Collaboration is such a core pillar to your work. Can you talk about this collaboration and the storytelling that you aim to convey through Cincoro?
I think first and foremost, with any collaboration, it’s like, ‘Why? Who?’ This year is my fifth year pursuing art as a career. In the last five years, if you look back at some of the projects I’ve done, it’s crazy. Obviously, we have to say no to a lot of things now, because of the level we’ve reached. So anytime something across the table, with a brand like Cincoro, we’re very aware of what it is. We’ve enjoyed the product before.
I had no idea who was behind the brand. ‘Well, the owners are these five NBA legends, not to mention Michael Jordan.’ Your ears tingle a little bit when you hear that. He’s probably the greatest basketball player of all time. Anytime any of us get the opportunity to be around that kind of greatness , how can you say no? Just to be in the same room and the same conversation on the email where his name exists — sign me up.
It was killing two birds with one stone. One, Cincoro is a brand that is respected in their own space, and Michael Jordan is tied to it. From there, ‘Ok, what are we doing? We want to design this bottle.’ And when you look at the bottle, it looks so cool compared to other tequila brands. For me it’s exciting to work on something that just looks different and elevates what my end all, be all, visual looks like.
Those owners of Jeanie, Michael and so forth represent the best brands coming together to envision what a tequila looks and tastes like. How was the process of working with their team to present this next chapter in the Cincoro story?
The people involved are multi-championship level. So even to just be in the same conversation, I feel proud of myself — which rarely happens. ‘Damn, I’m here now.’ What I really enjoyed most was, although you have super crazy famous owners for this brand, the team we started working with from the first day till today, has stayed consistent. It’s not a big team, so I would take Zoom calls with three-to-five people on a call and everybody knows their role. Nobody steps on each other’s toes. There’s not a million cooks in the kitchen.
Very similar to my practice, I don’t know what people think about me, my practice, and how many people are involved — but we pull off some pretty crazy shit, where I assume people think there’s maybe 20 people working here. I find pride and value in that, when I work with other companies that have that same ethos. We have five people pulling off Fendi and Ferrari projects. Everyone proudly wears 10 hats. It’s easier to effortlessly work on something, when both companies are level-headed as far as their teams go. I enjoyed the tight-knit community that built this project from the ground up.
