An extremely talented young freelance production designer, artist, and art director, Elizabet Puksto was born and raised in Vilnius, Lithuania, and immersed in the arts from very young age. She attended a two-year visual arts program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), where she also received her BFA in design and production, with a concentration in scene design and scenic painting.
Her career highlights include art direction for Tyra Bank’s immersive theatrical experience, Modeland, and the production design for music videos for such artists as Demi Lovato, Alicia Keys, Pink, Lana Del Rey, Solange and others.
Winner of the 2021 USITT Rising Star Award, sponsored by LDI/Live Design, Puksto chats with Live Design about her work and offers a word of advice to the next generation of young designers.
Live Design: How do you define yourself as you seem to wear many hats? Would you say your roots are in the theatre?
Elizabet Puksto: I try not to define myself. I am what I am and I try to be flexible. Once in awhile I get to do exactly what I want, but a lot of the time I do what I have to do.
In our industry and business I am considered a production designer/art director for live entertainment, music videos, commercials, and film work.
I love to create visual worlds and attempt to prompt an emotion from the viewer. My creative process can start with visual walks, elaborate conversations, pieces of music, or striking imagery…live performances, art galleries visits, motion pictures, pieces of music or a blank canvas are all my conceptual stimuli.
My mother exposed me to art as a small child. I was enrolled in a ballet conservatory at six, and I would often skip rehearsals and run down the hallway to the painting department. This experience started a process of creating visual stories through nostalgia.
LD: What was the most challenging project you have done to date and why was it challenging?
EP: Every project is challenging in some way. Sometimes, even with the smallest visual decisions, I will have sleepless nights tossing and turning, staring at the ceiling, and painting an imaginary picture to try to push projects in limitless ways.
The most challenging project I have encountered occurred was when I was much younger. I was in charge of a large construction build. My construction crew quit on me because we had hit “hour 22” two days in a row. That morning, I had to find seven bodies by 5am to finish the production. That experience was very eye-opening in relation to the pressure and extreme time limits I would experience in the future.
LD: Can you talk about the design process in the production photos you selected?
EP: I’m still learning so much with each new assignment, that my actual design process changes and morphs with each new visual problem that I am given to solve. I try to be flexible and open to new solutions.
LD: How do you begin a new project? Research? Influences?
EP: I start a new project in great detail and attempt to break down the story line, the visuals and the music that is given to me before each collaboration. I listen to classical music, jazz, or really any kind of genre that is reflective of the project as I see it. At that point, my conceptual imagery begins to form in a visual way. Then, I always try to relate those ideas to a piece of history, an old masters painting or a mathematical formula that weaves its way into my problem solving.
Principles of design and color theory, technical decisions and budgetary restraints are also never-ending considerations. The final phase of designing for a client is always collaborative and involves flexibility and openness. Interestingly, it is always a surprise when others might see something totally different in my design solution and that is the exciting part.
LD: What advice do you have for today's generation of design students?
EP: E.E. Cummings once said “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”
Listen, read, absorb, go out in nature, read more.. a physical book that has an old smell or is a fresh print. Listen and respect your seniors. Let the objects and tools around you speak to you. Sometimes these activities can lead you to a place you never imagined you could get to. Trust yourself, respect other artists and their visions. If you call it work, that means you don’t love it.
LD: What does winning the Rising Star Award mean to you?
EP: I’m humbled and honored to receive this recognition. I want to share this award with every soul around me that believed in me and pushed me. It’s very sweet to have the word “rising” in the award. People often refer to me as an old soul. It’s nice to take a step back and enjoy the process and definition of the word “rising,” which means sloping upward. That is my goal, to artistically slope upward.
