Or like, everyone is like, bs-ing their way through that.Â
Vivian: That's a good point hahaha.
Ire: Hahaha yeah. So never feel like you're underqualified or not qualified for a job, because no one else is going to be ready. Especially, like, starting a new job is like learning a new language. You always have to start from scratch. Even if you have things that you have learned for jobs, every job has a different system, every company has a different system. So it's just like, don't feel like you're not ready because you are. You just need to learn about the system of that job. And also, I think it's good to try working freelance. I hate it though. I'm really bad at time management. As can see you with our class.Â
Vivian: No no, it's fine.Â
Ire: It's just like, very difficult for me to figure out how much time something is going to take me.Â
Vivian: Yeah. I think I would appreciate more of like, a nine to five as well. Like, more of a…jobÂ
Ire: Yeah, It's good to do that and then have freelance jobs on the side because, like, that's the nature of the design. It's just to do different projects.Â
Vivian: I feel like that's the nature of, like, any creative job too. Like everyone always is kind of spread out.Â
Ire: But it's good to have a stable base and then branch off of that, because I feel like that helps. And what else? So yeah, Just try things out and if things don't work, that's okay. Like, not everything's gonna work right away, but, like, shoot for the stars and see why.
Might as well try.
 Ire: Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.Â
No, that was awesome. I only have one more question because, like, I was personally curious. I looked on your website and saw you did a lot of collage stuff…
Ire: Yeah!Â
And, like, I love collage stuff. How does that…like does that influence your design style, like more of your digital art or how does collage influence, I guess non-personal collage projects that you do. Do you think that kind of has any sort of…Â
Ire: If it influences my other work?Â
Yeah.Â
Ire: It definitely does. Also most of my collages are actually analog. Like, they're cut out and then scanned and then I Photoshop them and stuff like that. Yeah, because you were saying that you also have an interest in collaging. I would love to see your stuff, too.Â
I don't, I don't have a ton of like, I don't do it that often, but I just really enjoy…I've noticed even when I do things digitally, I like more of a collage style. Like that's just more my, the way my brain works towards things.Â
Ire: Yeah. I definitely... I'm definitely influenced by it. I definitely made, especially when I worked for the fashion brand, I would make, like, collages as part of, like, the.. I guess whenever I had to make content, that was a certain way, but companies are weird. They don't really like when you like, edit their photos or like..Â
That's fair.Â
There's, like a little bit of, I don't know, it's just like, they're a little stuck. So sometimes it's difficult to bring your own personal creative style in too. but sometimes it can be your strength. Some creatives are hired specifically because of their styles. I definitely think it's good to have a mix of, like, personal work and commercial work, like in your portfolio. I definitely think that one of the reasons why I was hired in the jobs that I have been hired into is also because I had, like, a personal practice and that might, like give you a character. You know? But I do love collaging. I haven't even done it that much lately.Â
*me talking about a project I did in high school blah blah blah, also Ire taught a letter press class this past summer…*
…Yeah. I'm a very hands-on person. So, I just love trying things out playing around with different mediums. So it's just fun to collage, but I've been working in a lot of different things lately. Like I've been working a lot with laser cutters, and in undergrad, I actually didn't do graphic design. I didn't mention that. I was in KI.Â
Ohh okay.Â
Yeah, so I did a lot of mixed media, I would do visual installations. which were so fun. And like, I did a lot of performance work when I was in undergrad.Â
That's cool.Â
Yeah, it was so fun. I loved, I loved my undergrad. But I definitely feel like what I've learned in KI has really helped me find jobs because I feel like it's harder to find graphic designers that also know how to do video work and animation work. And I feel like I don't know why, but people love to hear that I can do animation. Like, logo animation. So I definitely think it's good to branch off and potentially for you to take a class in KI or to not necessarily only take graphic design...Â
But to build like base level skills in other…?
Yeah!
Okay. That makes sense.Â
I mean, it can be useful…Because, like, video animation, people love to hear. I don't love doing them anymore. And I try to avoid them because especially agencies, they think it's going to take way less than what it actually takes.Â
Yeah.Â
So it's just really stressful to be the only person who knows how to do animation and they like, put so much pressure on you. But it can, I think that's one of the reasons I got the jobs I got, was because I knew what to do a little bit of everything.Â
Very cool.Â
Yeah.Â
Yeah. Well, thank you. I think that, like, basically answered all my questions!Â
I think yeah, collage is fun. It's so funny that you took the time to look at my website…Irene PiazzaÂ
*Then we looked at a lot of her work, and she was like oh no I need to update my website, and then she said it’s really important to have a website so when people google your name your work will come up. We talked for a long time about my classwork for her class specifically…but before I left she gave me the advice to not be afraid to jump from opportunity to opportunity, and that the people who get the best opportunities are constantly in motion. Try not to get stuck in one job when you have the option to try things out*














