Bernardo Torres

Founder and Director at Uncommon Design Strategy

My experience and deep interests:

• Innovation

• Strategy

I am based in: Madrid and Mexico City

I was born in Mexico City, my father an Industrial Designer and my mother a Pedagogue. I grew up in an entrepreneurial atmosphere, both my parents with diverse small companies and projects. I went to school in one of the first eco-oriented schools in Mexico in the 90s, this was particularly important to set up my mind towards social and environmental issues. As an adolescent, my family moved to a smaller city in the center of the country, a colonial city called Queretaro. After finishing my professional studies I bounced around a couple of cities for some years, Cancun, Madrid, and eventually ended up back in Mexico City where I''ve been living the past 10 years.

I majored in Communications with a specialty in Cinematography, something I''ve never pursued. From the beginning of my working experience, I was particularly interested in digital. I worked for a Mexico Handcrafts Online Store in 2001 for a large appliances company and a large Spanish insurance company. The last position I had in the insurance company pushed me into studying innovation, design, strategy, service design and this opened up a whole new world to me.

Owning and managing my own Design Consulting has been both amazing and horrible. I found, through certain rough patches, the lack of abilities I have as a leader. I''ve been working towards developing myself as a better person and leader, and also in how I can use everything that I''ve learned to develop my team.

I''m super passionate about mezcal, the ancestral Mexico spirit. I co-own a company with some friends and it helps me put my feet back on what''s real about traditions, soil, and family. I''m also really into mountains biking, running, golf, but mostly traveling. I eat my way through every city I visit.