So today (Tuesday) we met up with the guys from Plenty; Pablo Alfieri and Mariano Farias. It’s so awesome to connect with these creative guys! The reason of our world-trip is to meet up with creative people from all over the world and to talk about the passion we share. Luckily I (Jordi) was feeling a lot better, since I was really sick of food poisoning yesterday! So we were pretty excited this morning to finally meet Pablo and Mariano in person!
We had an appointment with them at 12.00pm to drop by at the studio located in Nuñez, Buenos Aires. Pablo and Mariano are the founders of Plenty which they started 3 years ago next april. The company is growing rapidly and they now already have 14 employees working on 6 projects right now for Nickelodeon, FoxLife, HBO, Volkswagen and more. We had a very relaxed inspiring talk for over 2 hours about their (creative) vision, the business side of working as a creative, the culture and much more! It’s great to see we share the same passion for always looking for new ways to make things; to experiment with new techniques. Always try to come up with concepts you have no idea how to make, so you have to learn new techniques en rediscover yourself as a maker. Make films/motion products where it’s not clear how it has been made, is it 3D or not, digital or analogue!? They pretty much confirmed our main idea of this trip: you have to always push your boundaries to be innovatory, to make yourself stand out of the crowd and bring something new to the creative world. Mariano had a quote: ‘The impossible is in the mind of the lazy’. That’s something we can really relate to; we started this whole trip because we believe we should not let any ‘excuse’ hold us back from chasing our dreams. We think in possibilities and not impossibilities!
We also spoke of more practical things; about working with clients and the tasks they have as owners/founders of Plenty in comparison with their employees. They talked us through their current projects and the fact that they always make what they want to make and not just what the clients want them to make. In example, if the client wants a white background and they prefer an orange background, they show the orange background on their site and portfolio!
After our conversation they showed us a local drink they have here: Mate. It’s a small cup (originally made from wood) with dried grass/ herbals (Yerba Mate) in it and some sugar if you like. They put a small amount of hot water in it and then you can drink/sip it with a metal straw/tube (see pictures below). It’s basically a very strong tea, and it’s not just a drink, it’s a social activity. You share one cup with your friends and just hang-out. It has an energizing effect, like coffee. We both tried it and it was great! We filmed it for the video blog we’re still working on.
After our talk in the studio they took us to a local restaurant to have lunch and we talked a bit more about all kind of things. It was a great, awesome, inspiring, motivating day! It’s great to know we made some friends over here in Buenos Aires!
Jordi & Daan
