Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ingrid Schmaedecke. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ingrid, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I recurrently hear my father point at anything say: “I could make that”. Being a woodworker as hobby, he does make lots of objects — not only perfectly functional, but also of intricate design and craftsmanship. We would build birdhouses together as a kid, when I still lived on the farm in the countryside in southern Brazil, where he keeps his woodshop. Outside the workshop, I was always drawing, painting, or making small craft projects with my mother. My parents aren’t artists by trade, but they’ve always been naturally creative, and I grew up surrounded by their books: encyclopedias, tales, dictionaries, cookbooks, biographies, Brazilian literature — and simply plain beautiful books, with stunning covers and illustrations. Immersed in beauty, we hardly ever talked about creativity, or art, directly.

When I went to Architecture school at UFPR, I realized I could channel that hands-on curiosity into a broader design perspective. I always knew I didn’t exactly want to design skyscrapers, and I like to say that architecture became my lens to see the world with, a way of thinking. I first encountered graphic design somewhat late in my undergraduate years, during an exchange at KABK (the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague). Book-binding, typography, and the tactile side of printed matter immediately struck a chord, cozily reminding me of the woodshop and the hours measuring, sawing, sanding, making fit.

Straight-away making, “failing better” every time, was my learning experience — not by avoiding the frustration of not getting where I wanted quick enough, but by keeping me curious about the results along the way. It’s a cliché for a reason: experimenting is key. Could I have benefited from targeted workshops or mentorship earlier in my career? Maybe, particularly in graphic design and typography; but I was reading, watching, listening everything I could put my hands on. I think, in fact, that kept the magic alive.

Since then, I’ve worked on an array of projects — from exhibition graphics to photographing objects for catalogs, designing PhD thesis books and calendars, and even drawing cats for brands. I was coordinator of graphic design in a museum in my hometown — and I loved working so closely with people from dramatically different backgrounds (the museum archaeologist was a remarkable one!). I also ran a studio for about 5 years, making furniture, books, and visual identities.

After RISD, I found a new energy and clarity in my personal practice, leading me to explore hands-on, experimental processes involving tools, techniques, and materials — for instance, pen plotting as a way to blend digital and physical processes. Though these self-initiated projects have a more intimate, tactile focus, they are never far removed from the insights I gain in my day-to-day work. Both worlds share the same philosophy: design as a process of “thinking by making.”

I think there’s so much strength staying curious and refusing to limit yourself to a narrow specialty. Chloe Scheffe’s article *In Defense of Generalism* (AIGA Eye on Design, June 20th, 2018) was a joy to find during my time in grad school. In that sense, I see myself as a creative, adaptable problem-solver.

Ingrid, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a multidisciplinary designer whose practice blends materiality, spatial thinking, and graphic expression, with a formal background in architecture and graphic design. Currently, I work at 2×4, a global design consultancy where I collaborate on major client projects — ranging from brand development to large-scale environmental designs.

During my MFA, I found a new energy and clarity in my personal artistic practice, leading me to explore hands-on, experimental, iterative processes involving tools, techniques, and materials — for instance, pen plotting as a way to blend digital and physical processes. Though these self-initiated projects have a more intimate, tactile focus, they are never far removed from the insights I gain in my job as a designer. I approach every project with the same curiosity about how form, texture, and function can connect with people.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative lies in the process—those moments when I’m experimenting with materials or fiddling with a new tool and stumble onto something unexpected, a little weird, or even “wrong,” which sparks an entirely new direction. I love seeing how these quiet, hands-on explorations evolve into pieces that make someone pause, shift their perspective, or second-guess. It’s that interplay—between the private spark of an idea in the studio and the shared experience of encountering it in the real world—that keeps me energized and in that magical exploration mode.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I used to believe everything I made had to be strictly useful or purposeful — especially in a polytechnic environment where modernist ideals and measurable outcomes were the main reference. Over time, through experience and seeing designs and artists working differently (I think immediately of Francis Alÿs’s Paradox of Praxis), I realized there’s immense value in the seemingly “useless.” Peeling dried glue off my hands, creating riso prints with the machine “ghosts,” tinkering with pen plotting just to see what happens. Small, playful acts turned out to spark some of my most meaningful insights.

Unlearning the idea that every creative project must yield a perfect, utilitarian result freed me to embrace a more open-ended way of working. Ironically, it often leads to more innovative solutions when I do tackle client’s projects.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ischmaedecke.com/
• Instagram: @ischmaedecke
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ischmaedecke/

Image Credits

Photographs by Isometric Studio
Photographs by Meio Estreito
Photographs by me