As far back as she remembers, Ivonne de la Paz was working with her hands, doing arts and crafts, drawings, and other artistic creations. As an undergraduate student at the University of Miami, she majored in art. What she never could have imagined was that her creative work would define the trajectory of one of the University’s schools.
The School of Architecture’s latest exhibit, Fl@t + Bright, is an imaginative journey through de la Paz’s graphic arts for the school and a testament to her immense talent.
This is her opus: dozens of flyers, posters, mobile pieces and installations, all created by de la Paz, in collaboration with faculty and Dean Rodolphe el-Khoury, in the past five years. She has been at her post for the past 17 years as U-SoA marketing specialist and graphic designer.
“This exhibit has been an evolution for me,” she said while looking around the Korach Gallery’s 87 feet of walls lined with her work. Although she mostly designs posters, flyers and brochures for school events, her sensibility is evident in the color choices, the clean lines, bright hues and, at times playful elements that grace each piece.
To announce a lunchtime series, she drafted a stylized clock announcing the time with a black fork and knife as the clock’s hands. Another poster announcing a fall lecture series featured a “scratch and sniff” printed pumpkin pie graphic, which smelled like pumpkin.
Dean el-Khoury said of the display: “[it is] a fascinating exhibit that not only showcases the immense talent of Ivonne de la Paz, but also the evolution of the school itself, reflected in the changing visual message and sensibility.”
Visitors to the exhibit can interact with some of the pieces. A large mobile made up of folded blue and white brochures dominates the center of the gallery. Each piece announced the 2016 Lecture Series—the theme was water. On another corner a mound of black and grey brochures that publicized a 2018 speaker series are turned into a pile resembling rubble.
“The theme was housing so I decided to create a mound of debris,” de la Paz said. “But it is also part of a building’s foundation.”
de la Paz said her inspiration comes from nature, by music (she plays anything from Janis Joplin to Santigold as she creates) and even by the flatness of Florida’s terrain (thus the Fl@t in the exhibit title.)
The exhibit will run until October 11 at the school’s Korach Gallery; it will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
