I’ve come across a small number of designers in my life. Most times, they seem to be people of interest everywhere they go; despite some of them hardly ever wanting to catch the attention of others. They are rare, have a fantastic appreciation for the simple things in life, and somehow manage to be truly optimistic compared to everyone else.

As the “home of creatives”, we decided to start our own journey and explore some of the most complicated but also captivating individual worlds created by designers, illustrators and creative minds all over the world. We wanted to get a glimpse of how these people, whose creations we get to live in (for example our clothes), see the world we share with them.

This time we explore Carlos Cortes, a young Venezuelan designer based in Austin, TX whose work is significant, beautiful, provocative and most of all, honest. He goes by the alias “Guabano” in both social media and official websites, where his own work along with several collaborations on different projects, give us an idea of how much experience this person has accumulated over the years.

However, despite the quite impressive portfolio and the worldly wise perspective of someone who has traveled to some of the coolest destinations there are, Carlos still keeps that super sincere relationship with his previous and present work that every creative has experienced by now.

But before we get into Carlos’ mind, we want to delve into this piece that represents us in so many ways. If you know anything about WIC it’s that our core belief is that diversity is the most important thing there is. It fuels our creativity and drives us to success. On a more personal note, being true to yourself, according to designer Carlos Cortes, is how you make life work.

Cortes was part of the amazingly talented team behind this video by DELL: a show of support and an invitation to celebrate pride, self-expression, and the LGBTQIA+ community.

It’s a call to be real and true, because “We couldn’t be US if you couldn’t be YOU”. We couldn’t agree more with a message so inspiring. We hope you enjoy it!

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Happy Pride Month from @dell @blue_creatives Production (And basically pulling this through a million hurdles like a boss.): @minimassacre Director: @chauncey322 Art Direction by: @lilykowalski & Myself Script: Lacey Rouse / Savannah Clemmens Editor: Hannah Radcliff Camera Crew: @borrange  @samueljrowland @noriegamedia Project Manager: Sara Werthington and Carolina Sandoval Special Thanks: @lucvzs @ivaz @stevie.foto Kusco and a million people who helped us and I will edit this to mention all that I can.

A post shared by @ guabano on Jun 27, 2019 at 9:56am PDT

Now that you know how we feel about it, how about you read the details from Cortez himself?

Q: – Some people have very odd reactions when they see their past Work. How would you describe your relationship with yours?

 A: – I have a really dysfunctional relationship with my present and past work. Half the time I feel like I’m a genius and the other half I feel like a fraud. I try to be as honest as I can since honesty is generally interesting if not anything else.

Productivity, should be by now, the most googled, listed, and wanted skill of our modern age because we live in a society where we get to work from our homes and we no longer require any kind of supervision to develop a project all by ourselves. But the fact that we are in charge of our own time somehow releases us from the pressure that gets it all done before the deadline.

Q: – How do you make sure to stay productive even in your darkest hours?

A: – Productivity is mostly about managing fear. For me, any form of procrastination is a way of not dealing with whatever challenge I have in front of me. Most of the time my fear of not giving my best, and knowing so, is enough to get me working.

This also shouldn’t be confused with overworking. In any creative environment, people get stressed and become highly unproductive which comes from a culture of churning out work like it was a factory. For me it is easy to say “I’ll rest for a couple of hours or concentrate on something else” while thinking in the back of my head about how to get something done. And that way I don’t generally become unproductive. Also creating for yourself a methodology of work and a timeline can do wonders.

Productivity leads us to money (hopefully). But of all professional artists have the most complicated relationship with it.

Q: – “Enough money will make you happy” do you think there is an exception to that thought?

A: – Scientists measured that after 100k a year your happiness levels do not increase much based on income, so I guess the only exception would be to make less than 100k. But looking like Brad Pitt, which in turn would make you millions… So no.

Q: Usually when I hang out with designers I get a sense of how they might be seeing the world in a way that I probably can´t. When you walk around, do you get that feeling that you might be seeing something everyone else might be missing? How would you describe that?

A: I think most people wouldn’t get overly annoyed at poorly designed advertising, or be pissed off about the kerning on a sign being wrong, which is a considerable advantage as to how I see things on the street. But most good designers focus on color patterns or geometrical compositions that are laid out through architecture and even nature. People usually would not get excited for say, finding an old typewriter with a custom made keyboard out of bronze. But for designers, it is a way of enriching our mind libraries and finding out things that could be included in our work.

Also, our perception of time is completely fucked up as we usually tend to be more optimistic than we should on the time it will take us to get anything done.

Q: – Most artists choose to distance themselves from emitting any political opinion or include politics in their work. What particular feeling makes you cross that line and speak out on political situations?

A: – Being born in Venezuela and seeing what the country has gone through. It has a lot to do with people distancing themselves from a political opinion. I do not believe anyone gets a pass on that since either you involve yourself in the political debate or politics is going to knock down your door and shove itself down your throat At least this way I can say “I warned you all this was gonna happen”, for whatever worth that may have.

I also am a firm believer that anyone can make an important contribution to the betterment of society, and as long as I can have an informed opinion and let it out there, I am doing what I think is right towards creating a better world.

BONUS FEATURE:

We almost cut out the food related thoughts on this piece, but then we decided Carlo´s ideas were far too valid to simply ignore them. It just didn´t feel fair for you to miss this vital information, so take notes.

–          On how pizza is always the safest choice: “Pizza, hands down, the only food that even when it’s bad, it’s kind of good”

–          On how magic can be easily created with this simple formula: I once thought about using Nuggets inside my Big Mac and that changed the way I look at myself forever.

After this conversation, I started realizing something. Maybe everyone should get to meet and hang out with designers more often, ask them about their vision of the world, about their work, about how they would make something better. You might find it entertaining, awakening, and exhilarating, and maybe with time, If we get lucky enough to live in a world ruled by designers, we will discover that we not only live in a more beautiful aesthetic world but also a better functioning one.

By: Alexandra Urbina and Waleska Bustos