Elena Camps Biondi was recently standing on a Florida dock when she was struck by the glimmering water surrounding her. “I could see these little ripples in the sea and it had an iridescence,” she remembers. “To me, everything that I create has much to do with forms of nature.”
As the art director at EleVen By Venus Williams, Camps Biondi often draws from the landscape for inspiration, and is particularly enthralled by the vibrant colors of her native Venezuela. Growing up there, crayons and blank paper were her “whole world. I had a vivid imagination. I still do,” she says.
Although her parents were artistic—her mother painted and her father made wood furniture—they weren’t keen on their daughter venturing into the design field. Camps Biondi compromised by studying advertising and then headed to Spain for a master’s degree in art direction. Buoyed by joyful childhood runs to the fabric shop with her grandmother, where she would pore over the cloths’ infinite patterns and wonder why they “had no end and no beginning,” she pursued a surface design program as well.
Back in South America, Camps Biondi founded a production company and also embraced her love of textiles by launching a handbag brand that garnered much national attention. But as the political situation in Venezuela worsened, she was forced to make a change: “What’s worse? Staying in the same place, where you don’t see a future, or just risking it and leaving everything that you know for the uncertain?”
A campaign showcasing the multicolored EleVen by Venus Flashes print
She decided to take the leap and found refuge in Panama, working in an advertising agency that looked after heavyweights like Nestlé and L’Oréal, until the States beckoned. Securing an American artist visa was an arduous process, but with that in hand, Camps Biondi was able to send out her resume, ultimately landing the job at EleVen and settling in Palm Beach in 2018.
At EleVen, Camps Biondi is a storyteller, nurturing ideas and melding her design and video skills for each new project as she works alongside Williams to refine all concepts. “What she’s envisioning,” Camps Biondi says of her boss, “I can put onto paper.”
Consider Neon Dreams. When the activewear collection, defined by standout splashes of hot pink and limeade, launched in early 2020, Camps Biondi looked to Williams’ past to piece together the ideal campaign. She recalled hearing how Williams’ father held signs emblazoned with empowering phrases like ‘Don’t Stop’ at Williams’ tennis matches, so she translated that memory to Neon Dreams, fittingly illuminating the word ‘Confident,’ for instance, in neon. It’s a visual that also carries over to the campaign for the soft and flirty Glam collection, which gives ‘Strong’ and ‘Courageous’ the spotlight.
The gold, Swarovski crystal-adorned Wonder Woman Peak Windbreaker paired with the racerback Record Sports Bra and Player 7/8 Legging; limeade is one of the colors defining the Neon Dreams activewear collection
Beyond her work at EleVen, Camps Biondi tackles independent projects. She designed the tropical Casa Paraiso range of swimsuits for the beachwear brand Antigua Collection, for instance, and painted a geometric mural onto the wall of its shop in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. For Holy Shakes, an upbeat milkshake parlor in Doral, Florida, she dreamed up the branding and maximalist interior, mixing commanding elements like a bright terrazzo-patterned ceiling with neon signs.
No matter who Camps Biondi partners with, there is a sense of integrity that underpins her multifaceted work. “Venus always says you need to give to people,” she says. “I’m not talking about charity; I’m talking about teaching what you know, helping others be better, showing different perspectives about design. I want to do good.
This article originally appeared in HD’s November 2020 issue.
