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A BLUEPRINT FOR A BETTER WORLD
AWARD-WINNING CHILEAN ART DIRECTOR NICOLAS MARDONES ON THE POWER OF ADVERTISING TO INITIATE SOCIAL CHANGE
Nicolas has always done things his own way. This is a habit he picked up on the very day he was born, actually. On a bright day in Santiago, Chile, he decided to come out into this world in a car parked outside the hospital. The doctor took care of his mother right there in the parking as Nicolas rushed to arrive. When Nicolas gets an idea, he goes full speed ahead.
As a child, he was a sports fanatic and lived obsessed with soccer wallpapers and posters. His father was an industrial designer, so he already had the gene for design. Why not design his own posters? At only ten years old, and in just a few months, he taught himself how to use photoshop. A passion for hip hop in his teenagehood led him to his first freelance gig: the design for a rapper’s album cover.
Today, Nicolas lives in New York City and has a brilliant career as an Art Director, one he built over many years working for some of the best advertising agencies in South America. Highlights from his portfolio include a campaign called “Lienzos Eternos” (eternal canvases), which was the springboard for many other humanitarian and socially-driven projects years later. Nicolas actually pitched the Museum of Human Rights in Chile his idea. It was 2019, and Chile was going…