Originally form Lima (Perù), graphic designer Jonathan Castro currently lives and works in Amsterdam, NL. He works for the Rotterdam based Studio Dumbar and in 2013 founded Youth Experimental Studio, a Peruvian collective of graphic designers based in Lima.
He grows up being influenced by the Peruvian alternative music culture and visual saturation of the late 90s, which led him to chose, through struggles of confusion as a young fella, a creative path, and the design career.
Despite his style and visual language are rich in colors and mixed influences they still contain a tangible aesthetic. He says: “I am really interested to take visual ideas and aesthetics from one context to another (…) to see how this new aesthetic lives in a new hybrid context.”
He also likes to get curious by experimenting with mixed media to discover how different creative fields may overlap. His work is filled with hues and vibrant colors, abstract patterns and a mix of sans serif and ornate typefaces.
His layouts may appear at a first glance as heavily saturated and rich, but the more you stare at them the more all the details come in order to create a very bold visual language. He does indeed a lot of research and exploration before assembling his final pieces, and this process of putting things together is the most interesting part of his art flow.
He sees design as an accumulation of energy in an object and hopes to give to the viewer a support when looking at his ideas.
His portfolio of work range between books, publications, exhibitions, identities and websites for cultural institutions, business and individuals.
He has recently exhibited at the Art et Amicitiae (Rokin, 114) in Amsterdam as part of a collective of artists to present the show Make Being Radical again – 2017, exhibition curated by artist Tereza Ruller.
To know more about him go here.
