Interviews with Yamile Salomon

I graduated in graphic design in 2009, from the Instituto Superior de Diseño, Havana, Cuba.

When the design assignment makes me think and investigate, when is it is something new, a challenge. The idea of creating, that something you think can be brought to reality is exciting, to say the least. The passion for creating.

In Cuba to study design you had to take attitude tests that lasted 3 days, these tests I arrived by chance because I did not know before that there was a design career, but once I began to discover in those days what design was all about, it was a decision without turning back.

I love the design made for a specific person or specific event. A personalized design.

Be persistent and consistent in what you believe and do. Passion and stay curious about all design processes and live.

Understanding the problem to be solved with the design, a strategic vision and a clear understanding of the needs of the public or the client, to find the best solution that in a unique and creative way works in terms of communication, economy and production for all. The curiosity to keep exploring and to think that there may always be a better solution.

The concept should drive all solutions, the clear and simple communication over beauty, the strong message that can be understood by the audience for which it was created. The idea behind the final form. This is how I evaluate a design.

Chris Do, Philipe Stark, Milton Glaser, Paula Scher, and the Cuban designer Erik Ravelo

Recent work for a Cuban writer, an assignment with a special theme: exile,

a subject that touches the fibers of this person and of the current Cuban panorama, that makes it special and important for me, because it touches me as a Cuban and it is my small contribution to visualize the current situation of my country.

Keep dreaming, keep learning, keep doing.

Design for me is storytelling.

My parents and a few friends always support me and push me to keep going, no matter what.

Focus and believe in what you do.

Rejection, understanding that sometimes, your design is not made for the general public, and this means that sales, the appreciation of your work, can take longer than you thought because closing your niche means specializing, and specializing means speaking the same language as a small audience, finding this audience has been the biggest challenge for me.

My next project is a collection inspired by musical instruments and music styles.

I don't really know what people can expect, I just hope that my passion for design will continue to enlighten me and that this will allow me to continue creating for everyone who needs and appreciates it.

Is the same answer to a previous question: Recent work for a Cuban writer, an assignment with a special theme: exile, a subject that touches the fibers of this person and of the current Cuban panorama, that makes it special and important for me, because it touches me as a Cuban and it is my small contribution to visualize the current situation of my country.

Approximately 4 to 5 weeks from the idea, the mock-up, and the final piece.

Who is it for?

Make it valuable!

I think the good design, that it makes whit a purpose doesn't work for trends, although those trends, sometimes, are the solution.

I work with Illustrator and all equipment for jewelry making: cutter, torch, hammer, needles, etc.

Transmit sensations and communicate.

Cuban people.

Chris Do, Seth Godin, Gary V, Freddy Mercury, Buddha, and God.

I really don't feel famous. I am still learning what this award means.

My favorite color is yellow, my favorite food is all kinds of vegetables and cheese. My favorite things are chair design and I don't have a favorite brand.

Do, at least, one thing that means something to a person.

When I was little I used to draw and write, but those things never made me aware of design, maybe a little bit of a creative spirit.

A crazy, crazy world, perhaps a disconnection from the true essence of the human being. Disconnected from being a real person, with shadows and lights, who needs to interact, touch, smell, feel, and express. A future only real in the digital world for me would be very sad.

I came to design by pure chance, and when I had an idea of what it means, I said to myself I want to be a designer. I graduated from the only design school in Havana, in the specialty of graphic design, which I still practice. At the end of 2018 I started, as a hobby, making necklaces with small waste acrylics and that's how Joy Color began, as a way to recycle materials, as a need for expression outside the bi-dimension of the graphic world.

For me, design is storytelling, through shapes, colors, materials, and textures.

I love the personalized work; the unique pieces designed for a specific person or event, a request that makes me think and find the uniqueness of the solution for that work.

A chain made for a Cuban friend and writer. A request with a special theme: exile, a subject that touches the fibers of this person and of the current Cuban panorama. The concept of being a soldier of words, a soldier in exile was the main idea. The piece ended up being a military dog tag with the words Libertad and Espanto (Freedom and Dread, his definition of exile) stamped in low relief, as well as his initials, and central detail in red thread as a reference to the blood and the Cuban flag.

The first design was a necklace called MelonJoy, almost a logo taken to a necklace, and it was this piece that marked the appearance and style of Joy Color.

My favorite materials are silver and acrylic. My favorite platform is Instagram.

When the job represents a challenge.

The concept is for me the fundamental thing, the meaning of each element that I am going to use, the reason for that shape, size, texture, etc.

As a designer you can mentally visualize the result, but reality almost always exceeds fiction, I say almost always, because sometimes it's the opposite. But to be able to see an idea, made object, to feel the weight, the texture, the size, that moment when you say, this is part of the real world is something really unique and enjoyable, it is fuel to keep creating.

My last exhibition was at the Iberoamerican Design Biennial, Madrid, Spain, at the beginning of 2021.

I would describe my style as tropical minimalism, a mix of pure and basic shapes, mixed with the explosion of colors and textures found in the Caribbean.

The main characteristic of my style I believe is the influence of graphic design in my pieces. My jewelry designs can be drawn or printed on paper without losing their essence because, in reality, I design them from the reverse process, I first draw the solution, I make it graphically, and then find a way to bring that graphic design to the three-dimensional. My work, in this sense, comes as wearable graphic pieces.

The design is always approached from the concept, finding the idea with a meaning, not just shapes, colors or textures with no more sense than beauty.

I am Cuban and I have been living in Miami for two years, which culturally maintains a strong connection with the Cuban culture, so it is a total influence on my designs. The cultural heritage, the expressiveness, and the joy are things that I always try to express.

I am very influenced by the Cuban way of making posters, which is based on exposing an idea through a few graphic elements but with a great concept, which invites you to interpret, to think. I am also influenced by the culture of saving that we Cubans have acquired by force by the scarcity of resources, which leads you to use only what is necessary or learn to work with what you can have available. And although I currently have all the resources at my disposal to develop my designs, I always try to keep that idea of saving, approaching the solutions not only from the visual minimalism but also from materials. The design and the culture of no waste.

Chairs and furniture, posters on wall,s and glasses.

Simple, appealing, and with concept, with meaning.

To know how to ask the right questions and to know how to find the connection between ideas, themes, and elements, that allow you to solve in a creative way the request you have been asked.

Can I have it for tomorrow?

I work by myself.

A collection inspired by music approached from different instruments and musical styles.

My email: joycolordesign@gmail.com and my Instagram account: Joycolor_design