The World Design Festival, powered by Tijuana Design Week 2024, presented a dynamic program exploring cutting-edge themes with creativity and innovation celebrating an entire weekend of community building, creative expression, and innovative design.
To you designer, organizer, speaker, expert, photographer, driver, installer, and artist: we laid the groundwork for a motivating work of connections for the design community that will impact the future, yay!
Thanks to all the venues for hosting this project, giving us the time to organize the activities and spread the festival around the city.
And finally, all our appreciation to the team involved in the planning of a few months.
Let’s live by design!
Celebrating creative diversity and offers spaces for experimentation and visual and conceptual exploration, showing the capacity of design to innovate, surprise and transcend conventional limits.
Featured Guests:
Exploring issues of cross-border design, interculturality, and how design impacts and is influenced by different social, economic and cultural contexts.
Featured Guests:
Celebrating the fusion of knowledge, the audacity to imagine possible worlds and the ability to materialize them, leading the way to a shared and sustainable future.
Featured Guests:
Featuring projects that promote joint work between designers from different disciplines and the community.
Featured Guests:
Featuring events that promote learning, design education, and how design can empower people to contribute positively to their community and environment.
Featured Guest:
Featuring events that explore the relationship between design, the city, and history.
Featured Guest:
Designer
Ferrari
Emmy Award Winning Designer & Voice Actress
Emmy award winning Sandra Equihua is a Tijuana born artist, designer and voice actress based in the city of Los Angeles. Sandra received her BFA in Graphic Design at Ibero University in Tijuana, Mexico and shortly after branched to character design for animated series and films. She has had the pleasure of working on different projects at Sony, WB, Disney and Nick Jr. In 2007 at Nickelodeon, with her husband Jorge Gutierrez, she created and designed the multiple Emmy award winning animated series, El Tigre, The Adventures of Manny Rivera. In 2014 she and her husband once again collaborated to make the animated feature The Book of Life, produced by Guillermo del Toro for 20th Century Fox. She most recently designed and voiced characters for the new limited series Maya and the Three at Netflix.
Emmy & Annie Award Winning Director, Writer, and Actor
Emmy and Annie award winning Jorge R. Gutierrez is a Mexican animator, painter, voice actor, writer, and director. Born in Mexico City, raised in Tijuana, CalArts Experimental Animation BFA & MFA, Gutierrez has completed various films, cartoons, and paintings exploring his love affair with Mexican pop and folk culture. Gutierrez was the director & co-writer of the Guillermo Del Toro produced animated feature The Book of Life for Fox which earned him a 2014 Golden Globe Award nomination. He was also the writer & director of the Emmy nominated Son of Jaguar VR short for Google. Along with his wife and muse, Sandra Equihua, they created the multiple Emmy Award-winning animated series El Tigre, The Adventures of Manny Rivera for Nickelodeon. Gutierrez most recently created, wrote and directed the event series Maya and the Three for Netflix which recently won 4 Emmys and 2 Annie Awards, including Best Children’s TV/Media award. Gutierrez is currently developing a Netflix animated feature named I, Chihuahua! with Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias.
Director of Food Design at the Barcelona School of Design and Engineering
Founding Director
The University of California, Design Lab
Former Chief Design Officer of Los Angeles
Christopher Hawthorne is an architecture critic, educator, and filmmaker. He served from 2018 to 2022 as the first Chief Design Officer for the city of Los Angeles, a position appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti. In this role he provided design oversight for major building and infrastructure projects across the city as well as launching initiatives related to housing, architecture, urban design, civic memory, and public art.
From 2004 to 2018 Hawthorne was the architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times. His writing on architecture and the arts has also appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harvard Design Magazine, Architect, Architectural Record, Domus, and many other publications. With Alanna Stang, he is author of The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press).
His earlier teaching appointments include positions at the University of Southern California, Occidental College, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and U.C. Berkeley. A frequent collaborator with KCET-TV, the PBS affiliate in Los Angeles, Hawthorne wrote and directed the documentary “That Far Corner: Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles,” for which he received an L.A.-area Emmy Award. He also received an Emmy for his work his as executive producer on KCET’s “Third L.A. with Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne.” From 2015 to 2022, first at Occidental and then at USC, he led the Third Los Angeles Project, a series of public conversations about architecture, urban planning, mobility, and demographic change in Southern California.
Hawthorne was the Fall 2022 Bernadette Ma Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the U.C. Berkeley College of Environmental Design. He has been a Mid-Career Fellow at Columbia University’s National Arts Journalism Program and a Resident in Criticism at the American Academy in Rome.
Director, Screenwriter, and Producer
VFX artist for Game of Thrones, Wanda Vision, and Stranger Things.
Singer & Songwriter
Ceci Bastida is a Mexican singer-songwriter. Ceci was born in Tijuana, Baja California, México. and is well known for playing keyboards and vocals in Mexico’s punk rock band Tijuana No! at the age of 15.
Artist
Brand Identity Designer
AtticSalt
Research Director / Co-founder
Denise Luna Acevedo studied architecture at Universidad Iberoamericana CDMX-Tijuana. She was a researcher in the program “The New Normal” iteration 2018 at Strelka Institute, where she collaborated in research and design projects for cities, exploring the impact of emerging technologies on new types of interdisciplinary design practices. She is recipient of the full Certificate Scholarship for the Post-Planetary Universal Design Program at The New Centre for Research & Practice.
Partner of estudio santander; co-director of TIOC Think Tank (Temporary Infrastructure of Commitments); recently authored “Dispositivos de Adhesión: Diseños que diseñan” in the book “Repensar los diseños” from UABC. Her work intends to seek alternative forms of architecture practices and explore the possibilities of diverse techniques (analogous, computational) through thinking and practice at a planetary scale, especially from a Latin American context.
Creator and Director
Gamacon
Desde 2008 Hugo ha sido uno de los principales impulsores de la industria mexicana de desarrollo de videojuegos. Al formar la organización sin fines de lucro Gamacon (www.gamacon.mx), creó una de las conferencias más importantes de México, fomentando oportunidades educativas y comerciales para los desarrolladores de juegos mexicanos y estadounidenses. Ha trabajado con varias instituciones educativas, asesorando y complementando sus programas académicos y trabaja incansablemente para promover la cultura y el arte mexicano en los juegos.
Hugo también formó parte de la mesa directiva de la Asociación Mexicana de Desarrolladores de Videojuegos (VGMX) de 2017 a 2019, y formó parte del Gobierno de México en la oficina de ProMéxico en Los Ángeles de 2015 a 2018, a cargo de la industria del desarrollo de software, videojuegos, animaciones y medios creativos. Además, ha sido ponente en la Comic Con de San Diego en varias ocasiones.
Since 2008 Hugo has been one of the main drivers of the Mexican game development industry. By forming the non-profit organization Gamacon (www.gamacon.mx), he created one of the most important conferences in Mexico, fostering educational and commercial opportunities for Mexican and American game developers. He has worked with several educational institutions, advising and complementing their academic programs and works tirelessly to promote Mexican culture and art in games.
Hugo was also part of the board of directors of the Mexican Association of Video Game Developers (VGMX) from 2017 to 2019, and was part of the Mexican Government in the ProMéxico office in Los Angeles from 2015 to 2018, in charge of the software development industry, video games, animations and creative media. In addition, he has been a speaker at San Diego Comic Con on several occasions.
Creative Director
Mother Sponge
Founder
Hola Vicu
Artist and Graphic Designer
Andrea Carrillo Iglesias is an artist and graphic designer currently living between Tijuana and Mexico City.
She is a member of coopia and codirects the studio Vish & Lava
Director
Direction, Photography, Script
Marco Aurelio Celis, 28 years old, lives in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. He won second place in the 2019 Nespresso Talents International Competition with the short film Ruffo, which he directed and which was presented during the Cannes Film Festival 2019 and the Morelia International Film Festival of the same year.
He has worked as a director of photography and director in music videos, short films and local feature films. He was director and cinematographer of the short films Luz de Luna (2018) and La Tierra que Habitamos (2019), a winning short film at the Barcelona Film and Human Rights Festival in the category of Best Documentary Short Film.
He participated as a co-director in the 48 Hour Film Project 2019 with the short film Los de allá, which was recognized with the second national place. He also served as a screenwriter with El Cielo no nos pertenece, a winning short in the 2021 edition of the same contest. He was also director of cinematography of Los Fundadores, a Puma de Plata-winning debut film at FICUNAM, directed by Diego Hernández.
Artist & Choreographer
Dimitri Chamblas (born 1974) is a French dancer and contemporary dance choreographer, as well as artistic director and film producer.
His work has been exhibited at Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Geffen Contemporary (MOCA), the Opéra National de Paris, and Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
Over the course of his career he has collaborated with choreographers Lil Buck, Boris Charmatz, William Forsythe, Benjamin Millepied, and Mathilde Monnier; artists Christian Boltanski, Dan Colen, Andy Goldsworthy, Kim Gordon, Alex Prager, and Xavier Veilhan; director Rebecca Zlotowski; creative directors Virginie Viard, Jean Paul Gautier, and Karl Lagerfeld; composer Heiner Goebbels; and conductor Barbara Hannigan.
¡Encontramos arte en donde quiera que veamos! Historia del arte, cultura pop y artistas locales en un solo lugar!
We find art everywhere we look! Art history, pop culture, and local artists in one place!
Director
Manuella Dalle studied political science and sociology before she started directing documentaries for the show “Strip tease” for the major French channel France 3. After this, she captured the world of contemporary art by directing portraits of artists ranging from photographers to street-artists to sculptors for the internationally recognized Franco-German channel Arte.
In 2013, while living in Los Angeles, she directed a feature film on a French-Colombian priest that decided to create a multi-cultural church. This documentary granted her international recognition: it was shown in many film festivals around the world and was bought in several countries.
She also directed some free-form videos reflecting on contemporary art and technology (“Je me souviens” for 3eme scène de l’Opéra de Paris and « Scan 1 » for Biennale de Montrouge).
In 2016, she focussed on the world of young artists at the Opéra and initiated the documentary “Opéra Académie” that also aired on major French channel France 2.
She moved back to Los Angeles where she made severals films about and with artists such as Ed Ruscha or Kim Gordon.
She is now doing a documentary about dance in a high security men prison at Lancaster, California.
Sketchbook Club Tijuana es un club social que mantiene un espacio positivo de estímulo y motivación.
Sketchbook Club Tijuana is a social club that maintains a positive space of encouragement and motivation.
Todos somos y hacemos Diseño.
We all are and we all do Design.
Founder
Dear Honey
Illustrator
Mexican illustrator Charles Glaubitz lives in Tijuana, a block away from the beach where he used to surf, breakdance, freestyle and such since he was young boy. Born from a German-American father and mother from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico he now splits his professional time between his art and his teaching at the San Diego City College, across the border.
CLIENTS
Rolling Stone Magazine, Info World Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Jensen Group, The Townsend Agency,Lumbre Magazine, Old Globe Theaters, Harcourt & Brace, Rafael Lopez Illustration, Aiga San Diego, Nickelodeon Magazine, Revista DF, Visual Asylum,Murphy Design, San Diego City College, Motorized Transit System, San Diego Youth & community services, San Diego Community Clinics, UCLA Magazine, UCSD Magazine, Baltimore Magazine, American Airlines, Spirit Magzine, PC Magazine, PlanSponsor Plansponsor Magazine, Storage Magazine.
AWARDS/PUBLICATIONS
Illustrations have been recognized by American Illustration 22, 24 and Comunication Arts Magazine 2002 Fresh section, 3×3 Magazine 2012, 2013.
Multidisciplinary Visual Artist
Multidisciplinary Visual Artist. In my work I explore the constructions of nature on a micro and macro level; the diverse elements that conform it, the complexity of its systems, the geological processes, its natural cycles as well as reflect on our relationship to nature.
I delve into these notions of nature from different viewing points, by circling between environmental science and philosophical elements. I re-appropriate graphic symbols that represent scientific data and add new invented ones; I use found imagery and re-contextualize it forming imagined geologies that contain layers of visual information that evokes the transformation of our ecosystem, serving as both, a commentary and a reflection on our present imprint from an ecological view.
I work across disciplines such as drawing, painting, mixed media and installation; using materials like paper, collage, found imagery and textiles depending on the nature of the work.
I graduated from my BA at the University of the State of Baja California, 2009. I’ve participated in collective and solo shows in the Tijuana, San Diego and Los Angeles area, as well as Mexico City, Monterrey and Oaxaca. I was a grant recipient of FONCA Jóvenes Creadores (2019-20); I’ve been rewarded with Artists Residencies in Amsterdam, Melbourne, Oaxaca and Enschede NL. I’ve participated in National and International Biennales in Mexico since 2014.
Founder
Proyecto.Anda
Proyecto Anda es una fundación sin fines de lucro para crear una comunidad inclusiva y activa para personas con discapacidad.
Architect
Jorge Gracia is a Mexican Architect who graduated from Universidad Iberoamericana Noroeste in 1997, he is the founder and principal of graciastudio (est. 2004).
Recipient of multiple awards and recognitions, both at the national and international level, within the practice of architecture, including: ’30 promesas 2009’ Grupo Expansion, ‘Design Vanguard 2012’ Architectural Record, ‘Emerging Voices 2013’ Architectural League of New York, ‘Obra del Año 2013’ ArchDaily, ‘Best of the Best’ Red Dot Awards 2014 and ’10 Despachos generadores de cambio 2016’ Grupo Expansion Obras.
His international conferences include ‘Virginia Tech’ in Blacksburg Virginia, ‘Australian Institute of Architects’ (2013), ‘Architectural Record Innovation Conference’ (2014) in Los Angeles California and ‘Cooper Union’ (2013) in New York.
Founder of Escuela Libre de Arquitectura (2014), school of Architecture in downtown Tijuana, where he is currently the Director.
Co-founder
Temporary Office
Professor
Universidad Iberoamericana
Creative Director, Illustrator, Graphic Designer, and Painter.
As I grew up, I realized my interest in drawing and decided to study something related. I got a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and then I started working in different companies in departments such as marketing, graphic design, editorial and illustration. In addition, I have over seven years working as an illustrator.
Twelve years ago, I decided to move to the city of Tijuana for the first time and I started working in the area of web design and social media. Since I was always drawing and illustrating as a hobby, I was looking to start working on more important projects.
In 2015 I returned to my hometown and started working in a newspaper, in the illustration department, after a few years, I started working in a government department, where I developed programs to help poor children.
Nowadays, I work as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer with my own project called @MaikMaravilla.
Researcher of Cultural Studies
El Colegio de la Frontera Norte
Photographer
David Maung is an American photographer who has worked extensively in Tijuana, Mexico, since 1991 where he has developed a keen and intimate understanding of the complex and dynamic issues that define the region.
His work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Life, The Washington Post, European Pressphoto Agency, Catholic News Service, Al-Jazeera, Der Spiegel, Courrier International, Gatopardo, Proceso, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights and Smithsonian. His work has been exhibited in the United States, Germany, Mexico and Colombia.
David organizes workshops and activities to foment dialogue on the ethics, aesthetics and social responsibility of photography. His work as an educator seeks to provide a better understanding of U.S.-Mexico border issues and create opportunities to explore the unique visual, social and cultural panorama of the U.S./Mexico border region.
His personal photography work gives David a chance to reflect on internal perceptions of place and the passage of time, which provides a welcome counterbalance to his work as a photojournalist
Founder
Perro y Arena
Perro y Arena is a ceramics project and design studio by Tijuana-born artist Socrates Marko Medina.
Socrates’s work is a visual poetry, exploring the spiritual connection between humans and the Baja Californian fauna. The clay he shapes reflects the textures and tones of Baja’s Mediterranean landscapes, while his animal figurines transport us to a mythical world where we can dance with coyotes and hares under the moonlight. Each piece is meticulously crafted by hand in his Tijuana studio.
Socrates’s artistic journey began during his Bachelor’s in Architecture with a minor in Art History at Cal Poly Pomona, where his first encounter with ceramics sparked an intuitive and nostalgic connection. While working in the design field in Los Angeles, he founded Perro y Arena in 2018, initially as a personal endeavor to share his creations with friends and family.
In 2021, he returned to his native Tijuana, turning his artistic passion into a full-time pursuit. He has been part of various exhibitions across the US and Mexico, earning awards such as the Premio Nacional de la Cerámica XLV and serving as an artist in residence at the Mingei International Museum during San Diego Design Week in 2022.
The studio actively partners with like-minded creatives who share a profound passion for and connection to the natural environment. Through these interdisciplinary collaborations, Perro y Arena seeks to create a richer tapestry that celebrates the intersection of art and nature.
Perro y Arena is not just a ceramics studio; it’s an invitation to step into a world where art and design seamlessly blends with nature, and myths come to life through clay.
Academic Coordinator
CETYS Universidad Tijuana
Academic Coordinator and professor at CETYS Universidad campus Tijuana.
Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science: Intelligent Systems at Instituto Politécnico Nacional. Research interests: optimization, intelligent systems, robotics, neuroscience, human interface devices, computer graphic, software design and electronics.
Associate Professor
Universidad de Monterrey
Passionate self-taught 3D, motion, and design artist with experience in advertising, videogames, education, and digital marketing. In the last 2 years, I have been pushing my skills to teams management and multiple projects, helping me to develop a meticulous artistic perspective not only in this field but in general art itself.
I’ve been had the opportunity to collaborate with national brands as a motion designer freelancer, and Lead campaigns in a national university in Mexico. As a 3D artist, I’ve worked in AAA titles as an environment and props artist.
Graphic Designer
Teacher
Cedim Mexico
Cartoonist and Character Designer
IAMO
Curator
Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá – MAMBO
Head of UX & Product Design
FreeWill
Founder
Paper Panas
Founder
FreshForm
Faculty and L&D Consultate
School of Business at CETYS Universidad
Architect & Designer
Originally from Peru, Giacomo Castagnola lived and worked for many years in the Tijuana-San Diego border region, where he established Estudio Germen, an architecture and design studio investigating the self-organizing, “informal” city. Currently working between Mexico City and San Francisco, much of Castagnola’s work explores the in-betweens and overlaps of document, body, furniture, and architecture in an attempt to create different structures and systems of exhibition to make galleries and museums function more like public spaces.
His evolving family of designs and furniture pieces begin with objects that react to interaction with the body of the user; followed by loitering street benches that intervene into left-over areas in public space; to body-containers made by the repeated accretion of a single unit of the same material; and finally to interconnected tables that develop into art exhibition display platforms. By accumulation and expansion, his designs aim to transforms space and to extend the body.
Art Director and Designer
Taller de Marca
Diseñador y productor gráfico independiente. Ha trabajado en proyectos tanto corporativos y publicitarios como del mundo del arte y el entretenimiento, diseñando para clientes como: Levi’s, Adidas, Miller beer y GlobalSat entre otros.
Independent graphic designer and producer. He has worked on corporate and advertising projects and in the world of art and entertainment, designing for clients such as: Levi’s, Adidas, Miller beer, and GlobalSat among others.
Professor and Researcher
Facultad de Arquitectura Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
Artist
My work is the evolution of memories, dreams, and reflections with my surroundings. I collect objects that transmit intimacy, or items that have a high energy imprint. These objects, along with ancient creation stories and myths serve as inspiration for my sculptures and paintings.
Adding details to my everyday search of beauty, they help elaborate a visual journal that explores my identity, vulnerability and internal awareness. I am particularly attracted to organic elements that have a life expectancy or that change their material state. The slow process of decay and metamorphoses is a revelation that renders life ever-present.
