2008 | TENOVERSIX WINDOW INSTALLATION | CLIENT: TENOVERSIX

Emerging Talent No. 21: Florencio Zavala
Drawing from a variety of sources—especially the city of Los Angeles—designer/artist/activist Florencio Zavala makes work full of colorful juxtapositions of opposites, cultural fragments, everyday moments, concrete poetry, chicken scratches and wanderlust. “Sometimes I work in more of a traditional art context—drawing, painting, collage—but there is always a connection to design [through] type, language, symbolism, narrative, repetition,” he says. He is drawn to any material that creates restraint, like pens that bleed, cheap brushes or ink droppers. “There is something wonderful about trying to maintain control over materials that just won’t allow it. That applies to the digital as well—systems that dictate unforeseen results, default settings that refuse to budge, the struggle to break and rewrite the rules.”

Zavala currently works as associate creative director for Studio Number One (SNO). Started in 2003 by creative director Shepard Fairey, SNO’s offices recently relocated to the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, sharing space with Subliminal Projects and Obey Fine Art. The studio’s client list includes Dewar’s, Saks 5th Ave., The Guggenheim Museum, Penguin Books, Upper Deck, HOPE for Darfur, Google and Service Employees International Union. In addition, Zavala freelances and produces films, animation and other forms of media experiments through Big Skills, which he codirects with his partner Stephanie Hutin. His personal work—handmade typography and illustrations—has been exhibited in various galleries worldwide. Zavala holds an MFA in Graphic Design from CalArts, as well as a BA from the University of Florida. “I don’t consider my work very conventional,” admits Zavala. Much of this has to do with the breadth of his artistic outlets and associations. “Collaboration is definitely a key ingredient. Every project at the studio is a group effort and my independent projects typically involve other partners.”

Active in commercial work, art installations and community-based initiatives, Zavala finds himself surrounded by many talented individuals. SNO recently launched Simpleasures, which the studio defines as “an ongoing series of cultural investigations into the things we love, admire, obsess and collect.” Zavala frequently posts at his art blog BrownLikeMe.com. With Big Skills, he recently created The Loneliest Gallery, one of 60-plus projects included in A Machine Project Field Guide to the LA County Museum of Art.

“Everyone wants to fall in with Flo’s cheerful revolution,” enthuses Gail Swanlund, cochair of the Graphic Design program at CalArts. “He’s created a design practice that embodies everything good about the profession. He makes really cool and meaningful stuff, and then plumps it up with wildly popular celebratory events/gatherings/happenings, foxily inciting community involvement without ever a smidgen of the oozing self-righteousness that clots up the profession’s discourse in other parts of the world.”
www.studionumberone.com | www.bigskills.com | www.brownlikeme.com | www.theloneliestgallery.com