From intern to brand designer: Lorenzo Eynard.
Sometimes, you find your calling right away. Sometimes, you have to follow the ebb and flow of opportunities until you discover what you excel at. For Lorenzo, a mixture of both brought him to DixonBaxi as a brand designer.
In an industry where time is always scarce, you have to prioritise your passions. Lorenzo’s journey is a good example of letting a range of experiences inform what you specialise in.
Born to a family of creatives, Lorenzo has always gravitated towards the arts. In high school, he joined a conservatory as an aspiring opera singer. It was later, on a friend’s suggestion, that he enrolled in the Graphic Design course at Politecnico di Milano. Lorenzo quickly found his two passions at odds in his busy schedule, and decided to park singing and focus on design. So he came to London to complete his Master’s at Central Saint Martins.
Lorenzo was freelancing when he joined the DixonBaxi Intern Academy. He was drawn to the studio by our work with AC Milan; “it made me feel close to home.”
“I freaked out a lot at the beginning, because most of the terms that people were using on a daily basis were obscure to me. It was about putting the puzzle pieces together, learning on the job.”
The most valuable skill he picked up in his internship was confident communication. “With time and exposure and dedication, you start to realise new things, you sharpen your skills, and you train your eye. You begin to understand how brands work.” And the importance of understanding who you’re designing for. “At the end of the day, we aren’t just a design agency. Brand messaging has to be intrinsic to graphic design; it’s not just all about spacing and typography and colours.” He says that learning how to design for real fans was key to growing as a designer.
As a native Italian speaker, Lorenzo took English classes on top of his Master’s, continuing to study language even now to better express his ideas. “A lot of design is about communication. That means we have to be eloquent not just through our visual language but our written and spoken ones as well.”
Collaboration and experimentation are important too. “I always try to experiment with expressions and mediums, and collaborating with other designers helps me do that.” On the Paddington Central project and The Grand Press, he worked with designers Jas and Libby to project visuals onto cardboard models and study the way light distorted and stretched across different planes.
As he talks about collaborating with other designers, Lorenzo brings up something that a lot of creatives wrestle with every day: impostor syndrome. Surrounded by so many amazing minds all the time, he admits it’s hard to avoid comparisons. “It’s the challenge of starting. When you don’t know much, everyone else seems miles more amazing.” There’s a sweet spot between looking up to others and owning the quality of your own work.
“I try to take a bit of everything from everyone, synthesising all the things that I like into a style that’s unique to me.”
Lorenzo points out another key balancing act: that between owning your work and being part of a team. “Of course you want to do your best and leave your mark, but you also have to remember that the project is not on your shoulders. You’re part of a team and you can throw in your ideas freely, knowing that there are teammates who will help you polish your work.”
Being humble is the key to learning. “It’s my job to absorb everything that I can from other people. I’m surrounded by all these amazing designers with years of experience, from different backgrounds, with different interests and ways of thinking.”
“If I could meet the past me, I’d like to tell him to just CHILL.”
Looking ahead, Lorenzo says that there's still so many types of creative expression to explore. Even though where he started and where he is now seem miles apart, it’s only the beginning of his career. “There’re so many disciplines within and outside of design, so take the time to figure out what you like. Don’t compare yourself to others. Just do your best.” Dedication, humility and an openness to new possibilities are bound to push great minds to great places.
