Meet Natalia Vignolo Foy

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

Hi Natalia, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

During my teenage years I watched my mom become a photographer and how much dedication she put into educating herself in the field, putting together a studio and designing her own set up as well as always keeping herself positive during hard times when starting a business. So yes, I would say I learnt a lot from my mom, specifically her resilience to keep pushing yourself forward if you have a dream you want to achieve. Nonetheless, throughout my years in the city, I’ve watched my friends and colleagues grow as creative professionals and what I take from their work ethic is to not be afraid to take risks. It’s ok to be intimidated by a project or not feel fit for a crew position you haven’t done before, but if you truly feel like this is going to benefit you network or career wise, you’ll figure it out. There’s a reason why it was pitched to you, so take the opportunity, yes you’ll make mistakes but you will eventually figure it out.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I was born and raised in Peru. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been navigating different branches of the arts, wether it’s been folklore dance or circus or oil painting, I’ve always been tremendously drawn to finding ways to express myself. Growing up as a queer woman in a conservative country definitely brought obstacles when I realized I wanted to be more bold in whatever artistic field I found myself at the time, but it never really stopped me. Despite being afraid or receiving harsh criticism or even personal attacks, I just could not stay quiet or even worse, restrict my art from any sort of topic that needed to be discussed. Wether it was political or taboo, I just wanted to know what people had to say. This came with a lot of anticipated disappointment, but I fell in love with film and when I realized I had a chance to make a career out of it, I knew that if I got together with the right group of creatives, our voices no matter how many, would at least make someone out there feel seen and that is exactly why I do what I do now.

Currently as a Production Designer and Wardrobe Stylist I feel like I have so much freedom and I’m able to play with many different perspectives of how a story can be told through set design and costume selection. Color, texture and symbolism, there’s just honestly endless possibilities in finding ways to express a feeling or situation and don’t even get me started on how it describes a person. That’s what’s so special about it. It’s the ability to truly take a moment and look at your surroundings, your bedroom, your living room, your closet, literally anywhere and being able to detect what are those tiny little details that make you, yourself. That said, applying that to film, to a story and a character, it’s truly unique because if you think about it, you’re creating a space and meticulously choosing items that will make someone themselves. From a script, to a three dimensional reality.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I believe that working on feeding your creative mind, being hands on with your work and accepting that you will make mistakes along the way, are very important personal steps I had to take to be on the journey I am right now.

To feed your creative mind my best advice would be to educate yourself artistically as much as possible. Watch movies, browse new music, investigate the history behind a painting, photograph or the process that it took to make it because despite not understanding every aspect of it, its already in your brain somewhere. It’s always a happy surprise when you are working on a concept and suddenly being able to bring to the table an emotional or physical reference that is coherent with the story your trying to tell. That said, being hands on with your work is very essential. As a Production Designer and Wardrobe Stylist, how to be creatively efficient on set is key for building knowledge about how put together what your conceptualizing, if it works or if it doesn’t work and how to make better decision making in the future. Now if you can’t fix a mistake it’s truly ok. I’m not saying this as in you should not take responsibility of it, but rather communicate it and in my experience, always be ready with a plan b. Yes people will probably get upset, but as long as you prepped or if there’s no plan b, as long as you show you’re more than ready to find a solution for it, you’re doing great.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

When I’m going through a creative block or just close to burning out, I take the decision to stop what I’m doing and distract myself with another task. My main thing is yes, take a break but don’t stop doing stuff and I mean literally anything. Do your chores, cook yourself some food, go on a walk, hang with your friends, truly just anything that takes your mind out of your work but keeps you active because at least I’m the type of person that if they don’t do anything, will spiral and that is something I don’t like to interfere with my work.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natalia_vigfoy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalia-vignolo-2ab8822b4?trk=people-guest_people_search-card

Image Credits

Photo taken by Katrin Gratt