Member in the Spotlight: Jop Quirindongo

Jop Quirindongo, owner of Lowres Creative Studio, is this week’s Member in the Spotlight. Specialising in visual identities, Jop’s clients include Mediawijs.be, Philips, Emerce and The Athlete’s Foot. Via his methodology 'Think, Create, Shape, Guide', he always strives to get to the core of a brand and start the design process from there. Through a series of both personal and professional questions, we catch up with Jop and find out which Japanese artist he has a design crush on, where the most unforgettable place he’s travelled to is, and hear his top tip to get creatively inspired.

As the Club for Creativity, we'd like to ask you to get creative and draw a self portrait.

PERSONAL

What is your favourite app and why?

I think that's the Camera app: I use it to take pictures of the places I go of course, but I also use it a lot as a reminder. For example: I write something down and take a picture of it. I also use it to take pictures of sketches I'm working on, so I always have it in my pocket and can take a fresh look at it later that day.

Do you own a collection and if so, what is it?

It’s not set up as a collection necessarily, but I do have quite a lot of Vans sneakers.

What is the most unforgettable place you have travelled to?

If I have to choose just one one, I’ll go for the road trip from Los Angeles to New York that my girlfriend and I did a few years ago. That was such an amazing experience. I will never forget that one.

What music could we find on your favourite playlist?

I like loud music with lots of guitars and fast drums. At this moment, the Belgian band Brutus is on my heavy Spotify rotation.

What was the last meal that truly impressed you?

Restaurant Elkaar is my favourite restaurant and is conveniently located in our neighbourhood (East of Amsterdam). The chef, Rob Hagen, is really good at creating surprising and outspoken flavours.

Who is your style icon?

David Bowie!

If you didn't live in the Netherlands, where would you live?

Somewhere warm and tropical, most likely Asia because of the food.

Who is your current art/design crush?

For years already it’s been Japanese graphic artist Kumi Sugaï. We have a couple of his works at home as well. This one’s our latest purchase.

PROFESSIONAL

Which phase of the creative process excites you the most and why?

As a designer, the most exciting phase is to start a new project on a blank Illustrator artboard. But it’s also a scary one. On one hand, it's always nice to start something fresh and new, but then it kicks in: do I really understand the objective of this project? You never know in advance when you’ll get the ‘Aha’ moment and how exactly it’s going to turn out. But luckily, it almost always turns out very well.

What makes a great or hero client?

I think trust is an important one. That goes for both clients and creatives.

What professional skill do you value the most?

I think as a visual identity specialist, it's important to listen well. By listening well, you'll get a better understanding of what a project is about. Also, by listening to the things that are not shared.

If you could pick one recent project that makes you think, ‘I wish I’d done that’, what would it be and why?

One project that I really like is the Graphcore visual identity by Pentagram. Graphcore is a startup that makes hardware for machine learning. Pentagram designed their visual identity that was also applied to their actual hardware. I think this is a really good example of how to get the maximum out of a visual identity.

Out of the projects you’ve worked on, which makes you the most proud?

From the projects from this year, I think the rebranding of The Athlete's Foot is a nice one, mainly because of the awesome project team. I think we really helped the client with a refreshed visual identity, in-store and through social video content.

What top tips do you have to help people get creatively inspired?

If you get stuck during the creative process, let it rest for a bit and work on something else. The idea will come, eventually.

Through our Members in the Spotlight feature, we aim to get to know both professionally and personally the unique qualities of our ADCN Members. If you would like to join ADCN, the Club for Creativity, you can find out more here.