Matias Carnival | Design + Creative Process

Matias Carnival brings us his fresh perspective of what it means to create and move within your giftings, whilst practising gratitude and longevity. His art comes out of deep relationships, marking moments, and memories. Matias resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Everyone is Creative.

Everyone is creative. You don’t need to do something specific to be creative. A banana tree doesn’t need to prove that he can produce bananas. He is already a banana tree. You can be creative in any area of your life. 

Since I was young, I have done a lot of drawing. I watched a lot of cartoons, and bought books that had a lot of drawings. Tin-tin, Asteryx, comic books with a lot of colours-- I love stories like that. I love all the colours, but it was never just one thing that I was drawn to. I remember when I was young, I would say “I want to be an actor!” Then, I discovered that there is a person who does all the writing and scripts, and I wanted to be a writer too. So I was going to be an actor, and a writer. But then I thought, but the director does everything… so I want to be the director too. I didn’t even know what the director really did at that time, but I loved it. 

I think that ‘creative’ is every area. Today, we see it in social media. You need to know about photography, typography, colours, shapes-- being creative, you need to have everything. I used to create videos and animations, and I’ve also worked with my church’s media department.

The sticker design (see below) I made came out of an encounter that I had with God in California at ministry school. That’s what I love. I dreamed of having my house full of drawings and bible verses, things that have marked my life. Things that I can show my kids and tell them the stories behind them. So I wanted to create something to remind me of that encounter with God. 

I made it more for me, not for others, and seeing how God can use it is really exciting- I mean, you can sell a sticker for thirty cents. It’s not about the money. I have a friend who put it on the back of her phone, and was in a coffee shop and a woman interrupted and said, “I'm sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but where did you buy that sticker?” She said that God spoke to her through the image and she was crying and very moved. Maybe it’s not the best graphic, but it’s crazy that you can do something like that and see people encounter God even without any words. So I knew we should make more stuff. But I didn’t know where to begin. It was an invitation from God, “Do you trust me?” But it wasn’t about simply answering the question. It was about saying ‘yes’ to Him. 

Everything changed in that season. So I wanted to have something to remind me of that, and I started drawing- really bad drawings. The first drawings sucked. Trying out the perspective and how it should be. I never nailed it in the beginning. I would give up and start again. 

When I went back to Argentina, I saw this particular style and really liked it. So I thought, ok, let’s try that. Just two colours, this kind of drawing, stars and elements like that, the size, the shape. And I really liked it. It wasn’t expertly made, but it was just for me. I found a business to print it, and one day I put it on social media, to share this encounter, not for anything else. It was a whole year after my encounter. It took time, but I had to keep looking for the right way to create this. A lot of people were impacted through it all over the world. It was just what they needed. I didn’t know what they needed, but am so glad that it blessed them. From there, I made some copies and sold 300-400 stickers. 

There is power in visuals. Just one image can have more information than text. It can travel faster. You can have normal speed, light speed, and then you have picture speed. 

The t-shirt I designed was to show that God is always in a good mood. I made it for the summer, and we sold a lot of them. I've been working in the church since my wife and I got back from ministry school in California. I used to work in the media apartment a lot, and the t-shirt was made for our school of ministry in Argentina. They asked me to be a part of the communication department for the new school year’s sign up promotions and I started to work with merch. 

Sharing your work.

Sharing your work is powerful. They are treasures. You need to steward these things. You need to cultivate them. It is your heritage- what you carry. You can not mis-carry them. They are powerful and they are special. It is important for you to treasure your work first. 

When you share, something changes in the atmosphere. Others will begin to share. It’s like a perfume- when you open it, the whole room starts to smell like it. It doesn’t matter if you express the message well, it carries something. It carries Presence. Take notice of what happens when you share. Your work comes with an increase.

Above: A drawing of my Dad and I.

Value for Design.

Everything communicates. Even when you don’t talk, you are communicating. There is no way to not communicate. When I see something, or watch something, I ask the question, “what is the intention? What is the information?” The t-shirt I designed was to communicate that God is always in a good mood. With that, you cannot do dark colours. I have a shelf with all black t-shirts, and some with colours- which do you think I wear more? Black (laughs.) But with this, the message was, ‘God is in a good mood’ and if I want people to feel that idea, it is the communication that persuades the message. These bright colours communicate. 

I have a friend who studied in a great college, and he always asks the ‘why.’ Why this technique, why that shape. It can’t be just because it looks nice. It needs to be cohesive with the message. Even if you don’t have the intention to communicate, it will send a message. There is always an intention. The most important thing is ‘where are you going? What are you saying?’ Sometimes you can use very cheap material, but it will be excellent because it has a meaning. The first videos I made were awful. The worst quality. The cameras, the background noise, the interviews. But the meaning was so powerful. You can use anything, but it’s important what you are saying and why you are doing it. You can draw attention, but once you have the attention, what are you saying?

Inspiration.

Everything is inspiring. We have social media where there is a lot of inspiration, or even pinterest where you can see what is trending. We can get a lot of designs from these sources. A lot of images and colours. It’s good to have some inspiration, but what I really love and what triggers me to create is God. Worship inspires me to create. My main inspiration is definitely God. Talking to him. Singing, worshipping, reading-- that is my number one. Why I create is for God. There are a lot of other areas as well. I like a lot of film styles, people who paint, make clothing, stuff like that. 

Above: Bookstore Mural

Creative Process. 

With technique, you can always work at it and get it. You won’t have it down on the first or second day. You can train your eye. It is something that happened for me with film and photography. Learning placements and symetrics as you go. Sometimes you have the feeling of how it should be, but you can train your eye. After you film, go back to watch it and edit.

You realize some guys don’t edit-- that is a mistake. You need to see what you are doing and understand. I remember filming something once and thinking that it was a really good shot and I’d cut it. Then I’d go back to the computer and start to edit the whole project and then load that scene and think, what was I doing? I could see it all in my mind, but it only lasted one second! You need to film ten seconds! Fifteen seconds! What was I thinking! You realize that you need more time. 

The only way to train your eyes is working, doing it, going to the field, then going back and working, etc. So, you can train your eye, you can train your hand, you can know typography styles, but I think the most important thing is to just go after enjoying the process of your work. 

It’s a funny feeling to watch or view your work a few times and think, wow, this is beautiful-- you have pride in your work. Then, you see it again years later and think, wow this was crap. Why was I so proud of this? But, you know, God looked at his creation and said, “it is good” so we can do that too! It is good. 

To enjoy the process is a good time spent. Just go out and create something. It doesn’t matter what. And in some sense, we have to have patience to get the work to be how we want it. It takes work. But everyone is creative. Even the business guy who works with excel- you need creativity to live this life. It is a lie that you are not creative. 

I think the best thing about being creative is working with God. I love every work day. People would tell me that I would enjoy the first little while of working and then get tired of it, but I remember loving every day going to work. Even the parts I didn’t like, I was doing with God. I would reach Friday and be sad to have the weekend because I wanted to work! To do the creative stuff. 

People will enter an island of editing (what we say in Spanish) and in mine, I will have worship, sermons, and I will be creative, and it’s funny, because I was working in a room without any windows! In the cave-- but that was my cave. I loved being there. Some days we would get there in the morning and there was no sun, and then when we would leave it was night. But I was working and creating there with God and I would have better ideas when I was talking with him.  Maybe at that time I didn’t know it, but now I can look back and have language for that time. Those first five years. I truly loved every day of those five years because I was creating with Him. We can do all things with Him-- it doesn’t matter what area. Even in administration- creative solutions and God-given wisdom is what we needed. People really miss the chance to know that you are not doing it alone. There is someone there who can help you and you can enjoy the ride. It’s really nice. 

You can follow Matias on Instagram on his personal account @matiascarnival and media for the school of ministry at @esn.argentina