BRUNO SELLÉS: A REFERENCE IN DESIGN AND CREATIVITY
A life of design, creativity and good food.
Bruno Sellés is the creative director and founder of Vasava Studio, a benchmark in design and creativity in Barcelona for 25 years, although as we discovered thanks to him, his foray into the world of design took place many years before, at no less than four years of age. And the fact is that he's a natural! We invite you to discover more about him and his world in the following post (which we wouldn't mind going into more depth with one of the dishes he confesses he makes, because as if that wasn't enough, he's also a chef! ;D)
Tell us about yourself and your work. Where did your vocation start? Any first memories?
I am Bruno Selléscreative director and founder of Vasava Studio. I founded it 25 years ago with my father Toni and another partner who joined a little later, Enric. I manage the creative team at Vasava, but I am a designer, typographer and I also work a lot in 3D, both static and moving. I'm also quite interested in generative art and plotter pens and I make graphic work using generative digital and a mechanical arm that draws using markers or pens.
I became interested in the world of graphic design and illustration quite early, my father is a graphic designer and that obviously influences what you are interested in doing or what catches your attention from the time you are a child. In fact, we collaborated at a very early age, when I was four years old I took some felt-tip pens and painted over some originals he was preparing for some postcards about a design conference organised by the FAD. The documents were scientific engravings on surgical subjects. At first he was angry, obviously, but when he looked at it again he thought that this act of vandalism was not so unfortunate and that the juxtaposition of a technical element in black and white with some coloured scribbles on top worked very well to communicate a design conference. Finally, he decided to use it and that was our first collaboration. Fifteen years later we set up our own studio and have been working together ever since. Now it's him, me and forty others.
What do you find most satisfying about your work, and any that you are particularly proud of?
I like to be able to select the projects I work on and not have to accept just anything as a matter of course. Each project has to be something that contributes, that makes us grow. It has to nourish us, it has to be a process that generates learning, experience or that adds value to the studio. I have been lucky enough to have been able to achieve many objectives, I have worked for clients all over the world on very large projects and I have worked on very small but very exciting projects. I have travelled the world giving talks and conferences or doing workshops and that is one of the things I enjoy most about my job.
What is your creative process like, what are your sources of inspiration, any particular music while working?
I don't believe in inspiration, I've never understood why it is so fetishised. For me there is no such thing as that miraculous moment when the muses dictate to you what you will do. The design process is not an artistic process, it is a technical process (even if it is executed through artistic tools such as photography or drawing).
To design is to order information with a predefined objective. Art is to ask questions and design is to give answers, in the most concrete, least ambiguous and most economical way in terms of resources.
Depending on the type of project, the process is different. There are projects that require a lot of prior study, analysis... in this way you create a strategy and from there you build your proposal. Other projects have very clear briefs and are more executive. Obviously they require a creative solution but the space is more limited and the scenario is more predictable. I like to generate ideas, processes, scenes and techniques when I'm not working on projects for clients. This way I train my skills well and order my ideas so that I can then apply what I learn to other assignments.
Favourite colour, book, film and record - in that order! ;D
I don't know how to do rankings of favourite things. There are films that I like and others that I don't like, but it's always for different reasons and it's very difficult for me to make them compete in the same category. The same with books and records... there are songs that work for relaxation, others for emotion, or for dancing! I can recommend the last thing I've consumed and liked. I really enjoyed the book "Calor" by Bill Duford, a chronicle of what goes on in the kitchens of great restaurants and the lights and shadows of the chefs. I had wanted to read it for a long time but it was out of print and I finally found it in Madrid in a second hand shop. This week I'm listening to Channel Three and Mount Kimbie on a loop. I haven't seen any noteworthy films lately but the documentary series How To with John Wilson on HBO has 'blown' my mind.
Is your home a reflection of who you are? Tell us what it smells like, your favourite corner, your favourite decorative object or piece of furniture, if you treasure a collection... And if you have a pet, introduce it to us!
I'm sure they do. The objects that surround us define us. But we are also surrounded by a lot of junk... are we like that? I collect some things but I'm not too obsessive. Whenever I travel I always buy a piece of figurative pottery. I have a very large collection of airline emergency instruction leaflets. And I keep it in a Lauda Air aeroplane bar cart that I bought in Russia from a guy who restores aviation equipment. I collect pictures of mixed dishes from crappy bars.
We have a cat, his name is Bao. He is a British shorthair puppy.
A great plan at home always includes...
Inviting friends over and cooking something tasty is always a good plan.
Do you have a signature dish?
Yes, some of them. They keep changing. I qualified as a chef at the Hofmann hotel school five years ago. Since then, I've been cooking every day. I'm pretty good at making boeuf bourguignon, rice dishes, Wellington, Agedashi shiitakes or a cold cauliflower soup with marinades that'll make you go crazy. And I hate cauliflower... but when it's done like this it's a marvel.
Where is your favourite place in your city and abroad?
I love Barcelona, but I try to avoid the most touristy places. It annoys me a lot to see so many tourists, but mainly because of the service apparatus they generate around them with all those trap shops, junk restaurants, renting flats and cars etc... I like to walk around the city avoiding crowds and at off hours.
Abroad, the most impressive place I have been to, and the one that has made me think most about how insignificant our lives are and how little connected we are to real things, was the Galapagos Islands.
