Tell us about yourself.

Hey internet friends! My name is Lorena, I'm an art director and graphic designer. I was born in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Spain, called Tarazona, since then I love cheese. I have been living in Barcelona for the last 10 years but just moved to NYC one month ago (So if you're reading this from the big city, it would be great to connect). I’m currently based in Brooklyn and working at Collins.

Which design topics are you most passionate about?

Any design with a concept behind it. I’m specialized in branding and editorial projects, but I like to think that designers are graphic translators of thought. Philosophy turned into branding, consciousness-raising ideas cast into image. We put a face onto the story. To paraphrase the great Milton Glaser, “We gain access to people’s minds and as such carry the responsibility of being solid citizens and recognizing that if we possess the ability to transfer ideas from one point to the other, they must not be harmful in nature”. I recently designed the identity for Arame Studio, a permanent dialogue through typography, photography, shapes and space, in collaboration with @patrimaca.

Do you have any special hobbies / things you like to do in your free time?  

My greatest pleasure is food; I spend the day thinking about what I'm going to eat, and when I'm eating, what I'll have for dinner. My current restaurant map barely lets me see the streets of NYC.

Music is also one of my fundamental pillars. I really enjoy listening to some of my favorite Japanese composers like Susumo Yokota, Haruomi Hosono, or Yasuaki Shimizu, as well as old-school reggaeton like Tego Calderón, especially on gray days, spice it up!

Two of my most personal hobbies:

First, making to-do lists in the Notes app on my iPhone. I make a list for each day and put down everything I do. It's such an obsession that if I do things that weren't on the list, by the end of the day I add them just to be able to cross them off.

Second, a few years ago, I started reflecting on time, why sometimes it passes so quickly and other times so slowly. I tried to find all the reasons and attempted to represent the relativity of time with clocks, or rather, numbers spit out on paper. Some clocks have many numbers, so time seems to pass very quickly, while others have fewer numbers and are more spaced out, making the next hour feel distant. I keep changing techniques, formats, and I also love it when my friends draw me how they perceive time.

Share a project / exhibition / creative person / anything that you found recently and sparked your imagination 

A few days ago, while doing research for a project, I discovered the illustrated magazine covers for the journal n+m: (Natural Science and Medicine), published by C.F. Boehringer & Soehne. Editions 16–20, 1967.

The covers were designed by German graphic designer and typographer Erwin Poell on behalf of the Boehringer Pharmaceutical company. I think they are truly marvelous; they make science look attractive.

One of the events that has inspired me the most lately is the NYC Book Fair, where for the second year in a row, I bought a book from the publisher The Eriskay Connection, a Dutch studio for book design and an independent publisher (www.eriskayconnection.com). They always wrap each story with the utmost care in terms of materials, papers, binding; their books are little gems.

The last but not least: The Lubalin Art Center, in NYC <3

What’s the hardest thing about being a designer?

First thing: facing clients who don't know what they want because they haven't figured out who they are or what they want to convey, and they discover it while you design, propose, and redesign.

Second thing: not knowing when to consider a design finished, especially when it's a personal project and you are your own client; this can be more endless than the first thing.

What’s the best thing about being a designer?

Here is the answer thanks to an intense and thoughtful conversation with @monicalosada.png (good designer, best person).

Me: What’s the best thing about being a designer?

Monica: that we work with Mac

Monica HAHAH

Monica: That it's beautiful

Lorena: It would be quite a goal to answer that

Lorena: that no one dies if we deliver late

Monica: That's true, we're not that important

Lorena: Being able to design senseless memes

One day, my dear friend Pau was really persistent about sharing his story that he was renting a room, so I edited a photo and put that story on all the screens of Times Square, always fun. 

Actually, when I was rereading this for the second time, I came up with the answer: I love that designers are a lot of professions at the same time. If you're making a book about mental disorders, you learn about psychology and psychiatry; if you're working on a biomasa project, you learn about renewable energies... and so on, infinitely.

Also learning about architecture, here the identity for the 1st Young Architecture Biennial POST LIKE.

Images and more images. Scrolling through hundreds of them. Overdose and banality, loss of significance. Follow, post, like, share, follow back. Architecture relies heavily on images for its creation, dissemination, and consumption.

The use of images and new technologies has fostered cross-disciplinary dialogue and a visual culture shaped by algorithms. Social media plays a crucial role in the creative process but often prioritizes likes over critical discourse. The challenge is to help the 21st-century eye see images as conveyors of meaningful stories requiring reflection and criticism.

This graphic identity transmits visual contamination, an overdose that leads us to collapse, superimposing images on each other until they lose their own meaning.

Who would you love to collaborate with?

So many people that the list would never end, but in this environment where the majority of high-ranking positions or founders of studios or agencies are men, I would like to highlight the female sector! I'm going to mention super talented women who inspire me and with whom I would love to collaborate: Larissa Kasper, Isabel Seiffert, Laura Csocsan, or Ines Cox. 

Describe your dream project.  

Option 1: A project has a positive impact on society or helps people in some way.

Option 2: A project without a briefing or restrictions, working with all of my friends who inspire and support me simultaneously in where we all believe and feel excited, and if there's a budget involved, even better, because working with friends is very easy, but receiving compensation for these kinds of projects is more challenging.

Share the last photo you took for inspiration and explain why.

One of the latest typefaces I've captured on the street, I love it when time takes charge of creating another typeface by modifying the existing one, biting into the strokes. Like a portrait of the inexorable passage of time. An organic typographic touch-up.

What's the best advice you've received (and from whom)?

For life: As the song by the Spanish group Azúcar Moreno says, 'You only live once,' so regret what you don't do.

For design, Two pieces of advice that Nick Ace gave me when I joined Collins: 1. If we think something is easy to get approved, we’re doing it wrong.

if it is approved quickly, you are not taking risks. I totally agree, because I love the unexpected design, I like to surprise, because then it is memorable.

2. Explore the unexplored. Explore everything. I'm really aligned with this statement, because when I'm starting a project I try all the option that I can, maybe I like the second one, but I don't like settling for the first design I come up with; perhaps later, I'll create 10 proposals and realize that the best one was the second. But sometimes, I find clues in others that help me incorporate them into the chosen one and enrich it.

What do you do when you feel stuck and uninspired?

Wandering aimlessly, I try to do it every day, and even more when I'm blocked, it helps me a lot to get out of the screen, to look for references in other sites, because in the end all designers drink from the same thing.I love walking through different streets and exploring everything I see, from the typography on signs or trucks, to shops, bakeries, bars, parks... I always need to seek references outside my screen and add to my list of places on my map.I am also very inspired by documentaries, animals, and nature. Here is a representation of the immensity of the universe through textures.

And when I can't take it anymore, I love to step away from the computer and work with my hands. If you're blocked, change your medium. Here are some posters made with paper cutouts—let's get to work!

Recommend a book / movie / TV series / podcast / playlist to our readers

A book: The Order of Time is a book by Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli.

A movie: Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, a French film directed by Leos Carax, starring Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant.

A series: The Sopranos or The Wire

I don't listen to many podcasts, just music. I'm too absent-minded to listen to others while I work. So here's my Japanese playlist <3 Enjoy!

Thank you Lorena!