By Design: Staying Curious with Matteo Cortes Rios

Matteo Cortes Rios is experiential designer and 3D at XYZ, a 160 over 90 company.

LBB> Tell us about your current role and design specialism(s)?  

Matteo> I’m a midweight creative, specializing in experiential, working within the design team at the agency. I lead the concept part of the design project through to completion, undertaking a mix of design concept and production. Since joining XYZ, as there was a key requirement for a 3D designer, I’ve focused on the intersection between human experience and spatial design. 

LBB> What drew you to design in the first place and how has your design career evolved? 

Matteo> I’ve always been a creative person. As a kid I loved everything from dancing through to costumes and art, creativity has always been in my heart, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do career-wise. At high school I thought I wanted to be a doctor, but friends of my parents mentioned industrial design and something just clicked. 

I started out working in more corporate environments in Colombia exploring workspaces, then focused on stand design and moved on to interiors. When I moved to London in 2013, I started to explore the fashion industry and did some set design and styling but then came back to spatial design and the journey into experiential. I think by working across corporate, retail, museum and brand environments I have been able to develop unique skills and have a more eclectic approach to my designs.

LBB> What aspects of design do you get really nerdy about personally?

Matteo> As a creative at heart, I get very curious and playful about things. I like illustration for example, so I like to explore that and play with my Apple pencil and bring it into my creative process. A few years ago, I did a VR course and got very excited about all of the positive prospects about it, not just to play, but how it can be used as a tool treat PSTD or to reaffirm gender transition. I’m really interested in future developments for how humans can use these new technologies to help overcome trauma but also enhance real life experiences as we move closer to immersive digitalized realities.

LBB> Which design projects throughout your career have been the most satisfying to work on and why? 

Matteo> A couple of years ago, I worked on the design of the Colombian pavilion at the London Design Biennale with a fantastic team. Working on a project with Es Devlin was great and I really enjoyed the experience, it brought out a sort of fresher confidence in what I do. 

I also loved working on Nike Re-Creation. The project embraces the campaign on moving to zero waste, with community, design and sustainability at the heart of the work. I got to collaborate with my partner, a fine artist, and the whole team involved was great. I always feel very appreciative of getting to work in those teams.

LBB> Design Thinking. Thoughts?

Matteo> There is a chronic lack of diversity in the industry and it seems to be accelerating. The gap post-pandemic between working and middle classes is widening and so the accessibility issue is only going to get worse if we don’t address it. I’ve been working with creative teams in London for 8 years now and I’ve only ever once come across another Black 3D designer. We need to work as an industry to change this and critically examine how we can evolve.

LBB> Accessible design is an increasingly prominent topic - what does best practice in accessible design in your particular design specialism look like?

Matteo> I’m a neurodiverse person myself, so I try to approach my designs understanding that there’s a lot of people with limitations out there and not all of it is visible, so you need to be considerate. It can be hard to cover every aspect with a design, but we need to try. From physical to the invisible, ask yourself who you are designing for and consider how easy it is for them to access it – keep it simple.

LBB> What’s going on at the moment in design that’s getting you particularly excited?

Matteo> Living in a city like London post-pandemic, where people are so eager to go out and enjoy shared moments once more, means that you can constantly be inspired by the macro and the micro. There’s the huge events like Moncler’s The Art of Genius and then smaller immersive experiences to discover, festivals based around music, arts and culture, then down at Battersea all the brand activations, so there’s many different elements across the capital. 

LBB> Who are your design heroes and why? 

Matteo> There used to be individuals that I really admired across different stages in my career, but now I really admire teams. Our own creative team is so talented, always giving 100% and so passionate about their craft. At the Gucci women’s show in Milan, I loved that rather than the creative director taking the final bow on the runway, the team of in-house designers was given the spotlight. Those are my heroes – the teams that are passionate about design, working behind the scenes to make the magic happen.

LBB> What inspires you?

Matteo> If you stay curious, then inspiration is everywhere - in immersive experiences, in club nights and raves, through to poetry and silly TikTok videos, in friends’ fashion choices through to what’s on SoundCloud. 

LBB> Thinking of people at the beginning of their career, what advice would you give them for navigating this constantly changing field? 

Matteo> Be very conscious of who you are and where the opportunity lies – be strategic about how you approach your career, be adaptable to the fact that things change constantly and stay curious. Take everything as a learning opportunity, not every job is the final destination, have a ‘not yet’ mindset and most of all have fun with it all. Take it all as an opportunity to learn and grow.