Berny Bacic’s career has been established over 25 years, with her design practice spanning graphic design, branding and art direction, where she has brought colour and emotion to the projects she has worked on. Beyond her commercial practice, she is also an accomplished visual artist, and her work has travelled across the globe to the US, Canada and Southeast Asia.
Here she gives insight into her creative practice, how it’s linked to mindfulness, flowing movement and raw textures.
How would you describe yourself and your practice?
I describe what I do as Design Art, as my experience as a brand and graphic designer has informed my approach to my artistic work. Design has taught me how to find meaning in shapes and symbols, it’s taught me about colour and composition, and how to tell a visual story.
My work is confined within very structured and geometric shapes, that are given layers through colour and texture. This tension between the restrained and the free—the discipline of design and the liberty of expression—is where my work comes into its own.
- Seed 19, Acrylic on Italian Linen. Shown at SIBU Gallery
What have you been working on recently?
I currently have a solo exhibition on (Sibu Gallery), and so most of my time has been working on my latest body of work called ‘Lucent’ for the show, consisting of 15 new paintings. I have also been creating a series of open edition prints that compliment my fabrics and wallpapers, and have launched the first range of art prints this week.
- Arches 03, 100% Linen.
How does design thinking inform your artistic practice and vice versa?
Design thinking plays a big role in my thinking and process.
Typically I start with sketching continuous line drawings of shape and form, and with this initial stage I have a feeling, emotion or theme that I’m translating to paper, so my design brain is intuitively analysing and finding meaning in the forming shapes and connecting them to the theme. And from there, I transfer my shortlisted shapes to the computer and digitally illustrate them in Adobe Illustrator and it is then when I start playing with colour. I always create a colour palette which informs the colour direction of a body work, much the same as I would with a branding project. Once these two stages are done, the process then goes from design thinking to pure expression and spontaneous play with hands on paint work or pattern creation, however all whilst keeping within the structure and desired shape intention.
- Whimsy 02, 100% Linen.
What gets you into a creative mindset?
I need to be in a relaxed state to be creative, and so daily meditation and mindfulness is so important to my practice as are walks to get the body moving. I also get creative when I’m inspired, so soaking up visual inspiration, listening to stories from inspiring creatives and noticing all the beauty surrounding us fuels me and gets me creatively charged.
Inspiration for me comes from many different sources, themes and also feelings and emotions. In particular, I’m intrigued by notions of balance, flow and journeys, where my most recent art have explored these themes.
With my pattern work, one of the most exciting and inspiring parts of the creation process is seeing the harmony of shapes, and ultimately, the visual music created when shapes come together, when they merge and interact, and the emotion and feeling that comes from each pattern.
I love anything vintage that tells its own story and anything that is made by human hands. An so, much of my work has raw edges and explores imperfect form and the unexpected.
- Bounce 2. Shown at SIBU Gallery.
How do you keep your home and work spaces tranquil?
I’m surrounded by greenery, listen to chillin’ music and love light coming into my spaces. I have crisp white walls with natural earthy elements for grounding throughout both my studio and home. I also like to declutter every now and then to allow for more space, which in turn creates more space in the mind.
- Seed 03, Acrylic on Italian Linen, framed in Tasmanian Oak. Shown at SIBU Gallery
What are you listening to at the moment?
At the moment I’m loving Frazey Ford and Angus & Julia Stone.
All images attributed to Berny Bacic
