Published by Leonardo Calcagno
Who are you:
We are: Erwin Jiménez, 33, graphic designer, motion graphics artist, musician. Nature and art lover. Yamilet Valdez, 37, executive producer. Cooking enthusiast, food stylist as a hobby.
We’re a husband-wife team. After working together for a few years in a Production Company, we started this small animation studio, Cuadra, focused mainly in motion graphics.
Your current job:
Erwin: I’m in charge of all visual effects, graphics animation, and visualization.
Yamilet: I’m the executive producer and general manager.
In which city are you located?
We are located in Santo Domingo, capital, of the beautiful Caribbean country of Dominican Republic.
A word to define what kind of worker you are:
Relaxed
What tools are essential to your life (app, software, etc..)
In a daily basis, After Effects, Maya, Final Cut and (lately) Premiere, are in the top of the list. We also do a lot of editing in Photoshop. Other apps that we use depending on the project are Illustrator, Boujou, Logic and Color.
What does your office space look like?
Our office is inside our home. We have 2 long desks with 2 workstations: One for the creative work consisting on one Mac Pro, two monitors, two speakers, and a little drawing, cut, and paste area. The other one is the production workstation with a Mac Book Pro, lot of papers, folders, pens, a printer and of course, a big calculator.
What kind of music do you listen when you are working?
Everything you can imagine from every part of the world.
Do you have a way to organize your day to maximize your work?
E: I just like to start work early in the morning with my mind as sharp as possible.
Y: I have an agenda where I write all the things that have to be done, I try to mark them in the order of importance, as I do all the tasks I cross them out, that way I’m sure I didn’t miss anything.
What tips would you give to improve productivity?
Make the complexity of the work according, the time you have for doing it. From there try it looks great and entertaining.
You’re better than your colleagues to:
Going to bed early.
What is the best advice anyone has given you?
Make time for everything. If you find the correct balance, you’ll have time to do everything you want and need to do, without having to work overnight.
What is your best tip for saving time?
Don’t invest too much time in one specific thing. Think as the whole picture instead.
What is your routine start and end of the day?
Take kids to school, do yoga, take a shower, good breakfast, get to work. After work, walk the dog, maybe some beer, eat dinner, put kids to sleep, hang around, watch some Netflix, go to bed.
Aside from your computer and your phone, what gadget can you not you go without?
E: I cannot think of another thing but my phone, if that isn’t it, then something where I can listen to music.
Y: My phone is my main gadget, I always have it with me because often I’m outside the office, that way I can keep track of everything.