AT LUNCH WITH
EVA & MARTA YARZA
WNW Members #6431 Eva Yarza and #6611 Marta Yarza were born in Vigo, Spain, within two minutes of each other. They also hold the distinction of being the only twins on Working Not Working.
Eva recently interned at Sagmeister & Walsh and now works as a designer at Magpie Studio in London. Marta (the older twin by 2 minutes) studied Construction Engineering in Madrid and is currently finishing her Communication Design masters at Central Saint Martins. Though they have separate day jobs, Eva and Marta frequently team up on personal projects with the dream of one day opening their own studio together.
Eva and Marta's teamwork started early from cheating exams to getting out of trouble. They share some of their hilarious experiences as twins, and relate how their close connection serves their joint efforts. There's a tangible depth to their collaborative work that could only exist through each of them bringing their personal strengths to the drawing board. It's clear from the interview below that the Yarza Twins are exceedingly complimentary of one another, in every sense.
Marta: Why did you bring me to this McDonald's when we were supposed to go out for drinks in a fancy hipster bar in Hackney?
Eva: Well, people normally focus in quiet places, but I love noise, it helps me focus. When I am working on my own, I normally go to bars or cafés, but I must admit that McDonald’s is for me a hot-spot for inspiration, and that is why we are here, so we feel inspired for this interview…
E: When did you first realize we were twins?
M: It was when we were in kindergarten. Our mother used to dress us in an identical way, the thing is that we were in different classes but we were so small, maybe 3 years old, that neither of us were conscious that we looked the same. I remember that from time to time, boys would come crying to me with angry teachers asking to excuse me for kicking them; I tried to recall a time when I kicked them and I didn't remember, until one day I saw you kicking a kid and I pieced things together.
E: Haha, that's a good one.
M: How was growing up with me, such a talented twin?
E: Growing up as creative twins has been an interesting story. We have always influenced one another in our drawing skills, as well as ideas. Having a twin I guess was good because we were able to make our own home-made movies at a very early age and it also helped when we were looking for creative ways to cheat on exams. This was the best: because we have a visual memory, we once created this symbolic visual language that we could draw on the tables. These symbols contained the whole agenda in the exam and teachers would come to us with the exams, admiring our drawing skills and how good we were as students. On the other hand, having a twin can be hard as well. We never had the concept of “Mine”; it was always “Us”. Being able to be considered as two separate individuals now makes me really happy. Overall it was double fun.
E: So Marta, what makes us different?
M: Well, in personal terms we are different in way too many things to list, but we are also very different in our professional focus. As an engineer, I love basing our projects on coding, while you prefer working on styling and typefaces.
M: Which of our projects makes you the proudest?
E: I am very proud of our recent projects: Haustraks and a project that we have not yet launched that will criticize corruption in Spanish politics. I love them cause they bring design closer to art, and they are made with a purpose. I've never worked before with Java and Javascript but a few months ago, before working for Magpie Studio, I had the chance to intern at Sagmeister & Walsh in New York, where I met an impressive team of designers. Each of them was amazing in different branches of design and together they made a super team. Pedro Sanches was the one more into coding, and through him I started getting more into that world and started learning the basics. Thank God you are good with math and continued the learning, because I am not that good, and I wouldn't be sure I could catch up. Now you are the official java-coder of the team.
I can say, without a doubt, that there has been a before and after with my internship at Sagmeister & Walsh, as it has opened our minds much more and we have started to use new tools in order to get new results.
E: But you are still finishing your masters at Central Saint Martins. So tell me, what have you enjoyed the most?
M: It's an amazing university, everyone is incredibly open-minded to experimentation and it is surely a big influence. What I like the most is how you can find different kind of creatives, from illustrators, to coders, typographers, all in the same class.
I also love that you have so many amazing people willing to collaborate; that is how we met Xue Li, who was getting a masters in Fashion Design, and for whom we made an advertisement for his collection “Neon Samurai.” It was a great way of learning.
M: What makes you respect me as designer?
E: What kind of question is that! Well, I am now in a very happy place working for Magpie, but I've done exactly the same, change “store” for “restaurant.” Last year was actually too crazy, when we both worked full-time jobs we didn't really enjoy that much, and still found the energy to keep working on our personal projects... but there was a time when you used to work 40 hours in a clothing store and also had to attend classes at university, and still found time to meet with me mornings or nights to keep making our projects come true. I like how hard working you are! I don't like people who make up excuses.
E: What kind of projects do you want to do in the future?
M: Well, I love working with clients, but sometimes you don't have 100% control on the final outcome, and that is frustrating at times. That is why I would like to continue keeping a balance between our personal and professional projects. I am very excited about our to-do list. First, there is a branding project for a cultural center at a university based in the US. Second, there is this surreal short movie we've written. We got the music, the storyboard, all written, so we will start it very soon.
M: Are you going to eat that chip?
E: Yes. It is mine.
More Work By The Yarza Twins
