Brazilian designer Tom Veiga combines his work in design with his love for the ocean and surfing.
Veiga is the creator of the Waves Series, a series of skate and surf decks (his "art boards") that feature his unique graphics.
Design Indaba asked Veiga about his work.
Can you tell us about your creative influences?
My influences come from my profession as a designer and my passion for surfing and waves, looking for my art to reflect waves around the world. I use design as a tool for expression.
Brazil is characterised by joy, colours and curves. I try to capture this in my work, a little bit of “Brazilian-ness”.
With each piece of work I try to show that each wave in the ocean is unique, unique in size, colour, temperature and style. My work then aims to enhance the colours, curves, motions and contrasts of the waves.
Tell us more about your art boards.
This is a project I have worked on with great joy. A board is the main tool of surfers so I thought it would be great to have my art on the boards. It’s like the perfect fit.
What were the most challenging aspects of the project?
The most challenging for me is the fact that you are doing something that aleady exists but you have to be careful of falling into the trap of doing what has already been done.
I try to explore the features of different waves, using design as a tool for the implementation of each art piece. This requires further study, variations and hard work to reach a good end result.
This makes each project more challenging, I learn a lot with each new art piece.
We must always be challenging ourselves to grow and when I decide to try to draw a new piece, I sometimes try to draw angles that have not yet drawn, to explore details that have not yet been used and to work on refining my stroke. I think that the designer must always be evolving through challenges and through new work in order to improve existing work.
Can you tell us a little about the design industry in Brazil?
Brazil stands out for its lively and catchy design. Here the joy and willingness to work in each can be seen in all of the creative industries from music to art and design. Brazilians like to innovate and explore, and this makes us different.
Brazilians like to test materials, do experiments and work with improvisation.
The interior design market has grown, especially with the soccer World Cup happening here in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016.
