Rebeka Arce on growing up in a steel town, sharing doubt as a creative director at Collins, and the "aesthetics of fear" in design.
"I feel like LLMs are built to please us, not to contradict us. And I think contradiction is a big part of a creative process."
Rebeka Arce grew up in Barakaldo, near Bilbao, a town shaped by the steel industry. Her mother wanted her to become a doctor and her father suggested topography, so she studied that first, before committing to design. She went on to live and work in Berlin and Madrid, where she started her freelance practice, and moved to New York to join Collins as a creative director. She now works independently.
She explains why she separates the creative act, the design practice and the design industry, why she doesn't want to call it AI, and how fear of being too different or not being enough is leading decisions in the industry. She also talks about cultivating curiosity outside the laptop, choosing to share her doubts with her team at Collins, and what her students taught her about being a learner.
Timestamps
00:00 Opening
01:35 A life in constant flux
03:03 Growing up in a steel town
05:28 A doctor or a topographer
07:36 Choosing design
10:09 Working-class values and resilience
13:57 Berlin, Bilbao and Madrid
17:49 Moving to New York
19:35 Diversity and being unfinished
23:10 How the design world has changed
23:56 The creative act, the practice and the industry
26:22 Why she doesn't call it AI
27:52 The aesthetics of fear
31:42 Teaching and curiosity
34:04 Where ideas come from
35:08 Contradiction and working in a team
37:35 Showing doubt as a creative director
39:54 "The creative practice is a violent act"
42:00 A big team or working alone
44:20 Choosing her projects
46:32 Coming back to Spain
48:03 What she learned from her students
Rebeka Arce Website: https://byarce.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebekaarce
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekaarce/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/rebekaarce
Creative Figures Website: https://creativefigures.fm
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CreativeFiguresFM
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativefigures.fm/
Hosted by Alen Kapetanovic.
© Alen Kapetanovic. Madrid, Spain. All rights reserved. This work may not be used to train AI or for automated data mining purposes, including under Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790.