Ximena Ureta

I have been working as a graphic designer actively and uninterruptedly for more than 27 years in Chile. I worked independently for several companies on corporate issues, especially Annual Reports and Sustainability Reports right at the beginning. My experience in packaging designing for Chilean wineries is extensive and I have managed to specialize in Chilean wine and champagne labels distributed all around the world. Currently, this is my main activity. I focus on highlighting and enhancing the virtues of Chilean wines and sparkling wines. I have studied etching, aquarelle and oil techniques at different times and I have applied these skills to complement my work as a designer. And yes, I have always wanted to be a designer but I am also interested in other art disciplines.

My studio permanently works on the development of packaging for Chilean wineries. I have been Concha y Toro’s consultant for the last 12 years, working on many of their brands such as Marques de Casa Concha, Trio, Diablo, Casillero del Diablo, creating products such as Leyenda, Reserva Privada and Reserva Especial. It is really interesting to promote, from the design point of view, these globalized brands and many of them world-renowned. During the Pandemic I renewed the corporate image of MontGras as well as various packaging such as MontGras Day One, MontGras Organic, MontGras Handcrafted, DeVine and ANTU. During this same period I designer Butterfly Acrobat. With Santa Ema in 2021, I created Rivalta and in 2022, Patagonia de Cono Sur and Cuvee 2020 by De Martino.

Design, as such, is a creative activity and a result of an investigative process, whose aim is to make objects to be both useful and aesthetic as well as solve a specific problem. And, although usefulness of the object is fundamental, my work must also be beautiful so that the relationship with the user will be both durable and harmonious.

I like working with designs that are beautiful and designs that pose some kind of technical or creative challenge. I love creating designs that identify the companies that need them and I like presenting original ideas that can be resolved by the production team.

There are several pieces of work that have been important for me. I think "Paper Flight” is very special. It says a lot with very little. It is a visual poem without words, it has a sensitive and essential spirit. A fragment of liberty. A pause. A tribute to simplicity, to the fragile, to the minimum. The small interior space of a visual haiku. "Butterfly Acrobat" has also been a fantastic project to work on. It was fascinating to write a short narrative in which the images tell a tale. A woman who can fly is lifted aloft by the silk threads of thousands of butterflies in a circus act. I find it fascinating that such an idea could have a place in wine packaging.

I first worked on a cover of a mass-distribution magazine in Chile. I designed an illustration that got excellent reception. It was my first experience as a designer when one of my designs was distributed to such a great number of people. For the first time I experienced the feeling of being the visible face of a company and, furthermore, with an editorial content. It was wonderful!

When the requirements are interesting and I have enough time to develop them.

I carry out a conceptual synthesis, I choose an expression technique, I review materiality and architecture, functionality, I propose typography if required, and I almost always check proposals for color at the end. Each stage is special and everything can contribute to an original design.

It is an energy that rotates internally. It starts soft and light. I think that it feeds from my breathing because they both march to the same beat. Eventually, one learns how to surrender peacefully. An inner strength that seeks light.

First of all, for a design to be successful, the designer must start with an assertive diagnosis of a specific need. Such design must have a clear conceptual definition and a specific target audience. Only then will a design acquire an interesting and aesthetic personality.

I see if I am able to feel what the design is trying to communicate.

Many of my clients today are considering materials that are friendly to the environment. Several wine label papers are FSC certified, which means that the paper's raw materials come from responsible and environmentally friendly forest management. That is to say, the fibre that is used in the manufacture of the paper comes from forests that are managed in an environment-friendly and sustainable manner. To be able to use FSC-certified paper one must comply with a custody chain meaning that all the agents involved in the preparation of the paper must be certified, in other words, the forests, the mills, the distributor and even the printers. I believe that designers play a very important role and we must be proactive in sustainability.

It is an interesting question these days as forecasts show that millions of current jobs will be automatized in the future and it is creative jobs that shall survive in a world populated by robots. Up until now, creativity seems to be a survivor. In music, artificial intelligence can successfully take and repeat certain elements of some themes and then reuse them but it is not capable of creating new ones.

My last exhibition was a few years back, in the area of wine and champagne packaging for different Chilean wineries. It would be great to be able to appreciate all the award-winning works at the A´Design Award & Competitions exhibition. It is undoubtedly the most interesting exhibition at a global level that I have participated in. In the future, I would love to show my works again and lead this personal project.

I study books and look at publications that contain well-finished aesthetic graphic solutions. This is what inspires me.

Perhaps I am characterized by looking for new techniques and unique places, what I expect from my designs is that they do not resemble each other. Each label must have its own personality, which is why it is very important to always be on the lookout and explore.

I am Chilean, my country is located in the extreme south-west of South America. I live in Santiago, the capital, which is in Chile’s central zone and it is blessed with a Mediterranean climate, with well-defined seasons and rainfalls concentrating only in winter. My country is renowned around the world for its wine production. Its climate permits us to grow healthy vineyards and produce high quality wines. I feel privileged to be able to contribute as a designer to the creation of wine packaging that is well-known globally, drawing on our immaterial heritage, our culture, our art and legends as well as our “crazy” geography that identifies us as the world’s longest and narrowest country in the world. Chile’s archaeology, ethnicity and folklore are also part of my country’s image represented and recognized in the wonderful quality of our wines.

I have worked with companies as an independent designer throughout all my professional life. What I basically need is a brief with the specific conceptual requirements before I start any project for a client. Subsequently, we set up meetings and program email dispatches each week, depending on the level of progress. In the case of packaging, when we finally believe that we have achieved the result we are seeking, we carry out tests to look at terminations, as well as the performance and adherence of the paper. I supervise each and every piece of work I do, including the final printing.

They should know their work and some important aspects of their personality.

First I think of a general concept, then I try several approaches and I progressively narrow it down looking for unique and original ideas.

My dinner table inspired by a fish, a book lamp, a metal tree that displays the bottles of wine with the label I have designed, my paintbrushes and photographic camera.

I prepare lists so as not to forget all the things that I must solve during the day. I set myself daily targets. I'm very rigorous when it comes to meeting objectives. I organize important aspects during the morning. In the mornings, I feel more energetic and I have more clarity to efficiently answer design questions. On the other hand, I try to bring together all the meetings in one day, to have enough time to design without interruptions.

I believe in randomness when I design, that is why I often work with my eyes closed and find things in places where my consciousness would never let me go. The same happens with gestural typography or color spots. It's funny what happens when I do it. The laws of harmony do not always act in a predictable way. This tidy harmony not always acts in a predictable manner. Perhaps these laws already exist and the only thing we must do is to decipher them. But they don’t always have a rational or logical order but one that is unconscious and unknown. Perhaps a designer is an encoder or a decoder of something superior and prior.

I love the way a designer mixes creative art with a functional purpose. I sometimes feel that a good design is under appreciated, I cannot find negative aspects of being a designer.

I use many great design books and standard software. My main toolbox, however, is my art box of paint brushes.

Depends on the object. A wine label for an export wine may take between 6 months and one year. Other packaging solutions may take much less time.

The packaging and labeling lines of Casillero del Diablo, the most famous Chilean wine.

My main clients are Chilean wineries such as Concha y toro, Cono Sur, MontGras, Viña Santa Ema, and De Martino.

I love my work, particularly when it allows me to be creative. Because of this, I don´t really have a type of design work that I enjoy the most.

I always do the art direction by myself, but I have a team of designers and producers.

I would like to continue designing and creating small poetic stories that have winged beings. Just like the birds in "Paper Flight" and the butterflies in "Butterfly Acrobat."

I would like to thank this incredible competition for giving us, designers from all around the world, the opportunity to showcase our work and to dignify it. I have been pleasantly surprised by the great technological platform that has been put at the disposal of all the design disciplines. Thank you for this wonderful experience.

I've worked as a designer for the past 27 years. My initial clients were Chilean wineries, for which I created projects involving wine and sparkling wine packaging. Wineries such as Viña San Pedro, Viña San Helena, Viña Indómita, Viña Errázuriz, De Martino, Cono Sur, Spumante Limarí, and Concha y Toro, for whom I worked with in two separate areas. Fine Wine Collection features Marques de Casa Concha, Gravas, and Amelia, while Premium Wines promotes brands like Trio, Frontera, and Casillero del Diablo. My most recent clients have been wineries such as MontGras, where I began by altering the winery's corporate image, eventually creating Day One, Handcrafted, Organic, ANTU, and De Vine. I've also worked with Santa Ema producing Rivalta, a renowned wine, and De Martino who will soon release an out standing wine, Cuvee 2020, in 2022. I'm also finishing Andante for Viña Maola in China. I enjoy what I do and hope that my clients continue to entrust me with the development of their packaging.

I've enjoyed drawing with a pencil and charcoal since I was a child. Things like analyzing, creating highly detailed drawings, and drawing the human body (particularly portraits in black and white), were one of my favorite things to do growing up. I quickly learned that pencils come in a wide range of sizes, from 9H to 9B, that removing the tip releases a wonderful aroma of wood, and that the roughness and varying thicknesses of paper fascinated me. Then I learnt about watercolor, chalk and oil pastels, oils, acrylics and then, as an adult, metal engravings. I've always enjoyed trying to make sense of figurative shadows. I would find faces in locks on gates and doors. I'd look for shapes in the clouds and draw gorgeous long gowns in inverted wine glasses. I've always like exploring stains with my eyes closed and then letting go of my consciousness when I begin painting. I have been a perfectionist and a hard worker since I was a child and my commitment to whatever I do is part of my rigor and discipline.

There are many things that I like about design and art. A design in the formal world must have fonts that are harmonious one with another as they help to create the personality of a project. Letters in themselves are wonderful illustrations. It is my absolute priority to use them correctly and delicately. It is also interesting to address a design from the artistic point of view, to explore different techniques in order to find the appropriate language. My favourite tool is always a brush with black ink on great quality paper. I love paper and its textures. Everything becomes more beautiful on good paper. All I have ever designed finally ends up on paper. A good seal and folium always touch me deeply. Digital tools are help ful to represent ideas and this way I can explain to others what I'm designing. The mock-ups in Photoshop are very useful and can express really well almost all the technical resources and colours that I want to use.

It feels like an energy that rotates internally. It commences soft and light. I think that it feeds from my breathing because they both march to the same beat. Eventually, one learns how to surrender peacefully. An inner strength that seeks light.

What I value most in me is my perseverance - even more than I value talent. I don’t know if I am talented but I know that I am disciplined. I like to see my ideas grow thanks to searching until I find them.

I have numerous projects in mind that will present significant hurdles. This year, I have a number of client projects to complete and designs featuring global themes that can be enjoyed by people from various cultures all across the world. These include peaceful, sensual, and intimate designs that can speak for themselves which encourages the viewer to take a break and simply observe. I adore combining typography with art, photography, and engraving (drypoint), and I prefer working with watercolor and inks. Each project is unique, and I try to enjoy each step of the creative process. I am delighted with my work. So far, I've enjoyed the creative flexibility I've been able to attain. It has been a very satisfying process for me to know that my clients trust me.

Perhaps I could say that technological tools are very important but nothing compares to what I can do with my hands.

I don't consider myself successful. Perhaps I would just like to say that I strongly believe in randomness and when I design I often do so with my eyes closed and find things in places where my consciousness would never let me go. The same happens with gestural typography or colour spots. It's funny what happens when I do it. The laws of harmony do not always act in a predictable way. Perhaps these laws already exist and the only thing we must do is to decipher them. But they don’t always have a rational or logical order but one that is unconscious and unknown. Perhaps a designer is an encoder or a decoder of something superior and prior. It is interesting to find more than the predictable. Nothing worse than common places.

I make lists to ensure that I don't forget anything important during the day. I establish daily goals for myself and when it comes to meeting them, I'm a perfectionist. During the morning, I organize crucial aspects due to the fact that I feel more energized and have more clarity. This allows me to respond to design problems more efficiently. On the other hand, I aim to schedule all of the meetings on the same day so that I can create without interruptions. Music is a factor which enhances the fluidity and interest of my creative activity.I can have moments of greater sensibility and can enjoy what I do every day.

Trends have never mattered to me. Nor do I know where my creativity comes from. My nature remains a mystery to me.

A good design is an expression in itself, it speaks with dignity and elegance. Its resources are original. It should surprise and may even make you smile.

My experience and my intuition tell me when the right moment comes. The creative process allows me to see how my projects have matured to the point that they can speak for themselves.

Several pieces of work have had a significant impact on me. "Paper Flight" has a particularly important place in my heart. It expresses a lot with a small amount of text and it's a wordless visual poem with a sensitive and vital soul. A fragment of liberty. A pause. A tribute to simplicity, to the fragile, to the minimum. The small interior space of a visual haiku. "Butterfly Acrobat"has also been a fantastic project to work on. It was fascinating to write a short narrative in which the photos might tell a tale. A woman who can fly is lifted aloft by the silk threads of tens of thousands of butterflies in a circus act. I find it fascinating that such an idea could have a place in wine packaging.

These days I'm observing and reading the work of Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect of modest, ecological and sustainable philosophy. Pioneer in the use of plastic, paper and cardboard used in his works. An utmost master in lightweight construction. Famous for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard tubes. His work with emergency housing as a design solution to house natural or man-made disaster victims is very interesting and creative. The simplicity that characterizes this great architect makes his projects magical. Shigeru Ban, paper, cardboard, and composition.

I love and I carry with pride my culture. I live in Santiago, Chile, South America. I think I have a harmonious life, I have managed to achieve a lot in design, as well as in my life as mother and as woman. I like my sensitive nature, my female essence. I love silence as well as working peacefully. I believe that my work has a lot of me embedded in it and of my way of looking at life. I want to go back to basics, to what is essential. To what can be done by hand in detail. To the micro, to the instant. To stop. I wish technology would not destroy paper. I wish that paper would not destroy trees. I appreciate working with certified companies that want to be sustainable and respectful with the environment. I can see that my designs and I are made of the same raw material.

I like working with small teams of designers, I like to delve deep into my projects without losing control of my creations. I work in silence and with very good music.

I donate my work especially to artists, poets, musicians and photographers who want to undertake a creative project. I have exhibited my work at universities that teach design in Chile and I have worked with students from various universities in my country.

“Design Award & Competition” is a human platform and high level technology. It is quite surprising, the impeccable reception and specific classification into different categories as well as its broad multi-disciplinary and top-of-its-class judging panel. Also the possibility for the awardees to get close to a global audience made up by adept and specialized press. Thank you so much for all the work. I want to thank this incredible competition for giving us, international designers, the opportunity to present our work to be dignified by you. It has been a wonderful experience, thank you.

I studied graphic design in Chile and have been working as a designer for 27 years. Although my first customers were Chilean wineries for whom I developed projects related to wine and sparkling wine packaging, I have also worked in other graphic projects throughout my professional life. For example, designing logos, brochures and annual reports, amongst other things. Some of my clients include wineries such as Viña San Pedro, Viña San Helena, Viña Indómita, Viña Errázuriz, De Martino, Cono Sur, Spumante Limarí, as well as Concha y Toro, where I have worked on projects for 2 areas that are part of this brand. One is called Fine Wine Collection, which includes Marques de Casa Concha and Amelia, and the other is called Premium Wines, promoting lines such as Trio and Casillero del Diablo. During the Pandemic I renewed the corporate image of MontGras as well as various packaging such as MontGras Day One, MontGras Organic, MontGras Handcrafted, DeVine and ANTU. During this same period I designer Butterfly Acrobat. With Santa Ema in 2021. I created Rivalta and in 2022, Patagonia de Cono Sur.

Since I was little I have always been very fond of drawing with a pencil and charcoal. I like analytical and very detailed drawings. I especially liked drawing the human figure, in particular portraits in black and white. I soon discovered that pencils come in a wide range of varieties, from 9 H to 9B, I discovered the incredible smell of wood when you remove the tip and I became fascinated with the roughness and different thicknesses of paper. Then I learnt about watercolor, chalk and oil pastels, oils, acrylics and then, as an adult, metal engravings. I have always liked to make sense out of figurative shadows. I would find faces in locks on gates and doors. I would search for shapes in clouds, illustrate beautiful long dresses in inverted wine glasses. I've always liked to explore stains with my eyes closed, shed my consciousness when I start painting. Since childhood I have been a perfectionist and I am also very hard-working. My complete dedication to all I do is part of my discipline and rigor. I am not quite sure where the relationship with art and design surged from. I only know that it lives deep within me.

I have always known that design and art were my thing. I think I was right.

There are several projects in my mind involving major challenges. It has been very interesting for me to create Butterfly Acrobat, a project with a lot of creative freedom, were a woman can fly guided by her butterflies. I like designs with universal ideas, that can be enjoyed by people all over the world from different cultures. Designs of peace and intimacy that invite the viewer to stop and just look. I'm happy with what I do. I like the creative freedom I've managed to achieve so far. I know that my clients trust me and it has been a very rewarding process.

Perhaps I could say that technological tools are very important but that nothing compares to what you can do with your hands.

The ability to empathize with the needs of others. When you make a project your own to such an extent that it becomes a vital necessity. When you cannot sleep until you find the solution so that it finally leaves you in peace. When you are capable of abandoning your needs for those of others.

A good design is an expression in itself, it speaks with dignity and elegance. Its resources are original. It should surprise and make you smile.

I'd like to design for institutions around the world that promote a sustainable and inclusive society.

It is a question that I ask myself very often and its answer is building slowly. I don't know yet but it will come.

These days I have been looking at the work of Hashimoto Naotsugu, he works with black and white engraving with dry point and a technique that I want to try called Chine Colle, which consists of printing on thin paper. His work is very interesting and has inspired me a lot lately.

There are many talented people. I would like to nominate an illustrator from South Korea whose name is Suzy Lee. Specifically a book published by Editor Bárbara Fiore entitled “The Wave”. I am mentioning it because of its simplicity and also because of its pictorial and silent narration. I would like to highlight the subtlety of Kim Ki-duk, a Korean filmmaker who has made several films such as Bin-jip (original title), which means "Empty Homes" as well as "Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom", known as "Spring, summer, autumn, winter ... and spring again", I think that somehow his talent has communicated with my sensibility.

There are several pieces of work that have been important for me. I think "Paper Flight” is very special. It says a lot with very little. It is a visual poem without words, it has a sensitive and essential spirit. A fragment of liberty. A pause. A tribute to simplicity, to the fragile, to the minimum. Butterfly Acrobat is another great design due to its fantastical tale and brilliant technical execution.

They should look at the life and work of many talented people.

I would have liked to be a singer. I love music and its something that has always moved me. I would also have enjoyed being a chef, ceramist, jewelry maker, photographer, perfume maker, sculpture maker and filmmaker, but don’t worry – I'm happy with what I do.

It is an energy that rotates internally. It commences soft and light. I think that it feeds from my breathing because they both march to the same beat. Eventually, one learns how to surrender peacefully. An inner strength that seeks light.

I've achieved what I have thank to all of those who I love and who love me.