Ignacio Candel

I started as an illustrator. For years I drew editorial and concept work for clients like The New Yorker, Coca-Cola, Adidas and Rolling Stone, and exhibited from Dublin to Madrid — including a showcase at Casa de América. That decade at the drawing board taught me the craft, and the standards I still hold.

Games came next. I moved from artist to art lead to art director, and learned how to build a team, scale a pipeline and keep a consistent standard across many projects, studios and devices. Shipping at that volume teaches you to balance quality with deadlines and budgets — not just to make nice pictures.

I’ve also built things of my own — Love & Paper, a consumer brand, and Spinative, an AI product — and earlier in my career I worked in enterprise sales and marketing. So I tend to think about creative the way the business does: the audience, the outcome and the cost, not only the artwork.

I’m ready for the next chapter. Games are where I’ve spent recent years, but the work travels — art direction, brand, product and leading people apply in any industry that takes them seriously.