Category: Interview

Brosmind台北訪談第二彈！Brosmind interview in Taipei pt.2

Brosmind兩兄弟Juan和Alejandro以Design Weekly的精彩訪談開啟在台北的旅程，
讓我們來看看究竟兩兄弟會和Design Weekly 擦出什麼火花？？？

Q1: 最喜歡的獨立專案跟商業專案?

A: 幾乎所有的個人專案對我們來說都非常特別。在創作個人專案時，我們得以嘗試不同的形式、媒材等等，所以這讓我們非常興奮。這次在台北的展覽物品就是其中一個讓我們很驕傲的獨立專案。

J: 因為我們都在是在工作之餘進行這些創作，所以當每次完成一樣，對我們來說，都是工作室裡的一次成功。因為我們得以運用這些空暇時間去實現自己的想法。

J: 我們同時也很喜歡這個商業案子，他是一家美國連鎖餐廳叫Beefsteak，專門供應健康餐點，而這些角色都是從蔬菜變化出來的。

A: 對，當我們給他們角色圖片時，餐廳把他們應用在空間中，包括牆面以及各種玻璃等等的平面上。所以你可以看見你的作品晉升到另一個層次，人們可以跟他們用不同的方式互動。也因為他是在一個空間，所以這些互動都是實體的，人們真的可以碰觸到他們，這真的非常有趣。Beefsteak是一個品牌，一個連鎖餐廳，這很令人興奮，因為我們常常在想：當我們不在了以後，這些角色會活得比我們還久。這樣的想法讓我們很開心，因為我們創作了很多角色。有一些會消失，不是因為我們沒空再創造更多背後的故事，便是沒興趣了。所以當你在這樣的條件下創作時：就是你給他們一些角色，而他們給這些角色展現的機會時，這樣的經驗讓我們很興奮。

Q1: Favorite personal project and commercial one?

A: Almost all the personal projects are special for us. We can try different forms and media, so this is really exciting for us. We are also really proud of the exhibition, you can say it’s our favorite personal project.

J: We create these projects in out spare time, so, every time we finished one of them, it’s a success in the studio, because we have time to build our personal ideas.

J: We also like this commercial one, it’s a restaurant in the States, called Beefsteak, it is specializing in healthy food. And the collection of the characters are from vegetables.

A: We gave them the pattern of the characters, then they applied it to the space: they have the walls in the restaurant, then they applied to the glass or different products. So you see your characters going to the next level, right? People can interact with them in different, many ways. It’s a space, so it’s something that’s physical. People actually can touch them, and this is really interesting. Since it’s a brand, and it’s a one of those chain stores; it’s really exciting that because we always think that after we die, our characters will last longer than us. These things make us happy, because we’ve created so many characters, and some of them just disappear, because we don’t have either more time to create more stories about them, or it’s no interests in them. So when you work on a project on this level, just give them characters and they give them the opportunities, it’s exciting for us.

Q2: 會不會擔心觀眾不了解他們插畫背後的意義?

J: 我們其實一直避免在我們的作品意義上過於表面。在此同時，我們也喜歡把更多詮釋加在作品本身。

A: 我們將近花了一生的時間在建立這個Brosmind風格，而這個風格是我們童年經驗的總和，因此這個非常私人。每一個工作、每一個專案中，都好像仍在我們的童年時期，所以我們想讓自己先獲得快樂；假如其他人也因此得到快樂，那非常棒。因為，假如你做這件工作，只是為了讓別人快樂，那你可能就已經走上創作的歪路了。

Q2: Have you ever worried whether the audience might not get what you’re implying?

J: We always tried to not being to literal on the meanings. At the same time, we really like to add more levels of understanding there.

A: We’ve been developing this style for our whole life, and it’s a combination for our kid’s life. So it’s actually really personal. Every work, every project, it’s like we ‘re little kid, so we want to make us happy first. And if someone enjoy it, great, we’re happy, it’s gonna be better. Because if you do the things only to make people happier, not yours, then you’re gonna find yourself in a really weird path.

Q3: 跟客戶意見不合怎麼辦？

A: 現在，通常當客戶找上門，通常是他們已經花了一些心力，找過其他創作者，所以當他打電話來，就是對我們的風格非常喜歡，而且他們信任你。這個並不那麼常發生，有時候他們找一些人因為喜歡他們的風格，但是想嘗試不一樣的東西，這個時候你就要學會拒絕。在一開始，這對我們來說是極為困難的決定，但總有那麼時機，你會需要斬釘截鐵地拒絕一些人，因為他們的風格跟你不符。

A: 有時你會害怕，因為怕人家不會再打給你了，總是會有許多疑惑，因為你害怕親手搞砸自己的事業。但事實是，你必須忠於自己，即使是進行中的案子，假如有什麼地方你覺得行不通，你最好提出來。

Q3: How would you deal with the problem that clients don’t agree with you?

A: Nowadays, when they come to us, they had made a previous effort to look for different people; when they call you, it is because they really like your style, and they trust you. Doesn’t happen all the time. Sometimes they will reach out people that they like your style but they want you to do something different, then you gotta learn to say no. That was a really tough decision for us at the beginning, but there is a point when you gotta reject projects because they don’t fit your style.

A: You’re scared sometimes, you think they’re not gonna call you anymore. There are like a lot of doubts there, because you think you’re gonna ruin your business. But the truth is that, you gotta be loyal to yourself. Of it’s in the middle of the project, and if there’s something that isn’t working, you’d better say it.

更多設計師登大人，趕快點進影片裡看看吧！

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8vCjY1Z5ic

Brosmind台北訪談第一彈！Brosmind interview in Taipei pt.1

Brosmind兩兄弟Juan和Alejandro以Design Weekly的精彩訪談開起在台北的旅程，
讓我們來看看究竟兩兄弟會和Design Weekly 擦出什麼火花？？？

Q1: 你們認為有什麼樣的設計形式、設計師影響你們最深或是成就今天的Brosmind?

J: 很難只選一個影響我們的人或事物，我們受80、90年代的流行文化、美國文化影響很深，而且我們認為那段時期是小孩的黃金時期，像是

80年代那些令人驚奇的電影、公仔、玩具等等，那段時間讓我們覺得整個世界充滿了驚奇感。
A: 例如我們第一次看到玩具外有很特別的包裝，而打開包裝的後發現不只有玩具，包裝後面還有附上故事或小漫畫。

J: 因此我們的創作並不全受到藝術性的影響，有時反而是被製作的精神鼓舞，所以你可以在我們的作品中找到「樂觀主義」、「為了好玩而創作」、「只是提供人們更多快樂」等等的精神。至於設計師，我們其實沒有受到設計師的影響，因為設計對那時的我們來說還是未知領域。當時我們都還是小孩，但那時Brosmind的種子就已經種下，因為我們已經在創作了。

A: 另外展覽會場裡有一面牆，牆上有各種產品、電玩、玩具、電影，因為這些對我們來說非常重要，我們是看著這些電影長大的。

J: 在我們的作品中，我們總是試著把小時候的那些好玩、自由的感覺找回來。

A: 而我們喜歡在不去擔心他人怎麼評論，或是人們喜歡與否的前提下創作，我們就是自由地創作東西。例如看了一本漫畫，但下一集還沒到手，我們便會創作自己的漫畫，或是在電影院裡看電影，即使電影沒那麼經典，或是沒那麼好，但那些電影最精采的部分都在腦中留下一些東西，成為我們創作的養分。至於影響我們的人則是包含西班牙的卡通畫家、日本的七龍珠卡通畫家鳥山明Akira Toriyama。

Q1: What design trends’ or designers’ influences have made you who you are today?

J: Well, it’s hard to choose only one reference, but we were really influenced by the popular cultures of the 80s and the 90s. We grew up in that age that was considered the golden era of entertainment for kids. Like those amazing movies, or action figures of the 80s.

A: Like the first time toys were in a really special packaging. So when you opened the toy, you have the little toy and a little comic with the story behind. So it was really a great time.

J: We are not really influenced in an artistic way, but the spirit of those productions. And I think you can find that in our works, that optimism, creating things just for fun, or to make people happier. We don’t really have influences from other designers, because we didn’t know that field at that time, because we were kids. And I think, at that time was when Brosmind was born, or the seeds of Brosmind. We’re creating.

A: As you can see in the exhibition, there are a wall with some products, as you can see, there are some video games, toys, and movies, it was because they are really important for us. We were growing up on seeing those movies.

J: In our work, we always try to bring back the feeling we have when we were kids, like the playfulness.

A: We were like creating things with not being worried about what people would say on Instagram, or people will like it or not. We were just like freely creating things inspired by those movies. We read a comic, since we didn’t have the next session, we just created our own comic. So you watched the movie, which might not be considered that good, those movies were leaving something in your brain, such as the best parts in the movies. Back then, there was this Spanish cartoonist and Japanese illustrator Akira Toriyama, who created Dragon Boy, who have influenced us greatly.

Q2: 從先前的你們的訪談中我們可以知道你們有做很多自己的創作，你們會不會遇到「自己創作可以有自由發揮的空間，但商業廣告可以更貼近大眾」這樣的兩難?

A: 工作室剛成立時，我們接了很多廣告的案子，但當時並沒有固定的風格，因為我們還沒發展出Brosmind的風格。後面我們開始做自己的作品，並且定義出了屬於Brosmind的風格，我們開始努力讓自己把廣告案的風格拉到與個人作品相近的風格。但其實一直都會遇到這樣的難題。一開始非常難在廣告案與個人作品當中取得平衡，我們想要用個人作品賺錢，但卻很難用自己的作品去說服顧客買單，因為有時顧客來找我們，是他們喜歡我們過去做過的案子，但他們不想冒險去做新的嘗試。所以直到你開始有自己一個非常穩定、強烈的風格之後，客戶才會打電話來找你做這樣的作品。

所以後來我們會想：好，那這些是Brosmind Style。但這時也會很難讓顧客會因為喜歡我們獨特的風格而打電話來。

現在我們在兩者之間的平衡其實蠻好的，但在廣告這一塊永遠有遺憾，因為廣告案其實有很棒的地方，可以 觸及很多人，可以跟很酷、很棒的品牌合作，但是就必需要配合預算或是遵從一些必要的規定來完成廣告案子。

J: 雖然我們比較喜歡自由創作，但廣告案仍然是我們必須做的工作，客戶要求我們的產出，而個人創作則是純粹因為好玩，並滿足較為藝術性的那一面。另外在廣告案中，我們大多畫插畫，個人創作卻可以讓我們得以實驗不同的方法，嘗試使用不同的媒介去創作。所以這個其實是個沒有答案的問題。

Q2: From previous interviews, we know that you have made some personal projects. Have you ever encountered the dilemma that personals are more free, but commercials can reach more people?

A: When we opened the studio, we were doing many commercial, with no a style, because we hadn’t really developed our Brosmind style. But once we started to develop our own projects, and to design one of the Brosmind style, we really pushed hard to make the commercials similar to the personal ones. So there is always this dilemma, because in the beginning, it was really tough to have this balance, about doing personals and commercials. Because you want to do the money for the personals, but it’s really hard to convince client to hire you for that. Sometimes they came because they saw a project you did in the past, and don’t wanna risk to make new ones. So it’s not until you have a proper, solid style, like a very strong one, and they started to call you only for that, right?

So you think: OK. Those are the rules for Brosmind style. It’s hard to convince people and call you for that.

Now, the balance is really equal, but there is always some misses with the client, with commercials, because there are a lot of people involved. Commercials are great, because you get to work with a lot of people, they are also great because you will ova a chance to work with cool, great brands, which perhaps is always what we wanted to work with, but there are things like budget you have to follow in order to make the commercial.

J: Commercial is still a job. You have to do it because the client asked for something. And personals are just for fun, because you need to fulfill the artistic needs. In personal projects, we can experiment with different disciplines, which is very important. So this is actually a question with no answer,

更多精彩的問答，請點進影片連結觀賞: https://youtu.be/U8eFav-b9aI

Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/U8eFav-b9aI

訪談第二集：設計登大人應變大全，身為設計師的你絕對不能錯過！

Watch the second episode of the interview!

請點進連結觀賞：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8vCjY1Z5ic