MARIO ALCANTARA-MONTEIRO

I am a creative director, designer, artist and urbanist based in London, UK. Firstly educated in music and visual arts and passionate about politics, urban culture and development, I began my creative career in entertainment, first as a music blogger at 14 and later as a DJ and event promoter at 17 while living between Luanda and Lisbon. In 2013 I moved to the England to pursuit my degree in Architecture at the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Brighton, where I was awarded the 2017 South East Degree Prize by the Royal Institute of British Architects for my thesis on Brighton's Madeira Drive heritage and transportation redevelopment. After visiting studios such as Heatherwick Studio and AL_A in London, I decided to leave the industry and kickstart my own creative practice using my early experience in digital design, marketing and visual arts as well as my human and systems-thinking from architecture, taking on branding, communications, graphic design and advertising gigs for small clients in the entertainment space as well as start-ups in other sectors. I spent two years expanding and self-teaching on visual communications, advertising and business while learning on the field from other designers, creative leaders and agency founders, as well as studying from the likes of Pentagram and modernist projects such as the New York Subway graphic system by Massimo Vignelli, the social and sustainable design writings of Victor Papanek, Swiss typography by Emil Ruder, Volkswagen's 'Think Small' ads or IBM's corporate identity system by Paul Rand. This experience led me to opportunities with local agencies and consultancies where I landed my first pitch at Canco Agency for Oddbox, an emerging start-up invested in agriculture and sustainability. In the same year, I directed a series of events between London's entertainment and retail business BOXPARK and TribalSoul, a London-based collective promoting African electronic music and co-produced immersive networking events for the creative industry in London and Paris. In 2019 I was invited to join the in-house team of Egg LDN, the prominent music venue and nightclub in Kings Cross, where I worked as a brand designer making everything from logos, posters, OOH ads and digital content, and later as the art director overseeing the creative production for the club's main brand, sub-brands, event campaigns and partnerships with major brands such as El Row and Amsterdam Dance Event. The role also allowed me to co-produce and perform at some of the first African electronic music events held at a major club in the UK. In 2020, I decided to launch my first creative company in collaboration with Cape-Verdean artist and graphic designer Amadeo Carvalho, Noance Studio, a London-based branding studio working across culture and social impact. Later on, I had the chance of expanding my knowledge working alongside Claudio Ribeiro-Krause, a veteran brand strategist and branding graduate professor from Brazil based between Germany and Italy. In 2021 we got awarded the Silver Prize at Dieline Awards by Adobe for our brand identity system for Colina, a sustainable F&B brand placed alongside some of the world's largest brands and agencies - Heinz by JonesRitchieKnowles and Cadbury by Bulletproof. We only had two members of staff at the time.

 

At the turn of the following year, projects expanded into Africa and the US, landing a gig for Ford Motor Company and later the rebrand for the Angolan Architects Association, which allowed me to strengthen my work in the urban environment and the development of my creative practice globally. In 2022, the company expanded beyond branding to provide other services such as product design, interior design, innovation consulting and placemaking. I was later invited to lead the development of the project 'Nossa Ginga', the first urban and social development initiative aimed at reviving and regenerating the old city centre of Luanda alongside local authorities, community and multi-sector partners. I directed and recruited a team of designers, strategists, architects, planners, academic volunteers, community ambassadors and specialist advisors for this intervention. Subsequently, I was invited to collaborate on a council development pitch for Luanda's island beachside and a slum upgrading research project in partnership with Arpino, an architecture and industrial design firm based in Luanda and Portugal. At 27, I was admitted to the Royal Society of Arts (the RSA) as a fellow and invited as a judge for the Student Design Awards (SDAs) where I had the chance of working alongside senior architects, engineers and policy makers from Network Rail and local councils on the brief 'Transformation Station', a challenge looking to transform England's train stations into appealing, inclusive and productive community spaces. Later that year Noance Studio evolved into TRSFRM to aggregate both corporate, institutional and social projects. I helped develop over 20 projects across branding and innovation in the arts, entertainment, hospitality, fashion, travel, trade, charity, healthcare and public space in markets such as Spain, the UAE, UK, USA, Cape Verde and Angola with brands such as SushiSamba and W Hotel, as well as proposals and public tenders for organisations such as the United Nations, COP28 and government. Besides my work in design and the arts, I work as charity volunteer and mentor for young diverse creatives. I am currently pursuing further education in Urban Development Planning, as well as building Angolan's cultural digital archive and ETHNIK Dance Lab, a global community-led electronic music and art project.