Content precedes design. Design without content is an empty and superfluous accessory.
Graphic design is always synonymous with a message. And it always sets out to convey this message in the most effective way through the use of colours, shapes, typefaces, images, texts, and so on.
Graphic design helps us create a communication-based experience in which we present content to a certain group of people by fusing usability and beauty.
That's why it's a key tool for sorting out the communication and expression needs of brands by creating valuable and truly memorable experiences that end up connecting people with services and brands with their potential customers.
Graphic design makes life easier.
From a simple sign directing people to the toilets or instructions to assemble a dresser with a thousand drawers, and right up to a complex geolocation system for vehicles, all visual systems are conceived to make everyday life easier and turn concepts that are difficult to understand / explain into simpler snippets of information, perfectly proportioned and implemented. This means we can continue with our pace of life and only worry about what's truly important: in order to solve any predictable and non-random aspect, design is there for you.
Graphic design is a process, not a result
For us, graphic design isn't the supporting actor that enters the scene when the finale is about to happen (and it turns out that the lead actor dies).
We firmly believe that design should be integrated into any project from the outset, because the sooner the brand essence and ethos are infused with design, the greater the impact of the product or service among potential customers.
We understand design as a process. This process begins with learning about and familiarising ourselves with the business, the competition, the brand, its products and its users, and ends when the last piece is up-and-running and still gleaming. Start and end of the process. Between one and the other: working alongside the customer, strategic thinking and creativity. This is the formula.
We take care of each and every one of the stages of this process and each variable of the formula: from the initial time of strategically addressing the customer's need to controlling and overseeing the minutest detail of each part. And to cover all these aspects, a great team is required. Like ours. (It had to be said).
We're a team of professionals specialised in the various disciplines that make up graphic design, with a track record and a background that underpins all the stages of a project, whatever the size.
Basically, we're specialised in the construction of brand experiences centred around graphic design: we use it as an aspect capable of expressing a coherent message via any medium (whether printed, digital or physical) and visual code.
Typeface design
We're specialists in all key aspects of letter-based design:
Typography is the art and technique of creating and composing texts to convey a message. Typefaces are the system of pre-constructed signs that make up a font. We understand this as the use of pre-built typeface systems and digital typeface compositions. We work with typefaces from the most reputable foundries and with the highest professional excellence in the world.
We also create ad hoc corporate typefaces for brands of any kind: from football teams (Atlético de Madrid), to banks (Bancolombia), fashion houses (Mango) and airlines (Etihad Airways).
If a brand invests in its own custom typeface, it will be adding to the construction of its own voice
Calligraphy is the art of writing beautifully in a certain style. Calligraphy is defined as the art of beautiful and correct handwriting, associated with writing with brushes, fountain pens or bamboo, among others. However, typography is a set of characters that share a style.
The expressive power of the calligrapher's pulse helps us give a text a human voice. The historical context or state of mind, as well as other aspects, also define and stylistically reinforce each of the details of the morphology of the calligraphic text.
We've produced many works of calligraphy, including those for Adobe and Apple Music, or the headlines for Mango's fashion publications.
Hand-drawn letters. No more and no less.
Lettering is the art of drawing letters.It's all about creating compositions with letters that aren't written, but drawn. This is the side with the most expressiveness of design with text. Letters burst into life and become intricate, swift, catchy, solid or volatile.
We're in a new golden age of lettering. There are many brands that choose this technique to appeal to their followers. This discipline offers hundreds of possibilities to emphasise certain messages, adding personality, expressiveness and double meanings to the texts they illustrate.
We've created numerous styles of lettering for a whole host of customers, from the designs made for Nike for several of its product ranges (Nike Air, Nike Basketball, Young Athletes or Nike Running) or regular collaborations with leading publications such as The Washington Post, Wired or Yorokobu.
Signage and wayfinding design
In order to use spaces, we need to use graphic design to decipher movement flows and locations of points of interest.
Wayfinding design is the creation and development of information systems in order to guide people in natural, urban and architectural situations. In short, wayfinding is a tool that uses its elements to help people move through an environment.
The beauty and the broadness of the discipline is that it looks out for the user as a person (not just a consumer, customer or audience). And that's because wayfinding addresses people's capabilities and their physical, cultural and social variables in the same way.
Its purpose is to aid orientation in environments that aren't familiar to individuals. It studies the location and way of displaying information at strategic points. The solution should be clear and consistent (you shouldn't have to think), showing only what's necessary and important in the space and, therefore, eliminating any irrelevant stimuli.
Wanda Metropolitano Stadium. Madrid. Capacity: 75,000 people. Design of a visual system of custom signage. Undoubtedly, one of the most ambitious projects that can be carried out in this field. Well, we did it.
Its purpose is to aid orientation in environments that aren't familiar to individuals. It studies the location and way of displaying information at strategic points. The solution should be clear and consistent (you shouldn't have to think), showing only what's necessary and important in the space and, therefore, eliminating any irrelevant stimuli.
Wanda Metropolitano Stadium. Madrid. Capacity: 75,000 people. Design of a visual system of custom signage. Undoubtedly, one of the most ambitious projects that can be carried out in this field. Well, we did it.
Pictographs, aka pictograms, are one of the most important tools for creating units of information and visual meaning, and are a key specialisation within graphic design.
Pictograms, as a language, ,help us decipher concepts in a purely visual way,, avoiding language, context and cultural barriers, or even reaching out to people who aren't literate. Today we use pictographs intensively for many purposes: signage, packaging of all kinds, designs of any type of digital interface, instructions, or even for the interfaces of household appliances.
In our case, we define pictograms for all Teka appliances, making sure we never waver in terms of cohesion or consistency.
For Banco Santander, we designed more than five hundred icons for all the bank's communications, digital media and products.
As for Line (South Korea), we created two hundred emojis for Latin America, a further two hundred for various Arab countries and another two hundred more generic ones for communication in transport and road systems :O
Graphic design for printing
Lots of people think that paper has bitten the dust.
Although digital media has condemned most paper communications to death, the love for quality printed objects still holds true (we're not referring to the telephone directory here).
Eye-catching stationery or a truly original business card are still as impressive as they are valued when it comes to being remembered (forever).
Our experience in the world of printed media production and design is very broad and is a great endorsement of all our knowledge about techniques, materials, suppliers and special finishes that can make the difference between a good enough design and a memorable design.
Our history of publishing our designs and overseeing their production is truly an endless story: offset printing, special papers, serigraphs, direct inks, engravings, blind embossing, standard embossing, stamping, any type of binding, varnishes and any type of finish that magnifies the physical materialisation of an idea and, therefore, multiplies its effectiveness.
Printed media is all about imagining, designing and applying ideas, whether for posters, brochures, reports, books, art books, stationery, diaries, calendars, publications, printed materials for marketing... shall we keep going?
Graphic design for digital media
The digital transformation of our society has given us the chance to broaden our messages and cross over into multiple formats and devices. Design, which is capable of covering everything, is the way we express brand discourses so that they live ubiquitously in all possible aspects. In other words, we use design to shape and tangibilise the digital expressions, platforms or formats through which brands reach out to their audience, as if design was a bridge over the proverbial gap between company and customer.
We believe that these digital environments are natural habitats in which the relationships between people, communities, brands and services are developed.
This commitment to all things digital has made us specialists in information architecture, responsive design, interactive and user-friendly design, omnichannel experiences, and so on. In other words, we're specialists in the creation of digital communication and brand discourse experiences that build long-lasting relationships and naturally enhance ties between brands and audiences, whether we're talking about social media, apps, websites, branded content, out-of-the-box digital actions, etc.
Design is a transformative tool that helps us evolve and move society forward through the use of ideas
The key reason why many people still think that design is only for certain brands is because they think it's a discipline that only concerns aesthetic beauty.
Design has traditionally been understood as the final part (aesthetic value) of the process of defining and creating a service or product. This vision split the disciplines into four areas: product design; visual communication; information or interface design; and the design of spaces.
For us, design is also part of the initial stretch of the conception of a product, as it's the most appropriate way to conceive products that work. Full stop.
In our opinion, design transcends the mere aesthetic value. Design pinpoints challenges and creates opportunities when a new product or service is being created. It's an end-to-end tool that from the most embryonic moment helps boost companies, brands and projects and take them to another level.
On top of all that, we firmly believe that design is a transformative tool that helps us evolve and move brands and society forward through the use of ideas.