Speaking about Yuri’s appointment, Daniel Weil – whom Yuri himself describes as a “mentor” – says, “His work points to a future where design connects to all aspects of how we experience the world around us.”įor Yuri, the potential, particularly for sound design – a field he’s been advocating since he delivered his Nicer Tuesdays talk back in 2016 – is becoming clearer by the day. Pentagram has no doubt spotted the enormous potential for the emerging fields of sound and experience design. So in terms of how quickly I can come in and bring in business, I’m a bit risky – but at the same time, I’m investigating a new kind of field, which is always good.”Īnd there’s the rub. For him, that comes down to the relative youth of the field: “There’s no straight way to do business in this way, because there’s no format to do an experience-based or sound-design project. With characteristic humility, “risky” is a word Yuri uses relatively often to describe Pentagram’s move to approach him. “Normally a traditional company gets more conservative and just sticks to one direction, but they’re happy to do something risky and open up new fields within design,” he says. He quickly understood why they were asking him, though. So I was quite confused by why they were asking me to join.” “My understanding of Pentagram, in the beginning, was that it was a really solid, traditional branding and graphics agency. Compared to product designers and graphic designers, what I’m doing is really abstract and experimental,” Yuri tells It’s Nice That. “My practice is super difficult to categorise. So much so that even he was taken aback when Pentagram’s Daniel Weil first suggested he make the move around two years ago. Yet, even against that backdrop, Yuri’s appointment somehow feels special. Clearly, Pentagram is in a hurry to bring new blood on-board in order to help shape the future of the world’s largest independently-owned design studio. The announcement today comes just weeks after it was revealed that Astrid Stavro, the founder of design studio Atlas, was to become the third designer this year to join the partnership. “Thanks for doing what you’re doing and please keep it up.Sound, experience and installation designer Yuri Suzuki is set to join Pentagram’s London office as a new partner. “He demonstrates the importance of consistently producing new work… New personal work, new collaborations, new commissions, new visual experiments and pieces of research firing out at all angles constantly and all consistently great,” Gilchrist surmises. Gilchrist is also blown away by the sheer volume of his output. While everyone copies, references and steals, Jonathan powers on doing his thing, untouchable and unfuckwithable”. We’re getting to a point in time where so many designers grew up absorbed by video games, outlandish cartoons, maximalist communication… and in a world saturated by media, his style just hits the spot. It’s the perfect formula for a hit – familiar and new elements combined. His work feels like a personal development of an aesthetic that has been around for so long but he has taken it in a new, distinctive and personal direction. He adds: “There’s an authenticity and originality to his work which makes it magnetic. Jonathan Castro’s explosive designs have graced such publications as pin-up NX magazine (opens in new tab) James Gilchrist, co-founder of Warriors Studio and Graphic Design Festival Scotland, describes Castro as “one of the the most imitated people in the contemporary graphic design scene”. “The main idea for my practise is to transmit feeling and emotions, just like the way music does.” “I really believe design contains energy and soul and spirit, almost like witchcraft,” he says. What’s at the heart of his work – as with Peruvian costumes – is the idea of ‘soul’, imbuing non-living things with that intangible energy. “Just mixing everything in, and being really free.” “When I started making graphic design I wanted the same sort of freedom you have in experimental music,” he says. His work is colourful, impactful, and experimental it’s informed by multiple cultural and conceptual strands ranging from his Peruvian roots (in particular the traditional costume aesthetics) to black metal and punk graphics, experimental electronic music and jazz. It’s not hard to see why he’s so in demand. Peruvian-born designer Jonathan Castro (opens in new tab) has worked with a veritable who’s who of brilliant studios: The Rodina, Studio Dumbar, Metahaven and Bureau Borsche, to name a few. New Wave poster, just one example of Castro’s music-infused style (opens in new tab)