We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lea Bagi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lea, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Throughout my creative journey, I was always motivated by stories behind creation and culturally-driven work. From the beginning of my teenage years, I have been extremely passionate about the still ongoing battle of equality and women’s rights. In recent years, I have been working on a personal project called “Red Me Out,” which discusses the female experience, female sexuality, inequality, women’s health and medical discrimination, mistreatment through diverse mediums, including digital design, but also carefully crafted oil paintings.

All “Red Me Out” pieces include “space-play.” Space-play is my take on playing with principles of design through the use of negative space. To me, negative space is silence that speaks volumes. Currently, I have two designs published and two others waiting to be released. I aspire to continue this series as long as necessary. Incorporating space-play into lots of my design work, I find a strong connection with my roots through the inspiring influence of vintage Eastern European poster art.

I have been a member of the National Organization for Women, and their work inspires me both creatively and socially. Therefore, as intimate and dear as the “Red Me Out” project is to me, I would love to invite other women to share their experiences and create an open platform project of pieces that spark thought and discussion on women’s issues.

Lea, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have known that I wanted to be an artist since my early childhood. I vividly remember the tingling sensation in my palm when my parents would show me jewel-toned little beetles in our garden in Serbia. That experience instilled in me an urgent desire to capture and carry that beauty with me wherever I went.

My family has been supportive of my artistic endeavors from the start, even though they see the world through the lens of science. But I will always be grateful because through that lens, they saw a starry-eyed child and believed in me. I was raised celebrating cultural curiosity as we are a family of minority, native-Hungarians and got the opportunity to travel with them all around the world and learn four languages.In my teenage years, I studied in a technical high school, honing my artistic ambitions in the trade of graphic design. In my sophomore year, I had the honor of being selected for the Future Leaders Exchange, and I got to live in the United States for a year and learn about international relations and the value of cultural exchange. That experience was a crucial part of my development as a teenager as it opened my eyes to the rest of the world. Culminating my exchange year on a high note, I had the distinct honor of speaking about international relations at Capitol Hill and presenting Senator Chris Murphy and Marie Royce with two copies of my painting, “The Beauty Of Diversity,” as a token of gratitude from the Future Leaders Exchange program. As a proud alumna, I was selected to be a city representative under American Councils and organized several community-building projects focusing on international education and diplomacy.

A year later, I illustrated American Council’s annual greeting card celebrating cultural exchange, printed and distributed 26,000 times all around the world. This experience motivated me to pursue illustration beyond the border and graduated on top of my class. As the pandemic struck, I was still motivated to pursue education abroad and applied to seventeen universities till I found the right fit – Savannah College of Art and Design.

Thanks to SCAD, I got amazing opportunities including exhibition opportunities through Drawing Works and getting to be a live sketch artist at the SCAD Museum of Art’s tenth anniversary in a small team of fellow creatives. In addition, I have the honor of being a recipient of awards from the Print and Graphic Scholarship Foundation and the Hungarian American Coalition.

Today, I am a double major studying Advertising and Illustration and stepping up as a Senior Student Representative working with admissions and a delightful team of students helping prospective students. This opportunity at SCAD Admissions is an opportunity I hold dear to my heart because I get to work with young creatives at the doorstep of their careers, education, and providing support in the time of uncertainty. Perhaps, I recognize the same excitement I felt in my palms looking at the shiny beetles—the starry-eyed young artist unleashed in the creative candy land of possibilities. I started my creative career in illustration, looking in the direction of concept art. However, thanks to Professor Charla Pettingill, I learned of surface design, which opened my eyes to pattern making. My specialty in surface design is moody and heritage maximalism with a vintage twist. Surface design created a new chapter in my artistic endeavors, which resulted in the rebirth of my brand image.

A successful brand image is shaped by consistency, a line of thought. A line of thought that is woven from passion, interest, and abilities leading to an end goal. I found my line of thought within the collision of maximalism and negative space.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

While the importance of organization is highlighted in all self-help books and artists’ resources, I did not fully grasp its value until I realized its significance in our overstimulated society. As a result, I developed my own method, which, despite being somewhat old-school, involves creating spreadsheets to organize the resources recommended by collaborators, peers, or discovered on social media. These spreadsheets categorize resources based on their purpose, including printing websites, books, companies for design prototyping, and custom products. With this system, the overwhelming amount of information that reaches me becomes an encyclopedia of my creative needs. I also employ the same system to keep track of gigs, commissions, and sources of inspiration. Additionally, creating a marketing plan has significantly boosted my productivity. With the guidance of the wonderful artist and businessman Mike Wimmer, my marketing plan has become a tool for effective task management, reducing the risk of burnout.

Next, I want to emphasize the value of exploration and curiosity. Driven by my interest in the surface design industry within the luxury and apparel sectors. Recently, I was awarded with the opportunity to pursue a comprehensive non-degree seeking course at Parson’s University on the Foundations of Business in Fashion. This course encompasses various subjects such as trend forecasting, merchandising, social media apparel marketing, e-commerce strategy, analytics, and data-driven retail. This opportunity has provided me with a well-rounded understanding of the business-driven side of the industry.

Through trend forecasting, I have developed the ability to identify emerging patterns and anticipate consumer preferences, allowing me to create designs that resonate with the target audience. The knowledge of merchandising equips me with skills to strategically curate and present apparel collections that align with market demands and effectively communicate the value proposition of products. By learning about social media apparel marketing, I have gained valuable insights into leveraging digital platforms for brand awareness, engagement, and community building, which I actively implement in my own social media presence and brand identity. Furthermore, my expanding knowledge in e-commerce strategy covers storefront design, user experience optimization, and traffic generation to drive online sales, which I intend to utilize once my products become available. Additionally, I have gained an understanding of consumer behavior, market trends, and sales performance to make informed decisions and enhance the retail experience.

This holistic understanding allows me to optimize inventory management, personalize the shopping experience, and navigate the retail landscape with adaptability. Moreover, it offers me a new outlook on retail as both a creator and a consumer. By deepening your knowledge of the industry you are in or entering, you enrich yourself not only with newfound knowledge but also with the ability to work within diverse teams and view brands from a multi-dimensional perspective. Therefore, any outlook you can gain on the industry you are targeting should be studied from multiple perspectives to enhance performance.

My best advice to creative entrepreneurs and young artists is to allow themselves to wander freely in the enchanting candyland of creativity, embracing the joy of exploration. It is essential to maintain an open mind and be willing to pursue diverse ideas, even if they may not initially align with your perceived niche or expertise or even if you think that your target audience is small and specific. Vigilance ignites creative solutions to address the everyday challenges people encounter in their lives, leading to the development of need-based design that fulfills demands, whether it be a problem-solving solution or a sought-after aesthetic.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Even though I am open minded to pursue many creative directions, my aspirations for the future live in the realm of art direction and surface design for luxury and apparel. However, recently I began working on a start-up in healthcare design. In the past year, I have been battling health issues which required me to visit clinics and hospitals. These experiences gave me the unpleasant opportunity to observe healthcare design solutions. Therefore, my focus is on creating a human-friendly and accessible design line with an affordable production cost, centered around patient-oriented design. I am currently in the stage of prototyping and soon would love to involve collaborators. My hope is to contribute to the betterment of the patient experience in healthcare centers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.leabagi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leabagivisuals/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lea-bagi/
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits
Personal Photo- Aleksandra Nikolic (Instagram:@sashka.photo)