Designer of the winning poster for ITD 2023.
This year, FIT chose “Translation unveils the many faces of humanity” as the central theme of its International Translation Day (ITD) celebrations. We would like to tell you a few things about Marta Saavedra, the designer behind the winning poster.
Marta was born in Concepción, Chile, where she lived with her parents until they moved to Santiago in 1979. She always enjoyed drawing and all kinds of handicrafts and chose to study graphic design, although she is also a keen and talented linguist. She has worked for design agencies for more than 20 years, particularly in the fields of packaging and editorial design.
Marta found out about the FIT poster competition through her cousin, Cristián Araya, who is a professional translator, Vice President of the Colegio de Traductores e Intérpretes de Chile (COTICH) and a member of the executive committee of FIT LATAM, the regional centre for Latin America.
She has always liked languages and understands what translators and interpreters do, viewing their work as “important and essential to the chain of communication, learning, education and interpersonal and international relations”.
This is the first competition that Marta has ever entered, having been encouraged to do so by her cousin. The theme greatly inspired her, and she explains that, conceptually, she tried to “represent everything that goes into a translator’s work through an open book that illuminates part of the planet, revealing various faces that depict different races, sexes, ages and expressions”. The idea of unveiling is conveyed through the contrasting colours applied to each face when compared with the colour palette applied to the rest of the planet.
Marta is certain that without translation we would have no access to knowledge, especially of humanity, its diverse cultures, idiosyncrasies, expressions, contributions and multiple realities. She told us that this design could be seen as her own contribution to making the work of translators and interpreters visible.
FIT would like to thank Marta for taking the time to talk and, in particular, for sharing her talents with us to celebrate ITD.
Interview by Gretchen González Nieto, FIT Council Member.