Interviews with Baud members
Interviewed: Juan Fonseca, Specialist Designer in Packaging.
Date of the interview: September 21, 2020.
Today we get to know Juan a little better, Baud's graphic designer, specializing in branding for consumer packaging. Always wanting to see the "Big Picture" in a design problem, Juan is a planner and a retailer. He likes processes, using methodologies to organize himself and to organize work. The organization for him comes first, but in his words, also the neatness and examine things for a better evaluation.
Why have you chosen Branding as a profession?
Because the profession led me to this path, to learn that our coexistence with branding is daily, first as a consumer. Therefore, to do branding you have to understand the consumer. The design can be quantified, which will affect the success of the project. It is not a science, but it is clear that it influences a lot. See how it interacts with the economy, with the monetary value of a company, is very interesting.
What is the best thing about your job?
Being able to go to the gondola or the shop and find something you made. To be able to touch it, look at it, take it, consume it.
And the worst?
Bad strategic decisions. The biased view or why I "like" choose that ... Design is not a like or not, there is a reason behind that it has foundations and sometimes some clients forget that.
What is the project or brand in which you have been involved and of which you are most proud? Why?
It is a brand launched from scratch at the time for the Polish market and with the intention of expanding to Eastern Europe later. An over-the-counter drug that entered a market full of competitors (such as GSK company brands). In the first year, the product became the 3rd best-selling brand and exceeded sales projections by 500%. It had very favorable quantifiable results because there was a good job of strategy, understanding the sector, the consumer, and all of this was used to define how it would be translated into a visual image.
What brand / s would you like to work for? Why?
Start-ups with innovative products on the market. Because they are those who like to take risks, to propose new things in a local market in which the consumer currently lacks variety of choice for some types of products. It is a market that needs to take risks with new things.
What does working at Baud bring you?
The freedom to be able to make decisions that help a better daily work and better work that is presented to the client. The autonomy as a professional to carry out the projects and then see how they bear fruit.
For you, what are the best qualities that a professional in your area should have?
Honesty. Cooperation. Long-term sense in the vision of things.
How do you see the future of your profession in a few years? What changes do you think may emerge?
As long as capitalism continues, my profession will continue to exist. As this will not cease to exist in the short / medium term, the future will continue to be promising. There will be many changes when choosing and consuming a product. The consumer is increasingly demanding with what he consumes. Study more, read more before you buy. The social positioning of the company that sells that product is also important to him. So companies will continue to have to be as transparent as possible and sell increasingly honest products.
Digital life is also changing the way of consuming and this has already begun to change things, the place of brands in the market, and how they have to shout in order to attract the attention of the consumer.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in your profession?
Do a lot of research, read everything, think of ideas and not the execution of visually beautiful things. Design is not pretty, "pretty" things come from good ideas.
In a nutshell…
- A reference: I do not know…
- A confessable mania: pass hand over surfaces to remove dust (every 5 min).
- A book you would recommend: Ikigai by Hector García and Francesc Miralles, and Sumisión by Michel Houellebecq.
- Your ideal music to work with: Jazz, Folk.
- A phrase that is your mantra: life with a smile is free and contagious.
- A plan to disconnect: the couch.
- Something surprising about you: I have already lived in 3 countries and it would never have occurred to me as a teenager to have done it. Life is dynamic.