Most agency-client relationships are built on rigid briefs and endless approval rounds. My ongoing partnership with Canadian-Colombian reggaeton artist PRIMO operates on complete trust. When PRIMO approached me, he didn't just need a designer to slap text on an album cover or print a logo on a t-shirt. He needed a visual collaborator who could translate the auditory and cultural weight of his music into a cohesive visual universe, spanning his discography and his lifestyle brand, OTRO NIVEL.
The Music: Designing by Ear
The standard industry process for album artwork usually involves a marketing deck and strict commercial mandates. We threw that out. For PRIMO’s releases, my process is entirely sensory and spontaneous.
He sends me a pre-release track, and that audio becomes my only brief. I let the rhythms, the lyrical themes, and the specific energy of the song dictate the visual direction. This experimental approach gives me the freedom to move between different artistic styles, ensuring that the artwork for each single or album isn't a marketing asset, but a direct visual reflection of the music itself. By refusing to lock PRIMO into a repetitive, predictable visual formula, his discography feels alive, memorable, and distinct in a highly crowded digital music market.
The Lifestyle: Escaping the Merch Trap
As PRIMO’s audience grew, the natural next step was physical product. But the line between "selling concert merchandise" and "building a fashion brand" is harsh. He had tried launching a clothing line alongside his music in the past, but it lacked the conceptual depth to stand on its own.
He asked me to push the project to the next level, the "Otro Nivel."
During our brand workshops, we didn't talk about fashion trends; we talked about philosophy. We kept circling back to the idea of duality, the friction between the artist’s quiet, intimate inner world and his loud, public-facing persona. I decided to make that tension the structural foundation for the OTRO NIVEL identity.
Translating Concept into Cotton
To avoid the disposable feel of standard tour merchandise, the physical production of OTRO NIVEL had to be deliberate. The theme of duality dictated how the garments were made. I paired subtle, tactile embroidery with heavy, aggressive prints. I wanted the clothing to feel like a true lifestyle label. When a fan puts on a piece from this collection, they aren't just wearing an artist's logo, they are actively wearing the artist's ideology.
The Baseline
Today, PRIMO’s visual identity exists across two distinct but harmonious tracks. On one side, I continue to provide spontaneous, highly experimental art direction for his musical releases. On the other, OTRO NIVEL operates with a strict, foundational set of brand guidelines, giving PRIMO the infrastructure to scale a legitimate streetwear label parallel to his music career.
From the journal
Don't Treat Launch as the Finish Line
Jan-Philip Radde
May 20, 2026
6 min
Don't Treat Launch as the Finish Line
The common expectation of design is that things should last forever. They should be solid and resist the natural decay that affects everything. We are trained to design against time, aiming for a fixed state. When a client approaches a studio, mine or anyone else's, the instinct is to forge something immutable, a digital monument. That is the wrong instinct, we must design for change, the only constant is change. Climate, technology, geopolitical dynamics, and, most importantly, the user's needs, they are all in relentless flux. To design for permanence is to create an immediately outdated product, one that is perfectly suited to yesterday’s conditions and becomes increasingly obsolete with every passing hour. We need to shift our design approach. Instead of creating static artifacts, we should be curating dynamic systems. Our focus should be on longevity achieved not through resistance, but through adaptability.
Working with Trades: Bridging the Gap Between Design and Craft
Jan-Philip Radde
May 20, 2026
3 min
Working with Trades: Bridging the Gap Between Design and Craft
In the world of graphic and web design, collaboration is at the heart of every successful project. Yet, when designers and tradespeople come together, there’s often an invisible wall built from years of assumptions, miscommunications, and missed opportunities. Having worked across disciplines and industries, I’ve seen firsthand how these barriers can be transformed into bridges if both sides are willing to listen, learn, and translate.
Understanding the Divide:
Designers and trades have long held certain perceptions about each other. Designers may see trades as rigid or overly practical, while trades might view designers as abstract or disconnected from the realities of building and making. These stigmas are rarely accurate, but they persist because both sides speak different languages, one rooted in abstract aesthetics and vision, the other in pragmatic materials and execution.
The Power of Translation:
The trades operate on efficiency, trust, and tangibility. Our designs must reflect those same core values, but through a different medium. When a designer talks about "visual hierarchy," the translation for a builder is "clear, immediate identification of critical information." When we discuss "negative space," the conversation should shift to "clarity" and "reduction of mental load," the immediate ability of a potential client to locate the service or product they need without unnecessary friction.
This translation isn’t about compromise; it’s about synthesis. It’s about finding the intersection where design vision meets practical expertise. When both sides are invested in the outcome, the result is work that is not only beautiful but also functional, durable, and innovative.
Communicating Value:
One of the most important aspects of working with trades is communicating the value of design. Instead of justifying or defending your work, focus on clearly showcasing its tangible value. Show how thoughtful design can make a process more efficient, a product more desirable, or a space more intuitive.
Mutual Benefit and Opportunity:
When designers and trades collaborate effectively, the benefits are real and measurable. Projects run more smoothly, budgets are respected, and the end product often exceeds expectations. More importantly, these partnerships can open up new avenues for business and creativity. Trades gain access to new markets and ideas, while designers learn to ground their visions in reality, making their work more impactful.
Moving Forward Together:
The future of design is collaborative. By breaking down the old stigmas and focusing on translation and communication, designers and trades can create work that is greater than the sum of its parts. The process becomes not just lucrative but deeply rewarding for everyone involved.
The Discipline of Constraint: Quality Design on a Lean Budget
Jan-Philip Radde
May 20, 2026
6 min
The Discipline of Constraint: Quality Design on a Lean Budget
In the design industry, the low-budget client is often regarded with a certain dread, a potential vector for scope creep, compromised aesthetics, and ultimately, a dilution of a studio's core quality standards. This perspective is understandable, yet fundamentally flawed. It presupposes that financial constraint is inherently antithetical to design excellence. It is not. It is merely a specific, potent form of constraint, and constraint, properly leveraged, is the engine of genuine innovation. Decoding the Scope: The Essential vs. The Superficial: The first and most critical step when engaging a low-budget project is the absolute clarity of scope. High-budget projects often tolerate a certain degree of feature bloat or aesthetic indulgence. A lean budget provides no such margin. We must immediately strip the project down to its functional core.
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