Chiara Aliotta’s approach combines the most valuable aspects of UX and brand design: creativity, 360-degree vision, and a joined-up audience perspective.
My vision is to help brands clearly communicate who they are, what they do, and what they stand for, so they can make memorable human impacts on the world.
I design with intention, empathy and imagination, to achieve sustainable brand growth in fast-paced, rapidly changing contexts. My work transforms thoughts, ideas and dreams into purposeful, reality-based systems that attract and engage the right people.
I am proud to have been awarded several accolades throughout my design career.
In 2015, my work as a Brand Designer for the Joomla Community was recognised with a Joomla Contributor Award at the J and Beyond Conference.
In 2018, I was listed in Canva Magazine’s Top 10 of the Best 33 Women Doing Amazing Things in Graphic Design.
In 2017, I won the DevelopHer Awards (category: Eye for Design) for my outstanding work as an Art Director and Brand Designer.
My Story
My Grandma Lina holding my mum.
I was born in Sicily, to a simple family who had no connection to the world of design. Yet I dreamed of earning a living designing precious and beautiful things.
The closest reference I had for these dreams was my grandmother Lina, a lady of unequalled elegance.
She could barely write, but was a dedicated seamstress all her life.
I loved how she transformed plain fabrics into incredible dresses, as if by magic. But I especially loved how her work transformed the people who wore those dresses..”
My first birthday with my Grandma.
One day, my grandmother took me aside and said: “See how happy and confident that lady was when she left the room? There is nothing more beautiful than a human transformed for the better, thanks to you.”
Those words marked the moment I decided to improve people’s lives through design. I then discovered valuable mentors who had achieved this already: the designers Bruno Munari and Massimo Vignelli.
Although my parents were initially unhappy about my decision to study design, they saw the strength of my dreams and allowed me to live them. So, I left my small town in Sicily and enrolled in the Politecnico of Milan, intervalled by an fascinating Erasmus experience at Brunel University in London.
I studied with the help of a scholarship, also working in different fast food outlets to support my expenses (which taught me that “one size fits all” is a rule that doesn’t suit cutting-edge design!). During my studies, I chose to specialise in brand design. Why?
I felt – and still feel – that brand design is a superpower. It allows me to view a project in depth, from every angle, and most of all, from diverse points of view.
“A brand is like a dress, it won’t fit everyone. It mustn’t try. Just like a dress, a brand must stay true to what it is and who it’s for: its values sewn into the material so the wearer feels special, confident and unique... as though they can conquer the world!”
Choosing my own path
After many years of cutting my design teeth on agency work, I took the big and brave decision to start my own studio.
In 2012, I celebrated the birth of my freelance career as Until Sunday, in which I collaborate with beautiful brands and like-minded people.
But more exciting developments were to come!
12 years after founding Until Sunday – and working from a small room in my house – I opened my own bricks-and-mortar design studio.
My studio is my “creative nest” on the island of Syros, Greece, where I now live with my husband and cat.
