Tell us about yourself: Name, age, location, current professional status
Hi! My name is Júlia Trindade and I'm a 23-year-old Brazilian graphic designer based in Lisbon. I've been freelancing for quite some time now and I'm also part of the global brand team of a hospitality company.
What are the (design or general) topics you’re most passionate about? I'm crazy about fashion, music and skateboarding. In terms of design, I'm really interested in editorial design. I just loooove magazines! The funny thing is that in the end, I guess everything is connected - I once watched a video on youtube in which Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi) says "The thing with skateboarding is that there's no other sport out there that encourages videography, music, fashion, design... That's the perfect sport for me, so I was all in" and well, I would like to make his words my own. These are all things that make it possible for me to express myself :-).
Tell us about a project that got you excited lately.
Recently I've been having some people reaching out to me to work with them on freelance projects because they like my style and that makes me so happy! I always get excited when someone trusts me enough to make things my way because they liked projects I’ve worked on. In the beginning, I'd be like "my style? What do you mean? lol", but getting hired by people who share your vision results in working on projects that suit your strengths, which makes everything smoother. And honestly, I guess that finding your style is something that’s never entirely finished. It's what happens along the way when you're working on different things and taking the time to find what works for you and what you’re most passionate about producing, right?
Tell us about a collaborative project you worked on in the past.
The Vulva Ring Collection. Leonor Perestrelo and Matilde Wall reached out to me last year because they wanted some artwork to launch the Vulva Ring: the beauty, equality and social justice that women deserve and strive for captured in jewelry. They did an amazing photoshoot with @frederico_om and my job was to play with the pictures and I couldn't be happier with the result. Also, it was so much fun to work with them because they gave me so much creative freedom and we'd meet at coffee shops to review the work and drink matcha lattes :-). I've recently collaborated again with Leonor on the launch of her latest collection, called Reminders, which turned out to be my favorite project so far.
How was (or is) your first year after school?
It was exciting and confusing at the same time. Exciting because my first internship was when I was still in school, so when I graduated things were kind of working out already, which I'm super thankful for. And confusing because I finished school during the pandemic which means that graduation was literally having my last class on a random Tuesday sitting at my desk at home. Thankfully some of my best friends graduated at the same time so we could share the moment <3.
What's the best advice you've received (and from whom)?
"Nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake". Nicolle Ginelli mentioned that phrase in her talk at the Wix Playground Academy and it really resonated with me. I'm definitely a perfectionist and it can be paralyzing sometimes, so my advice to everyone reading this would be to make some mistakes, after all this is how we learn, right?
What do you look for in your first (or next) job?
I'd love to have the opportunity to mix fashion with graphic design in my next full-time job, so maybe working as a designer or art director for a fashion magazine or in a design studio that works with fashion & lifestyle brands. Also, having a healthy work-life balance, a diverse team and a positive work culture. I guess for us that are part of Generation Z, it's really important to feel good about our jobs, to feel connected to the organization. We want to work in roles that we are passionate about and be compensated fairly in companies we believe in and admire.
Which projects did you decide to put in your portfolio? What was your selection process?
I guess it was a mix of the work I'm most proud of and the work that best translates my style. Also, I've heard a couple of times that it's important to only put the type of work you want to do in the future in your portfolio, so I tried to keep that in mind. I guess it's kind of hard to stay focused on what we really like and what we really want to do because at such a young stage of our careers we don't want to close any doors. But it's really important for recruiters and potential clients to be able to see who we are when they look at our portfolios. Of course that doesn't mean we can't explore different things. Actually, I think that experimenting is how we get to know ourselves.
What are you working on (personally or professionally) these days?
I'm working on my shuvits (beginner skater over here), as well as working on refining some projects to upload to my website (portfolios are definitely a work in progress) and on my mental health (always).
What is the most exciting step when you start a new project?
I guess not knowing what the outcome is gonna look like? That's the funny thing about design, right? Sometimes when you start you have no idea of what it's gonna look like when you're finished, but you have to trust the process - which is definitely something I learned during the Wix Playground Academy.
What book had the biggest impact on you, and why?
This is not design-related, but it would definitely be "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery. A friend recommended it to me some years ago and I'm forever grateful. I'll leave a quote and you'll understand why: “But just by observing the adults around me I understood very early on that life goes by in no time at all, yet they’re always in such a hurry, so stressed out by deadlines, so eager for now that they needn’t think about tomorrow…But if you dread tomorrow, it’s because you don’t know how to build the present, and when you don’t know how to build the present, you tell yourself you can deal with it tomorrow, and it’s a lost cause anyway because tomorrow always ends up becoming today, don’t you see?”
By the way, I've recently joined an online book club for the first time in my life and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone trying to get into the habit of reading. It's @bookbimbosclub on IG :-)
As a Wix Playground Academy alum from WPA Europe 2021, what couldn’t you have done without?
The Wix Playground Academy had such a big impact on me - I haven't stopped talking about it since it ended. I guess that without the Academy, I wouldn't be able to know myself so well as a designer. We learned so much about personal branding and we really took the time to search for a lot of inspiration even before actually designing the portfolio, so it definitely becomes easier to see what our style can look like. We also had so much guidance and feedback to truly be able to develop the portfolio that would best represent who we are, so being challenged like that was definitely crucial to achieving the result I wanted.
