WIP How does working academically and professionally at the same time influence your practice? And how does one field affect the other?

PLN So this has changed quite a lot and keeps changing from year to year. The Master Beyond Branding has been happening for three years now. We started the first edition with only six students in Barcelona. At that time, I was fully involved with other projects here at the studio as a strategist, combining both roles. I’ve focused more on evolving our ties with Elisava, which is a university that we all love because nearly the entire studio has studied there. I’d say that for now, balancing the role at Elisava with my role at Folch as head of education is very enriching because I get to know everything that is happening everywhere. At this moment, we’re actually opening Beyond, and it’s more like the research track of Folch. So it’s going to be something that will unify the projects we do at Folch and at the Master Beyond Branding.

WIP Your Master Beyond Branding programme is known for pushing students to think critically about culture and systems. How do you create an environment where deep learning can happen?

PLN The first thing that comes to my mind is that we have a very important blog called Strategic Foresight. Strategy is something I never touched on in university. But when I graduated as a visual designer, I soon realised that I was missing the conceptualisation part that Elisava really embraced. So I started looking for other positions, and I came across creative strategy-related positions, specifically cultural strategy. Like, how to understand the zeitgeist in order to make a change, and how to be able to imagine these new futures. I feel like students sometimes get a bit lost in these more abstract, not-so-hands-on courses, but I also see the value in that learning curve and speak to them about that. These kinds of courses are probably the ones that most transform their way of understanding their profession and the impact that they can have.

WIP As a masters director, what do you wish for students to gain from a formal design education?

PLN A critical perspective on what they do. This is very political, but I see so much talent put into making things that don’t contribute much socially or environmentally. When I started in design, I remember developing the branding for a cosmetics company. I’m a very conceptual person, and once I have the idea clear, the formalisation comes easily. So I remember asking the client what made this product so unique, and they didn’t know. They were like: “It will be a product that we’ll buy somewhere else and will probably be shared by other brands. We’re just starting the branding process first.” Doing these kinds of things, for me, doesn’t make any sense. Of course, branding is an amazing tool to communicate the features of something. But at that point, I felt like it was a tool for fooling. And I’m aware that we all have our limitations in terms of decision power, but sometimes you can make small changes while you’re designing.

WIP Do you find yourself challenging clients sometimes and make them rethink of the choices they had made regarding your projects or product?

PLN Now my main client and the people I speak to is Elisava, so maybe when I have meetings or we have to decide certain things. But two years ago, when I was fully involved in client projects, for sure. Once we were asked to do a PDF for a big client. The document we received was huge and very dense, so we had to adapt it for people to digest more easily. I remember suggesting maybe we don’t have to do a PDF. Maybe we have to do a dynamic every Friday or an activation if you want to do it just once. And there’s always a bit of resistance. But sometimes clients come with the intuition that something isn’t working and ask you to study it, to propose something, and then probably to design it and implement it. And I feel like those are the projects that work the best.

WIP Is there something that is inspiring you at the moment? What do you have on the horizon?

PLN I’m very excited about this new path of movement and I’m seeing all the possibilities it has. It’s something so obvious that it’s not explored or taken into consideration in branding processes. I feel like it’s a very powerful asset for Beyond Branding. Every year offers possibilities for new things, and for next year we’re trying to incorporate sound design and something more related to the senses. I’d like to invite a perfumer and make the faculty more varied for the students but also for me. Last year, I got the chance to invite Helen Job from the former SPACE 10 and to meet many amazing professionals. I feel like having this position and the possibility of being exposed to so many people and amazing opportunities is the best part of my job.

@paulalopeznuno

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