Daniela Poch & Ignacio Serrano, Screen Printers & Graphic Designers – Maker Profile
Every time I thought the Chile sourcing trip couldn’t get any better – it did. It wasn’t just San Pedro Atacama and its endless beauty that I fell hard for. It was the people, too. Just about every person I interacted with kept hookin’ it up, big and small. Daniela and Ignacio were no exception – hustlin’ to make sure that STMT X Chile would go down as one of the best, most badass STMT Kits ever.
I was introduced to Dani by way of Belgium and four degrees of separation – a mutual friend set up a studio visit so we could discuss a potential collab. Instant lovefest! Dani kept pulling notebooks out of desks and cabinets. She would yell out in excitement – “look this!” – and it would always be some rad vintage office supply, like a mini paper cutter she scored in Berlin. The blade was old but it still cut a mean edge. MY PEOPLE!!
A graphic designer, Dani is the owner of La Mano Ediciones. She designs and hand-makes beautiful notebooks, memo books, and more. Dani meticulously performs every single step of production, from screen-printing to trimming to binding. When you hold one in your hand, you feel the love. You see it.
Don’t just take my word for it – watch her work her magic. (Or pick up a Chile Kit to hold one for yourself!) But Dani’s skillz don’t stop there. The Ruma Exhibit features her work where she transforms paper scraps collected from printer’s waste bins into things of beauty – how cool is that??
Dani’s only one half of this rad duo. Dani met Nacho through a mutual friend. Nacho was looking for a studio mate to share his large space. They Skyped. They instantly vibed. Dani liked the design and aesthetic of Nacho’s space. It all lined up.
Nacho is a graphic designer and owner of Cuartocuarto - Estudio de Impresión. He runs screenprinting workshops out of their studio.
He’s also the founder of Proyecto Aporte Voluntario, an organization that brings people together to design and screenprint posters reflectin’ their local culture. Nacho wants to see what the locals do, how they do, and help them translate it visually so outsiders get a peek into their community. Ummm again – OUR PEOPLE!
Listening to Nacho talk about the way he and Dani work together, support each other, you can tell they’re a perfect match. They’ve got a list a mile long of all the projects they want to tackle together, but their slammed schedule hasn’t given them a free sec to make one happen… until we came along! Super stoked that they busted out a coloring book made specially for RAHstrs!
BIG hugs to Dani and Nacho for taking time to answer our questions and for creating a little somethin’ somethin’ for RAHstrs to celebrate Fiestas Patrias, Chile’s National Independence Day. Download 10 Chairs and Stools Coloring Book and get to it – color away!
1 - First, the basics: pencil or pen, ruled sheets or grid?
Dani: Usually I use blank sheets. If I ever buy a grid notebook I like them to be small. 5mm max. If they’re ever bigger than that they remind me of high school. I feel annoyed by the space in between lines, I feel like it obligates you to write with big letters. To write and draw I’d rather use black gel pens.
Nacho: Blank sheets, fluid black gel ink pen.
2 - What’s your favorite Chilean food to grub on? Chilean drink to sip?
N: It’s hard to decide, but while writing this we put ourselves in the position of, “What would we miss if we were not here?” And one big-time one would be empanadas de pino (we’ve actually talked about making a whole fanzine out of our own daily tour around the city – and/or the country – searching for the best). They’re just too good. And talking about plates – definitely Juan Brasilia’s beef and salad. There they cook the best beef on the oven with Chilean salad – tomatoes, onions and cilantro – in the whole entire country. And as the foodie I am, I could not stick to just a couple of snacks and dishes, so yes, there’s also a sándwich that I would miss with my soul: Churrasco Chacarero. Slices of beef, green fresh beans, tomatoes in slices and green pepper on marraqueta, that beautiful national bread that looks like a butt.
And to sip: Chilean red wine, Chilean white wine, Chilean wine, Chilean wine. (And for sure, piscolas.)
D: If I were not living in Chile, I think what I would miss the most would be empanadas de pino. I just love them. Completo Italiano is on my list of favorite fast-food meals – I think that there are not hot dogs as good as the Chilean version in the entire world.
And talking about drinks, if the objective is to sip a hot winter drink (and in your way get wasted as hell), Navegado would be my favorite drink. It’s a hot beverage made out of cheap red wine with orange slices, sugar and cinnamon in it. Yum.
3 - Describe the Santiago art scene in three words.
This one has been by far the hardest one for us, since our relation with the Chilean art scene is still an abstract yet to be solved. From our experience as artists and graphic makers, it’s hard to avoid understanding the Chilean art scene as a very segmented experience – as a very divided country in geography, politics and socioeconomic levels. But we think that that perspective is what makes it so rich, and those are most likely the most useful perspectives to consider while experiencing it. Because of that, we have thought in three concepts. More than crystallizing the Chilean art scene, they may help to understand a scene that remains in constant construction.
Access, History/Politics, Territory
4 - What’s the one thing everyone should experience in Chile?
D: I recommend Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende (MSSA) that owns a unique art collection in Chile. And, wherever you go, you cannot miss ferias libres – fairs that are usually attached to grocery stores, displaying all kinds of local and domestic commerce depending of the place that they are placed. Those are my favorites! And at last, any single beachside along the Pacific coast.
N: In Santiago, Persa Bio Bio. Like a feria libre that displays a ridiculous variety of furniture, objects (recent archaeology of the city) and great places to eat on the street as a committed local foodie. Besides that, any place you can trek to along the Andes, but if you have the budget, definitely take your time to go to Puerto Williams, all the way down to the south, right in between the continent and Antarctica. One of my favorite places – you can have a 10-minute walk from wherever you’re staying and experience the world without humans.
5 - You have a jet all fueled up and ready for your own personal World Tour. Where you headed?
D: I just saw a documentary called Maidentrip, and all I want to do in this moment is to craft a little sailboat and not hit land for a good while.
N: I’ll play as Miguel Angel on this one and say a humble EVERYWHERE.
6 - Thanks for making time to crank out a little somethin’ special for RAHstrs! I love that you guys chose to draw stools and chairs from your studio. I’m still obsessing about all the cool stools. How did you think of the idea?
N: We’ve been flirting with the idea of making small zines from our fixations and collections for awhile, and we just saw the chance to start. We started drawing together on a notebook and eventually we noticed that we had something fun and playful to share.
7 - What tools did you use to draw the stools? Did you draw them and then scan? Or a tablet?
N: We drew them by hand and then scanned them.
8 - Did you both do the drawings?
N: Yes, we drew for a a while and chose our favorites, so it’s pretty much half and half. It’s funny because while doodling and goofing around with different ways of synthesizing the stools into their complex silhouettes, the thick
we used merged our different styles into a language that we like a lot. We enjoyed drawing the stools and they’re perfect for coloring in.
