Domestika Diary: Núria Vila

Núria Vila is a graphic designer and art director who specializes in sustainable design. She tells us about her daily routine and the creative process she uses to implement more sustainable and ethical projects.

Environmental commitment is the foundation for art director and graphic designer Núria Vila’s (@nuriavilapunzano), life and career. She believes you can be extremely careful over design while also taking care of the planet, and she applies this maxim to her work.

Did you know that approximately 70% of a product or graphic work’s environmental impact is determined in the initial design phase? Núria works to reduce that environmental footprint by applying environmental criteria to design more sustainably and with greater awareness. She practices what she preaches at home to achieve a greener life.

This Domestika Diary explores Núria Vila’s routine and discovers her environmentally-committed creative process.

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Like so many other people, the pandemic has made Núria Vila rethink her routine from the ground up. “I now feel like a nomadic designer,” she says. Her new wandering means she can find herself working one day in her bright living room surrounded by plants and the next in the smallest room in the house, or with her children playing around her. Her favorite is when she goes out onto the terrace with her laptop to work in the sun.

At other times, she heads into her studio where numerous projects are gestating: art direction, poster design, editorial work, catalogues, signage, web design plus a few experiments. Daily meditation is another key part of her routine, along with a walk in the woods, which helps her find balance and connect with nature.

The designer uses her family time to experiment with materials and left-overs. A little creativity, scissors and acrylic paints are all you need to turn a toy box into a dragon, while an egg box can be gateway to new creative worlds. All these strategies and family experiments help her come up with new ideas for her graphic designs.

Núria’s environmental commitment is something she takes into her family life, gradually adding in planet-friendly habits. For example, this Christmas her gifts were wrapped without sticky tape so she can re-use the paper for drawing throughout the year. She’s also a member of a food cooperative that works with organic, local and bulk produce.

Like this Domestika Diary? If you want to learn how to go beyond aesthetics and reduce your projects' environmental impact, don’t miss Núria Vila’s online tutorial: Introduction to Sustainable Graphic Design.

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