How will you describe your work now? You talked about UX and UI design but now it seems you have more of a manager kind of role. Can you explain a bit what you are doing now?

Absolutely. Right now, I'm doing more management focused work. I help and art direct the projects on the teams that I'm leading. It's been a while since I did actual design work other than for my personal projects. I don't do any design work at Huge anymore. 

Don't you miss hands on design work?

I do miss it. I think it's super important to have side projects and that's how I try to compensate. 

Did you start as a design lead at Huge or you became one after?

It was an interesting situation because there was no design at Huge Bogota when I started. I was the first designer there and I was hired as a visual designer. They sent me one month to Google as a part of the embedded team just to figure out how the remote work would work. It was actually super successful and once I got back to Bogota we found out we could work remotely so we did it for many different teams.

Could you explain a little what it means to be working at Huge but embedded in the Google team?

In technical words, it's like being a contractor for Google but what it really means is that we are pretty much a part of the Google team. We actually get to work on site with them, I try to go to Google HQ at least twice or three times a year. It changes everything to be actually working on site with the client and seeing what they need. It really feels like one team.

What would you say are the pro and cons of having only one client? When you work in an agency you normally have several clients.

The benefit will be that we get to really know our client. They really trust us with any new products that they have. We know their brand by heart. We can onboard any designer and they will understand how Google works really quickly. 
This being said, for us as an agency, having only one client is a little bit risky because if Google decide to stop working with us then we’ll be in a bad position. We are actually trying to diversify ourselves. Recently, with some members of my team, I’ve been traveling to different Huge offices to share our capabilities and try to get on more projects.  

What does a typical day look like for you?

I think there's no typical day. One thing that's really cool about working at Huge is that everything is flexible. For example, I have two days a week where I can work from home. Usually though, I'll get in at around 9am and the first thing I do is checking my mails. I usually have tons of mails. and I'll also have a lot of meetings. I'll meet with the whole design team once a week so that everyone can just share what they have been working on. I also have one on one with my mentees. I'm mentoring 3 of the designers.

Why do you think it's important for a younger designer to have a mentor.

It is super important for Huge to let their employees know that they care about their career growth and their career path. They were not just hired to do the work but they were also hired because we see potential for them to grow within Huge. Here at Huge Bogota, we don't have a design directors or creative directors so there's a lot of space to grow into those positions. It's super important to have a career manager to let them know what they need to work on, both hard skills and soft skills.

What is your favorite part in your job? 

I feel like I learn so much from my team on a daily basis so definitely my favorite part is just sharing knowledge. I feel like a big part of building teams is making sure that you're hiring super talented people even way more talented than you so you have a lot to learn from them. You're just there to help them bring out their best. 

Can you tell me about the project that has made you the proudest?

All of them has made me proud because working for a company as big as Google is something really challenging. You would think that they have it all figured out but once you actually get to work with them you realize that there's a lot of space to propose new things and improve processes and whatnot. Working on any Google projects has made me really proud. I need to mention that when I first started studying graphic design, working at Google was my number one goal and my dream job. I thought it was impossible for someone in Colombia to actually get to work for Google. I didn't even know how to apply for a job at Google. They would only hire the most talented designers in the world. That being said, one of the really cool projects that I recently took part in was the whole redesign for the GSuite website which was initially pretty basic and it had a lot of things to improve. The end result was pretty cool and you can see it at Gsuite.google.com

Where do you find inspiration? 

Everywhere. As I mentioned, I love meditation and spirituality. For me, it's actually pretty related to the whole creative field. Mindfulness teaches you to be in the present moment, be where you are and that inspires me a lot.

What is the best advice you ever received?

I'm gonna try to relate it to my recent role as manager and as a lead. I had a really good mentor up until this past week, Jon Delman. He was my creative director from the Huge Oakland office. He is incredibly inspiring and amazingly talented at managing people. I kept asking him about how to be a better manager and art director, how to give feedbacks and so on. I think the most important thing for him and what he tried to convey to me was to just listen every day to people and try to read between the lines. Listen carefully to the people you are working with and you'll figure out the rest.

You have a great english. How important is it to speak English as a Colombian designer?

It's really related to what I just said about companies and agencies coming from all around the globe to hire talents. If you are interested by working outside of Colombia, it's definitely important to have good communication skills and a good English. Even if you are not perfectly fluent, people are super understanding about it. They will never criticize you about not having a perfect english but It does make a difference when you can articulate your design decisions. 

Growing up in Colombia, did you think that designer was a path you could take?

Yeah I think so. At that time, design was mostly focused on print and advertising though. Digital design was not a big thing back then. I knew that art was my path and I knew that design was a way to make art a living so I was fine working in the advertising industry but then I found out about the digital industry and fell in love with it. 

What is your advice for someone who wants to become a designer in Colombia? 

I would say that what you learn at school is pretty important but what's even more important than that is the networking that you do. Building a strong portfolio is also key. I’d also advice to work on side projects even when you get your first job to not let your creative muscle go away.