Adrian Somoza's inspiration behind the project is the great Wes Anderson. Adrian is a huge cinema fan, and a huge fan of his visual systems. Though, he found that they were very limited: they have a strict color palette, one typography, symmetric compositions, and even a small set of costumes for the characters. But those limitations make the design transparent, helping tell the story because the visuals are so clear that you are able to forget about them and immerse yourself on what he is trying to tell you.

I love doing concepts because it gives me the freedom to explore new things and be bold, without having a deadline or anyone to limit my decisions (not even me... I try). This was a visual exploration with a special focus on layouts. I've been struggling for a while trying to understand how grids can help us organize and structure information. But I've usually ended up sticking so strictly to the grid, the results almost felt robotic. It was about time I'd learn that it is as important when you stick to the grid, as well as when you break it. This and other exercises helped me get a better sense of that. Still got a lot to learn on grids and layout, of course, but I feel really encouraged with the positive response I received from this one.
-Adrian Somoza

I don't consider having a style, but I do care a lot for minimalism. I think that as designers, it's our job to reduce the visual noise to its minimum, to help the user understand without a doubt what we're trying to say. In an interface, I try to make the actions and paths so clear that everyone gets it. My inspirations are very varied, ranging from graphic and UI designers (of course), to cinema directors and architects. I also think nature is the original and most greatest source of inspiration. I usually pay a lot of attention to the beautiful color palettes, the smart use of colors and beautiful gradients of the sunsets, and the harmonic symmetries and endless shapes and patterns it displays. They way I see it, everything the human does is based on something we've seen from nature: tall buildings come from studying the termites, the light bulb simulates the son, and the scotch tape was invented by studying the sticky legs of a gecko. That's why I love nature and I'm always paying attention to it to find fresh inspiration for my works. I personally think God is the best designer.
-Adrian Somoza

Above everything, stay humble and understand it's a process. Gives yourself up to the process, and never give up on yourself. If you really love what you do and you work really hard, eventually you'll get to the place you always wanted to be. Sometimes I get comments from acquaintances saying "you have a natural gift for this". To me, that sounds more like a naive way of understanding how I got to where I am, and I hate when people don't acknowledge my process. My first 5 years as a designer, I spent almost 14hrs a day learning, trying, failing, getting up again. And I've never stopped that process, I just learned to control it. Now it's just 8-10hrs a day. But yeah, keep on keeping on.

I don't have a favourite work from Wes Anderson. I specially love The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Life Aquatic. But what I love to do with his movies (I do this with every director I like), is to watch all of his works and try to see the evolution as well as the dots that connect each work. That way I kind of understand his process, and learn which decisions where successful enough to mantain them throught his works. Then, finding out why is the really juicy part of it, where I get ideas and learn concepts that I try to translate to my own works (I know, I'm quite a freak).
-Adrian Somoza

See more of our posts about the great Wes Anderson.

About Adrian Somoza

Adrian Somoza have always liked to invent stuff since he was a kid. He would play music and invent his own tunes since he was 8 years old. At the age of 18, he started a rock band for which he ended up writing about 70 original songs, and he started considering to make a living out of it. Finally, he realized taht he didn't want a life as a musician, but he still wanted to use his inventiveness to make a living. At the same time, he was studying Business Management because he liked entrepreneurship and the idea of having his own business. He has always liked graphic design, but he thought it was hard to get a job as a designer. Fortunately, he have an older brother who was a web developer - he saw Adrian's potential as a UI designer and encouraged him to give it a try. He started reading a lot on the subject, and got completely fascinated by the mixture of art and business that design has. After 4 years of freelancing and learning as an autodidact, he got into Dribbble and got noted by some agencies, out of which Aerolab struck him for their quality work and amazing team. Since then he's been working for them. See more of his works on Behance or his website.