Venezuela

Sigal Cohen
Age: 26

My Job Title
Design/Art Director, Oruga Films
www.orugafilms.com

Design Field
Design field: Multimedia and Graphic design



My Education
ProDiseño School of Visual Communication (2002)

My Work
"My work as a designer is to generate an idea and its initial aesthetic scheme. As the art director, I then lead a team of designers who take these ideas and develop them into projects that encompass not only the 'big picture'of the theme to be communicated, but also the important details that differentiate an extraordinary result from a regular one. In order to lead my team effectively, I am deeply involved in each stage of the proposal, from the initial idea up until the final product. I work in areas such as 2D animation; compositing; basic programming in "Action Script and Lingo"; and printed designs.

Along with three business partners, I am the owner of Oruga, a Design and Communication Agency. We execute every project in-house, and our points of departure are the interests and needs of our clients. We then study and investigate our surroundings, absorbing references and thriving from every feature of the environment that captures our senses, things that communicate, and elements that generate a reaction."

Issues in the design sector in my country
"Venezuela's design scene is complex and directly influenced by its mixed population, political situation, and social challenges. Briefly, 80% of Venezuelans live in poverty. Because of this mixture it is no surprise that in Venezuela you can find an array of design styles that extend from the refined and sophisticated to the raw and unqualified. I believe that one of the biggest challenges designers have here is that of educating the eye of the Venezuelan consumer that lives in the middle of these precarious conditions. This means taking into account this reality, extract their language, their tastes and opinions, and try to expose these qualities through visual communication in order to achieve the identification of the consumer with the product.

In my opinion, the strengths of design in Venezuela can also act as its weaknesses. Due to the lack of graphic design schools and the existence of a market where design is seen as mere decoration, the training of professionals in graphic design is concentrated in the production of "toderos" (designers that have some knowledge of all the design areas but lack specialization). On the one hand, I consider this to be a strength because it makes us capable of undertaking any kind of project by having a global design vision. Moreover, the lack of certain tools allows us to innovate more and make us be as creative as possible."

Innovative design trends from Venezuela
"I would like to showcase projects developed by Venezuelan designers that have enabled us to penetrate Latin American markets in Broadcasting Design and Web Design for Cable TV Channels, helping us to innovate more and maintain the high standards of their brands image. As Venezuelans, we understand the culture of other countries of Latin America, because we have similar roots and suffer from the same problems. For this reason, we have developed design pieces that have been successful throughout the whole continent and have been recognized with awards for their visual and communicational impact. An example of the above is the Broadcasting Design developed for Cable TV Channels like Sony Entertainment Television, AXN Latin America, Animax, HBO Latin America, Warner Channel Latin America, MTV Latin America, VH1, Nickelodeon Latin America and many others."

The information above is taken from the application form completed by the finalist in early 2007. Things may have changed since this information was provided and we recommend that you should not rely upon this information as a definitive statement of current fact. Click here to contact the finalist.