Meet Federico Rozo | Design & Creative Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Federico Rozo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Federico, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
I think that success has several layers and interpretations with many factors that can shape it. To me it’s quite undefinable in a standard way. Success could mean to me something very different than what it may mean to my neighbor. It’s a very complex and interesting subject that could help you define yourself as a person and as a professional.

That being said, if I had to choose one stepping stone, I feel it is a very deep commitment to what I do, with the hope that it adds some value, hopefully cultural, artistic, or any kind of inspiring value. I believe in respecting the space that I occupy with my design work. I like to be very careful with it and take decisions that are healthy for the project, for me, and for said occupied space. Many years ago I heard an interview to Keith Richards where he was talking about his father’s ashes, and that his dad preferred to be cremated because he found graveyards stupid, as if we continued to occupy the earth with them there wouldn’t be space for other more important things, like growing a bunch of potatoes for instance. This is the way I approach design, I don’t like to fill the space just because I need to work, get payed and all the cycle we all know. I need to know I’m making an effort for it to make sense in being there.

That is my commitment, and I think it’s that factor that keeps me doing it and the base of it all. There is some passion about searching for an instant of beauty (another culturally undefinable word). Maybe it’s just “hope”….all the rest could sound arbitrary, let’s leave it there…it’s hope (hopefully!), hope for a better life, hope in general.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Everything is interconnected. I aspire to improve constantly, and as I was mentioning before, the respect I have for the space that I occupy with my work. I think the interesting element is how do I exercise to get there, how do I try to put that respect in practice, because it’s one thing to say you do but how you do it is the medium.

I try to approach my design work in a conceptual way, which helps me understand the purpose for me to design the vehicle. I believe in the search of beauty (again, even though this is could be a culturally undefinable factor) and harmony within a design composition, almost as if it was a piece of music. I try to be honest, to speak the truth. I don’t like to accommodate to trends, I need to understand the meaning of it for it to have a true voice. It’s like speaking, you’re either telling the truth and speaking from the heart or you’re adapting to a generic speech that may fit in a situation but may lack some depth or personality. I wish I could keep my aspirations alive every time I do something! 🙂

Being beauty somewhat undefinable, I think we need to learn from the beauty of nature, which I don’t think is undefinable at all. I don’t think there’s a cultural separation in the appreciation for nature.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
It’s changed a bit but I always loved cruising Biscayne Blvd or West Dixie Highway. I loved the diner there! Little Haiti, Little Havana, the so called art deco district in South Beach. I like the areas where neighborhoods merge and things get different,. Another interview to another (local) music icon I read was to Iggy Pop. He said he always liked to live in the verge of an area getting mixed with another one, because it’s where things happen, the culture kind of cracks open. I totally agree with that, and Miami has a lot of merging areas. Little Haiti is one. (I used to love Churchill’s). I was one time talking about this with a dear friend who is an architect; we were on the beach in a quiet afternoon, standing right over the very last gestures of the tiny waves, where the foam water got sucked in by the sand. He said to me, look Fede 10 feet into the water nothing happens, it’s only water and sand. 10 Feet out of the water on the beach, nothing happens, it’s hot air an sand. Right here where we’re standing, there’s life with all the little clams and tiny bits of life. It’s the merging of the two worlds, and that is what happens when you merge an area or neighborhood with another. Hi to my friend and architect Jens Wolter who said that.

I invite people to cruise Miami and find these diverse areas and spots, where things get less of a template and more of an interesting and rich experience. I also invite people to check Juan’s Meet & Eat, my dear friend Juan Enis, who cooks amazing huge paellas and invites all kinds of guests to have a magic and unique time. Due to its “driving city nature”, Miami isn’t a very easy city to socialize and meet new people; it really needs events for this to happen in a more organic way, and this is for sure one of them…some people know each other, some don’t, all in a very welcoming and beautiful home environment.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to dedicate this to my family and friends, without whom I wouldn’t have been exposed to several forms of art since a very young child: Music, art, design, literature, traveling, etc. I haven’t been attracted to anything else than that of wondering about those uncountable pieces that shape the culture, in a good or in a bad way. It may sound “big” but it’s not at all. For instance, my parents would play Mozart while my brothers or friends and I were crazy about a Kiss or Bowie album cover or so, and we loved all of it. It’s never been about a genre, it’s never been about a box, it’s been about connecting with what felt good and that added some value and quality time, actually. Maybe that is what I look for with my work…to pay tribute to stuff I’ve been exposed to, and hopefully add my little sand grain.

Website: https://federicorozo.com

Instagram: federico_rozo

Linkedin: Federico Rozo

Twitter: Federico Rozo

Facebook: Federico Rozo

Other: In Spanish, I made 5 episodes of interviews to graphic artists. The series is called “Especialistas”, and you can find it on Spotify. The podcast is hosted by UDGBA, a designer organization in Buenos Aires.

Image Credits
Weylin (Williamsburg Savings Bank); Durston Saylor

99 Fuegos Wine: Javier Agostinelli