EL Pariente

So I wrote this a while ago, I thought it would be nice to share it with you...


A couple of days ago a friend took me to a restaurant that is in the middle of the road from Monterrey to Saltillo, called “El Pariente” (which means something like The Family Relative, but its like the “pal” or “mate” expression in english), when I was coming down the car I realized that I was in the middle of nothing, I saw this façade that could have been from a brothel, but the smell of the place reminded me it was a restaurant.


The interior of the place was very different; it had large concrete tables and chairs, it was very clean actually, I was just beginning to discover the place when a person appeared in front of me and told me “Chicken or meat pal?”, my first reaction was to say “meat” and me and my friend sat down in the first table we found available.


It wasn’t even a minute when dishes of meat started to pass to our table, accompanied with our very own charro beans “to make it better pal” said the waiter, and then he said “ 600 coke pal?” and yes a 600ml coke was my election.


Let’s eat!!!, I was just beginning when I realized that there was no cutlery in our table, but a quick overview of the place make me understand the situation, in the restaurant “El Pariente” no cutlery is used, so like an animal I just started to take the juicy meat and take it to my mouth, the strange thing was that I felt completely natural doing it, just because all the people in the place were eating in the same way, we were sharing a secret and enjoying the sin of eating without any decency.


Not one of the employees of “El Pariente” wear any uniform or distinctive item, their only characteristic was that they referred to every customer with a truthful attitude of service calling you “pal”, some of them were cleaning the place, others cooking the meat and others just taking the food were required. The thing is that all worked in the most natural way, projecting more than a service an authentic personality, making you feel in a special place more than just in another business. There are a lot of things to learn from places like these.


In cities full of franchises that do the same thing in different ways, full of host’s with false smiles waiting inside every door, its about time to ask ourselves, is this really what customers want? or better yet, is this the way that a business is going achieve success?


Though I have to admit that the meat was not really good, I have to finally say…What a good taste does the authenticity leaves.
Miguel Melgarejo

EL Pariente

Creativity and fear

So, let’s say that you are wealthy and rich, let’s imagine that you don’t have the necessity to generate any kind of income, you simply do not have to worry about it…well, then what would you do? … I assume that for some of you this will be the opportunity to fantasize with different kinds of luxury and excess, so there you go, do it, then try to think a bit more seriously about that, what would you do?

Excess of time, resources and idleness lead to inventions, that it’s not a secret, think about couture, fine arts and sports, they are products of a relatively secure community with enough money and resources. Take for example Stark’s “juicy salif” lemon squeezer, do you think this beautiful object but completely useless product could have been designed and manufactured in a marginal and poor community? I don’t think so, however this product is completely logical to picture it in the hands of a French designer and an Italian manufacturer.

If we understand security as the loss of preoccupation of a certain thing or matter, we can picture that there are different levels of security, it’s different to be afraid of finding where to pass the night than to be afraid of loosing an appointment with the manicurist. Sure that ironically both could cause the same amount of stress on certain people, but they sure have different consequences.

It is not a surprise that we live on societies with many, exaggerated or not, threats and fears; terrorism, global warming, natural catastrophes, crime, feeding, H1N1, global crisis… you name it, sure there is place for it.

However creation is everywhere, under stressful situations where only a limited amount of resources are available there is also a unique power for inventiveness and innovation, from simple hacks to revolutionary products and systems… We can find one recent popular example in the story of William Kamkwamba a young Malawian boy who found the way to design and build a windmill that generated electrical power for his house, William managed to write and publish his story in the book “The boy who harnessed the windmill”, now he is very popular and supported by all kinds of organizations (as you could imagine).

But this is not extraordinary, is a an everyday thing on many places in the world, one simple look at a Mexican village could give you a huge lesson on how to solve many problems with simple, yet extraordinary inventions.

Now that we are starting to feel the anguish and fear from the much commented war against the drug trafficking in Mexico and other, not less important, problems in our country such as lack of employment and a pretty mediocre education, we as creative people have to analyze where is our opportunity in all of these, where we can find a shifting point in order to change our environment.

Fear, lack of opportunities, violence, ignorance are also stimulants, let’s deal with it.

Miguel Melgarejo

Creativity and fear

TOCTOC.MX // JUST FOR THE PLEASURE OF CREATING

Noches de Toctoc: Freelance from TocToc México on Vimeo.

TOCTOC.MX // JUST FOR THE PLEASURE OF CREATING

Not About the iPad

Ok, so iPad was launched and as any apple product in the recent years a lot of worldwide attention was put into it, I had the opportunity to watch a streaming video from the launching event, in a sort of way I felt that the crowd behaved somehow like in a concert, by moments the audience was putting a lot of attention just to end up screaming and applauding as if apple was a rock band and Steve Jobs finished playing a master guitar solo, Apple does not have consumers, it has fans.

I am a mac user, and I am very happy with my product, but I am sick of hearing in design conferences praises for the iPod and other apple stuff, I mean, its enough, we have to look beyond and start seeing the real revolution that this might ignite.

On the iPad presentation it was also presented a new Apple software, called iBooks (I think we also have had enough of the i thing, but lets leave that for another

occasion) as we could infer from its name, this software its all about buying, reading, sharing and comment ebooks, much like the iTunes for books, which its not a new thing in the market, but is definitely new in the universe of coolness that Apple has starring in the last years.

So here is the thing that can cause a real revolution, honestly, reading books its not regarded, at least in Mexican youth, as a cool thing to do, reading books is a nerdy thing, as a matter of a fact Mexicans have a real low reading habits with only 2.8 books per year as a publication Letras Libres of 2007 acclaim. So now that reading will be related to the Apple coolness factor, how will this change? And I mean not only in our reading habits but also in our writing willingness and skills.

If iBooks with all the merchandise and values of the Apple brand manage to get reading to be seen as a cool thing, then we will be seeing a real revolution, imagine going to Starbucks, instead of finding your iTunes coupon for a free song, you will be finding an iBooks coupon for a free book, imagine also walking on a public park and see a young girl leaning against a bench with its iPad reading a book, I definitely think that this kind of things will change our reading habits.

We would also have to consider the sharing part of the software, I don really know, but I guess that you will be able to see what books had your friends acquired and comments about them, I also guess that buying will be really easy, just dragging a book with your finger in the screen will be enough for you to start reading, you wont have to go through the traffic find a parking lot for your car, wonder through the bookstore, make a line and buy a book, everything will be much more easier and immediate.

Don’t get me wrong, going in a bookstore it’s a whole experience, we will still have to see how this will be managed in the software, my point is that things will go much more faster.

I now this is not a new thing, but forgive me Amazon, Kindle and Barns & noble, et al, you are not as cool as Apple, hope to see also how will they manage this competition, because its really a good opportunity, if the now how to handle it.

Ok, so I just guess we will have to wait and see how this goes on, personally I will not buy an iPad, and will still go to a bookstore and buy a physical book, I just like how they smell.

Miguel Melgarejo

Not About the iPad

Augmented Reality Might Kill Us All

Perhaps the very repeated question of “how will the future look like?”
have to be reformulated to “how will the future NOT look like?”, for what I know this might be far easier to predict if we take on account that we live in a deeply individualistic society immerse in a world full of generalized advertising present in the mass media.


However in the future this might be very different since the mobile phones, tablets and other things grow in technology and complexity, even more specifically with the development of the augmented reality technology, which will allow agencies, designers and artists to create content that will only truly be seen by the people interested in it.


A lot of situations might change, imagine you are walking by in the street, you see a girl or boy you like, instead of starting the old style flirting activities, you might take out your mobile phone, point it at the face of your prospect and visualize with the TAT augmented ID (video below) information, photos and social media networks that this person decides to show, and suddenly, without any words or gestures used, you might meet the love of your life.





From digital marketing to graffiti this new technologies might change them all, since thanks to the information contained in your social media networks, advertisements will be more specific for your interests and activities. With this is possible to imagine a future where billboards disappear and augmented reality spots appear.





In the mist of an even higher dependency to technology and social networks to meet people and socialize, we might start seeing clearer streets from billboards but filled of hidden animations and projections, where new dimensions will exist with its different demons and rules, so, my question here is, what will you creative individual will do with this?

Miguel Melgarejo

Augmented Reality Might Kill Us All

Fighting Fishes on the Mall

"EXISTING IS BEAUTY"- Onem
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 Beauty is in the details. It might be ironic that in a mall, a place full of attractions and information, designed to be a non-place, the heart of our today’s society behavior, that we find Onem’s Pla-Kad exhibition inaugurated this past January 7^th.

Like little windows that point us to a different strange world, in the middle of Paseo San Pedro mall Onem take us back to focus on life, presenting the majestic betta fishes with a stunning detail, giving the mall visitors and spectators an opportunity to observe the beauty present in the living things that surround us; The details of the fish body, its color and texture are sure envied by the finest brands.

The relationship that this exposition establishes between this fishes and us is not only visual but also behavioral, the also known as Siamese fight fishes appear to us perhaps as our own mirror, deeply aggressive, elegantly dressed and extremely protective of their territory, take us also to think about our own behaviors. Onem’s Pla-kad not only presents to us as an art exhibition, it also gives the opportunity to support CREE (Crecimiento y Recuperación Emocional y Espiritual) since one percentage of the sales will be donated to this institution. So, before you go out today, remember, beauty, as Onem remind us, is present on the details. / Miguel Melgarejo

Special Thanks to :
Gaby Salinas from Mitosis101  
for the Pla-kad ArtShow Open Photos

Fighting Fishes on the Mall