Allan Szacher was born in 1977 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He attended fine arts, painting and acting classes between the ages of 9 and 18. His first professional jobs were logos and corporate identities, as well as party and celebration invitations. His first job was at Sisgraph. He later began his second job (his first in an advertising agency) at Industrial Graphics.
Allan’s work attracted the attention of Ricardo Van Steen who invited the young designer to work with him at Noz Design (today called Tempodesign). In addition, Allan worked together with Cassio Leitao and Ucho Carvalho (all well known Brazilian designers) for clients such as C&A, Istoé magazine, Multishow & GNT cable TV channels.
Seven years of learning the principles of advertising and graphic design were enough for Allan to find the courage he needed to open his first business. In 1999, together with some other designers, art directors and writers, he led a creative studio in the field of advertising, design and the Internet.
He also dedicated some time to fine arts, and he held his first exhibition in June 2000.
In May 2000, Paleont Design, a major design studio, hired him, and he was integrated into the design team. There he created layouts and concepts for clients such as Motorola, Mizuno, Spontex, Cigna and many others.
In March 2001, Allan decided to set up his own studio called Zupidesign, focusing on visual and corporate identity, Internet and publishing. It was here that he worked for clients such as Publish magazine (idg), Cel-Lep English Center, Takano Institute, Unesco, Empowermed, Evidentia and Hunter Douglas.
In June 2003, Allan finished his education and received a bachelor’s degree in graphic design at Billy Blue School of Graphic Arts and Swinburne University in Sydney, Australia.
Today he is still running his studio and projects with designers all around the world such as zupi.com.br (a design online community and magazine) and is working on book projects, design exhibitions, courses, the Pixel Show design conference and is teaching design and advertising at Uniso University.
What are you working on right now?
I’m working on several art projects such as “The Zupi Book,” a book with 160 pages featuring lots of cool Brazilian artists in graffiti, design, illustration, photography, etc., as well as the Pixel Show International Conference, the art combats in Brazil and the new www.zupi.org art portal. The most important project is our cultural center that we are almost finishing. We are going after companies and people that love culture to sponsor this space.
3 Trends that excite you?
There are two things that are really important to have new ideas. The first is architecture and the second is having a nice environment.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Everything starts as a dream. But first you need to really love what you do! Next, you need to put all ideas on paper and prepare strategies and plans to make it happen. The final step is always to get supporters and sponsors to make your idea happen and to work really hard in the production of the project itself.
What is one mistake you’ve made that our readers can learn from?
I tried to open a company with no business plan and with too many partners. Big mistake. The company closed in less than six months.
What is one book and one tool that helps you bring ideas to life?
I use my laptop and my notebook. I’m always writing about new projects that later will become a new job for me.
What is one idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Today we are searching for companies and people that can donate money for us to buy a space to build a great cultural center in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We hope we can become this a great place for everyone to visit. If you are interested in collaborating, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
What exactly do you do again?
I was born as a graphic artist, but lately I’m more of a project manager and creative director. It’s hard to find time when we run tons of cool big project at the same time. But, it looks like my artists are doing a great job, and it’s almost like I’m doing it all by myself as I used to do when I began — with the same quality and love.
What inspires you?
Well, this is something that is really easy to answer. All of my trips to all of the countries I’ve been to, different cultures in the world, noise, environment, music, shows and many more things inspire me.
Connect:
Allen Szacher on the web:
www.zupi.org
www.zupi.org/magazine
Design studio: www.zupidesign.com
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.