Featured Personality Pepe Gimeno, 2020 National Design Award The vision and creativity of the designer Pepe Gimeno have been essential in the construction of Roca’s image in the 21st century, as the person responsible for the brand’s current visual identity. In recent months, Gimeno has received two very prestigious awards: an iF Design Award for the definition of Roca’s corporate typographic family and the National Design Award, presented by the Government of Spain. With a career of more than 35 years, Pepe is a benchmark in Spanish graphic design, and his work stands out for its efficiency, quality and creativity. Throughout his ca- reer, he has combined typeface and editorial design and packaging and corporate design. In this field, apart from Roca’s logo, there are other works that stand out like the logo of Turismo Comunitat Valenciana or the one for the Spanish Presidency of the Eu- ropean Union. Congratulations for the 2020 National Design Award you received a few months ago. This is particularly good news in a very complicated year. How do you think this pandemic, with all its consequences, will affect your work as a designer and the inflation of design supply we are currently experiencing.fully achieved. I think it is one of the reasons why the redesign visual artist? Projects have a correct finish and appearance but, in many of Roca’s brand has been so successful. cases, they lack the conceptual rigour and strategic align If a logo fully expresses the values behind a brand and I find it difficult to predict how this pandemic will impact myment our work requires. its formal solution continues to maintain its strength and work, at such a confusing time. What I can explain is how thisTrends like the awareness of the social visual interest, providing there are no strategic changes in situation has affected my work during this past year. the company, that logo will continue to enjoy good health As the team in my studio is fully consolidated, meaning we responsibility of companies or the acceler- and will have a long life. have been working together for a very long time, we have notation of digital channels are transforming The validity and timeliness of the logo is found it very difficult to adapt to working remotely. Somethingthe relationship between consumers and us- I have found to be very positive has been the end of the franticers and brands. How will corporate design proven by the recent development of the activity that we had been doing previously. This is a dynamicreflect this new relationship model? corporate typographic family, which has we usually cannot escape from and lockdown has helped us been internationally awarded. What role to do so. It might be due to a particular stage in my life, butI think these issues will greatly affect the type of strategic this tough experience has allowed me to do my work in a decisions companies must take. It all implies a change in does an element like typography play in more reflective and calm way. the choice of brand implementation media and an adjust the definition of a globalbandr? And regarding my artistic work, the pandemic has been a ment of corporate contents to their new messages. But as source of inspiration. I have been able to see reality from afar as brand design is concerned, I believe there will be noThe image a company projects in all its manifestations must different perspective, perhaps from a sharper point of view.major changes. From a conceptual and formal point of view be univocal. Naturally, corporate typography is an essential But all of it has allowed me to discover interesting topics thatthe brand, which is a portrait of the company, will always beelement that unifies all communications with the same ex had previously gone unnoticed. linked to its values. pression. Its presence is so powerful as part of an image, that sometimes the sender is recognized without even identifying At a time when practically every user has 15 years have already gone by since you re- its signature. access to design tools, is the work of a ceived the commission to redesign Roca’s On the occasion of Roca’s centenary in graphic designer losing its value? Does it visual identity. What are your thoughts 2017, you also collaborated in the crea- lead to a redefinition of the entire pro- when you look at the logo now? Do you be- tion of the graphic lines and the design of fession? lieve it will last for many more years? different publications. How did you man- I think that the essence provided by the work of a graphic The redesign of Roca’s visual identity is one of the most age to make a brand with so much tradi- designer has not changed, nor will it change in the future. Thecomplex and interesting projects I have had to develop inmy entire career. It is a project that reminds me of surgicaltion project modernity and future? ability to analyse, assess and define an image and its strategy Tradition and modernity are two values that are very linked will continue to be essential in our profession. operations where a series of elements need to be removed without damaging all other healthy organs. Of the long pro to the brand, they are part of its DNA. This apparent con What has greatly changed are the tools professionals have cess, I remember the respect and care we took when making tradiction was present in the redesign of the brand from at their disposal to develop their projects. In the 1970s, earlythe change. It was a very precise change to keep the memorythe very beginning. We combined these two concepts in on in my career, it took several years for a young designer toeveryone had of the brand but adding all new values that hadthe creation of the graphic line of Roca’s centenary, apply be able to produce an original graphic art piece with the rebeen developed. The idea was to change everything so that ing them separately on different communication elements, quired cleanliness and accuracy. That time devoted to manualnothing would change. so that, when those elements appeared in the same format, learning and mastering the technique was also the time for There are always risks in any change process, because no a dialogue was created between them that made them the young designer to mature and conceptually consolidate. matter how many measures you take to guarantee success, shine with greater intensity. Today, in a matter of hours, anyone can obtain the skills thatit is difficult to be absolutely certain of achieving it. In the end,Thus, when the centenary logo, which had been formally used to take years to achieve. This reality has unbalanced change involves taking a leap of faith. A leap both client anddesigned with a very traditional typeface, was placed on the training process of new designers. The length of the condesigner must take together, trusting each other completely.a cover with a strictly contemporary style, a very personal ceptual maturation process has been maintained while the Without that mutual trust and understanding, it is very difficultand visually interesting image was created, which fully re technical training period has greatly shortened. The result isto develop a good project. In this case, that requirement wasflected the brand’s values. Roca Sanitario, S.A. Avda. 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