Mirco Colonna is a young art director and communication designer. Since 2012 he has lived in London where he founded the Me studio, which handles branding, design and communications, with his partner, Eva Miguel.
His journey began at LUISS where he graduated with a major in Marketing in 2010. "When I was studying I had the opportunity to do two experiences abroad, first an Erasmus in Lyon in France, and then at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, to prepare my master’s thesis. Living in new places, having new experiences and seeing other educational methods gets you more involved. A recommendation? Don’t think twice about it."
After his master’s degree, Mirco won a scholarship for a master’s in Communication Design in Madrid, after which he worked as an art director at the advertising agency *SCPF, handling communications for major clients such as IKEA, BMW, Banco Sabadell and Nokia. "Then one day,” he recounts, “my girlfriend Eva showed me a call for applications from the city of London for a project in Local Branding and Retail Design for the urban area of Leyton, which was to host the Olympics. They wanted a proposal to help local merchants improve their points of sale and the attractiveness of what they were offering. We sent ours in and they chose us. The idea was to stay there for the duration of the project and then go back to Spain after three months. It’s now been three years."
For the first year and a half, Mirco and Eva worked as freelance brand designers, until they established Me in 2013: "The name comes from our initials: clients remember it and it makes them smile. Starting from nothing wasn’t easy, it took time and a lot of sacrifices, but it was worth it."
The studio provides brand design solutions, creative services and communication consulting for a wide range of clients, from the public sector to cultural and commercial industries, both nationally and internationally: "The fields in which we work include graphic design, publicity, brand consulting, digital strategy, web design, application development, architecture and urban planning." Mirco and Eva conceive the strategy, the mockups and the design of the majority of projects, supported by an international network of professionals, including those in the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain and the USA.
"My interest in branding, consumer behavior and marketing,” says Mirco, “began when I was studying at LUISS, and my education in the field of economics and management has undoubtedly contributed to the establishment of Me. For this I should specifically thank Professor Simona Romani who helped me while I was writing my master’s thesis and Professor Michele Costabile with whom I did my bachelor’s thesis in International Marketing. In addition to my academic program, I was able to work on other skills, including soft skills, and I discovered that the desire to learn new things and a serious and constant commitment are essential ingredients to achieve great things, whether at university or in the world of work."
Now Mirco is working to launch new projects and expand the market for Me: "With an Australian study that deals with business intelligence we created Visual Metrics, based on data journalism and information design, with the objective of simplifying scientific concepts to facilitate the communication of complex information. We are collaborating with research institutions and companies and soon we will launch our first project. In addition, working with other Spanish professionals, we have just launched Antidote, a new advertising agency model for large markets. We are only at the beginning, but for now my biggest personal satisfaction is surely that of being able to do a job that I really like, alongside the person I love."