Marta in few words: a true passion for drawing and a positive attitude to face new projects.
Marta Cortese is a textile and surface designer who creates freehand drawings for fashion and interior design.
Her projects meet the needs of international established brands as well as emerging small businesses, looking to the future with great optimism and determination.
The design of natural and botanical motifs starts from the study of the latest trends associated with a developed aesthetic sense, which has always accompanied her, since her beginnings as textile designer. Her portfolio is fulfilled by drawings populated by (not-so) feral animals, organic geometries and even women with hats.
The same enthusiasm drives her in the design of commissioned prints, working closely with her clients, listening and analyzing their needs, developing original ideas based on the brief and ensuring the same quality and creativity that she puts into all her projects.
Marta dedicates many hours to the development of each motif, hand drawing on cotton paper, using different artistic techniques, in traditional as well as innovative ways.
The drawing is developed in this phase in an accurate way, defining all the details on paper; then scanned and digitally retouched, with a precise study of the ratio; finally declined in two chromatic variations, one light and one dark.
I grew up in a small town where there was little to do, so I used to spend my holidays drawing and painting – always en plein air.
Every summer I freely experimented with different techniques, messing up and trying all sorts of colors: from glass pigments to ceramic colors, from markers to acrylics. I keep them all in a wooden box, originally served as a wine box. I decorated and wrote on it: “My colors”.
Today that box is in my studio, together with all the professional tools I use daily: it reminds me about the origin of my passion for drawing and colors, such a strong passion that it turned into a profession, which allows me to unleash my creativity and give every day my very best.
Marta Cortese lives and works in Turin, Italy; she was born and raised in Asti, in the middle of the Monferrato hills.
An architect by training, she chose to follow her attitude towards a creative profession, in which she can freely express herself: Marta began to explore the world of visual communication, exploring typography, calligraphy, illustration, and finding the best way to express and combine her great creative imagination with her innate aesthetic taste.
Since 2015 Marta has been working as a professional textile designer, in 2017 she co-founded nerodiseppia studio, no longer active; from 2020 she has chosen to continue operating as an independent designer, signing the designs she creates and offering her clients custom services.
In parallel with her work, Marta loves to devote herself to experimental calligraphy, a variant that approaches the pure sign, up to the complete abstraction of the letter; she further elaborates her calligraphic tables through folds, cuts and binding, and transforms them into book-sculptures that can be opened and discovered in many different ways, letting oneself be carried by the creative flow.
This practice allows her to experiment with a manual technique capable of giving her a great creative drive, which she then transfers into her daily work.
Marta likes: backpacking; take long walks with her dog Corinna; spend the evenings with friends and a good bottle of red wine; visit art exhibitions; go to the cinema; work on the pottery’s wheel; binge-watching; eating large amounts of pasta; listen to electronic music, but also to the Italian songwriters who remind me of my parents (such as Dalla and De Andrè); hiking in the mountains; talk talk talk.
Marta doesn’t like: playing sports; having long-distance friends; sleep in a hotel; watching fantasy movies; too spicy food; beach establishments; boiled fennel; wet shoes; the rain; the cold; her glasses fogged up; struggle with technology; heavy jokes; tights; poorly designed menus; watching photos on the TV screen; people who talk over you.
