In addition to being an excellent creative, David Ruiz is an expert sailor, who has crossed the Atlantic five times and who one day closed his agency and decided to sail around the world solo, aboard his sailboat Thor, for four years.
I devoured his book "irse," (Going away) in which he narrates his adventure, and I immediately contacted him for a portrait. I think this is the first time I have portrayed someone who, for me, is a hero, in the most literary sense of the word. And it turns out that this hero is a very interesting, kind and funny guy. I photograph him at his studio in Poble Nou and we talk, of course, about sailboats, the sea and his journey. And about how he now has little wish to sail, to go out for a few hours for a ride like he did before, because everything has a different dimension, a different meaning.
Behind his gaze one can guess an envyable, almost ancestral wisdom, like that of those who have seen many things and have lived very intensely, but who, above all, have learned to be humble in front of nature's immensity.
After nine years working as an art director and creative director in various multinational advertising agencies, in 1993 he founded his own studio: ruizcompany. With no boundaries between advertising and graphic design, projects are developed under the common denominator of creativity.
He has been awarded 119 international prizes to date in all disciplines, including: Grand Prix festival Clio in San Francisco, gold medal of the Art Directors Club of New York, 2 lions at the Cannes International Festival, 6 Red Dot Awards, as well as 5 Laus gold trophies and 14 silver in Spain.
A member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since 1997, he has been a juror in various international competitions and has given lectures all over the world.