Juan Esteban Duque: Creative Director and designer for Motif
Creative Director and designer for Motif
by Elizabeth Lavis
|02 Dec 2025
Juan Esteban Duque, Creative Director and designer for Motif, has a simple and freeing personal philosophy: that design has no rules. “I couldn’t say what my personal style is,” he says. “I like experimenting and trying aesthetics I haven’t tried before.”
Duque hails from Colombia and has lived most of his life in Bogota, an intensely creative and imaginative place. “I love this city,” Duque says. “It’s been an endless source of inspiration, especially for its vernacular graphics.” Bogota inspired him to create a passion project, Popular de Lujo, which views the city as a work of art in and of itself and showcases the work of hundreds of artists.
Duque always wanted to be a designer, so much so that he didn’t have a backup plan for university. “When I was asked for a second choice of study on the university application form, I didn’t know what to say,” he says. “I’ve loved drawing since I was a child, but it wasn’t until school that I realized I had a knack for all things graphic.”
He enrolled at the National University of Colombia and completed his graduate studies in Barcelona. As Duque was undergoing formal education, he was sharpening his skills on the side through research, experimentation, and independent learning, drawing inspiration from the punk aesthetic and Dada artistic movement.
"NoigoNoigo", Juan Esteban Duque
His top advice for up-and-coming designers is to nurture their experimental sides and let their creativity flourish. “I always tell my students that, apart from their commercial work, they should pursue personal projects to explore their interests, experiment, and do all the things that working with clients doesn’t allow.”
Duque also takes this advice himself and finds that tending to personal work helps him manage intense workloads. “Having personal projects alongside my business projects is precisely what keeps me from getting burned out,” he says. “When I work on my personal projects, I don’t feel like I'm working. It’s pure joy.” He also suggests exercising, eating well, resting, and setting aside valuable personal time as ways to stay creative under pressure.
He believes that building trust and rapport with clients is fundamental to a project’s success, so his first step in any campaign is to have an in-depth conversation about the project. “I don’t like briefs,” Duque says. “I prefer conversation. Afterward, I turn the information over in my head for a few days, and the idea or principle that will shape the project will eventually emerge.” For Duque, the most critical aspects of design are clarity, impact, and a twist.
Duque loves the design world because it gives him the opportunity to create new things constantly. “Each project is unique,” he says. He plans to continue growing as a professional by experimenting and inventing, continually pushing the limits of creativity. In terms of his personal growth, Duque intends to keep learning from his mistakes. “I think that’s the only way to grow as a person,” he says.
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