Role: Experiential Designer
Project Brief: Create a project about a topic you are passionate about. This will require multiple design outcomes from different medium.
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, After Effects, and Epson Projector, Laser Jet Cutter
Leguas Sabias bridges Mexico’s pre-colonial history with modern Spanish through an immersive exploration of language, culture, and memory. Drawing from Mexican idioms, ancient forms, and traditional embroidery, the project transforms cultural elements into a contemporary visual and sensory experience.
What problem or opportunity did I discover?
There is an opportunity to reconnect Mexico’s pre-colonial history with the language and cultural expressions we use today. Leguas Sabias bridges that gap through immersive design, bringing familiar phrases, ancient forms, and contemporary visual language together to create a more tangible connection to Mexican heritage.
Who am I designing for?
I designed Leguas Sabias for anyone who has a connection to, curiosity about, or appreciation for Mexican culture. The experience creates moments of recognition for those who grew up with these phrases and traditions, while giving others a way to discover the history and meaning behind them.
Inspiration
My inspiration came a lot from things I grew up with which then translated into some kind of design throughout my ideation phase. I was highly inspired by embroidery and how it almost mimics pixels. I thought the juxtaposition there between something so traditional and digital had some dialogue there. That inspired me to blend the two and put these two together in a place where there is meant to be dialogue throughout the experience.
Blending a pixelated effect with traditional embroidery.
Creating juxtaposition.
The pixelated and embroidery mix inspired illustration and font choices.
My main inspiration for color and theme was my childhood and day to day life.
MOTION
Motion was used to bring the graphics to life. It always add cultural value and design depth to the piece. I think this was a huge part of the experiential part.
The motion was projected onto a wall which showcase the posters getting embroider together.
Cultural Aspect: Embroidery is a tradition deeply rooted in Mexican culture which I embodied throughout the entire design of the project. But specially in the motion.
SOUND
I wanted it to feel like I was in my own home conversation with my family. I though music was the perfect way to do so.
The music was playing on a hidden speaker playing my Spanish playlist. Playing music that is nostalgic to every hispanic.
Cultural Aspect: I made sure to play music and artist that are nostalgic to every hispanic. This touched on the cultural memory to of hispanic viewers.
Visual / Interactive
Visuals assets created the world that I wanted for this experience. I create a series of posters with Mexican idioms. Addiotionally, I made a deck of cards inspired by the deck of Spanish cards I grew up playing.
Cultural Aspect: The Spanish deck of cards sued Aztec and Mayan iconography that I reinterpreted and frankensteined to make my own.
Research
I went back in time to really learn about where all these traditions and motifs come from. I looked a lot at the codex Florentine which sparked some design choices. But overall, my most helpful piece of research was a book shown on the right. Its a collection of motifs and iconography from all over Mexico.
Early Designs
Design System
Blending Tactile and Digital
Creating a system for the posters was crucial for efficiency. Picking one type face and keeping that cohesive throughout. As well as the type treatment. My design system for these posters included Big bold type on color block with one illustration as the focal point. Some peekaboo moments varied from poster to poster of the micro pixels.
True to Tradition
For the playing cards, I designed the icons to resemble the playing cards I used for inspiration. I did this because if you're from latin America you know these playing cards. I still wanted the deck to feel easy for anyone to understand the hierarchy. For that reason I also kept the color similar to the deck. Also keeping in mind the scale I didn't go to detailed on this either. I kept it clean and simple with line work.
Final Designs
Full Poster Series
Full Card Deck / Laser Cut Case
Experiential
Reflection
This passion project was extremely fun and excited to build and share with the world. My favorite part of it all was during the exhibition people would come up to me and ask me what each idiom meant and what kind of cultural reference it makes. It's also fun for me to share my background and culture with others, but this was such a unique opportunity to do that using design. Perhaps I'm not solving a major problem with this project but I'm spreading joy in times we need it the most.