Interviews with Baud members
Interviewee: Juan Fonseca, Packaging Designer.
Interview date: September 21, 2020.
Today we get to know Juan, graphic designer at Baud, specialized in branding for FMCG packaging. Always wanting to see the "Big Picture" in a design problem, Juan is a planner and detail-oriented. He likes processes, using methodologies to organize himself and his work. Organization comes first for him, but in his words, also the neatness and examination of things for a better evaluation.
Why did you choose branding as a profession?
Because my profession led me to this path, to learn that our coexistence with branding is on a daily basis, first as a consumer. Therefore, to do branding you have to understand the consumer. 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. Seeing how it interacts with the economy, with the monetary value of a company, is very interesting.
What is the best thing about your job?
To be able to go to the gondola or to the shop and find something you made. To be able to touch it, look at it, take it, consume it.
And the worst part?
Bad strategic decisions. The biased vision or because "I like it" I choose that... Design is not a like it or not, there is a reason behind it that has foundations and sometimes some clients forget that.
What is the project or brand you have been involved in that you are most proud of? Why?
It is a brand launched from scratch at the time for the Polish market and intended to expand to Eastern Europe later. An OTC drug that entered a market full of competitors (such as GSK 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 work of strategy, understanding of the sector, of the consumer, and all this was used to define how it would be translated into a visual image.
Which 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 lacks risk with new things.
What do you get out of working at Baud?
The freedom to be able to make decisions that help to a better daily work and a better work that is presented to the client. The autonomy as a professional to carry out projects and then see how they pay off.
For you, what are the best qualities that a professional in your area should have?
Honesty. Cooperation. Sense of the long term in the vision of things.
How do you see the future of your profession a few years from now? What changes do you think may arise?
As long as capitalism continues to exist, my profession will continue to exist. As it will not cease to exist in the short/medium term, the future will continue to be promising. There will be many changes when it comes to choosing and consuming a product. Consumers are becoming more and more demanding about what they consume. They study more, read more before buying. They also care about the social positioning of the company that sells the product. So companies will continue to have to be as transparent as possible and sell increasingly honest products.
Digital life is also changing the way we consume and this has already started to change things, the place of brands in the market, and how they have to shout in order to get the consumer's attention.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in your profession?
Do a lot of research, read everything, think in ideas and not in the execution of visually beautiful things. Design is not about pretty things, "pretty" things come from good ideas.
In a nutshell...
- A benchmark: I don't know...
- A confessable hobby: wipe the surfaces to remove dust (every 5 min).
- A book you would recommend: Ikigai by Hector García and Francesc Miralles, and Submission by Michel Houellebecq.
- Your ideal music to work with: Jazz, Folk.
- A phrase that is your mantra: life with a smile, it's free and contagious.
- A plan to disconnect: the armchair.
- 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 so. Life is dynamic.