Maryna Marzhan

Program: Design
Alumni – Creative marketer, visualization artist, graphic designer

Last July, Maryna Marzhan completed the International Master in Graphic Design at L’Idem. She defines herself as “a marketing specialist with a creative soul”. In her first professional experiences she has specialised in market research and strategic marketing. “I enjoy creating digital and physical art, illustrations, animation and brand logos”, she explained. And last September he opened the Barcelona Widlik arte Gallery. A collaborative art space for free-spirited artists located in the city centre.

What has been your professional career after finishing your studies at L’Idem?

I worked as a digital designer at Criteo, one of the largest B2B digital marketing companies in the world. It has been a very useful experience, as we worked with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a database of 3 billion people. My work consisted of designing elements for digital advertising. After finishing this experience, I decided that I wanted to dedicate myself to art. So I have embarked on an ambitious project with my partner.

And what was this project?

The Widlik art gallery. A collective exhibition space open to multidisciplinary artists, located in the centre of Barcelona.

Has the knowledge acquired at L’Idem helped you in this new adventure?

Of course! On the one hand, before opening I had to make a market research to analyse the viability of the project in depth. I studied the competition and established the uniqueness of my proposal. And on the other hand, I developed the whole brand identity from 0: including values, colors, logo, flyers, interior of the space, tone of the voice, posters etc. I am very grateful to L’Idem for having learnt how to face this kind of challenges and provide creative solutions to specific needs.

And now that the gallery is operational, what are your functions?

Currently my work is to manage artists and other designers as well as handling administrational tasks.

On a personal level, what has undertaking a project like the gallery meant to you?

For me as a person it meant that I have to take responsibility for many things, mainly for the artists which I’m working with. We work with artists who are not known yet but have a lot of potential, so as a galerist I am like an art mom to them. I believe in them, try to insure and support them, looking for opportunities to promote their art and show them to the word. I have to understand the uniqueness of each one of them and think how it can be monetized. My dream was to have an art residence, so this is a first step to it.

And from a professional point of view?

Professionally it means that I have to have full confidence in my decisions. I can not afford to doubt myself or ask many side opinions. This has been very new to me, as I have always worked for someone who used to provide a conformation of my work. I think I get to know myself really only now, when nobody can limit me.

In this adventure, what have you learned about yourself?

Ut has been interesting to decide what kind of manager I want to be (or don’t want to be). It’s hard to find the balance between being strict and sweet. And I think I’m getting there.

One month after its inauguration, what has been the response to Widlik?

I think we still looking for our niche and what type of gallery we want to be. However I think that swimming in this uncertainty gives us a lot of freedom. Every day we are trying new things and these creative search allows us to think in infinitely big scope, cause in the end, art can be everything you can imagine.
On the positive side is that we got to know many fascinating people during this time: artists, gallerists, collectors, art critics, musicians… We made a huge neon sign outside which says “art” and all the people who get attracted by it interest me. It general it’s hard to summarize what response Widlik has cause art is so subjective. We are contemporary art gallery, some people are in love with modernism which we create, some recognize only classic art, which we don’t represent, so it largely depends on the person.

Best of luck in this adventure, Maryna.

Thank you!