Editorial Letter from CARTEL Tabloid Issue 01, page 2

To Reinero Zamora,

A decade ago, I found myself as a Creative Director at a Fortune 24 Company, in a conversation with Allan Peters, Target’s Creative Director. It was the AIGA Leadership Retreat in Salt Lake City. Allan was spearheading INitiative, a program aimed to bring the AIGA ethos into in-house creative departments across corporate America. “After 20 years in the profession,” he said, “there’s a point in the life of a designer when its only choice is to create a culture of Design.”

Eventually, a seasoned designer has done it all. Age settles in, and the path to relevance shifts towards the design of formulas versus the design of forms. A need for creating scalable systems kicks in. A hunger for nesting, teaching and processing eventually revolves around one goal: the design of a team. A vortex of creative energy starts to form by coming together. Propelled by curiosity, designers create. A bond for each other generates dependability. As new relationships are formed, projects arrive. Deadlines become a defined end point to an attainable challenge as the team learns together. New creative rituals emerge by repetition. Processes become narratives. Client interactions turn into a classroom for the designer to reveal itself as the engaged outsider that drives systemic change.

I used to believe Design was a bridge. A path between problem and solution. Sender and receiver. Product and consumer. A bridge “para crear lo útil” -to create what’s useful, was the tagline of ISDI, the Cuban Institute of Design, from where I graduated in 2000. From José Cuendias and the culture he fostered at the Cuban Design Institute we owe a lot of what makes CARTEL a useful design firm. From Pepe Menéndez and Casa de las Américas there’s a huge debt of gratitude as well. Trailblazer leaders that molded my ethos and sensibility. Both bridges.

For the last three years CARTEL has solidified its presence in the city we call home. The pages of this tabloid are a selection of our work. The house of CARTEL is a house of gratitude. To St. Louis all our respect and commitment for the foundation of our practice. To Havana -so near and yet so foreign, for the posters and the walls. To New Orleans and its ashé in the air of our studio. To Downtown STL and The Post Building for providing a high ceiling for deep thinking.

More than a bridge Design now must be a room. A conversation. A room for conversation that enables possibility. The connecting tissue between the mind, the heart and the hand. The alignment that enables inclusive development para todos y para el bien de todos.

Carlos Zamora