#553 PORTO ROCHA | Design and strategy agency

The Brazilian founders on redesigning Nike Run, building Google Gemini’s visual identity and creating brands that can last a decade

PORTO ROCHA is one of the most closely watched design studios of its generation. Founded in New York by Brazilian designers Felipe Rocha and Leo Porto, the agency now works across the United States and London on identities designed to operate at a global scale.

In this episode, the two founders open up their process. They explain how a series of small projects built the trust required to rethink Nike Run, and how an almost obvious idea, replacing “Nike” with “Run,” became a system activated around the world. They also discuss the challenge of making Google Gemini instantly recognizable just as competition in artificial intelligence was exploding.

Their own journey is just as distinctive. Both originally from São Paulo, they meet in New York, become a couple, work together at night, then leave their jobs. Three months later, Covid brings their projects to an abrupt halt. The studio survives, grows, and now brings together people from different disciplines and cultures.

A conversation about the power of simplicity, the importance of creative disagreement, growth, independence, AI, and their No Free Pitches manifesto against unpaid speculative work.

Timeline

01:35 — Felipe Rocha and Leo Porto, the two halves of PORTO ROCHA

03:17 — Bringing design and strategy into the same team

07:54 — Nike Run: the project that changed their scale

12:54 — Returning to Nike’s unique legacy

16:26 — When the best solution makes the designer invisible

17:23 — From immersion to the final system: their method

26:18 — Building the identity of Google Gemini

31:07 — Two Brazilian designers arrive in New York

35:28 — Married, freelancing, then becoming business partners

36:41 — Going independent three months before Covid

45:09 — Why the studio grew beyond its founders

47:16 — Growth as a consequence, never the objective

53:45 — Giving designers a seat at the table

62:00 — How PORTO ROCHA uses artificial intelligence

66:05 — AI is replacing the base of the creative pyramid

68:16 — Brazilian creativity and the culture of resourcefulness

76:01 — No Free Pitches: refusing to work for free