Meet Celeste Barta | Illustrator & Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Celeste Barta and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Celeste, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I guess having my own business and being independent have always been something I wanted. But, building the confidence to take that step was not easy. I don’t know if I can detail my thought process behind that decision. I have this theory: I think that important decisions are always about jumping into the pool. We can try to think and control all the possibilities, but the truth is that we can’t. Sometimes we just have to do it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It is never easy to build up the career you want and get to where you are most comfortable and happy with what you do.

I have gone through a long path to get where I am today.

Starting at the beginning, I studied textile and surface design at the University of Buenos Aires. And after working in the industry for many years, designing patterns, I decided to create my brand.

Because I have been drawing all my life and my work in the fashion industry was as a pattern designer, having a fashion brand where the distinctive characteristic would be the unique prints (designed by me) seemed like the obvious thing to do. And at that moment, it felt like the perfect thing to do, too: I was ready to jump into the pool and start working on my own.
Nurturing that project was an incredible experience, full of challenges. I was super scared, but I did it anyway.

But, here is the tricky part. When the time came to do a new career balance, I looked back and realized I was not happy. I mean, I was proud of the fact that I was working on my own, building a small business, but something was still missing.

At that time, I decided to start a postgraduate course in Illustration (also at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina).

The course allowed me to reconnect with what I love the most: drawing. Away from all the others things involved in building your own business, I gave myself the chance to get back to the basics. And, suddenly, everything became super clear. It heats me: I only want to illustrate!! So, I need to reorient my business.

Before finishing my postgraduate course in Argentina, I applied for an illustration residency at the School of Visuals art in NYC. Going through that experience was the cherry on top of my ice cream.

With my confidence rebuilt and a lot of clarity, I got to where I am today.

So, back to the beginning: I think it is never easy to build up the career you want and get to where you are most comfortable and happy with what you do. But, it is possible. Maybe we need to be brave and have a lot of confidence or, at least, not listen to that voice in our head that tells us that, for whatever reason, we can’t do the things we want to do.

Having a freelance business is like any other small business. You need to be able to talk about and show what you do. Be confident, be brave, and as people always say: “fake it till you make it”.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live in Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Capital Federal is the most hectic and crazy spot in Argentina. Buenos Aires is a big city. So, it is not easy to decide what to do.

If I were to have a weekend with my best friend in the city, I would start by taking her to have a cup of coffee at a great specialty coffee place (we have a lot of wonderful coffee places in Capital Federal).

After that, we would go to have a walk through San Telmo, one of the most iconic neighborhoods, and we would have tortilla de papa at a bodegon, a characteristic porteño diner.

We would go to a brewery and grab a beer to wrap up the first day.

On the second day, I would say a tour around the museums: The national museum of Buenos Aires and the MALBA (The museum of Latin American arts). Then a tour of the National Library, one of my favorite buildings in Buenos Aires designed by Clorindo Testa.

Then we would have a picnic at las Heras park and finish with some great dinner at one of the many vermuterias in the city.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to dedicate it to my partner and to my friends. Because, they have always supported all my crazy decisions.

Website: www.celestebarta.com

Instagram: @celeste_barta

Other: I am building my Behance: Celeste Barta.

Image Credits
Pictures by Maria Laura Torín – Illustrations by me / Celeste Barta.