The breadth of his influences is especially felt where contrasting styles are blended into a stylistic mish mash that, by all accounts, shouldn’t work. His effortless movement from chromatic type-led designs that glimmer on stage to softer filmic graphics show Sebastián’s deep understanding of the craft.
Before diving into a project, Sebastián scopes out exactly what it is that everyone involved wants. His recent foray into film poster production, for instance, meant that this was even more important. For the designer, it all comes down to trust. “I have the luck most of the time to work with amazing directors from different parts of the world who really trust my taste and give me a lot of freedom to explore,” he notes. It’s this freedom that enables him to push his creative boundaries. “This collaborative environment allows me to come up with different ideas and wild concepts.”
Take some time to scan through Sebastián’s designs and you might find traces of 80’s punk aesthetics alongside 2000’s euro-kitsch, or Metallica-esque work framed by a title card reminiscent of a Spaghetti Western. It’s this archival approach to visual history that energises Sebastián’s practice and pushes him to explore new avenues. “I’m constantly exploring different fields of my artistic side. All I know is I will continue to work on the things I love as long as I feel free and happy with what I’m doing,” he concludes.
Being a keen observer of creative history, Sebastián knows his onions. In working on the title for the 44 music video by Bad Gyal and Rema, he was given “a few stills from the film as a reference and a tight deadline”. But, he was immediately set on how he wanted it to look. “It was the first time I saw my design work used in a live concert, so that was very exciting for me,” he says. The shimmering crystal 44 was projected on stage at the Caviar Urban Music festival. It features hints of Sebastián’s retro-futurist influences as well as the fluid typographic style that can be seen in earlier projects like Suspiria and Dalila.