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Café Creative is a series of interviews with designers and other creative minds who use their art for good. For other posts in this series, click here.

While Europe has long been considered the home of cutting edge architecture and interior design, Latin America has slowly been making its own mark in the design world. At the forefront of the Latin American design movement is Emilio Cabrero, architect, designer, and director of Design Week Mexico. While I was in Mexico City I had a chance to meet up with Emilio at Blend Mexico for a lovely conversation about how design influences the way we live, and Latin America’s role in the design world.

Emilio, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today! Mexico City is the World Design Capital of 2018. Could you tell me more about what that entails?

Our theme is “Socially Responsible Design,” and we follow these core values: generate opportunities, restore dignity, transform with respect, and preserve what’s valuable. The area of study of our program is going to be the inhabitant as the center of all of our conversations. So we’re starting with housing and cities, how to approach all of their challenges through design. Housing, mobility, identity… How do we know that we’re in a certain city? If I take a picture of New York, you know it’s New York, or Paris, or London. How do we work on our identities, especially in Latin American cities?

Cities play a very important role in the C40 challenge and in how to design better public spaces. Going back to housing and focusing on inhabitants, it doesn’t matter that much if you have a bigger house or a smaller house, but your perception of the city changes a lot if you have better public transportation, better parks, and better public spaces. We also want to talk about the importance of the creative economies in jobs, cities, and local communities. So, we are referring to all these programs that the city has put in place, such as the implementation of bike lanes, improvements of public spaces, and the importance of identity. The city’s brand and other aspects that make the city what it is.

Basically, we will have three signature events: an international design forum, a city mayors agreement to create a design exchange program in different cities, and an international design hub. We’ll also have lots of lectures throughout the year addressing the different themes I just mentioned in different universities. The biggest legacy that we could bring for making Mexico City the World Design Capital is the importance of having the designer at the table when you’re doing city planning. And I mean designer in the broader term—an architect, an urban planner, the graphic designer, industrial designer… Anyone in the creative community who can solve problems through the lens of design, and bring about more change to the city than through just bureaucrats or city officials. We’ll have exhibitions in partnership with Museo Tamayo, Museo de Arte Moderno, Museo El Chopo, and the Museo Nacional de Antropologia.

So would you say that the selection of Mexico City as the World Design Capital for 2018 is the beginning of the public’s or the government’s embrace of design in building a better future, or has that already been happening?

There have been several initiatives around the city, but I think this is the first big effort in becoming a community together and bringing solutions to the table.

What do you think set Mexico City apart in its application to become the World Design Capital for 2018?

I think Mexico City is a hyperconnected city. It could be a hub for Latin America. It’s easier to come to Mexico if you’re a Latin American designer showcasing your products than it is to go to the U.S., Canada, or Europe, which are farther away and more expensive. Also, gastronomy, filmmaking, and other creative industries have had a big boom here in Mexico City. I think that the members of the selection committee, when they came to the city, were surprised to see the interaction between universities, museums, city officials, and local sponsors to boost the local community.

That’s great. Backtracking a little bit, how did you even become a designer?

Since I can remember, I’ve always wanted to become an architect. So, there was no challenge for me. I always said I wanted to do houses. As an architect with my team, we did the first design center, then we did this building (Blend Design), and working with Design Week we also started bringing local designers with international designers. It’s become accepted now. We see that people are more interested in the quality and the proposal of the product. It’s something that’s been changing over the years and we are proud to be a part of this moment.

It seems like the public perception of design is also slowly starting to change. Design used to be seen as superfluous, or luxurious, but would you agree that’s starting to change?

Completely, because design is everything. Design is your metro card—it’s the graphic, its programming design, it’s the station, the chair you sit on in public transportation, the signs telling you where to get on and off… People have to understand that design is a very important part of our daily lives and if it’s embraced by the people who should be doing or thinking about design, it can change a city a lot.

So true. That’s one of the reasons I even changed my major to design in college—at first I didn’t really know the power of design, or how it’s really everywhere. So, what would you say is the primary responsibility of a designer or architect?

When you’re doing something, and this is part of our core values, you have to respect what must be preserved. Having the sensibility that, if you’re going to transform something, you have to do it with respect to its environment, to its area, to its context—and that is what designers should really look after. Also, creating a relationship between local products, local traditions, local materials, and trying to do a lighter impact on bringing things from abroad. That should be a huge responsibilities for designers today and in the future.

The concept of CDMX’s World Design Capital really show that, too.

Exactly. This concept is especially applicable to Mexico City. It’s a thermometer for the rest of the country. What happens here is replicated around the country, so it’s very important to set a high standard here.

So what does your creative process look like? When you sit down to create something, how does it happen?

First we have to understand what we’re doing. What’s the context? What’s the challenge? Then, if we’re working with a client or a city official, we have to understand their needs. How can we balance what they want with what we want, and really try to go through something more essencial that delivers what you need without any excess.

How involved do you clients tend to be in your projects?

Depends. Each project and each client is different. There are people who are very passionate about taking on a design project and there are people who are more focused on other things. So, it comes more from their side than our side, as designers.

Do you ever get those people who say, “I’ll know what I want when I see it?”

Yes. (laughs) But you know, clients—especially if you’ve been in the practice a long time—they know what you do, and they trust you. They have to trust you. And they like your work. So that’s why it’s important to have this high level of collaboration and feedback, because you become partners. It’s also important that they respect your knowledge. You don’t go to the doctor and say, “You know, I would prefer to take this other medicine, because my neighbor, who is also a doctor…” You don’t do things like that. But people think they can do it with creative processes because usually designers are very humble people, and very collaborative.

I completely agree. The example that I always use is, you wouldn’t ask an author to start writing a book without telling him what it’s about. Even though design is somewhat abstract, it’s still very goal oriented so you have to know what you’re working towards.

Exactly. It doesn’t matter how old you get or how many projects you do, clients are clients. And you have to keep them happy, because happy client = happy project.

Very true. Have you had any clients or projects that really pushed you outside of your comfort zone in terms of how they worked or the aesthetic they were going for?

Projects more so than clients. For example, the Palácio Municipal, the City Hall of San Cristóbal. We actually got an award because we created a new public space, restored the plaza, created a local city museum… And understanding the local culture while also trying to bring something new to an old building became a huge challenge. I think it has to do with how passionate you are about your work, how true you are to yourself in your commitment, and even grateful to the opportunity, to the place, to try to work with harmony. If you apply those concepts to everything you do, especially in your work—as you would do in a relationship—you create a better environment.

That’s so powerful. The concept of gratitude is so key, but often understated.

It’s so important to be grateful to what you’re doing, to the people who are helping you, those who are working for you—it creates positive energy. And again, happy clients, happy projects—because that energy flows.

Even if its not necessarily your aesthetic or what you had initially envisioned.

Yes. It’s important, as a practice, that you understand where to put your foot down and when to go with the flow. It’s a big learning curve.

From the work that I’ve seen, your aesthetic seems to be innovative and contemporary, but also atemporal. How do you reach that balance?

I would love for everything to become atemporal, because if things age well, the life of the project gets longer. If you get into more trendy things, they might be more “instagrammable,” but they become more volatile. Time passes, but the good projects remain and will live with the clients forever. It’s a huge responsibility to undertake any project where you’re altering or playing a part in the context.

It’s an environmental concern too, right? If you create something that lasts longer, you use less material over time.

Exactly. You know, I think recycling, reusing, reclaiming is something that has become more valuable in the U.S. in recent years but it’s something that we’ve always done in our countries. People reclaim, reuse, it’s part of our native culture. Especially in smaller communities, it’s something people do a lot. In the developed world, it’s harder to do those things because they usually don’t have the skills to do that.

I agree! It’s also interesting to see how that affects the time construction takes. I don’t know how it is in Mexico, but in Brazil since many houses and buildings are made of concrete, it takes a lot longer to build. In the U.S. you can build a house up with drywall in just a couple of months, and I feel like that also affects people’s attitudes about the durability of their property and how easily they can replace it.

It’s the same here in Mexico. Building in concrete is a challenge, no? In the States, 30 years and they can demolish and build something new.

True. My husband and I bought a house that was built in the 1890s precisely because we wanted something that was built to last. It’s exactly the challenge that you described earlier—updating it to bring new functionality but respecting what needs to be preserved.

That’s great! You should really try to come back for Design Week to get more ideas.

I would love that! I mean, the whole year of 2018 will be like Design Week on crack, right?

Yes! (laughs) Design Week on steroids.

With Mexico City being chosen as World Design Capital for 2018, how do see the role of design changing moving forward?

I don’t know what will come, but I think the most important thing when thinking about legacy is putting the subject in the front row. Bringing it to mass communication, to the community, and getting the government together with the creative community. All the work we do together in the future will be stronger because we have this base.

Emilio, thank you so much for taking the time, and congratulations!

It’s my pleasure!

You can follow Emilio Cabrero on Twitter and Instagram, and World Design Capital Mexico City 2018 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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