Brand New

When did you fall in love with design and how did you get started?

It was in the third year of my design program and we had to design our first logo and stationery. I did a really crappy design for a fictitious architecture firm called “Reisman” but at the time I thought it was the best thing ever. In retrospect, what I think I enjoyed was that it was the first assignment that required thinking graphically across three separate mediums: business card, letterhead, and envelope. It sounds so basic when I say it but at the time it felt like such a breakthrough and discovering that design was something that expands and contracts and you control the consistency. Also, I loved the first negative critique I gave someone during class; everyone always nice things about each other’s shitty work and one day I just said what I thought and it was so liberating. I wasn’t mean, but everybody thought I was the biggest asshole. Today, I literally make a living from critiquing (negatively AND positively) other people’s work, so… there.

What was your plan for graduating and what actually happened?

I graduated in 1999 from a 4-year design program in Mexico City and had no plan. Luckily, my girlfriend (now wife and also a designer) left Mexico to study at Portfolio Center in Atlanta, GA. So my plan was to follow her. Also luckily, this was the height of the dot-com era and there were a lot of companies hiring designers but I had no playbook on how to get a job. In the nascent “internet” I was able to find a portfolio review event by the Atlanta chapter of the AIGA; I called them up, said I was from Mexico and asked if I could attend. They said yes. I showed up with my portfolio, met a nice lady who wasn’t hiring but her husband was. Next day I went to see the husband; he liked my portfolio and hired me on the spot. I wish I could say it was all planned but it was mostly a matter of being in the right place at the right time and being somewhat prepared.

What do you look for in a great portfolio?

Execution. Some designers will look for concept and thinking and that’s also a must but in a young designer I’m expecting someone that has a grasp of the basic principles of good design. Having the ability to conceptualize and think is something I gather from the person presenting the portfolio; it will be evident from the way they talk whether they “get” what they are doing, so that’s something I look for in the person but I want to see a portfolio that has excellent work presented perfectly. A poorly presented portfolio or work that is mediocre is an instant turn-off. I’ve seen portfolios with great thinking and concept but execution that is borderline embarrassing. Maybe this makes me superficial but whatever, you either got game or you don’t in design and it’s all about execution for me.

What does a typical working day include for you right now?

We have a strange business through the blogs and events we run and all the content we generate so a typical day for us is atypical, also in part because we work from home and have two young kids and two energetic dogs. I wake up at 5:00 am and that’s when I write the post for Brand New. It’s like bread baked fresh every morning! At 6:30 the kids wake up and we take them to school. Then I’ll go out for a run and start working again at 9:00 am. We don’t have clients so I’m never out to meetings; 95% of the time I’m at my desk working on whatever our next big project is and intersperse it with smaller projects. I work until 6:00 pm, then it’s dinner and family time and after the girls go to sleep I’ll go back to my computer for another hour or so to answer emails or some other stuff that doesn’t require too much brain effort.