PechaKucha presenter Rafi Baeza: “When I can introduce an element of magic in to a brand I know I’ve got something good.”

Wed, 12/16/2015 - 11:00am

Kay Stephens

Rafi Baeza presenting at PechaKucha in November 2015. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

PK Design by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Moving to Maine by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Magic by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Photoshop by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

FedEx Surprise by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Wizard of Oz by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Holi by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Rafi Baeza presenting at PechaKucha in November 2015. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

PK Design by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Moving to Maine by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Magic by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Photoshop by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

FedEx Surprise by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Wizard of Oz by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Holi by Rafi Baeza. (All photos courtesy Michael O’Neil)

Behind the Slides, our ongoing feature, is where we meet up with an artist who presented at a PechaKucha event and find out the deeper story beneath the images they chose to portray.

Rafi Baeza has more than 20 years of visual branding experience, ranging from developing identities for corporations such as FedEx to working on museum exhibitions. He has received numerous awards for his work, including a gold medal from the AIGA biennial exhibition in Miami. His work has appeared in both Communication Arts and Print magazines. Baeza is currently a graphic designer and the creative director of the Farnsworth Art Museum. He is proud to have grown up in Camden, where he lives today.

Note: The slides appear in the right column. Click on the photos to match them with the actual slide notes (in italics). Beneath the slide notes will be the deeper story.

PK Design

Design is about ideas and I have been fortunate enough to spend my whole career coming up with ideas that solve problems for people. This is an image I created for PechaKucha a couple of years ago and thought it fitting to begin with. The concept being, what is inside an idea.

The hardest part about creating this image was figuring out how to cut open a light bulb. My friend, Annie Brown, suggested a string, paraffin and fire. Violà! I love the adventure certain projects take you on.

Moving to Maine

After moving back to Maine, it was only a matter of time before I was asked to create a lobster logo. This logo is made up of the elements of a standup paddleboard race unique to the Midcoast that the organizers, Mark and Thor, wanted me to convey. You can see in the head the mountains meeting the sea and in the tail a SUP paddle.

A lobster is actually very cool looking, very graphic.

Magic

When I can introduce an element of magic in to a brand I know I’ve got something good. This is my redesign of the Florida Grand Opera’s logo.

I wanted to communicate visually the mystery of an opera and invite the audience to be part of the journey. Through the device of a window this spell bound direction reminds people of the magic that awaits on the stage.

Photoshop

Sometimes using Photoshop to remove information makes what is left more powerful. This piece originated as a sign in an old car wash in San Francisco in a seedy part of town. By removing text a larger message was revealed.

This sign originally said, “We are not responsible for non-standard, non-metallic, non-tightly affixed or pre-damaged items.” The concept was inspired by situationists and their practice of psychogeography, where one creates a new awareness in an urban landscape.

FedEx Surprise

Now FedEx was the first corporate account I worked on while a senior designer at Landor San Francisco. It is considered one of the greatest brands of all times. The combination of the purple and orange colors, ample white space and an arrow hidden between the capital E and lower case x make this identity unique.

Wow, I was surprised by the gasp in the audience when I revealed this secret. I thought everyone knew!

Wizard of Oz

When I was hired as the creative director at the Farnsworth, the museum was preparing to open the Wizard of Oz show. This was a designer’s dream and I worked quickly to communicate graphically the wonder that the movie had on me as a child.

The show is opening next season at the Figge Art Museum near Chicago. I've been working on some of the merchandising. It's all very exciting.

Holi

Returning to the towns I grew up in means so much to me. During my summer breaks from Bowdoin I used to work with carraggeanan at FMC in Rockland and now 20 years later, I can work with the same medium as an artist. We created several large canvases of color for the Holi [BASH] using this marbling technique.

I killed two blenders mixing the carrageanan with water in the right proportions to fill this small swimming pool. Thank you Cynthia McGuirl, Lauren Chesis and my other assistants for your creativity on this project.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com