Bia van Deventer is the creative genius behind our fabulous “Perdry op Noordhoekstrand” and “The pigeon on my balcony” desktop wallpapers.
After graduating from the AAA School of Advertising in Cape Town in 2001, Bia worked as a designer in London and Cape Town, after which she started her own design entity in October 2009. With great attention to detail and a love for layout and colour, she creates beautifully crafted pieces to meet the needs of any brief.
Powerful branding, catchy corporate identities and giving existing designs new flair make her tick. Bia currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
What inspires you?
Everything. A beautiful day, old waterlogged paintings from Woodstock, vintage postcards, bright pink roses, a great movie, haunting music, visiting places for the first time, Indian architecture, unexpected colours and textures. Also the little aesthetics and contrasts that form part of my daily surroundings such as my boyfriend’s extensive collection of vintage cameras and our vintage furniture in the modern environment of our flat. I enjoy the blending of old and new.
What are you passionate about?
The people in my life, music, traveling and expressing myself creatively.
What does good design mean to you?
To me it’s always evident if particular attention has been paid to every element such as typography, colour and layout, while still keeping true to the essence of a brief.
Thus, true design is finding a symbiosis between all these elements and embodying a type of respect for each one’s place and purpose in the layout to perfect the bigger image.
Who is your favourite designer(s) and why?
The Australian company Mash Design. Their delicate use of texture, layout and typography combined with interesting new ideas keep me in awe. I love how they use every opportunity available to use raw elements in their design. Whether it’s interesting photography or experimenting with different types of illustration, they always seem to achieve an amazing free flow of elements with an underlying structure in their fonts.
I also adore the work of Finish illustrator Sanna Annukka. I love that graphic design/illustration can be applied to so many mediums, from printed cards and wallpaper, to fabric, crockery and fashion. Sanna’s characters have even been made into cookie cutters, which I think is fantastic. It’s great that something so typical can be used to take the design just a little bit further.
If you could be anywhere right now, where would you want to be?
With my family, camping in Tietiesbaai… and perhaps from there embarking on a quick trip to Rome.
More information: +27 (0)82 3001 903, www.biavandeventer.com, Bia on Facebook
