Victor Saravia , creative & senior art director at Benelli

Published by Leonardo Calcagno

Who are you:

My name is Victor Saravia, but my friends call me Viko, a nickname given by my wife, I like to focus more on art management and its tendencies, not leaving aside the creativity.

Your current job:

At the moment, I’m working for an important brand called Benelli, with a great team formed by professionals from different nationalities and abilities, great people who give their 100% to the brand.

In which city are you located?

I’m located in Capital Industrial, San Pedro Sula (Honduras)

A word to define what kind of worker you are:

Perfectionist

What tools are essential to your life (app, software, etc..)

Photoshop, Illustrator, and my loyal Wacon Intous

What does your office space look like?

For a certain time, I have decided to work from my apartment, my studio has de ease of being luminous o dark, but in reality, I prefer darkness, because I concentrate better on what I’m working on.

When I want some light, I open a bit the curtains and I see the mountains near my apartment, always with the company of my cat.

For now is a nice place, I hope it stays like that.

What kind of music do you listen when you are working?

It depends on my mood in the moment, I listen to Muse, Empire Of The Sun, MGMT, Jamiroquai, Garbage, Soda Stereo, Queen, Def Leppard, Guns N Roses, etc.

In other occasions to something more chill, like classical music, background ambient music, and once again Muse, old habits don’t die easily.

Do you have a way to organize your day to maximize your work?

I manage everything with time, I organize the days in how much it will take me to finish a requirement or the hours without distractions.

I try to spend not much time on social networks while I work

Something important for me is to maintain coffee near me just to wake up not loose much time, I have approximately 10 months with this routine, and honestly it works perfectly for me.

What tips would you give to improve productivity?

Being very organize and calculating everything and sometimes working from home is your worst enemy because sometimes laziness makes you oversleep and even more if the wakefulness form last day was longer than usual. Or it can be your best friend if you can keep an order.

But if someone gets used to being organized; they can be responsible and the delivery time can be achieved to perfection, this on a personal level has to be attached to coffee to function better.

You’re better than your colleagues to:

I don’t think I’m better than colleagues, on the contrary, I think everyone has different

talents that can be useful to solve daily situations.

What is the best advice anyone has given you?

“Make everything for God and always be grateful with”, this advice is always given by my mother every time we talk through the phone or I visit.

“Always give the best from ourselves”, this advice is given by my father every time he sees one of my works.

“If you always do your best work for everything, the rest will come in addition”, by a great friend and brother who I admire very much, Mr. Miguel Mayen.

What is your best tip for saving time?

Before starting a project, the best is to sit back a few minutes and analyze everything.

Focus first on the things that can be done with less difficulty or takes less time, and leave the ones that take more time or are more complicated to the end so you can dedicate the necessary time.

If the project is big, is best to make a list of how it can turn out without margin of error, to not have problems or reprocesses in the end.

Save always with names and in folders, always very detailed, maintaining an order; because you never when you or a colleague will use it again, is always better to do this since the beginning.

Besides, I’m one of those people who is demanding in terms of file organization, I personally think is a big time saver, and it functions perfectly for me.

What is your routine start and end of the day?

I wake up at 7:30 A.M, pray and prepare myself a cup of coffee and if there’s time I prepare myself breakfast too, I then check my email, then I listen or watch the news for thirty minutes while playing with my cat.

While I work; I listen to the best music on my Spotify playlist, I serve myself another cup of coffee, and at 6:30 or 7:00 P.M I leave everything unless there is an emergency that needs attendance.

I try to write in a project I have started four years ago, it’s something that I truly enjoy spending time with them since I would love to see it published in a few years if not less, well that’s the idea and I try to accomplish it with time.

I watch movies, listen to some music, see references from art management, and see a lot of advertisement for creative festivals.

I like to spend time with my wife and my family, because with this things life wouldn’t be life, I try to maintain an important space for them.

Aside from your computer and your phone, what gadget can you not you go without?

My cell phone always has to be near, for any important email or phone call, the air conditioner control remote has to be near, my headphones shouldn’t be missing either, USB’s where I have stored pictures or sources that are useful on a daily on a daily basis

And I never leave out my cup of coffee, I couldn’t see my table without it.