Meet The Team: Victoria Turcios

This week we sat down (virtually) with one of our superstar team members, Victoria Turcios.

A passionate creative, Victoria combines design thinking and marketing to problem solve through dynamic visuals. She never shies away from asking the hard questions, or being a bold storyteller, and is always willing to learn from those around her. When she’s not on her computer designing away, thrifting for some stylish treasure, sweating it out at Alchemy, or on the go to her next adventure, she’s creating content for her blog, Visual Vitaliti.

Victoria came on to the Minneapolis Craft Market Team in 2019 to completely revamp our website. With her fresh designer’s eye and creative intuition, Victoria built our new site from the ground up, breathing life and energy into our brand. She has a gift for transforming an idea into a distinctively accurate visual representation. She just gets it! And we are SO lucky she’s part of our team.

Thanks for everything you do, Victoria!

MCM + Victoria

MCM: Can you explain how Visual Vitaliti began and what it means to you?

VT: Visual Vitaliti started as a creative outlet for me to continue experimenting with photography, and working on my writing skills. In 2014 it was more about art exploration, and in 2016 I started venturing more into fashion. I remember saving up to invest in VIP tickets during fashion week MN, so that I could get to know that world better, and through that I networked like crazy and the blog evolved from there. In regards to what it means to me, well it's my evolution, my personal yet not so personal journal that I've shared unapologetically. The blog has been my safe haven to try new things, it has catapulted me into new adventures, challenged me to learn new things and most importantly it has helped me grow. I've always had an entrepreneurial fire lit under me, and I think that Visual Vitaliti helped further empower that by providing a space to experiment my own potential, and truly value and understand what it is that I bring to the table.

MCM: What led you down the design path?

VT: Oh man, the short answer to that would be everything. Ever since I was a little kid, the arts called my attention, it started with drawing, photography, fashion and eventually finding out that design was even a thing. I'm naturally someone who loves to ask questions, I personally don't think that we ask enough questions in our society, and that curiosity just so happened to truly build up my skills for problem solving. I have a very rounded fine art background, and while I appreciated drawing, painting, and ceramics for example, it just wasn't fueling that need for me to continue asking why. Any graphic designer will tell you that our work is full of problems, but for some reason we thrive on solving them, otherwise we wouldn't spend countless hours looking at our computer screens. I believe it was WIRED who published an article years ago, about how design was its own category of an obsessive compulsive disease, and while all of us designers laugh about our quirks, it's so true.

*Custom Designed T-Shirts by Victoria for Twin Cities Startup Week*

MCM: What in the world, positive or negative, inspires you professionally and/or personally?

VT: Negatively, it would be people telling me that my work is too much, too loud, too colorful, or that I can't do something. You can blame it on my personality, or my aries sign, whatever it may be, I love proving people wrong. The amazing thing about being a creative is that our educational years are, for better or for worse, full of us learning how to process critical feedback. While I can respectfully take feedback, good or bad, there's nothing that fuels my work more than problem solving how to prove someone wrong in regards to my design work. Positively, I'm inspired by the stories of my clients both professionally and personally, and the trust they place in me to help them share what they need to say to the world.

MCM: What has been your favorite part of working with MCM & MVM (our sister brand, Minneapolis Vintage Market)?

VT: The trust. When Hayley and I first started working together on the MCM website redesign, I didn't only gain a client but a friend and that is something I personally truly value. Hayley brings this safe space of diverse creativity to the Twin Cities with both markets, and having the chance to visually convey that is no easy task. Don't get me wrong, it's not like we never hit rough spots during projects where we're both scratching our heads, but we've accomplished everything we've sought to do by working through it together, and that's my favorite part. I can't wait for people to see what we've been working on with MVM.

MCM: What are you passionate about when you aren't working with clients or blogging?

VT: I think that this might ring true for a lot of people reading this, especially in today's world, but I'm passionate about my impact on the community around me. I've taken quite a break here and there from social media, and blogging, whether it's due to writer's block, school, work, etc. but I've had the chance to take a harder look at my priorities in that time, and my values. I'm a big believer that no matter how big your platform is, that comes with a responsibility. If Visual Vitaliti can show people anything it’s that I've grown up in a very public way in our community, from being a girl who you'd never catch with her natural curly hair in order to fit in, to being someone who's now more confident and outspoken of her culture, values, experiences, and beliefs both online and offline.

MCM: Do you have a future dream/goal for your business or are you living the dream right now?

VT: I feel that I'm just starting to live the dream. I'm someone who naturally thrives in planning things out, and am very much type-A, but after almost losing my dad in January in a car accident, not getting to walk for graduation, and also adding the pandemic on top of that, I've started to be more okay with just living in the moment and taking life as it comes. There's been a huge weight lifted off my shoulders by having that change of mindset, and coping with understanding that the only constant we truly have is change, so for now I don't know what the future may look like but I have a feeling it'll be good.

MCM: Has the Twin Cities creative community been influential to you?

VT: No, and I say that respectfully. I just wouldn't say our local creative community has played an influential role in my work. My life experiences and education have truly molded me and the way I create what I do. I'm an immigrant from Guatemala, I moved to MN when I was around 6-7 years old, and while I am here legally now I grew up in a world of absolute uncertainty as an illegal immigrant, so that provided me with a much different perspective than many people who I grew up with, or the community I am a part of due to my line of work. I found refuge in my creativity, the art history I studied, the creatives who became my icons, the need to understand my own culture, and my tools of trade. These have been the most influential to me.

MCM: If there was one message you could use design to communicate to the world today, what would it be?

VT: That we can find it in ourselves to problem solve our way through these hard times. There's so many things we've let boil up underneath the surface, the last few years, 2020 specifically, has been the perfect storm for many of the issues we've turned a blind eye on to come hurling out, and we can no longer continue to sweep things under the rug. There can be a better tomorrow, if we put in the work.

MCM: Are you looking for new clients right now?

VT: I'm always looking for new clients, I love helping others tell their stories and problem solve their ideas wherever design is needed so if branding, UX, or print is something anyone needs they can check out my portfolio, or e-mail me directly.

portfolio: https://victoriaturcios.com/

e-mail: vrturcios@gmail.com

Anika HagerJuly 14, 2020Comment