Sergio Membrillas on treading the path between two disciplines and taking yourself seriously as an art director

Job titles and labels in the creative industry can be a funny thing. Most artists and designers don’t really fit under one but tend to shoehorn a lot of their work into tidy boxes, streamlining portfolios so clients have the most clarity when hiring. It’s a strange dance, and Sergio Membrillas is exactly one of those multi-hyphenates that has evaded the confines of any one discipline over his career. Established as a successful commercial illustrator (with work for clients like The New York Times, Apple and Pentagram) that we’ve covered countless times over the years. But what many might not know about Sergio is that he actually originally trained as an art director while studying at the university of Valencia. “I find it rather amusing that, as designers, we worked so hard to be recognised as illustrators when we were focused on illustrating, and now we seem to be working just as hard to be recognised as artists,” he says.

Over the past few years the illustrator has been leaning into his graphic sensibilities and committing to taking on projects that make use of this expertise in creative direction, recently opening a new art direction section on his website to bring together a selection of projects he’s been working on alongside his illustration practice. Although art direction has always been a part of his background, “the difference is that I never took myself particularly seriously as an art director”, he tells It’s Nice That. “I somehow thought it was something innate – something you either had or didn’t. But a while ago, I decided to take that side of my practice more seriously. I started looking more closely at people that always were my heroes like Bob Noorda, Paula Scher, and Peter Saville, and gradually began giving graphic design and art direction more space in my work.”

As part of this endeavor, the designer has been working on a number of editorial projects and brand identities for festivals, events and independent creatives and business alike. One of these recent projects was a visual identity for Spanish haircare brand Rulls, for which Sergio developed a series of enamouring illustrated characters, shaping a new tone of voice for the label. “Diana, the founder, is fantastic and she has an impressive knowledge of mascots and characters which made it incredibly easy to bring illustration into the project as a distinctive tool and part of the brand’s language which is phenomenal,” Sergio says. “I also art directed a catalogue for a kitchen cabinet company Poalgi recently, where I managed to incorporate my illustrations through a cast of characters and even a small comic. I always try to smuggle illustrations into every project I work on.”

Sergio has been loving opportunities to art direct editorial illustration projects, tapping into his experience as a seasoned freelancer in the field: “however, many newspapers have been cutting their budgets for illustration and commissioned work in recent years, and as a result, opportunities in this area have become increasingly limited,” he shares – something he touched on in our POV column back in 2024. For Sergio a combination of his skillsets is the ideal way to tackle any brief, he doesn’t always see them as two separate toolboxes: “The two things can coexist”, he says. “I can approach a project as an art director, thinking about how to communicate and solve a problem beautifully, while still allowing myself the freedom and space of an artist.”

Alongside all of this commercial work, Sergio is finding the time to teach illustration at various art institutions across Europe, as well as working on his PHD on the subject of contemporary tattooing. Although this seems like a lot to juggle, the illustrator is convinced that this foot in creative education both as a student and a lecturer has only been feeding into the inspiration behind his graphic projects. “I have a very deep background in references and visual culture, and I tend to be quite didactic with my clients,” he ends. “I enjoy explaining why something works, where it comes from, and how different visual ideas can connect. In that sense, teaching and art direction feed into each other quite naturally.”