Leaving it all behind—a dream for some, and a night terror for others. For graphic designer and multidisciplinary artist, Colette Conrad, the moment when she finally made the decision to make a hard right and exit the creative agency freeway, was not unlike the feeling of returning home. In Colette’s case, home is Berlin. Born near the Alps in Rosenheim, Colette moved to Munich to study Arts and Multimedia. An interdisciplinary course built to emphasize creative freedom and encouraged students to view themselves as artists within the design world. Through her studies, Colette began to experiment with many different techniques, and after some time in the creative agency sector, she became more resolute than ever. It was time to take a break, “clear the cache” in her own words, and explore. Unable to call any one artistic medium her “one and only”, her current top three are: analogue photography, collage, and poetry. Colette explains how leaving her job helped her regain the freedom of expression that she had previously lost in her work. Now the only question remains: where will she go next?
You recently quit your job… how does that feel?
Colette: I expected to feel more relieved and light afterwards. While I know taking this step was right for me and the best thing I have done in a while, now I get to decide where to head next on my path. I feel like that is an even bigger and a more impactful decision!
You studied arts and multimedia, what are your favorite media to explore right now?
Colette: Oh no! What an impossible question to answer! I guess my top three right now would be: Collage, film photography and poetry.
Can you take us through your design process for creating this artwork:
Colette: After having worked at agencies for over five years now, it’s honestly quite hard to access ease and playfulness in my creative process. I started playing with the gradient tool in Adobe Illustrator and randomly decided on 12 shapes roughly in the same colour palette. Most design-decisions come from my gut so while creating any kind of work there is this back and forth of “What if I add this and that here? How will this effect change this shape?” And so on. Once happy with the gradients and the layout it felt empty and vague to leave it as is so I decided to give an incentive on how to think about this composition, much like works in a museum are framed sometimes. As I’m currently at a crossroad in my career, my association directly went to… well exactly that! We all have infinite potentials, ideas, desires, fears, you name it. I decided to claim these as my potentials.
What’s your current obsession?
Colette: Currently obsessed again with jungle mixtapes on YouTube. I called the renaissance of jungle and breakbeat back in 2020 – and now here we are. Look up jungle fatigue on YouTube, and let yourself get taken away.
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
Colette: Being able to speak every language (that includes animals!). The knowledge I would gain regarding specific subcultures and peoples way of thinking would be amazing.
Tropical beach, or mountain top?
Colette: Italian spiaggia with a little peroni any day.
What’s the worst advice you have ever received?
Colette: Focus on one discipline. What the hell are people thinking?! First of all, perfectionism is the death of creativity, in my opinion. And, secondly, I will forever strive to learn as much as possible and expand my practice. I would really love to get into writing, pottery, make-up art… there can never be too much art.
What’s one of the biggest challenges that you’ve overcome?
Colette: Learning when to step away. It’s the most crucial skill for an artist to know when your work is finished. Even applying it to your everyday life. Calling it quits can be the bravest thing to do.
Can you show us a picture of your work desk?
Colette: My desk essentials include used dishes, pens, and unread letters.
You can follow Colette Conrad here:
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