Meet juan Casal | Graphic Designer & Illustrator

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

Hi juan, can you tell us about an impactful book you’ve read and why you liked it or what impact it had on you?
Recently I finished reading “Journey to the West,” a classic Chinese novel written by Wu Cheng’en and published in 1592. I had wanted to read it for a long time because I knew fragments of it and mainly its main character: the Monkey King Sun Wu Kong. This work feels like a compendium of thousands of years of Chinese culture and all its enormous symbolic universe.

It’s a fantastic book in every sense of the word. It has a creative freedom that is truly enviable. On each of its hundreds of pages, a new idea unfolds after another. Magic, gods, humor, existential conflicts, philosophy, mysticism, and above all, adventure intertwine in this epic story.

For someone like me, who lives on the opposite side of the planet with a different cultural background, “Journey to the West” has been a journey into a different way of thinking and creating stories. As a professional in animation, my job is to tell visual stories. That’s why this book sparked in me the certainty that we can create stories without limits, where everything is possible without neglecting the intrinsic conflicts of humanity.

Animation is a world where there are no limits, where anything can happen. However, that freedom can also be terrifying, as it demands us to reach the farthest corners of our creativity. Each project is the creation of a new universe, one that looks, feels, and functions uniquely! That blank page is a big bang waiting to explode! Okay, enough! I think this overwhelms me! It’s too much pressure, get that blank page out of my sight!

For all these reasons, I consider “Journey to the West” to be a book worth reading and recommending. Because it’s a man who, almost 600 years ago, created a divine world with human conflicts. An infinite world of ideas that opens doors for us to continue pushing the boundaries of new creativity.

What should our readers know about your business?
I work as a designer/animator for 20 years now. Mainly doing motion graphics and advertising. But I also design for printed graphics of brands and editorials.

For the past 10 years, I’ve been working in a flexible mode. The Juan Casal Studio is a project with a very personal touch that adapts to the needs of the work that comes in. If the job requires it, I assemble teams of professionals who meet the project’s needs. Sometimes we are 8 people working, sometimes just 2. Hopefully one day we’ll be 30!

Basically, the work process goes like this…
– 1: Panic! What do I do now!? This is impossible!
– 2: Oh! I thought of something I saw on the internet. 😉
– 3: That something was very bad, but I thought of something better.
– 4: The client changes everything. Back to item 1.
– 5: This is the best job in the world!
– 6: This job is horrible.
– 7: This job could be okay.
– 8: I love it!
– 9: The client loves it too.
– 10: Happy ending!

It’s never easy because I always try to explore new aesthetics, new ways of conveying a message. My purpose is to find the best way to communicate what the client needs to be communicated, but also to contribute something new that wasn’t in the initial plans.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My favorite place in the city is called Club de Amigos Costa Rica.

Ten years ago, along with a group of friends, we created a workspace and social gathering spot in a studio on Costa Rica street in Buenos Aires.

Since then, it has been a space that brings together the people I admire most in the city. Many people have passed through here: designers, animators, photographers, illustrators. People with immense talent.

Parties, meetings with clients over Meet, ping pong, design nerds, vintage video games, late-night work sessions, lots of fun cringe, and above all, an incredible group of people. Where everybody knows your name.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
As a graphic designer and illustrator/animator, I have always drawn inspiration from various places. I believe that one is a collection of influences, both professional and everyday life. Many we actively seek, but most come to us without us realizing.

That’s why I think it’s important to appreciate the influence of those simple designs, designs from everyday life. Whether it’s a pizza box, magazines from the hair salon, or punk band fanzines. When one is starting out in this profession, the work of great designers and artists can seem very distant, almost impossible to reach. Yet, everyday design is something that one sees and thinks, “I can do that too,” and that is the first step on the long path to professional work.

It’s important to study the great masters to learn, but it’s also good to look at what surrounds us because everything is a learning opportunity.

Website: www.juancasal.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/the.juan.casal.studio

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/juan-casal-394b38217

Twitter: @yosoyjuancasal

Image Credits
there are all pics of projects I did: – Honda Navi. scooter launch campaing – Abrilisimo. Nickelodeon new season campaign – Planet Guardians. Disney Jr short show – Acidopolis. underwear pattern – Sancor Prevencion. ad campaign