Our rebrand for Terrazas de los Andes changed everything for us. It was the first time we had the chance to reposition a heritage wine brand for a completely new generation of drinkers — people who care about provenance and craft but do not want to feel like they need a sommelier certification to enjoy a bottle. We stripped away the ornamental crest and replaced it with a typographic system rooted in the Argentine landscape. The label design was architectural, almost brutalist in its simplicity, but with a warmth that came from the color palette and paper stock. That project taught us that restraint is not the same as minimalism. You can be bold and quiet at the same time. It set the tone for everything we have done since: strategic clarity expressed through design that respects the audience's intelligence.

There are three filters. First, does the business have a real point of view? We cannot design distinction for a brand that does not know what it stands for. That is strategy work, and we do it, but the client has to be willing to go through it. Second, is the founder or brand lead going to be in the room? We do not work with committees. Design by consensus produces mediocre work every time. Third, and this is the one that surprises people, we look at the category. If we have just done three beverage brands in a row, we will intentionally seek out something in tech or hospitality. Category diversity keeps our thinking fresh. The worst thing a studio can do is become a specialist factory — you start repeating yourself without realizing it.

Confusing inspiration with direction. A client will send over 200 pins from their Pinterest board and say 'this is the vibe.' But a vibe is not a strategy. Those references are often contradictory — half point toward maximalism and half toward Swiss minimalism — and the client has not done the work of deciding which direction actually serves their positioning. The best briefs we receive are three pages or less. They articulate the business challenge, the target audience's unmet need, and the competitive landscape. They might include a few references, but with annotations explaining what specifically resonates and why. That kind of brief accelerates everything because it gives us a framework to push against, not a mood to replicate.

The resurgence of regional design identity. For a decade, globalization flattened everything — brands from Buenos Aires looked like brands from Brooklyn. Now there is a real appetite for design that carries a sense of place without being folksy or nostalgic. In Latin America especially, studios are developing visual languages that draw from local typography traditions, color sensibilities, and material culture in ways that feel genuinely contemporary. We see it in our own work: clients increasingly want to feel rooted, not rootless. That is a meaningful shift, and it is producing some of the most distinctive branding work happening anywhere right now.

Do not start with a logo. Start with a conversation about who your customer is and why they should care about you more than the ten other options in front of them. The visual identity should be the last thing you design, not the first. The strategy, positioning, and verbal identity — name, tone of voice, key messages — all need to be locked before anyone opens Illustrator. I have seen founders spend months on a logo only to realize six months later that their positioning was wrong and the whole system needs to be rebuilt. That is expensive and demoralizing. Invest in the thinking first. The design will be better for it, and it will last longer because it is built on something real.