I had the pleasure of interviewing the winner of the “New Image for AIGAM” Pitch, Alessandro Jacoby.

It turns out that I had a quick encounter with him via email once several months ago, and now here he is as one of the lucky BootB pitch winners! It was great to cross paths with him once again.

Catherine Realce (CR): Hi there, Alessandro. You had emailed me months ago regarding my experience at winning on BootB and how the whole process works.
Alessandro Jacoby (AJ): Hi, Cat, yeah, it was me. At that time I was asking all winners how BootB works. And now, I’m here ;)

CR: It’s great to see you in the Winner’s circle. Congratulations! Can you share a little about yourself?
AJ: You wanna know a few words about me? Ok, lets go. I’m an Art Director. I was born in São Paulo but now I’m living in the extremely south of Brazil, a city called Porto Alegre. It’s near Uruguay and Argentina. Here it’s very cold and everyone’s a grandson of Italian and German people. If you think about Brazil… this place is completely different… hmmm like with a European mood ;)

I work at an advertising agency with different artists like painters, musicians, photographers and videomakers. I also created a lot of art projects out of agency: TV shows, magazines, art performance, urban projects of art and design. My last design project was finalist of a great award in Brazil called Premio Museu da Casa Brasileira de Design with “Square Pans Project.” I made it with my job partner Christian Faria. I even had a beach-bar and a music studio as well.

CR: São Paulo to Porto Alegre, Brazil? I’ve seen photos of São Paulo. Pretty amazing. Is there a big difference in the two cities, creatively?
AJ: Porto Alegre is smaller than São Paulo. Smaller in size, business and money. But Porto Alegre’s scene of creativity is fevering all the time. The creatives from here haven’t straight head about their art. It is usual to find “cross-creators”: musicians that make graphic design, web designers that make graffiti, painters that play theatre or advertisers that record music albums. I believe creativity flows with limits and this kind of way of life joins people to one focus: to share experiences and projects with each other.

CR: I heard that places in Brazil have a restriction on outdoor advertising, billboards, neon signs, bus stop ads, even the Goodyear blimp. I can’t even imagine a world without those visuals. Has this ad ban affected you in any way?
AJ: Yeah, São Paulo had this law about outdoor advertising since 2007. They want to combat visual pollution of the city (sucks!). I think it is easier to cut off outdoor advertising than to solve security and healthy issues of São Paulo. This kind of decision sends us back to the past where the government made censorship.

CR: Congrats, too, on becoming a finalist for Premio Museu da Casa Brasileira de Design! If I read correctly, there were something like 578 entries and these are like the Oscars for Brazil? Would you care to share your entry with the BootB Republica?
AJ: Thanks! I didn’t see anything about the winners or competitors but this award is very important in Brazil and the world design community. My partner, Christian Faria, and I, created the Linha 3 (three line) of Square Pans. We studied a lot to find solutions about pan cleaning, heat conductivity, storage and beauty. We knew the width of stainless steel to preserve the food heat and taste. We interviewed many many chefs. All of them told us that offering good flavor to everyone is their mission in life. We didn’t win because it’s a very aggressive layout to change. There are no cut corners. One day this idea will be born. I believe in that.

CR: I noticed in your profile that your hobby is scuba diving. What else do you like to do when you are not being creative?
AJ: My last scuba dive was near from Sorrento (Italy) in a place called Massa Lubrense and was amazing. I like playing guitar and walking to see people. They are my inspiration.

I also created a blog called NICKFRAME (in Portuguese). This is the focus: To get contacts in the messenger and note the phrases that accompany their nicknames. Everybody can read your phrase and make a picture to present that. A blog where each phrase had a visual interpretation divorced from the context of what was written. “Without locks or good policy. Any trace, source, idea, simple image or complex, smart or stupid’s worth. NICKFRAME and momentary thoughts are with short shelf-life and where someone creates the messenger usernames and other images created for those usernames.” It was very funny but very hard too, so I gave-up.

CR: You seem very well plugged into the creative pulse in your area. What or who have been your biggest inspirations?
AJ: I don’t have one special person in my mind. I like music and books. I loved to read John Maedas book: The Laws of simplicity. I’m a fan of simplicity and he published this great book about this issue. So…Read it! You’ll get inspired.

CR: Jacoby, thanks for your time. Congrats again!
AJ: Thanks a lot, Cat