Renato
Casteleti Sebastião
I didn’t choose to be a graphic designer. The profession chose me – I didn’t have another chance. My parents met at the university of fine arts, so you can already imagine my childhood: an environment filled with colors, pencils, brushes, and paintings.
In the year 2000, still in school, I learned to make animations with Macromedia Flash. I was fascinated by the combination of technology and creativity, and thus began developing and selling websites in my city.
To design the websites, I got to know Adobe Photoshop. Manipulating images opened my mind.
In 2005, I founded Daksa, initially a web agency. However, clients loved the website layouts so much that I started offering other services such as logos, business cards, and flyers. During this time, I developed my skills with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign.
I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing. I expanded the mix of services offered at the agency. The number of employees also grew, reaching up to 22 professionals in the year 2020.
Over 20 years have passed in my professional career, and now I’m greatly enjoying this moment where AI allows for the creation of unique and impressive images with more agility.
Below are three case studies where I describe a bit more about my professional experiences.
Case 1
ADM / Wisium
ADM (Archer Daniels Midland Company) was founded in 1902, operates in 200 countries with over 38,000 employees, and is now recognized as a global leader in nutrition, meeting all the needs of the worldwide market.
In Brazil, I managed the marketing for Wisium ADM from June 2018 to September 2022, a company in the field of additives and technology development for animal nutrition.
At the beginning of the partnership, the company was not yet part of the ADM group but belonged to NEOVIA. Over the years, ADM acquired NEOVIA.
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During more than four years of partnership, I developed design and marketing materials on a weekly basis. Here are some examples:
– Product branding
– Packaging development (mainly feed bags)
– Advertising (magazine, newspaper, internet banners)
– Brochures and leaflets for the sales team
– Stand layouts for trade fairs
– Design and themes for sales conventions
– Email marketing
– Business cards and corporate stationery
– Website maintenance (Brazilian version)
When specific demands arose in other companies within the group, I also provided graphic design services:
– Total Animal Nutrition – packaging design
– Socil Animal Nutrition – packaging design
We had a solid and successful partnership. I participated in numerous product launches and many changes within the company. When necessary, we held meetings between marketing departments from various countries to discuss the strategic objectives of each unit.
Case 2
VBG Group / Henfel by Ringfeder
The VBG Group is an international industrial group with more than 2,000 employees in 15 countries. The Parent Company, VBG Group AB, is a long-term owner that provides active management of the Group’s three wholly owned divisions:
_ Truck & Trailer Equipment,
_ Mobile Thermal Solutions,
_ and Ringfeder Power Transmission.
Henfel was a major Brazilian industry with over 30 years of experience in manufacturing mechanical parts such as Bearing Housings, Hydrodynamic Couplings, Damping Components, among other equipment. Henfel serves as the arm of Ringfeder in Brazil and the Latin American market.
I had been working with the company since 2013 on an ongoing basis when, in 2015, a German group called VBG Group acquired the company, making it a branch of Ringfeder in Brazil.
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At that point, the materials needed to be standardized according to the parent unit in Germany. While the company already engaged in exports, the acquisition by a larger group opened many doors to the international market. Consequently, most of the created materials were produced in three languages: Portuguese, Spanish, and English.
The projects were delivered weekly, with schedule alignment coordinated with the marketing manager. The main projects I developed included:
– Rebranding
– Corporate stationery
– Product catalogs (trilingual)
– 3D renders of equipment for the engineering team
– Email marketing
– LinkedIn posts
– Trade fair and event stands
– Product brochures
– Landpages for products during commercial campaigns
The partnership was excellent and lasted until early 2021, when the company decided to centralize its marketing operations in Germany.
Case 3
H.J. Baker Group / Allnova
H.J. Baker is an international importer, exporter, sulphur former, and sales agent mobilizing global resources. The company’s strategically located processing plants, offices, and warehouses create a highly-efficient pipeline for vital commodities and products.
As a manufacturer and supplier of agricultural goods and services, H.J. Baker offers a wide range of products, including animal feed ingredients, micronutrients, organic fertilizers, protein concentrates, dairy by-pass protein supplements, by-pass lysine for dairy, feed fats, and ingredients for animals.
In 2014, H.J. Baker entered the Brazilian market by acquiring two animal feed factories: Fanton Animal Nutrition in Bauru (SP) and Rumiphos in Paranaíba (MS). Initially, company retained the names of the acquired brands, but over time, launched the “Allnova Animal Nutrition by H.J. Baker” brand. It was during this transition that I received a call from the general manager, requesting layouts for the new packaging.
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Speed was essential, as there was a tight deadline for approval and production before the new brand reached the consumer market. Another important aspect at the beginning of my work, which I identified in the briefing, was the need to reduce graphic production costs. Previously, a package used more than seven colors. With a simple, minimalist, and sophisticated design, I managed to make it more contemporary, using only two or three colors, depending on the product.
With the speed of the initial deliveries, I secured an ongoing contract partnership, which lasted from 2016 to 2019. During these three years, I created materials on a weekly basis. Some examples include:
– Product branding
– Packaging development
– 3D product mockups
– Product catalog editing
– Institutional website
– Social media posts
– Business cards and corporate stationery
– Marketing campaigns (billboards, magazine and newspaper ads)
It was very rewarding to work on this project, being able to direct the positioning of a new brand in a new market through design.
