Sixty seconds with La Boca

To coincide with La Boca’s exhibition at London’s Concrete Hermit Kingly Court, which opened last night, we caught up with La Boca co-founder Scot Bendall to talk about the company’s beginnings and last year’s sucesses.

Design Week: Tell me a little bit about how the studio got started.
Scot Bendall: Myself and business partner Alain started La Boca in 2002. I’d say our ’big break’ came through art directing the visual output of record label DC Recordings (who were also our first client). Today La Boca works across many industries but we still like to punish ourselves by doing a few 12” sleeves now and again.

DW: How have you chosen which prints to exhibit at the show?
Bendall: We’ve tried as much as possible to give an overview of the work we produce as a studio – both old and recent work is represented.

DW: Does the studio have a particular design philosophy?
Bendall: We stand by our own commitment to always put the ape into apricot.

DW: Your recent posters for Black Swan were phenomenally popular. Why do you think they captured the public imagination?

Bendall: I guess today film posters are often seen as being a hard-sell for a movie rather than really attempting to capture the mood and expand on the story. We really wanted these posters to stand alongside the movie and be viewed as pieces of art in their own right – in much the same way many of the film posters we admire from the past did so successfully.

DW: What/Who in the design world is grabbing your attention right now?
Bendall: As a book-obsessive, both Visual Editions and Unit Editions continue to get me moist in all the wrong the places.

La Boca at Concrete Hermit Kingly Court, Unit G4 Kingly Court, 
Off Carnaby Street,
 London, runs until 12 March.