Raissa Pardini on creativity, unlearning, and taking things apart to find out how they work

There's something intuitive about the way Raissa thinks and works. Raised in Italy in a working class family, with no one around her who had been exposed to art, she had to find her own way in. A “hyperactive and curious” child, she started drawing at a young age. "It was instinctual," she says. "It was vulnerable. I loved taking things apart to find out how they worked.”

She's spent time living between Italy, Milan, Berlin, and Glasgow, but London has been home for the past thirteen years. A designer and creative director working at the intersection of typography, culture and design, she's built a practice out of knowing exactly how to make an impact and when to break the rules.

In fact, ‘unlearning’ is a huge part of her practice. “My work has always been about questioning creativity,” she says. It’s something she covers extensively in her TedX Talk ‘Creativity needs a Womb, not a Machine’ in October 2025; her desire to make the creative industry a better place for everyone by observing society, analysing, breaking, and rethinking design - to return to the limitless creativity of childhood. “I can’t wait to start unlearning with my kid,” she smiles. “When they start drawing a cow with seven legs and five eyes. Because why not?! Maybe a cow with five eyes is more interesting than a cow with two.”

This almost anti-establishment mentality comes from early career experiences learning design principals. “I was learning the right way of designing but it felt like I was working like a machine.” Finding herself feeling empty and replaceable, Raissa set about rediscovering the value of creating in ambiguity, surprise and chaos. “ I want people to give themselves permission to create chaos. In unlearning, we break patterns, and in breaking patterns we break through.”

One of the big inspirations for Raissa is music. Raised by a bass-playing father who loves classic rock, she was drawn to the riffs, the melodies. Being exposed to icons including The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Bowie, Lou Reed etc, influenced Raissa to write and perform music. “There’s always something that sparkles in a song - a riff, a melody - and that’s what I look for. I work the same way with design.”

She’s been lucky enough to work with some of the most well-known musicians in the world. Blur were a band she’d always loved and wanted to design for, and then she was approached to design their Wembley Stadium poster in 2023. Similarly for The Rolling Stones, she was asked to design a poster for their Glendale gig in 2024. “I’ve only seen the Stones once - at their Hyde Park concert in London in 2022,” she starts. “They were supported by my friends Dream Wife. Weirdly enough I went on tour with Dream Wife last year as their bass player needed to take some time off, so I filled in. If only it was for that Stones gig in Hyde Park! Little did I know I'd be asked to work with them a couple of years later.” There’s just one dream client left on her list: Paul McCartney. “He has his own production company, and they're very particular about who they work with,” she says mischievously, ”but I'm determined to make it happen!” If there were any doubt about her dedication to, or love for Paul McCartney, she adds; “My son is called Jet which, for those who don't know, is a song by Wings.”

Raissa’s first solo exhibition of poster designs was called ‘Musica! Musica! Musica!’ and was shown at The Social in London in 2019. It featured her work for bands like Idles, Squid, The Orielles and Snapped Ankles. These posters were amongst the fourteen that the V&A Museum acquired for their permanent collection in 2022 after they saw a cultural importance in the work.

While her relationship with music stems from childhood, it’s maintained in adulthood by meaning: “I've moved around the world a lot and it's hard to start again each time,” she says. “But music is something that brings me back 'home' each time.” When Raissa talks about music, she talks about connection. “Music is what connected me to people in London - artists, creatives, filmmakers, fashion designers…”

Though she’s an Italian native, brands often come to her with ‘quintessentially London’ briefs, likely because she’s spent the past thirteen years really embedding herself in the culture of the city; meeting people, uncovering stories, and translating it all into authentic designs. “I'm an immigrant here. I represent a fresh and critical pair of eyes on British culture, while bringing my own culture,” she says. “ I have friends from all over the world. I love mixing my experience with theirs - learning about and being inspired by their stories… isn't that what London is all about!?” She has fond memories of working all over the city in record shops, radio, and bars, finding any opportunity to talk with people.

People - community, acceptance, equity, inclusion - are at the heart of Raissa’s why. As a working class woman, she’s very politically and socially-minded and uses her art as a form of protest. “How can you separate that side of you from your work?” she questions. She has used her art to communicate during many moments of societal turbulence, and has found that others share her work in those moments too. “Art is there when people don’t have words.” From Extinction Rebellion and Brian Eno’s Earth Percent to Music Declares, Rape Crisis, Endemetriosis UK and The Green Party, Raissa is always looking to collaborate with those trying to change the world for the benefit of everyone. She also runs mentorship programmes for students with Adobe. For Raissa, nurturing the next generation of talent isn't separate from her work. It is the work. The same instinct that pulled her toward a blank page as a child is the one she's determined to protect in others. “If we are not there for them, who will be?” The kid determined to take things apart grew up, and now she's doing it to the whole system.

See Raissa's work here.