Youth Rebellion and Artistry: A Conversation with Ruba Abu-Nimah

What's Contemporary Now?

Ruba Abu-Nimah is a graphic designer at the vanguard of creative directing—even as the title of that role has become, she says, completely devalued. She’s put her creative skills to work directing brands like Elle US, Shiseido, Revlon, Tiffany & CO., and most recently Balenciaga. In this episode, Abu-Nimah offers her take on the value of formal education and travel, the balance to be struck between digital and analog craftsmanship, and upholding heritage while striving for innovation.

Her passion for access, information, and learning comes through in her articulate, informed perspective on what she sees as the trajectory of corporations and AI. Swayed by her love of democratic arts, from her passion for Andy Warhol to her formative years spent listening to punk and hip-hop, Abu-Nimah sees what’s contemporary now as what has been and will be: the power of youth and their rebellious nature.

Episode Highlights:

• Formative years: Abu-Nimah notes the convergence of punk rock and hip-hop that took place during, and had a strong influence on, her formative years. Punk, she says, “hit me like a ton of bricks.”
• London as a design city: She notes that she was “preprogrammed” to work in the tactile, visual world, and that London kickstarted her preoccupation with beautiful design.
• Formal education: Abu-Nimah sees formal education as “outdated.” “It wasn’t creative enough for me, in terms of analytical thinking,” she says. Art school, on the other hand, though it was outside of her family’s understanding, “was the only possible way for me to get through life.”
• The contemporary digital moment and creative directing: Access to software and information has created a misunderstanding or confusion around distinctions between creativity and the tools used to accomplish the creative process.
• “It took me about 20 years to gain that title.”: On becoming a creative director, Abu-Nimah says the role requires a total knowledge of her craft, from typography to conceptually bringing a project to life.
• On the fundamental nature of graphic design: She prefers to identify as a graphic designer because the title of creative director today has been devalued and doesn’t have much meaning, unfortunately. Also, “I believe that to be a creative director in my world, which is, in the world of branding and messaging and communication, I believe you have to come from an understanding of communication.”
• Balancing brand heritage with innovation: She distinguishes between heritage and nostalgia, highlighting the importance of brand DNA woven together with what resonates with today’s audiences.
• Working by instinct and driven by learning: “Any passion that becomes a purpose—I’m just a lucky person that I was able to achieve that. To me, a lot of it is just feeling and understanding and immersing myself and living and breathing the world that we work in. I really love it. I don’t stop absorbing it.”
• Prioritizing creative direction: She says corporations (outside of the luxury world) tend to prioritize marketing over creative departments.
• On confidence and gender in the working world: She emphasizes a sexist perspective in which confident women are seen “as a bitch, as difficult to work with, or intransigent” while confident men are perceived as “strong.”
• Travel: Abu-Nimah sees travel—whether uptown or to a city that’s a 15-hour flight away—as the most important education as well as a luxury.
• Marrying art to a commercial purpose: She paraphrases Fran Lebowitz, saying that people are more interested in the price of the art than the art itself. “But the art itself, I think, is for everyone and should be available to everyone, and everyone should have the privilege to understand it.”
• Discovering Warhol: She speaks of her love for Andy Warhol’s art and graphics, how he democratized art and was “the artist of the people.”

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