We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yani Arabena a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Yani, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I also studied Graphic Design and Type design. In 2007 (and for 7 years), I had the opportunity to teach Typography at the University of Buenos Aires (FADU). There I met Guille Vizzari, today my partner at work and in life, with whom we started a non-commercial but very significant project that allowed us to get to know each other and became our first work together as a creative duo. At that time, I was passionate about gestural calligraphy and Guille about illustration, so we decided to work on a notebook where we merged what we knew best: Illustration and calligraphy.

There we explored new techniques, we learned, we drew letters, and week after week we had fun, we shared in a playful way a work process. Since that day we work together merging what we do best. Today we have our graphic design studio specialized in Type Design, Lettering, Illustration and calligraphy. A design studio without ego, where we enhance the best that each one has to grow and complement the other.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We’ve always put the work of our hands above all else. We come from two very manual crafts –calligraphy and illustration– and that made us develop over time a love for every graphic piece that was handmade, and to master our techniques in our own way. YaniGuille&Co. started very humbly, with Yani and Guille living together and doing freelance work at home. Over time we started building a family, so workspace got a bit compromised, but client work always got to us very naturally. Our studio began to grow slowly with each project, being recognized by companies, then international awards, but also by colleagues we admire. And this, we still believe plays an important role, because it means that somehow the work you do is raising the bar, and that is our main goal for each project we do. To raise the standards of how things are done locally in Argentina, but also being recognized internationally. After the pandemic, our friend Agus Pizarro Maire joined the studio, enhancing our day to day work, and bringing a very own look and at the same time with the same philosophy for the profession.

Nowadays, we can proudly say that we have our own beautiful workplace to give an extra boost to our day to day production, and were all the team can meet and join forces.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Going step by step. Evolving not only with market trends, but training ourselves as solid professionals. Studying, sharing new knowledge. Always being authentic and generating graphic pieces that become the reference for others. Keeping our essence as people and as professionals. I believe that passion and conviction are contagious, and that can be seen in our work over the years.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

In 2007, when we first met teaching Typography, we were both working at design companies. So gradually we started to share freelance work together, and began to nurture an inner desire to develop work of our own, that represented our own voice or our own way of doing things. With time, that utopian desire became a reality, and we consequently faced the need to understand the business more, and see what we could offer that made us unique.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yaniguille.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yaniguille/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yaniandguille
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/yaniguille
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/yaniguille
• Other: https://www.behance.net/yaniguille

Image Credits
Ph: Santi Tenenbaum