Public Rietveld presents: winners of the alumni button

Nina Valladares Paim and Remy-Alban Valton

WINNERS STUDENT DESIGN COMMISSION

‘RIETVELD ALUMNI BUTTON’

Nina and Remy are the winners of the Public Rietveld student commission to design a gift for the Rietveld Alumni. Their winning proposal was a design for a Rietveld Button that can be sewn on, produced in the different colors of the Rietveld building, with the typographical inscription ‘Member of the Rietveld Society’ etched around the edge. We asked them to tell us a little bit more about who they are and how they came to this design.
Public Rietveld: Could you tell us a bit more about yourself and what made you decide to go to the Rietveld?
Remy: I’m from France, before I came to the Rietveld I studied Graphic Design and Advertisement in Lille and Paris. When I did an internship in Kopenhagen, Denmark, I heard of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and I got interested so I decided to apply.
Nina: I’m from Rio, Brazil. I studied Design there for 4 years and before that also Economics and Philosophy. I had already heard of the Rietveld Academie before because of the good graphic designers that teach here and I was very impressed that so many good designers were teaching at this academy. When I was traveling through Europe I made a visit to Amsterdam to have a look at the Rietveld Academie. When I entered the building the atmosphere was really special, I can’t explain it well, but I just felt this academy was different and then I decided I wanted to apply. I also found the city of Amsterdam very attractive, in comparison to Rio it is so much more a city that is build to live and move around in. I like that a lot.
Public Rietveld: How did you come up with the design?
Nina: We came up with the idea straight away actually. Remy: Yeah, perhaps we’re supposed to say it was a difficult process but this was the first thing we thought of.
Nina: We wanted to make something you have to engage in, that is not something you can be the one day and forget about it the next.
Remy: We also wanted it to be very simple and clear it it’s communication.
Public Rietveld: Well we think you succeeded in that very well, can you also tell us if you had worked together before you did this commission together?
Remy: Not for the academy, but we did a paid design job together and that worked out very well.
Nina: Yes, I think working together is always much more fun. Public Rietveld: That’s a nice quote to end with, thank you both for the interview and good luck with your studies!