Mateus Valadares Estúdio

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

I fell in love with graphic design a bit late, I believe. It happened in my senior year in college, during my final project: a collection of book covers for the Brazillian cult novelist Rubem Fonseca. My tutor Hugo Werner encouraged me to try some authorial work. I had a process notebook in which I would keep notes, sketches, some layouts. While I was playing with this notebook I discovered I could draw with duct tape and got amazed. The notebook worked as a diary and I got used to facing my creations as a part of myself. That is how this hot-blooded Rambo graphic designer came out.

Where did you study and what were some of your first jobs?

I studied graphic design at UEMG, Minas Gerais State University. I attended two courses at the same time because graphic design did not seem to be a well-paid career in my hometown, Belo Horizonte. The second course was Advertising Program at Minas Gerais Federal University, UFMG. There was no glamour in my first jobs. I started my career as an intern in a telephonic company of my state. I used to hate it and it just lasted three months. Later I got a few internships in small publicity companies. My first heartbreaking experience in graphic design was as an intern at Hardy Design – a new company led by Mariana Hardy at that time. She was just coming back from New York, where she had been a Pentagram employee. Two years later I moved to São Paulo where got hired at AGI member Kiko Farkas's studio for six years. It opened the world of graphic design to me.

Who are your top five design crushes right now?

I would love to date Irma Boom, Paula Scher, Janet Hansen, Hansje van Halem and Rejane Dal Bello.

What do you look for in a great client?

I look for great stories to tell. It could come from a novel, from a cross fit gym, or from a weekly magazine. I’m not an artist, I can’t create just from myself. I need the client input. I see graphic design as the media between an idea and an audience. My job is to make these stories look amazing for people. It is just to give shape to ideas.