Cinco

A big believer of living in the 'now' Mariano Sigal, Cinco’s Founder & Creative Director, shares his amazing point of view — giving a sense of peace for where he believes design is and where it will go in the future. Have a read over what Mariano has to share... it will make you think, it will give you a little smile and possibly make you a little zen. Thanks Mariano we're loving what you have to share and the work you guys are creating!

What are some of your earliest creative memories and what lead you into design?

This is a question that almost answers itself. Probably for all of us who are dedicated to this, it was our first creative memories that led us to design. Consciously or not, I think we all have that kind of need inside of us to connect with our inner child, to play freely with colors and shapes, to order and disorder letters, to disguise ourselves, to stain ourselves... It is a way of perpetrating and immortalizing one of the richest stages of our lives. In a world that feeds immaturity and suggestions to hide our age in order to pretend to be eternal youths when we are not at all, practicing children's behaviors like jealousy and avarice; in front of this world I feel that our profession is noble and sensible, and under no circumstances it doesn’t need to hide what we really are.

Give us the elevator pitch on what you do.

I am an art director and my specialization is not to be specialized in anything in particular at all. To work in one direction seems to me that it is dull and lifeless. How could it be possible that one person can have a good time in life doing always the same thing?

Many times I see people enslaved by their own style. We must lose the fear of non-specificity in our profession. I think that believing that one person is not able to have the capacity to do multiple things and in different styles, it is to underestimate oneself and the humankind as a whole.

Design work by Cinco The Design Kids interviews Cinco work-2

What qualities and skills do you look for in a graduate?

Above all, a particular way of thinking and seeing the design world itself. Of course, they have to know and manage software tools but this is not going to be a distinction at all. On the contrary, learning how to handle software is within the reach of all nowadays, it is what ends up averaging and matching, standardizing the graduates. That's why I insist, the true differential is the way of seeing and thinking the design world, and I think that is missing quite lot today.

What career advice would you give your 16yr old self?

No matter how difficult it sounds at age 16, I would say do not rush, just be calm. The hurry itself does not necessarily make you win the race at all, or rather (and although it sounds half shaolin), the one that really wins is the one that enjoys the whole way through.

Design work by Cinco The Design Kids interviews Cinco work-4
Design work by Cinco The Design Kids interviews Cinco work-4

Many times I see people enslaved by their own style. We must lose the fear of non-specificity in our profession.

Where do you think design is heading in the next five years and how will you adapt?

I have the feeling that the screen (TV, computer, phone, tablet) as an intermediary of our experiences, gradually begins to lose its charm. The image, to put it somehow, begins to average and denigrate with the possibility of being reproduced infinity of times by the same supports. And, in this sense, I feel that it is going to start to re-signify and value certain practices more linked to the experiential, to have the possibility of having something in our hands, an object, a printed book, with a nice printed paper really enjoyable to our tact... Or even theater, which is something to which I dedicate and interests me a lot, has to do with the “now moment” and living an irreproducible moment… that kind of experiences I feel will be valued more and more exponentially, and the design has to leave a mark in the same direction.

What role does digital design play in your studio in 2018, and how do you apply traditional graphic design skills in a digital age?

In the studio, since forever, the digital was and is a tool. Valuable for the multifunctional aspect that offers us, but not better than a pencil, a hammer or a cutter. Each tool has its place and its moment in the process and it is ok like this. Lately, I'm very surprised by the 3D as a tool, not by its final result (in fact I'm not very friendly CGI), but as a way of previewing. For example, what previously required many tests of materials, construction and scales to project what could finally be a scenography, with 3D can be easily modeled and modified and then directly built. I like that, thinking that it does not replace the construction of the scenery but rather optimizes certain aspects of the process and I find that really cool.

Design work by Cinco The Design Kids interviews Cinco work-6
Design work by Cinco The Design Kids interviews Cinco work-6

Where to find Cinco online.

Website: nosotroscinco.com

Instagram: @marian_Sigal

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