Gabriel Rocha
www.gabrielrocha.com
Art Director, Motion Graphics | Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
Give a description of yourself in a few words.
Brazillian designer, living and working in Rio, married, fulltime freelancer (so far), like to laugh, open minded and a reeeeally nice dude.
You are a graduated graphic designer. when this interest about design and graphics started?
Well it happened way before i started college. I’ve aways been interested in arts and design. I don’t believe i have a start point where i got interested on design and graphics. As far as i remember i always appreciated a nice piece of art, colors, comics, design…
We can see in your portfolio that you are very focused in motion and boards. Can you tell us about these jobs?
Sure. I got very interested on motion graphics about 5 or 6 years ago. I was working on a web design company as a web designer at that time, and i got to know some people that were working on some small studios in Rio. Some of them became good friends and through them my interest in motion graphics started to grown even more, cas’ they were working with video and 3D softwares. After a while i realize i had to get out of web design. So this is how it all began.
Which work is your favorite?
Tough question, but i woudn’t like to pick one. There’s not a favorite job that should be mentioned as the favorite.
What’s the difference between working for clients in Brazil and clients in USA or Canada?
It’s very different. The most important aspect is the treatment and the respect to the freelancer/professional. Out there they respect us, ask our opinion, and listen to us. Brazilian studios (small studios mostly) are completely out of the market, they don’t know what happens around them and don’t see how important is to understand the design or the meaning of it. Of course i won’t put everything in the same bag. I’m not saying that every single small studio in Brazil is like that, of course not… i’ve met some amazing people and amazing studios who wants to make the difference and show some of the brazilian colors out there.
You work as a freelancer now, but do you intend to have your own agency?
To have my own agency/studio it’s definitively an idea and one direction i could go. But so far i don’t have a real plan about the far future. I still want to work on some studios and work some more as freelancer… not specifically in this order.
What’s your opinion about the future of motion graphics?
It’s always hard to see the future of something that is constantly changing, specially now, with so many studios out there. I always hear from american and canadian studios that about 10 years ago there weren’t so many studios as now. It is good and bad.
It’s good because you see a lot of new artists experimenting the new, and with different talents being molded into Motion graphics. But it’s bad because you see people doing all kind of shit using trends like crazy. So i have no idea what to wait for.
Can you tell us about your workstation? Mac user? PC user?
I have a PC with two 19″ monitors, a wacom and a Macbook Pro. But i’m getting tired of PCs, i’ll buy a mac pretty soon. Windows drive me crazy sometimes. Specially when you have a problem and you can’t find the the solution for it. So i’m getting rid of the PC pretty soon, but don’t tell him, he might freeze at any second.
Do you want to keep living here in Brazil or intend to move to another country in a future?
I do intend to move out from Brazil. I’m just not sure if it’s for good or just for a while. Basically i want to get some experience from a american or canadian studios at first, have a different life experience with good artists and after that decide what to do again. But i’m not focused on US and Canada, i could go to Amsterdan, Berlin, Tokio, Barcelona, it doesn’t matter, if i find a nice opportunity, in a good studio with good money on a different place i would go in a flash. I’m not really attached to anywhere.
Gabriel, thanks for your time and congratulations, your work is awesome. Any advice?
Stay away from the drugs kids. Champions don’t do Drugs!!!
Thanks Gabriel Rocha for having taken his time to make this interview with us
Interview done by Eduardo Duccigne for UAILAB
February 2008
Professional experience in on-line and off-line media. Art direction. Brand development (visual identity). Character creation. Development work for web, flash animations and presentations, creating web sites.
I have grow up in Portuguese country side, in between mountain and trees what I think had help me expand my imagination to further levels…
Savio Fonseca is a Art Director and illustrator, currently living and working in São Paulo at Wunderman.
I really have a couple of styles of working, my highly rendered work is more influenced by traditional fine art, then theres a more commercial side that is favoured by the editorial, publishing, fashion market.
I got involved with illustration four years ago. I’m self-taught, I have no degree (or anything close to it), nor any professional training.
I try to do whimsical and abstract drawings. I think my style is a mish mash of the ways that effort ends up coming across.
Jake Brewer is a South African designer & illustrator currently based in London.
I graduated in 2007 and I´ve been working with graphic and motion design since then.
I’m 24 years old. I was born in Santos, a small city in the coast of Brazil. I studied Multimidia Design at SENAC.
I took the Advertisement course at a University in Bauru. At my first year I started to understand what it was and to have a giant will to work for a agency.
I started working as a designer in 2005, developing good images, colors and tastes for pornographic market.
llustration, videogames and music, financing my love for beer and concerts working as Interactive Art Director for companies like Grupo W, Televisa, newspapers like Excelsior, and Ogilvy Mexico.
My name is Emma Geary aka Anarkitty. I am 30 years old and I live just outside of Belfast Northern Ireland. I have loved drawing since I was pretty young. Went to University and did a Ba(Hons) Degree in Art and design specialising in New Media.
Mopa is a graphic arts studio that believes in the good side of things. We share positive experiences and sensations in every project we design.
I’m 33 years old, I live in São Paulo with my wife Carla and for the past 6 years I’ve been working as an editorial and advertising illustrator for both national and international market.
I was born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. I am 30 years old. My family is basically composed by visual artists. I grew up in the middle of paints, drawings, lithography, paintings. But it was in college that came the interest of the art combining with more important concepts.
New York based Australian I am a self-taught artist who concentrated on learning the techniques that expressed his ideas and a unique vision. All the rest is superfluous.
Brazillian designer, living and working in Rio, married, fulltime freelancer (so far), like to laugh, open minded and a reeeeally nice dude.