Each week, we’ll feature a few of our New Visual Artists—15 remarkable up-and-coming artists and creatives under the age of 30. Read about Santiago Carrasquilla below, and meet all of PRINT’s New Visual Artists in the Summer 2016 issue of PRINT Magazine.
This is the second year we’ve run our New Visual Artists: 15 under 30 in Print. What was for years a tightly edited list of 20 of the best and brightest up-and-coming artists and designers under age 30 working today has become a more in-depth portfolio of 15 of the most interesting, challenging, provocative new voices working in visual communications. Print’s NVAs have managed to make it happen and make it last. The list of past NVAs reads like a veritable who’s-who in graphic design: Scott Dadich, Eddie Opara, Alan Dye, Jessica Walsh, Jessica Hische. While their output is varied both in style and execution, the common denominator is a work ethic of epic proportions.
NVA issue cover by Santiago Carrasquilla
To achieve acclaim so young is certainly enviable. But our history of NVAs and our current crop of up-and-coming artists and young designers proves that design can be both timely and timeless. It will be interesting to see how the 2016 class of New Visual Artists grows and evolves over time as well.
—Debbie Millman
Meet New Visual Artist
Age: 27.
From: Bogotá, Colombia.
Current city: New York City/Los Angeles.
Education: School of Visual Arts.
SHMM by Space People casette design and animation.
Earliest creative memory: When I was about 7 years old, asking my mom to take me to an art supply store to buy a canvas and some paint. I got home and painted a beach scene. I remember the very strong visceral feeling that painting gave me.
Path that led you to design: I always had an affinity for the arts (as most children do). During my childhood I drew a lot, and then in my teenage years I spent most of my time playing music. When I was 17 I fell in love with Malia, who moved to New York. I decided to move too but in order to make that happen I had to make a cover-up plan. Somehow, I decided I would study advertising at the School of Visual Arts. I spent a year at Santa Monica Community College taking all sorts of art classes and building a portfolio to get me into art school. When I arrived to SVA I switched to design and animation and spent four years learning and developing with incredible teachers in a very special city. It was a beautiful time in my life.
Career in a nutshell: I worked at Sagmeister & Walsh for three years and left that to start my own studio and work with my friends.
The key to good design: Good designers.
Limited-edition packaging for typographic films shown as part of the traveling show “The Happy Show” (in collaboration with Sagmeister & Walsh).
Motto/design philosophy: Produce as much work as possible and learn from the process itself. What’s most important is the momentum generated by having done a lot of work and letting it envelop your life. With patience the answers reveal themselves.
Work of which you’re most proud: I particularly like all the work I’ve done with my collaborators and friends Gabriel Garzón-Montano and Joe Hollier. The work we’ve made together is special because it closely mirrors our friendships. When you work with your friends, one word carries much more weight; everything can be more efficient and rich. The work also often becomes a symbol for some of the best memories.
Vinyl design for The Sentence by Zach Cooper
Biggest influence: Nature.
How you would classify your style: I wouldn’t.
Design Hero: Stefan Sagmeister.
Album cover for Alma del Huila by Gabriel Garzón-Montano.
Favorite artist: The list is very long and impossible to narrow down to one. But I would say that Kenny Scharf was a crucial and huge influence during the first few years of my development. My proximity to him and his family allowed me to see the inseparable quality between his life and his art. That fact alone has been a huge guiding star in my own life.
Favorite typographer: Ed Ruscha.
Favorite
writer: Gabriel García Márquez.
What defines you: My friends and family.
Cause that means the most to you: Education.
Biggest fear: Not seeing the core of my fears clearly enough and therefore being blinded and controlled by their side effects.
What you want to accomplish before all is said and done: A full life.
Meet more of PRINT’s New Visual Artists in the Summer 2016 issue of PRINT, or subscribe to get print all year long.