Nerd Talk Sessions Vol. 2 - Mariano NERD (of nerdiseña)

Hi folks!

Here we go with Round 2 of our NERD Talk Sessions.

We "virtual-ly" met with Mariano NERD, an Argentinan-born artist and graphic designer and one half of the design duo nerdiseña. He lives in Buenos Aires and answered some of our questions.



(San Solar Parravicini)

Enjoy!

Why do you call yourself mariano NERD? That means you consider yourself a Nerd?

Yeah, I consider myself a Nerd about design, and that's also the reason for the name of our design studio, "nerdiseña" (nerdisign). We're both Nerds (Juan Pablo and I. We are the founders of nerdiseña) and we love it.

What's your definition of a Nerd?

Well, that's something that everybody asks me, cause I don't look like a regular Nerd jaja, but I think that "nerdism", it's a quality, a part of someone's personality, not the whole, that would be too simple, people are complex beings. The nerd part of somebody it's for me the part that gets passionate about some little and specific area of knowledge. I mean, you could be a Nerd on music or mathematics, design or whatever you really like and you wish to investigate and know alot about.


(Take the Power back)


You are an Argentinan artist and illustrator. Tell us a little about the nerdy aspects of your work and art. What's nerdy about it?

I think that in order to fully understand my work you have to be a little of a Nerd. I like to make jokes and indirect references to history, political characters, mystical and religious ideas or facts, maybe too Argentine for somebody who is not from this country...but also movies, books, TV series, even video games all of which are mostly well known but kinda nerdy too, like maybe Star Wars or the Simpsons.

You've mentioned it already: Together with some friends you have this design studio called nerdiseña. What exactely are you doing?

We're two guys who like to have fun basically. We're editing a visual magazine which is called finde mundo" (something that literally, in English, would mean "endofthe world" but in Argentina, "finde" is an abreviation of "fin de semana" meaning "weekend"). We also paint on the streets, make graphic and web design, a little bit of motion graphics. In this processes we involve people of every kind, artists, photographers, friends, etc.


(project finde mundo)

Who's your favorite artist or illustrator and why?

There's a lot of artists I love. I can say that pop art is one of the strongest influences that I have. Artists like Warhol, Charles Burns, Jorge Alderete, Augusto Costhanzo...the list goes on and on. All these people's works have in common a strong line, high contrast, powerful and flat, plain colors and I think that's why I like them. Simplicity, power, massiveness - it's like the result of mixing art and graaphic design, both things that I love.


(every idle folk needs an IDOL)

Would you say that Nerds have a different way of thinking that the 'average person'?

I think that no one is 100% Nerd, so I'd have to say no, but I also think that that Nerd part of you, or anybody's, make you do things that are not average, because it makes you get specific about something, get involved, get passionate, and that's the way I think we gotta live. :)



(Evangelizacion NERD)


http://www.nerdisenia.com.ar/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nerdisenia


*All pictures of art works were used with the kind permission of the creator of the works (Mariano Nerd). 05.2010*