Valeria Moreiro: Work Hard and Follow Your Instincts
Co-Founder and Creative Director of Not Real
by Elizabeth Lavis
|12 Dec 2023
Valeria Moreiro’s design-driven creative studio, NotReal specializes in high-end visual content, art direction, CGI and animation. A Co-Founder and Creative Director, Moreiro sees her role as having fun with words, colors, and shapes to bring joy to the world with an instinct-driven, creative approach that yields incredible results.
“Always work hard and follow your instincts,” she says. “Make time for introspection to nourish your inner connection and desires. Believe in yourself.” Moreiro follows her own advice, and her design journey is based on instinct and the deep desire to work in the arts. “I’m not sure I even questioned it too much,” she says. “My choices were interior design, architecture, industrial design, and scenography. I wanted to do something related to the arts for sure.”
Moreiro started young, constantly tapping into her creative side as a child. “When I was a little girl, I was always creating, drawing, writing, and making stuff,” she says. “Eventually, my parents decided to send me part-time to art school. By the time I finished high school, getting a design degree at the university felt like the right balance between artistic and cultural/communication sides.” Moreiro’s path would eventually take her to the Rhode Island School of Design on a Fullbright scholarship and finally to Madrid, Spain, where she opened NotReal’s second location with her partner Milton Gonzalez. The first location is in her hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Her design process starts with getting complete clarification on what the client’s end goals are. “We try to fully understand their needs and requests to come up with the right conceptual solution,” she says. “The requests and deliverables have to be 100 percent clear. Then we put together mood boards and references to determine the tone of voice, look, and feel of the project.”
"eBay - The A-Z for A.G", Not Real
Moreiro pairs the mood board phase with research and development, which allows her further explore stylistic elements and come up with unique graphic developments. “Once the path is aligned with the client’s needs, we work internally on each scene and style frame in detail,” she says. “As Creative Director, I’m constantly zooming in to see the big picture and details. Then I ask the people on my team to be focused on one specific task so that the result of each design has as many details as possible for the highest quality product.”
NotReal’s clients stay enmeshed throughout the entire process. “We always look to be in tune with the client’s thoughts and needs,” Moreiro says. “We make weekly calls to present the week's process and receive feedback. For us, it’s important to make sure our decisions are not only well-received in terms of design and animation but also regarding the client’s business.”
NotReal’s client service approach is the end product of years of communication trial and error. “We’ve been evolving in how we communicate with our clients,” Moreiro says. “At one point, we realized that making the project process as predictable as possible was important so that clients knew what to expect at each presentation and review. That way, they get a realistic sense of what stage of development the project is in and understand that it’s all part of a process.”
This sophisticated system of constant communication keeps NotReal’s creative team and their clients on the same page most of the time, but there are predictable bumps in the road occasionally. When Moreiro hears harsh criticism from a client, she steps back, absorbs the concerns, and makes proper changes. “I push myself to let go of my ego and listen to what they want our team to achieve,” she says. “I prefer not to give a quick response, but rather just listen and then think about what needs to be adjusted to keep on moving.”
Moreiro’s instincts tell her that her future lies in excelling at and growing NotReal. “I picture myself running the studio for the rest of my life,” she says. “The business will definitely change. We could move the office somewhere else or change teams. Clients and requests will evolve, but I know I will want to wake up and come into the studio.”
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