We launched a capsule collection together with Alberto Miranda, a Spanish illustrator of whom we are tremendous fans.

Alberto, better known as Guajiro Bampo , has collaborated with major brands such as Netflix, The New York Times, El País, Harvard Business Review, KFC, Soho House... and with music groups such as Izal or Miss Caffeina.

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Visuals for Izal 2019

In this capsule collection together with Minimalism, Alberto Miranda wanted to reflect something as universal as LOVE ❤️ . He has developed a total of 6 illustrations, of which the Minimalism community has selected 3.

Know the three most voted designs

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The illustrations are tiny and are placed on the chest of our organic cotton t-shirts . This collection follows the same dynamics as the previous collaborations, we open a pre-sale process of about 30 days and, once this period ends, we only manufacture the garments that have been sold. In this way we avoid the generation of surplus.

Once the collection ends, these illustrations are not "marketed" again.

Go to the capsule collection

Below is the first part of the interview with Alberto Miranda in which you will find out who is behind this very special collection.

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First of all, could you tell us who Alberto Miranda is?

Well, the truth is that my life has very little romance. I am a freelance illustrator and graphic designer born in an industrial town in Alicante, called Elda, during the suffocating Levantine summer of 1991. I studied Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Alicante and a year after finishing my degree I went to live in the Balkans as a volunteer. After that year I came to live and work in Madrid, which has been my city ever since.

Do you remember when you started illustrating? How has your evolution been in recent years?

I draw since I can remember (and according to my mother since before). I was always good at the truth and it is one of those things that happen in life in which a person, by the mere fact of being born, finds their perfect life match. Until I was 16 years old, the only thing I did in my life was draw, it was my way of entertaining myself. Then I gave it up for music for a few years but it didn't go very well, I never felt as comfortable as drawing. So at the age of 25 I decided to draw again and recover something of myself that I felt I had lost.

I'm a pretty cerebral person so I literally came up with a plan to draw again. The year I went to live abroad I decided to buy a notebook and draw a page a day, every day. Regardless of whether he was inspired, tired, etc. The important thing was to draw and reacquaint myself with the language and fall in love with drawing again. After that year I told myself that I had to find my own voice and my own style, so I spent another year finding something that I liked and that I felt had an interesting path. So little by little I began to work on the foundations of what I do today.

And as things happen in life, at least in mine, one January 2018 I received an email from The Guardian US asking me to illustrate a long-running article with all the candidates of the 2020 American elections. And that's how my life began. “professional” journey and it is what has brought me here.

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Illustration for The Guardian US Elections 2020

Alberto, do you consider yourself an artist?

No way. It is a term that I do not like at all. Not because I don't like the term, but because I think it is a concept that has been distorted to the extreme and personally I am not interested in being related to the meaning it currently has. I don't define myself in any particular way since they all seem quite pompous or self-centered to me. I tell almost everyone that I'm a painter, I quite like that one.

And how do you feel when you are illustrating?

As I mentioned, I think that drawing is something inherent in me. It is something that has always been with me. Although I have to say that over the years I have realized that drawing is only a consequence and that what I really like is creating, that is what comes naturally to me. I think it can be summed up as: let me do whatever, but let me do it my way. I'm not going to be one of those people who say "drawing relaxes me" , shit 💩 , creating something stresses me out. It's a birth. It is voluntarily submitting to a self-imposed pressure in which you pour all your insecurities, desires or complexes. I dedicate myself to this and I have some ambitions for which I put pressure on myself, so there is always a layer of demand. I myself become the father of Agassi. Even so, it is something that I love and that I will never be able to stop doing, that is why I hate the word artist. Creative work is hard work that requires discipline, hours and sweat. The romanticization of things is never good because it tends to sugarcoat reality.

Do you think it is important to find your own style?

For any creative person, the important thing is to find a speech, not a style. Style is a consequence of discourse. If you create a good foundation, the steps you take in the future will be consistent and follow a line. I can be accused of many things but I can never be accused of not being consistent with my principles and what I do is nothing more than an extension of myself. That is, I am my work and my work is me. Style can be fashion, trends or references and that is temporary. It is the discourse that remains.

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Illustration for The Telegraph Magazine 2020

How would you define your speech and your graphic proposal?

I would sum it up in 3 words: universal, simple and contemporary. Universal because I like to use visual codes without text so that they can be understood by most of the world. Simple, because like everything in this life, the simpler the better and contemporary because I am a child of my time and I have to talk about what I know. In my case I focus a lot on late capitalism.

Do you think that one is born with a type of aesthetic sensibility or does it develop?

Hard to say. I have always believed that you are born because I have it, but the reality is that I do not know. I don't know if it was the influence of my surroundings and their tastes. From my father or my brother, who kept telling me and showing me what was "good" and what wasn't. I think that aesthetic sensitivity is part of the personality and I think that we are not very clear about how it is formed either.

How important is it for you to develop personal projects?

For me, personal projects are something vital. It is also something that I try to do on a very regular basis. It is in personal projects where we can grow the most and where we do something out of pure altruism. In addition, I have always been very much in favor of the philosophy that if you don't get the assignments you think you deserve, you should do them yourself to show what you are capable of doing. In recent months I have worked on a very special one and, I hope, that by the time this interview comes out it will have already been published 👇 .

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Personal project 2021

Let's talk about the topic "brands". What are they to you? How do you think they should be?

Well, brands are something that is irremediably attached to me because I have grown up in a world in which brands dominate everything. I can make all the movies I want about what a world without consumerism would be like, but the reality is that I am a child of capitalism and brands are as much a part of my life as any other element of my personality. Fortunately or unfortunately, brands help us define ourselves and show others some traits of our personality or our own individuality. We all express ourselves through what we consume and how we consume it. Even not consuming is a form of consumption.

The brands were born as a response to differentiating the different types of products. Giving personality to a company so that human beings feel identified with them. We can never forget that the ultimate goal of a brand is to sell but I believe, or want to believe, that currently I am not worth that. we need brands to be committed to more human values. Not just individual values ​​that go to our most basic needs. We need them to be committed to what we are committed to. Our duty as consumers is to know how to differentiate which brands are doing it to ride the wave and which brands are doing it because they really believe that it is the way to do things.

What is your opinion of Minimalism?

I was already a follower and consumer of your product before this collaboration so I can't be very objective. From the moment I discovered you I feel very identified with everything you offer. From how you see fashion, from an aesthetic point of view, to how you understand the brand, with the NoBrand for example and of course with your commitment to the environment and fair production. I am of the opinion that you have to consume much less and consume much better and I think that Minimalism fits into that philosophy.

Finally, a book or reading that you recommend?

Well, during the first confinement I read The Plague by Albert Camus and I was shocked. Camus is one of the authors who have shaped my personality the most and this was a book I had pending and what better time than a global pandemic to read a book about the bubonic plague. I know that there will be many people who the last thing they want is to keep thinking about pandemics, but it is a book that I recommend to everyone because it is not a book about pandemics, it is a book about the human condition. The plague in this case is just a vehicle.

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Personal project 2020

Minimalism and Alberto Miranda t-shirt collection

Alberto Miranda's website

Alberto Miranda's Instagram

November 02, 2021 — Jesús Castillejo Gordón

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