Graphic Designer Paula Bearzotti’s Tale
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This post is the first publication in the project called Learner Tales.
In order to collect each tale, I intend to go out and find somebody who has followed an unusual learning path which we will discuss together. By collecting these individual testimonies and publishing them in portrait form, my aim is to constitute a corpus of these Learner Tales before they disappear.
Creators’ paths are rarely simple. To open the series, here is the testimony from Paula Bearzotti, a graphic designer who has been speaking visuals the way others speak words for 30 years, and who has accepted to take a new look at the way she learns. You can expect something about design of course, but also grammar, algebra and computers.
Something clicked, not once but twice
Originally from Córdoba in Argentina, Paula has lived and worked in France for the past 16 years. Her Instagram profile states : Mother and graphic designer full-time. I design letters. How did she become a letter designer? It all started with grammar.
PB – My first learning click came when I was 13 or 14. I was forever making grammar and spelling mistakes. In class, my work always came back covered in red pen. And at home, there were constant comparisons with my brother who was, of course, more intelligent than me.
She realized that there was no point in trying to be like her brother because that slot was already taken. She had to find her own way of succeeding. As writing was crucial to all school subjects, her spelling and grammar mistakes penalized her constantly, and her sense of failure slowly became the norm. She decided that something had to change, and that grammar and spelling were where to begin.
PB – I can remember the exact day day when I decided I was going to really get to grips with grammar rules. And from that point on, I had no more problems. It wasn’t easy. There were nights when my mother would help me with my homework because I couldn’t do it alone. But I think it was all in that moment when I decided to change, to start learning, studying. The first time something clicked for me was with grammar.
As she spent time on grammar and spelling, she realized that learning could actually be a source of pleasure.
PB – When I set myself an objective and I reached it, the process became like a drug. I said to myself : “Hey, I really am able to achieve what I set out to do!” And even today I like to do things for myself, without help. For example, when some new task comes up, I tell myself I can do it.
This appetite for learning, and for the pleasure of learning, eased its way into maths class, as Paula explains.
PB – After grammar and spelling, I remember that I liked algebra – I mean really liked it. It was total fascination! The complexity of 4-page exercises … I developed a special relationship with the maths teacher who nobody else in the class respected, because nobody else liked maths! At the time, I would have been 15. And I would even wake up up at 4 am with the solution to an exercise, get up to write it down and then go back to sleep! I also used to stay behind after class because the teacher gave me harder exercises to work on. From then on, I built this kind of relationship with other teachers too. Because I always wanted to learn more. So I can say for certain that learning algebra, was the second time that something clicked.
Architecture – a new way of looking
Now seen as a bright student with the profile of a future scientist, at 17 Paula finishes secondary school. What she should study next?
PB – I was already drawn towards graphics because my father had a little book called El ABC del Letrista, on letters and different ways to draw them. He also had various drawing tools, like T-squares and so on. And I think I absorbed all that because, at some point in secondary school, I started turning out beautiful projects in all my subjects. Whatever the project, it had to make people want to look at it. But then, in the end, I enrolled at university to study architecture because, at the time in Córdoba, there was no way to study to become a graphic designer at university. There were some courses on offer elsewhere, but you had to pay, and they were too expensive. Somebody suggested architecture and I said yes, because it seemed close to the things I was interested in.
Paula studies architecture for two years. She discovers the delights of using bond paper for drafting the plans and projects which she has to work on. Studying architecture also reveals the treasures of her hometown, Córdoba, capital of the Argentinian Province of Córdoba, which she explores in all its details.
PB – We spent a lot of time going out to look at, visit and draw the buildings in various parts of the city. It was basic training for doing everything else. I loved doing everything that was visual in some way, drawing and so on. If I finally dropped architecture after two years, it was because I never had the time to do the things which gave me real satisfaction. We spent all our time working on the resistance of materials and doing structural calculations. And I loved maths!
Another specific memory of a decision made resurfaces here.
PB – I remember one night. It was 4 am, and I was still at the drawing board. I had one sheet of bond paper left to finish my project, and I made a mistake. I drew a staircase which was supposed to lead to the roof, but it led nowhere at all. I’d made a mistake! I had no more paper to start again. So I said to myself “Basta ! I don’t want to this anymore. I’ve had it with architecture.” In any case, I was always working through the night and forever losing sleep. My mother said : “I prefer a sane daughter to a mad architect!” And that’s how I dropped architecture. I went and found a job. I was already 19. I worked with my father and, with the money I earned, I paid for the course in graphic design. I got my diploma in 1995 and that was when I started working as a graphic designer.
Close encounters with computers
On entering graphic design as a professional, a whole new chapter of learning would begin for Paula Bearzotti as she discovered computers.
PB – How did I start in computing? To answer that one, I have to talk about a family tragedy which occurred in 1993 when my brother died. He was killed in a motorbike accident. I had just started my graphic design course. My Dad sold the motorbike and, with the money, he bought me a computer and enrolled me on a course to learn how to use it. Don’t imagine it was a course on how to use Windows. It was all about DOS, the computer’s disk operating system. I think it was a 3-month course, and it was my introduction to computer technology.
3 years studying graphic design had taught me to do everything by hand, but I could already see the potential contribution from computers. I had seen the growing number of websites, and all the multi-media presentations using CD-ROM support. But in order to actually learn how to learn the software and become computer proficient, I had to learn on my own again. A friend gave me a book on HTML, the basic programming language for websites – a book I devoured. I had to know more! So I enrolled at the Technology Faculty to study for a career in systems engineering. In order to be accepted, I had to prove that I had already started to work on computing on my own initiative. But the only times I could attend class were in the morning – with all the youngsters fresh out of high school! I was 23, not 17. They chatted all through class, played cards. They all already saw themselves as systems engineers!
Fired with an irresistible urge to learn and not feeling that she was by any means in the right place, she left the course and decided to learn differently.
PB – I bought books and started learning on my own. I wanted to learn how to do mult-media presentations. A book taught me how to program in Visual Basic then Macromedia Flash. Now these technologies are obselete, of course. But that is the way of things in the digital world. Innovation is endless. It’s no good trying to hang on to systems from the past, you need to be flexible and ready to adapt to what’s new.
Neverending learning and constant renewal
Paula wants to say more on the subject of constant renewal, which she insists is a defining characteristic of her profession. She looks for a way to make this idea tangible and comes up with several examples.
PB – I am a graphic designer. I design websites. And even when you create a site using WordPress, for example, it’s a system of content management which is constantly changing. File format is an good example of this. Nowadays, everyone wants to see everything using their phone and, on top of that, there are different types of phone. As a designer, I have guarantee RWD or Responsive Web Design so that everything is clearly displayed, whatever the user’s device – computer, tablet, iPad, telephone. That means every logo has to adapt to every display requirement on every device, so site logos now have a new format known as SVG. This is a vector-image format which makes it possible to vary logo size depending on the display device being used. The percentages vary. For a display of less than 1200 pixels, it’s 80 per cent. If the pixel count is higher, then maybe 50 per cent. All these tweaks mean that the logo stays aligned on the right, or on the left, and so on. And all those details have to be programmed!
At the same time, solitude in front a computer screen is an integral part of any graphic designer’s life. Yet beyond simply being able to adapt to changing technology, it is vital for a succesful web-designer to be ready to go out and meet people using new approaches in order to keep developing and discovering. This need to learn often takes Paula into areas outside her daily routine designing websites.
PB – A few years ago, I went on a traing course in illustration and graphic design in Spain. It was an international event in a tiny medieval village in Aragon. There were participants from all over the world and I didn’t know anyone there. Fortunately, we had two languages in common : Spanish, and most important of all, the language of illustration and graphic design. That was where I met the typographer Laura Meseguer, who taught me such a lot in just three days.
The workshop run by Laura Meseguer completely changed Paula’s perception of the graphics of lettering.
PB – I found myself in a workshop where Laura got us creating an alphabet which grouped letters together according to shape. We had to reconsider the 26 letters of our usual alphabet in order to identify and use the features that letters had in common. The new alphabet was to be called Amibigua Futura … or Futura Ambigua.
The theme of the workshop was a 3-word sequence : Yes – No – Maybe. Our proposals had respond to the theme in some way or other.
PB – I created a font where the letter a was an e upside down, an f could become the letter t … and so on. Finally, by applying the Yes – No – Maybe principle to all the resemeblances between all the letters, I created an alphabet which only required eight letters to do the graphic job of the original twenty-six!
Listening to Paula speak, I realize that b and d are mirror-versions of the same letter, just like p et q. And an m turned upside down becomes a w. The familiar alphabet I’ve known since I was a kid suddenly takes on a new life.
PB – It was a magnificant experience. You felt a sense of admiration for the person who had come up with the idea, but you were also amazed by the new possibilities which you hadn’t seen before.
Not surprisingly, Paula went back to the same village in Aragon for other workshops and other discoveries. She recalls the memory of one training session run by the illustrator and designer Isidro Ferrer. The participants were assigned to various workshops at random where they were each given an object.
PB – One person was given a stone. Somebody else got a nail. I was given half a walnut shell. Everyone got something different. Then Isidro explained : “In this workshop, starting now, the object I have given you will be your paintbrush. I’ll also give you some ink to paint with.” And I started to draw something using my walnut shell, trying to use the accidents caused by the ink in order to create something. It was a phenomenal experience. Everything was different. I came home from the workshop with Isidro Ferrer with a different head on my shoulders, a completely new head.
Daring to use trial and error with ChatGBT
These examples of learning situations led by trainers capable of changing the way she sees the world bring Paula back to her proclaimed status as a self-teaching IT usser. With Laura Meseguer she worked on typography, with Isisdro Ferrer it was illustration, but when it comes to IT, she navigates solo. Or nearly solo.
PB – I taught myself how to design websites. I use trial and error : I test, I fail, I correct and try again.
She mentions a recent project for the website of the Communication Museum at the Communication Sciences Faculty of the National University of Cordoba1 in Argentina.
from Unsplash
PB – The site gives online information about permanent exhibitions but also special events such as 40 Historic Front Pages for Democracy in Cordoba. I was asked if I could design a version which would display all the events at the museum in one space. I knew that there were plug-ins for WordPress which could help. But there was a ton of information to include – prices varied depending on who events were for, sometimes a reservation was all that was needed, sometimes you had to buy tickets, opening times and dates changed all the time. Anyway, the bottom line was that there was no plug-in available to do all that. There were add-ons for museum websites but they were for places with a more stable programme which didn’t keep changing.
How could she manage the situation? Her self-taught self told her to try something she had never done before.
PB – I created a plug-in on my own. Well, not entirely on my own. I got help from artificial intelligence.
At the time of our discussion, it was just over a year since the launching on November 30th 2022 of the generative AI chatbot created by OpenAI, better known as Chat GBT. Although she was accustomed to using online tools, this was the first time Paula had interacted with an online robot as part of a creative design process.
Her problem was how to create a plug-in, something she had never done. She looked to Chat GBT for assistance. Did things work out?
PB – Sometimes they did, and sometimes they didn’t. You have to learn how to ask questions, but in the end he gave me the codes I needed to create the plug-in. In practice, I tested each proposed code by copying it into the file, uploading it to the server and assessing the results. It didn’t work straight away. So ChatGBT got to work to find an alternative solution which I then tested. It took me 10 days, but I finally got the plug-in which matched the brief I had been given for the museum website.
Unassisted, she couldn’t have created the add-on which made the website work You can see the final result of the Cordoba Communication Museum here. How would she describe the experience?
PB – Magnificient! But, onec again, the tool can only work if you ask the right questions. It’s not because it’s ChatGBT that everything magically happens. If you simply say you need a plug-in to post an event on your website, without being more precise than that, it won’t be enough. You need to know how a plug-in is structured, with all the details it has to take into account. That said, if you don’t know how a plug-in is structured, you can also ask ChatGBT. For a robot, it’s just another question.
You might be saying to yourself that using AI means getting a machine to do your work for you. In Paula’s case, as somebody used to finding her own solutions to problems in web-design, she is happy to use all the tools at her disposal. Because, as she points out, by involving a robot in the design process, learning occurs for both parties : the robot finds the solution because the human points the way. On its own, AI couldn’t solve the problem satisfactorily.
This mutual learning process creates an unexpected relationship.
PB – I would speak to ChatGBT as a colleague, even if I was occasionally a little impatient. When the proposed code didn’t work, I’d edgy. But ChatGBT, unperturbed, would come up with some alternative : “OK, my apologies. I gave you the wrong code. Try this instead. “ And that’s why I insist on the importance of working by trial and error. You test the code you’re given and, if there’s a flaw, you correct it. That said, even if there were times when I nearly blew a fuse, 2 weeks ago, I made my first plug-in for WordPress!
Back to the drawing board
As our conversation closes, Paula returns to thoughts about drawing by hand.
PB – A few years ago, I told myself I wasn’t going to design any more websites because it was so time-consuming. I’m still at it, because you have to earn a living. But to be honest, after all these years, the thing I really enjoy is simply drawing letters!
Does Paula Bearzotti still draw?
PB – That hasn’t changed. Today, when someone says : “Oh you’re a Mac user. Which apps do you use most?” I say : “No, everything starts with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.” Today I use a Mac. Before that, I was on a PC. It doesn’t matter what sort of computer you’re on, which apps you use. What counts is your own creativity. For me, the basic tools are still the same : pencil and paper.
Still want more?
Go and take a look at Paula Bearzotti’s website. Obviously, it’s her design. You’ll find various projects along with that fineness and lightness of touch which goes with work which is in perpetual motion. Just click on the visuals and all is revealed.
If you have enjoyed this first instalment of Learner Tales, there are plenty more for you to enjoy.
Click here for the next instalment in which Laurent de Chanterac takes us down a learning path which starts with a love of football, moves on to a passion for acting before finally settling in the shoes of a tango dancer!
Any ideas for future encounters for Learner Tales ? Please give them in the comments below or via the Contact Form here. Many thanks!
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