Meet Jorge Plazas

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jorge Plazas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jorge , thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Work ethic is important and a big part of who I am and what impression I leave with my work and clients. As an immigrant, and coming to the US at the age of 10, I was old enough to see what my parents, aunts and uncle had to do to put food on the table, pay bills and works towards the goal of having a better life than the one we left back in Colombia. The grind, no days off, and focus in order to build a better day to day and give us, the younger generation, better opportunities and options for our future. I learned that good work, is reflection of who you are and what you can offer in my opinion, it can reflect your values and dedication/love for your craft. So developing a good work ethic, that allows one’s ideas, productivity and concepts to create, develop and make a project successful is key for me.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

People always ask me what it is exactly that I do, or they don’t understand what I do lol. I graduated from architecture school and worked in various offices in that field while in school. However, my dad being a carpenter and going with him to his shop in my teens, and taking a wood-shop class in High School, made very comfortable being in a shop, where I soon discovered I was good at making things, at translating ideas into physical forms and learning new methods of doing things made me excited. Before I knew it, I was making models and prototypes for classmates, professors and other designers. Soon, that lead to being recommended to some amazing opportunities and projects that really started my career as a designer/fabricator. This is the base of my work and from here it expands to various fields and hats that I wear. As a designer/fabricator I was able to do set design for movies, NYFW shows, retails stores and content creation. Using my architectural education I have been able to design various bars, restaurants and commercial spaces, where fabrication is a central part of the design. Have been blessed to be part of other opportunities where I have done exhibit design, and experiential design. I have been able to do all this as myself, Jorge Plazas but people know me more as Tosty (my IG handle) however, I am in the process of branding all of these hats I wear into one entity, an Experiential Design firm. Where I will use my experience I all of these amazing projects, to work with clients and make their ideas into reality, whether it is set design, fabrication, exhibit or full design-build projects.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey. This question really made me think..
I would say that being open to opportunities and projects. Sometimes because we aren’t as experienced or may get approached about something that we’ve never done before, we may shy away from doing it. I have embraced it and dove into learning on the fly, working using my experience from other things and finding ways to making it work. this had lead me to work on things I never imagined doing, but that have led me to my career and where I am now.
Work ethic, as I mentioned earlier. The constant desire to learn, grow and put my best foot forward on everything that I do because it is a reflection of who I am. Late night sessions to learn new skills, going out my way to make things better and provide more than what was asked for when I find it necessary or needed.
Patience, with yourself and learning your process. This was key for me and I am still learning to trust it and how I work, I think it’s a never ending process as an artist/designer. Every project, no matter the scale can lead you to feel frustrated, stuck or tired but trusting yourself, that gut feeling and your method of working will lead you to being creative, finding your solutions and create genuine work.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Yes, absolutely! working with others have been an integral part of my work. Whether it is building someone else’s design, or collaborating on a design/build project or translating a concept to fruition. The sharing of ideas, energy and molding it towards a goal is a process I deeply enjoy. So since that is the basis of my work, I am always looking to collaborate or partner with other creatives, clients and brands to work together and really push what we can do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tostysworld.com/
• Instagram: @tosty17