The cover design for the 2018 newsletter of the General Association of Authors of Uruguay (Agadu) earned Pimba! Estudio—founded by Universidad ORT Uruguay Larrosa and Matías Mirza, graphic design graduates of Universidad ORT Uruguay —its second CLAP Selección Award. This time, the award was in the category of Best Illustration Applied to a Publishing Project.
The CLAP Awards is an event that recognizes the best in industrial and graphic design in Latin America. It also gives studios, agencies, design firms, and independent professionals the opportunity to measure themselves against their peers across the region.
A five-pillar design
The project created by Pimba! consisted of a typographic illustration of "2018," which was intended to serve as the cover for Agadu's institutional newsletter that year. The studio designed music, dance, theater, literature, and art—the fields associated with the organization—in an abstract and geometric style.
“We highlighted the main areas covered by Agadu’s services. These five concepts are reflected in the design of each issue from 2018. That was the central focus. We always start with the client’s request and work from there to find a solution,” said Larrosa, who leads the firm alongside Mirza.
This project earned Pimba! its second CLAP Selección Award. Last year, the firm received the award in the Best Graphic Design category for its redesign of the corporate identity of the Maldonado City Government.
Prominence and international reach
According to Larrosa, the CALP Awards represent a unique opportunity to gain international recognition in the world of design. The event is organized by Veredictas Internacional, a specialized agency with more than two decades of experience, and by FOROALFA, the most active design community in Ibero-America.
Winning the award, he said, “is a wonderful honor” for the studio and helps spread the word about their work beyond national borders. The event featured designers from Latin America, the United States, Spain, and Portugal.
A study that puts ORT in its DNA
Pimba! Studio was founded in 2017 by Larrosa and Mirza. At the time, both were in their final year of college when they decided to open the studio while taking their last courses, combining their complementary skill sets. While Larrosa would focus on graphic design, Mirza would focus on web design and programming.
“We mainly focus on branding projects, but we also work on everything related to editorial, digital, and web design,” explained Larrosa.
The studio currently has six regular clients, including Agadu, the Uruguayan Chamber of Capitalization Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Cucacc), and the motorcycle gear brand UruRacer. Other clients, he explains, despite being seasonal, have chosen them since the firm’s inception, such as the Napoleón restaurant in Punta del Este, for which Pimba is handling the redesign of the menu.
The work the studio does depends on the brand, but according to Larrosa, it ranges from managing social media and redesigning corporate identities to creating signage or graphics for events, as well as internal materials such as newsletters and mailings.