Elevate Talks: Los Caballos
We talked with Los Caballos a Buenos Aires-based graphic design studio founded in 2012 by Sebastián Fuks and Nicolás Di Filippo. Their works are orientated towards brand identity, branded content and illustration. We highly recommend following their Instagram. Their Ig stories are exactly what you need if you want to know how living in Buenos Aires is like.
Can you introduce yourselves, please?
We are Nicolás and Sebastián: Los Caballos. A graphic design studio based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
How would you describe your job?
We distill ideas and transform them into real tangible doable projects. Since we begun working, we have focused on brand identity and branded content. Illustration has always been our main language and we try to capture it in pieces that are designed for multiple environments, both printed and digital.
How is a typical work day for you?
Each day is different from the other. We start really early to avoid getting stuck in office hours. We work a lot outdoors, we visit parks and walk around. Walking is essential.
We also do night shifts. We invite colleagues and spend long hours sketching. We watch series and eat pizza. We work, we have fun.
What is the best thing about working in Buenos Aires?
The eclectic way of living. The quilombo. Imperfection as a formal feature.
This contributes to Los Caballos’ aesthetics. Our favorite activity is to go out and explore the city, preferably on foot. The city is full of clues and hints that help us understand where our works should head to. Thinking while walking is always a good idea. When we can not leave the studio, a huge window helps us out.
What are the best and worst things about your work?
Our own products and the projects that are born from Los Caballos are always the ones that we enjoy the most. Sometimes we get together on a Saturday just to make some Diego Maradona prints. Generating experimental content for parallel projects is what keep us inspired and active.
The worst of it all is losing at ping-pong.
Which were the best projects you’ve worked in?
In 2013, Citype invited us to design a typography that would reflect the City of Buenos Aires’ identity. That was when we created Buenos Aires Type. It was the perfect opportunity to reflect our vision of a city that freezes in winter and melts in summer. We tried to communicate the energy of a space where order and chaos coexist temperamentally.
But it would also be fair to highlight the projects developed for Lacoste, SanCor, Sony and Microsoft. And also start-ups and organizations such us Otato, Jabad Argentina and Club Atlético Sujatovich. When clients trust our vision great results come to life. All these projects have also helped us consolidate as a studio and have allowed us to open up to new markets.
What are the tools you use more frequently to work?
Imagination is a tool that is always present in our work. The desperate need to create and make is the engine that let’s us explore and work on our ideas in a direct and decontracting way.
On a larger scale, interdisciplinarity is our greatest advantage. Teamwork always brings up new visions and let’s us come up with more complex and interesting ideas. We enjoy working together with colleagues and friends we admire. Our closest friends are the ones that inspire us the most, they are our strongest references. There are artists, musicians, writers, actors and filmmakers.
Also, Puerto Producciones, our audiovisual content production company, became one of the tools that let’s us make the most radical ideas come true.
What did you want to be when you were a kids?
An astronaut and a cook.
Who/What inspired you to choose working in the design industry?
The TV programes we watched in our childhood. The rhythm and aesthetics presented by The Simpsons or the MTV in the 90s. Video games, their graphics and the packaging design have also played a fundamental role in our career.
Who/What inspired you to keep working in the design industry?
We have learned to look the other way and this helps us a lot. We have matured as a studio and are now able to look for references outside the world of design and reach out for inspiration in what we see every day. Participating in different kinds of projects always brings new perspectives to the table. Television and video games, of course, are always a good source of information. Also there’s the deep desire to be an astronaut. Or a cook.
Which were your first jobs?
We always worked on the same stuff, even before starting our formal studies. As children we played with design and before finishing secondary school we were already internalizing ourselves in it.
Which was the toughest challenge you’ve faced?
Make love and money coexist.
What would you like to be doing in 12 months?
A new interview with you.
Bonus track: Can you recommend any TV series/movie/song/artist?
Salvador Rivera’s record: Siempre hay tiempo. It’s work that synthesizes perfectly well what interdisciplinary work is.
Also, The Office has it all.
Elevate is a publication by Lateral View.
