Five to Inspire with Adrian Somoza

Senior Visual Designer @ R/GA

Who are you?

I have always liked to invent stuff since I was a kid. I would play music and invent my own tunes since I was 8 years old. At the age of 18, I started a rock band for which I ended up writing about 70 original songs, and I considered to make a living out of it. But I finally realized that I didn’t want a life as a musician, but I still wanted to use my inventiveness to make a living. I have always liked graphic design, but thought it was hard to get a job as a designer. Fortunately my elder brother, who is a web developer, saw my potential as a UI designer and encouraged me to give it a try. I began reading a lot on the subject and got completely fascinated by the mixture of art and business that design has. Since then, I did two years of freelancing while learning as an autodidact, and two years in agencies. I’m currently designing at R/GA, working with some of the biggest brands in the world.

I usually have a shower and try to have a little quite time for meditation each morning. Then I go to the office where I spend most of my day, and when I come back I either see my girlfriend or go back home to design a little bit more. I like doing exercises and trying new ideas and techniques.

For me good design is solving a problem or set of problems in the most efficient way. And, most often, the most efficient way not only includes something that functions properly, but also something that is aesthetic, innovative, unique and overall enticing enough for people to enjoy using it over other solutions.

Good design solves the problem the user has, and by doing so, covers the expectation the business had in the first place.

I’d like to go deeper into animations, and into 3D modeling. What’s keeping from doing it: time.

I’d love to be able to travel a bit giving talks from time to time, and aim to be someone that can inspire others to reach their highest potential.

Massimo Vignelli would top the list. Also, Joseph M. Brockmann, Paul Rand, David Carson, Charles & Ray Eames are classics.

And some current designers that inspire me include Nguyen Le, Tobias Van Schneider, Ben Cline, Gleb Kusnetsov, Alexander Laguta, among many others.

Where can we find Adrian Somoza?

Dribbble: dribbble.com/adriansomoza
Behance: behance.net/adriansomoza
Instagram: instagram.com/adriansomoza
Twitter: twitter.com/adriansomoza