How Dum Dum Studio Finds Ideas Close to Home

Dum Dum Studio is a design studio in Monterrey, Mexico. Mario Julián Gutiérrez and Sergio Martínez started it in 2015. The studio mainly helps businesses decide how they want to look. Its team also designs letters and decides how images should work together. Each project gives them a chance to try something different.

The city's past gives the team many places to find ideas. Monterrey's history includes trade, steel making and beer making. All of these activities helped shape the city's signs and graphics. Later, ideas from Europe also influenced the look of local design. These include neat ways to arrange text and images. The team sees this mix as a source for new work.

The studio does not use the same look for each business. It gave a local cafe a design with a sense of texture. It put different images together for a company that advises restaurants. For a bar, it made the name move on screen. Each example shows a different way to give a business character.

Gutiérrez says the team likes to begin without a fixed idea. That gives its designers room to play while they make a plan. The design still needs to do a job for the business. It should also have a feeling that people can recognise. For the studio, a brand can change and still keep its character.