Interview with Vulca Studio

When I was a child I used to think I would become an inventor, then I was determined to become an engineer but it was until I learn more about art ,that I wanted to find the way to mix engineering, invention and art, and that’s why I decided to study industrial design, but it was after that I started my company, that I understood that the mix of specialties makes a concept strong and full of content and that’s the way to connect with the users.

Priority number 1, is to have clarity, without it I don’t know where we are heading, clarity for me is to understand who is going to benefit from this project? what problem are we solving for them?, what is happening in the world around this problem we are trying to solve?, and fully understanding the operational and business model of my client. Number 2, is to find the concept that will lead the idea, number 3 is when we star the sketching process to let flow the ideas, number 4, is to give proportion, balance and coherence to the design around the notion of lighting, air and traffic flow. Another way to see it is that before sketching we design the soft needs, such as lighting air and traffic flow and from there we design the hardware.

Excitment, Uncertainty, despair, stressed, euphoric and happy, in that specific order

I would say that growing up with the notion of art and aesthetic that some of my artists relatives, taught me, that mixed with the fact that I was always curios about how thing work, l would open a radio and disarm as many parts as possible then put it all back together, I remember I made my own portable mini fan to use in my school desk when I was in 5th grade, also the fact that my father taught us to work with our hands by building some of the toys my brothers and I use to play with.

I just hope that we keep making bigger and bigger projects, more architecture related, such as office buildings, residential buildings, right now we are in negotiations of a vineyard design and a big federal park, If we get to pull this out it would be fantastic for the company and also I would love to make my own brand of furniture I don’t know why I´ve always felt the need to do this, and I will.

First of all find a deep rooted motivation to dedicate to this profession, and then never forget about it, and ones you start in this path, make a commitment to design for a mutual symbiosis, a design that benefits from every possible aspect that involves the design. I believe that must of today´s current decadence is generated by laziness in the solutions provided and in short sighted projections. Be sure to be part of the solution.

I would have to quote a friend of mine that says “think inside the box”, because outside the box there are no boundaries, and what we are trying to do here is to set our own boundaries, or in other words build our own box, and within this boundaries is where the magic must happen, we have to build all the walls that make up our box, one wall could be, the user’s needs, the other wall could be our client’s needs, another wall could be the story and concept behind the idea, and you keep going until you end up building a box that contains all the information needed to develop the rest of the project

Well for me it´s been hard to find a routine, but mostly I get up and the first thing to do is to take an eye opening shower with a cold water at the end that boosts my energy in a fantastic way, after that I go to check some of the small important things that I can fix in 30 min max, and have a quick look at design news, then I would make myself breakfast, I love doing it, after that I go to the gym and come back and have another shower, then I work hard for the rest of the day, I mostly have like 20 min meal and go back to work, but the most fun of it all is that I get the chance to work most of the time wherever I want, it could be at a coffee shop, restaurant, at my house backyard, in another city, my office, you name it, it is fantastic to have this freedom only achieved by building a trustworthy team.

Every day I keep track of the latest architecture and design news, and not just that, I follow other disciplines (biology, philosophy, music, psychology, etc.) because I believe that everything is connected and, for example, an actor´s character development process could be useful to find a creative way to approach a design project. In my case I find trends to be very inspiring but I will try to come up with my own version of it, because my view is always to make functional, original and coherent design, for me “the form follows the function”, and in order to be true to myself I must be original and find a way to make that an advantage for the project.

For me design is about serving others, so you must create empathy with your users and make your design useful for them, if it is not useful there is no beauty in it. Let´s be aware that usefulness can be emotional or physical, so an artistic object such as an statue can be useful emotionally also. The key aspects to evaluate the greatness of a design are, functionality, originality and coherence.

I believe a project has different layers of “goodness”, actually as we work with franchises the concepts get to evolve into a more mature designs as more stores open, there is always room for improvement, and I learned that the only ones that knows that the design could´ve been better is us, the designers, the ones that develop the project, so my advise would be to pay attention mostly to the important details.

I would say that the supermarket Merco, which is the one that we were awarded for. Our client gave us full control of the project, and the fact that this was a lower-class brand, gave us the opportunity to dignify lower class users, and to upgrade the brand perception. Another great thing about this project is that more than 2500 people every day get to interact with this store design.

I don’t know what is wrong with me, but I don’t have a favorite designer, architecture or artist, or sports team, but this doesn’t mean I don’t admire their jobs, I love watching well executed projects, such a good movie, a good song, etc. But when it comes to think of good design the first one that comes to mind is Dieter Rams, Yves Behar is another one I admire, and many more.

Being born and living in the north of Mexico has made me a hard working person that finds beauty in simple things, I´m still surprise by the perfect machine that we humans are and the things we are capable of, I truly believe that the only way to explain all this chaotic order is by a higher intelligence and therefore I try to find the answers and ideas in the wise nature, and as I said before I believe that everything is connected and I believe that the root of every profession is design, I believe design can help mold the attitude and thoughts of people, I believe that through design we can build a better economy, build more dignifying cities, and live in harmony with nature and technology.

My philosophy Is to trust the team and their talent to work all together in the same vision, I believe in people and I like to work with better people than me. Working for me is not an easy task, I will ask them to do things they´ve never done before, and they will have to say yes to new and difficult challenges. I like working with people that are responsible, have good taste, and have high level of sensitivity to abstract concepts. I will try to stay out of the way letting them do what they were hired to do, trusting they will do their best. I used to have a business partner, but he decided to go find his own way, and ever since I´ve never wanted to work with another partner anymore, because I found freedom to be one of my lifes mottos and it just feels really good to take your own decisions and be 100% responsible for them.

I believe that through smart design it is possible to achieve great things for the society, therefore I am excited by the opportunities we´ve had to keep doing this work in other parts of the world. By being awarded in this prestigious competition, I´ve earn the respect and trust of more clients, and I am hoping to have more interesting project and the opportunity to find more high quality team members. I am really grateful for the chance of expressing my ideas, hoping this resonates within someone.

I just don´t know any other way than to be constantly thinking in how to make things easier and better, I don’t know where that come from, but I remember that must of the time during my childhood I would build and destroy my parents electronics, and make myself some of the toys I used to play with, so in a sense I never grew up, I kept my childhood hobby and turned it into my profession.

Nobody forced me, but I didn’t picked it either, I believe my curiosity and my parents mindset and support led me to pursue this path.

We design project mostly for retail and hospitality industry.

To find their true motivation to pursue this profession and never forget about it.

A good designer makes beautiful things, but a great designer makes useful beautiful things

For me design is about serving others, so you must create empathy with your users and make your design useful for them, if it is not useful there is no beauty in it. Let´s be aware that usefulness can be emotional or physical, so an artistic object such as an statue can be useful emotionally also.

Good design creates value, creates uniqueness, creates coherence, enhance brand perception, serves society. Several clients have had the opportunity to rise their prices, making a healthier business and offering something unique to their customers.

I would love to design and build affordable and 100% passive houses, I know there is a lot of it out there, but here in my community there is a need to make this ideas to become a reality soon. Also, I would love to design a brandscaping experience for a big sports stadiums.

To be surrounded by a great team of people, that knows better than you.

I get inspired from everywhere and everyone, because I understand that every designer has its own design philosophy and what I try to do is understand their mental process, and that’s what inspires me.

What I did, was to always try to surprise our users and clients, for every project since the studio began in 2006. I remember I was fired from a job in my early career, but I found my own way to do what I felt was right.

Probably something related to music.

Design is a process of thinking, and from this point of view, design can be used to design your ideal life, or to create great experiences for the people, or make great cities, or putting together a play for a football team etc., for this I consider that design is one of the most powerful skill a human can develop.

I believe the clients that starter to believe in us and gave us the opportunity to learn through their projects.

Focusing on doing things well and really listening to user’s needs. I like to ask myself this question, while designing, do I really like this outcome? , is it original?, how can it be better?, does it serves the purpose it was design for?. Is this a great quality job?.

Well, you should expect to see our work abroad, and starting to design buildings. Right now, we are in an early stage of a big impact building design, and hoping this initiative keeps moving forward.

I would say, that to leave a legacy of thinking of a mutual symbiosis, that every thought should be pointed at that direction, where everybody wins.

I believe design can help mold the attitude and thoughts of people, I believe that through design we can build a better economy, build more dignifying cities, and live in harmony with nature and technology.

. I would say that the supermarket Merco, which is the one that we where awarded for. Our client gave us full control of the project, and the fact that this was a lower-class brand, gave us the opportunity to dignify lower class users, and to upgrade the brand perception. Another great thing about this project is that more than 2500 people every day get to interact with this store design.

Maybe just to be in contact with a more conscious design development, thinking in the big picture to benefit us all.

I think design is getting closer to people, every day non designers get to create their own snickers, web or objects, and this is great because I believe a designer´s mind set will help develop better, products, spaces and therefore society.

It depends a lot on the size of the project, it could take from 4 weeks to 5 months.

I start by building a team that fits right for the project, then we prepare to make research every one involved in the project and even the best thing is to invite the client to help with this journey, so this way they will get more sensitive to the process and outcome of the project.

Push all my minds ideas to a realization, and always make the highest quality work possible.

I believe good design/marketing sets the trend we tend to follow.

Well in our case, so far, all our projects have been made by technology, but I would love to work in a project that its technology free, such as craft made objects or handmade spaces or shelters.

I believe a good design has respect for all of this aspect, and let them be on their own, but when put all those variables together have to look in harmony, so it gives a clear message.

I immediately start wondering what was going on in the designers mind, the process to get to that solution or shape.

For me it is a process of constant observations, everyday looking at interesting things, and trying to figure out how great designers think.

I will sound very cliché, but I would say Jesus of Nazareth, i am just fascinated by him, and Einstein I love how he turned philosophy into something measurable and tangible.

Yellow, my little cabin, chilaquiles, spring and autumn, my guitar, I don’t have favorite brand so far.

The great thing is that every single day is different, I am a person that gets easily bored, but having all kinds of different things to do every day keeps me going and entertained, and of course the motivation comes from the vision I have for my life and the people I love, every day has to be a step that leads towards my life vision.

I don´t think so, I was very curios, but because of that it was difficult to find something to focus on, because I always wanted to learn new things, and I still do so.

Well, I believe that humans of the year 3000 +, will be surprised of how stupid and childhood we were as society.
I hope that by then, we have learned the lesson of not believing ourselves to be wiser than nature, and that far from wanting to manipulate it, we learn to harmonize with it and respect its cycles.
I believe that the first thing the mankind had to learn, was to design, design tools, cloth, shelter, hunting strategies, etc, and I believe design will be one of the few professions that will continue to exist. We´ve been doing it for thousands of years and I believe we will continue to do it forever.

Vulca Studio was founded in year 2006, with my ex business partner and i, and it was born with the purpose of making great Mexican design. It began as a product design studio but one of our first clients asked us to help him design a drug store concept, from the branding to the furniture and interior design, and since then our clients have asked us for the same services, and we started making a multidisciplinary team, from marketing, graphic design, industrial design, architecture, and more specialized members. We have had the opportunity to work from worldwide brands to local brands. The success of our designs has always been a mix of research and a proper aesthetic dictated by our clients expectations.

Design is a process of thinking, and from this point of view, design can be use to design your ideal life, or to create great experiencies for the people, or make great cities, or putting together a play for a football team etc, for this I consider that design is the most powerful skill a human can develop.

The ones that our clients respects our decisions and gives us full trust and control of the process.

Our very first design as a company was a series of cover pages for a photograph albums, and it was terrible, thanks for reminding me

Right after getting full clarity, I mean when I clearly understand my clients needs and business and when I understand the users needs, that’s when the ideas starts flowing.

Understanding the big picture for me is critical, so the most important part of the process for me is research.

Excitment, Uncertainty, despair, stressed, euphoric and happy, in that specific order.

Thankfull, happy and impress of how a simple thought becomes a reality and at the service of the people.

The approval of the users and reaching the goal set by the client.

What they were trying to achieve with that design.

We are responsible for making things work in simplicity and harmony, we have to be smart enough to make the must out of the least, we have to provoke a mutual symbiosis through smart design.

My inspiration comes from the research, but must important, of how we abstract this information to a useful concept, always trying to return to the origin of the concept, as Gaudí said.

I´d like to say my design is functional since all we try to achieve is to create a unique experience that results in more sells and a satisfying experience for the users.

. I would say that it is key to understand what drives the designer to do what he does, in order to know if his ideals align with yours. And of course the quality of the portfolio.

It’s a simple 4 step process, research, abstract information, design, deliveries, but I think the real juice is in the abstract stage.

Be clear with your purpose as designer and go for it, embrace your responsibilities as designers and say yes to all great challenges, even if they look impossible at first. And the most important of all, remember design is about others, not about your designer ego.

Say yes to every challenge, and surround myself with better designers, and since everything is connected, trust others disciplines to give a different point of view of the design.

The skill of abstraction, excellent aesthetic taste and good representation of an idea.

The best way to manage the time is to have a reliable design team, that helps and is responsible for its own work and is better than you.

. It was an internship for a company dedicated to the development of automotive assembly line, where they trusted me with the development of one work station, it was shocking for me how the trust they put on me, made me want to thank them with a high quality useful result, and ever since, that´s what I do with my team, I fully trust them even if they have never done that task that I am asking for.

My plans are to keep doing different, bigger and worldwide projects, and to spread the design seed through exemplary work

As a team, the different opinions makes every project better.

You can contact me via e mail jorge@vulcastudio.com or find our website www.vulcastudio.com