Discover the interview of Juan Manuel Corredor.
How did you become designer ?
It all goes back to the time I was in High School and one of my older brothers was doing a diploma in graphic design and animation. I would get glimpses of what he was working on here and there and It caught my attention. I was always attracted to the idea of manifesting your thoughts onto something material, something others could perceive, that’s probably why I was also interested in 3d Design, Architecture, Animation and a little of Industrial Design. By the time I decided to go to college I’ve had done some research on all of those and I made up my mind for graphic design based on what I thought had a more marketable future. I decided that I would still like to have some involvement with some of the other things I liked, but more as a side thing.
As I went through college I became more and more passionate about graphic design and It’s different components, the more I knew the more exciting It became as I realized how much more potential It had as a career choice and how fun it was. I feel lucky about that one since it’s impossible to know how things will turn out and you pretty much make a bet on what you think is “the right choice”, I guess most of life is like that.
How would you define your vision of design, your style ?
I wouldn’t know how to answer that in a straightforward way, or at least I would probably not say anything particularly different to what others could say. The long answer would be: I do think that there are moments where you need to avoid any overly creative vision to serve a more pragmatic result, many times you have to put as much of “you” outside the process as possible, you have to think of deadlines, budgets, specific goals and how you fit as much quality in all that as possible. There is also time to go crazy with your ideas and is in those rare moments when you can develop something you could call a style. Most of the time a designer will find him/herself meeting certain criteria to seal a deal with a client, that’s why I would encourage anyone to find time to work on personal projects and dive into your own explorations with your own timelines and zero expectations. As long you have a semi-clear goal, making posters about an event you like, or randomly playing with shapes, type, and different materials to see what comes up is a great way to train yourself to manage your time, develop alternative techniques to work with and have some fun.
For the future, what are your professional projects ?
For now, I’m pretty happy with my current situation, I want to keep growing and challenging myself, I have a bunch of personal projects that I have in mind, there are a few things I want to try related to packaging and typography. As I mentioned before I think is the right thing to do to push yourself and grow an audience, especially with social media available nowadays.
Other than that I’m planning on learning VR and Augmented Reality. I’m pretty sure the industry will evolve in surprising ways and designers will have the challenge to translate their visions into a completely new environment.
What do you like the most in your job ?
At this point, the satisfaction to know I chose the right path years ago, the daily new problems to solve, and the excitement of the upcoming evolution of this field.
