bio
It’s kind of awkward to speak about myself since I never met myself before. Now to give you a glimpse of who I am as a creative, a father and proud Real Madrid fan, I’ll start by saying I’m an odd mix of different things. I was almost born in Algeria, where my parents were living at the time, but a few weeks before I was to make my appearance in this world, somehow my mom was able to get on a plane to Madrid, where I was born and lived on-and-off through my childhood. I was raised in Rio de Janeiro, Guatemala, Bogotá and Madrid, and lived in Amsterdam, Lima, Miami, New York and Boulder for work. As a consequence, I can swear in four languages, having reached proficiency in international swearing. Long story short, I guess I’m like one of those mixed salads from Whole Foods that you’re never quite sure what’s in it, but to your surprise, it’s actually not too disgusting.
My mom was a singer back in the sixties and I grew up listening to female Jazz icons like Ella Fitzgerald and Billy Holiday. I remember that and the smell of coffee I was never allowed to drink. I developed a very close relationship with music and I enjoy to play the drums, percussion, guitar and more recently, I discovered the soothing powers of the ukulele to put my toddler son to sleep.
I also love taking pictures out in the streets and really paying attention to people. Not like a creepy pervert but more like an observational standup comedian looking for new material for his next set.
When it comes to advertising, I fell in love with it back in the late 90s when I did an internship at Y&R Madrid while still in college. I just looked at the suits and I was like, “Who would want to do that job?” And then I looked at the creatives and they were surrounded by magazines, listening to music, making cool stuff in their computers and I was like “I would enjoy that.” One of them handed me an Archive magazine and I started reading those ads like a little kid looking at one of those sticker albums with your favorite soccer players. I was immediately hooked.
Then I discovered One Show and the Copy Book, Art Director’s book, and here I am.
After more than 20 years in this business I still love what I do. And you really need to love this. You need to have fun with it and make people around you have fun as well.
I really believe today’s industry is way more interesting and challenging than it was just 10 years ago. Back then it was all about TV, Print, Radio and a website. Today we’re reinventing this field every single day and we have a huge responsibility. Everyone is a creator of content out there. And there are people who are incredibly talented and capable of creating more brilliant stuff than ad people without ever having stepped into an ad agency.
I personally find this terrifying and fascinating at the same time.
Well, if you’re still here, I hope you got what you were looking for. Let’s talk.
-Alvaro-