My name on this earth is Vinny Olimpio, an Aquarius child, born just before sunset to catch a fiery glimpse of remembrance in the late 1980s. Growing up in the ghettoes of Minas Gerais, Brazil, my childhood was a collection of street hustle stories, fuelled mostly by adrenaline. School was sucks, so I dropped out, but life taught me through its rocky roads guided by the right mentors.

My journey kicked off with full discipline at 13 and hasn’t stopped to this day. My first job involved separating recycled materials and loading trucks. Eventually, the dreams of becoming an artist began to creep into reality, and my soul had a plan.

At 16, I got a job as a cleaner at a Graphic Design school / Design Studio in Brazil called Imageria. I would wait until the lights were off to explore possibilities on the computers. I got fired, but my exploratory designs remained on the hard drive, and one of the teachers discovered them. One call marked the beginning of my design career: I landed a job as an Illustrator and Junior Art Director. Learning as I worked, I built my skills in 2D design and then moved into CGI. By 17, I had launched my own business, BambooFX, as a 3D Designer, creating architectural projects through CGI. It became one of the first interactive CG architecture companies in Brazil.

Turns out, burning the midnight oil in the studio to polish someone else’s idea wasn’t for me. I moved on to a small ad agency in mid-east Brazil, working as an Assistant Art Director/Junior Art Director. That didn’t last long—I got fired in under a year for telling the account managers to go to hell.

Still, my spirit kept driving me to go further, laying eyes across the pond. Magnetised by the ethic of European design craft, I packed my bags, left my comfort zone with a one-way ticket to London and €500 in my pocket. Suddenly, I found myself flying above that pond, which had turned into a vast ocean of endless possibilities.

Arriving to London was not a fairytale, living out of my suitcase, lost in translation and navigating unstable waves of citizenship as a latino in Europe. Spent many days under the rain standing outside the building I dreamed of working in, trying to steal a few minutes from the big sharks on their way out. Rejection became my daily lunch serving but resiliency was my dinner, so I trusted til my crooked English voice was granted 5 minutes on the clock, and in timeless moments like those your soul speaks for you.

Once again, the flame of intention sparked. At 20, I landed a job as a Digital Designer at the in-house digital dept at BBH London called Addictive Pixel, working under the brilliance of Eric Chia. Turns out, it was the boom of Web 2.0, and I found myself surrounded by the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

A few months later, I was pulled into BBH London. Shortly after, I began working as a Creative Designer/Art Director across their global client base. I spent a long year as a “Pitch Bitch,” but had the honour of learning from living legends and mentors like Mark Reddy, Dominic Goldman, David Kolbusz, Ian Heartfield, Ewan Patterson, Davud Karbassioun, and Sir John Hegarty. Together, we crafted ideas with big impacts as my career rapidly escalated.

I contributed to revolutionary visions for clients such as Audi, AXE, Johnnie Walker, Adidas, Absolut Vodka, Virgin Media and Unilever, among many others, with numerous pitch victories. During those seven golden years, I developed a passion for blending contemporary art with advertising, collaborating with iconic photographers, directors, and image-makers such as David LaChapelle, Nick Knight, Christopher Anderson, Dan Tobin Smith, Benedict Redgrove, Samuel Bradley, Felicity Ingram, Tim Godsall, Mark Jenkinson, Adam Hinton, Dan DiFelice, Noam Murro, Niall O’Brien, and Christian Weber.

I also worked with visionary artists like Pierpaolo Ferrari & Maurizio Cattelan (Toiletpaper), Mickalene Thomas, Olivia Steele, Onishi Yasuaki, Sébastien Preschoux, Berndnaut Smilde, and others known for their lateral thinking and craftsmanship. Along the way, I won nearly every major award in the creative industry.

I share this not to pat myself on the back, but as living proof of our capacity to materialise dreams through discipline, resilience, and inspiration.

By the time I reached my 30s, I had over a decade of design experience under my belt, creating global campaigns that surpassed even my wildest projections. Then, one day, the rug was pulled from under me—I received a phone call with an offer that would change everything.

In early 2019, I packed my bags once more and headed to the West Coast to join the iPhone team as Associate Creative Director/Art Director at Apple in California. There, I worked on global iPhone campaigns and the ShotOniPhone team, even co-directing some of my own projects.

At this point, I was perched atop the mountain, enjoying the buffet of success—both professionally and financially. Yet, the higher my numbers climbed in the world’s largest corporate arena, the louder the questions of relevance grew within me. WTF am I doing with my life?

2020, the year of the world’s metamorphosis. I happened to be in Mexico, escaping the matrix for a few days. Then the pandemic took over, borders turned into walls, and I couldn’t return to California.

Making the best of the situation, I quarantined in Tulum while my ongoing contract with Apple was on hold. During those moons, I finally had the time to go deeper within, exploring pathways that revealed a growing curiosity about my purpose.

Twenty years on from day one, no one could pin a title on me. With my broad multidisciplinary skills, I chose to call myself The Design Alchemist. One of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received in my creative journey was when someone told me, “You’re too artistic to stick around in this dirty industry.” Thank you. I realised a few years later that there’s nothing wrong with the industry itself—it was the context of my work that needed to be somewhere else.

Thank you for reading. With honour and gratitude, I officially closed my journey in the communication and design industry on 30th January 2022, after serving with immense devotion, craft, and openness.

We may now operate for different missions yet always for one Source.

Let’s rise.

Respect and blessings.

Vinny Olimpio

Vinnyolimpio.com