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

Hi Margarita, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Well, how did they learn my craft? It’s funny, but it actually started with some protest posters back in the day, about eight years ago when I was still living in Russia and was an activist. My wife at the time saw how much effort I put into those signs and offered me support while I pursue this passion. It took many years to hone the craft. I was mostly just watching what other people were doing on Instagram and tried to replicate it. I was always drawn to writing out quotes, so I was always looking for some interesting phrases or coming up with my own words, and it was just a lot of practice. I still have those calligraphy sheets somewhere in the drawer and I have a bunch of dirty papers stacked in the back of my closet.
It was exciting, but at the same time a bit isolating. I was doing it on my own at home, no university, no art school, just me and Instagram. At the same time the Instagram community was very supportive back then and there was a feeling of belonging and learning and growing together. I got to know some interesting people online and later on when I moved to Berlin, I actually got to meet some of them. I might’ve been a bit starstruck from meeting my role models than existed only online back then. Really grateful for the Berlin letters festival, it was the most inspiring typography event I’ve ever been to, and actually, that’s where I met some of the people I mentioned above. We still see each other at the Berlin typography events and it’s just it’s fascinating how those things can turn out. By the way, this year Berlin letters are back after a 5 year break, so I can totally recommend this festival to anyone interested in typography.

But so going back to the question, in the end learning the craft was just a practice of looking at good stuff and trying to my stuff better. I was always a perfectionist so I might’ve worked on something, then look at it and already hate it. And looking back there were reasons to hate it I guess and I’m glad I didn’t stop, but I think it was a bit crucifying when I was doing this to myself. I wish I was a little bit lighter on myself but at the same time I don’t… Still to this day I love trying new things and whenever I get stuck I just switch up either my materials or just my approach to things and then something new comes out of it. I never really stick to one thing so it was always hard for me to keep repeating the same style, my works throughout the years have vert different styles, but somehow one thing connects them and I guess that’s just me. I bring a certain feeling to the work that I do, and somehow it works out in the long, and I don’t get bored. Even though sometimes I do have longer periods of hibernation when I don’t really touch my art supplies. I believe it is also an important time, when ideas are being formed on the deeper level before they come out to the surface.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Since I already explained a little bit about my learning process in the previous question, I think I can just dive into the types of things that I do. Currently I’m very drawn to working either with clothes or collages. So when it comes to clothes I like working with jackets or shirts, or sometimes t-shirts, and my favorite thing is to either write an interesting phrase, or even sometimes I just take a song. For example, I had this shirt completely filled up with Flowers lyrics by Miley Cyrus. When that song came out, I was just so into it. I had a couple of blank shirts ordered and I just went for it. I didn’t really have a plan beforehand, I just did whatever felt right in the moment, it was this pure creative process.

These days I really wanna do more of that stuff. I have a whole list of quotes that I like. These can be ideas I’m reading about, something related to mindfulness, or the magic of the universe and, I kind of treat my work sign posts for people. So for example I have this design called “Courage to be kind” and so my hope is that when people on the street see either me walking in it, or for example I made the same t-shirt for a friend who is a very kind guy, maybe they will be reminded to just be a little kinder that day.
Or that same Flowers shirt, it has the line “I can take myself dancing” written in the back and I love wearing it to either my dance classes or just going out. It’s something that really speaks to the world for me, especially since I’m not drawing people or beautiful scenery, it is the art of letters, words and messages for me.
And in that sense I think clothes are a good way to directly reach the audience. Sometimes it can be a nice way to connect with someone new, when I get asked about my clothes, then immediately I get to talk about the stuff I’m passionate about. And it also feels really good wearing my own designs, because clothes really define you in a way, if I make my own clothes, then I know it is 100% me in there.

The other thing that I’m really interested in is collage. Sometimes it’s a physical collage, sometimes it’s post-processed digitally. I have lots of papers and other random stuff collected in a box and sometimes I just get out that stuff on the table and combine it in various compositions. Since my actual day job thing is design, I feel like collage is a good mix of design and art. There is paint, splatter, but then there is order in the composition and sometimes more minimalistic typography.
Sometimes it can also be poetry. Also, I really love calligraphy as a practice. I can write out some quotes and just focus on the art of writing. Then I add some little pieces here and there and then there’s just a nice composition.
These days I’m not as critical of myself as I was back when I was starting out, to it can really feed my soul to see something beautiful come out of a simple calm practice. Of course I also have a better skill so I think all of that work paid off and now there is no better feeling than looking at the work I’ve done and be proud of it. Just in a way that I can do something that’s pleasant to look at.

And then lastly, when I don’t do collage, I just paint letters. Sometimes I paint them on canvas with acrylics, sometimes in my sketchbook with gouache paint. I only got into gouache last year. Before that I was always into watercolors or acrylics, but when I finally tried it, I immediately fell in love with gouache, it’s like the best of both worlds. And I guess this is another example of how materials can drive the inspiration for me.
I have also been painting some murals and back in the day did chalk menus. Logo design was my entry point to the whole design industry. I started creating logos based on my lettering and realized that I actually liked designing. So these days my freelance work can consist both of UX/UI or brand design projects and on occasion I take mural work or facilitate calligraphy workshops. I love the diversity it gives me and I never get bored doing the various things that I love.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think these days it’s just the fact that I don’t see myself without my art practice, and I don’t see myself without my letters anymore. I don’t feel good when I don’t do it and if I hibernate for longer period then I just don’t feel right. So I always come back to it. And then, as I said before, I really like these messages and quotes and phrases that can make the observer of my art think about something they may have not thought about before. Basically it helps me spread my own interests of physics, science, spirituality, poetry or mindfulness into the world and spark conversations with people around me.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think that it makes me creative outside of being an artist. I see artisticism in cooking or in living itself, really. I think life is a big creative process and being flexible in my art practice makes me flexible in real life. So whenever I make a mistake, for example, spill paint on my artwork, back in the days it used to be a big mistake and I would not be happy about it but these days I really embrace it and I see what can be done with that mistake. If I don’t like the existing composition, I ask myself how do I fix it and how do I make it better, working with whatever I already have. And I think it also transfers into my regular life. The more I’m able to see situation at hand, even if it’s something I don’t like, or something doesn’t go the way I wanted to go, I can stop and think “Ok, but how do I make it better for myself?” and then I find creative solutions to make it work. It also helps me come up with weird creative fixes when something breaks, or using specific things for purposes people normally wouldn’t. It makes me more agile.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://margaritafray.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frayart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frayartpage
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaritafray/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@margaritafray109/shorts