Hi, I'm Mateo. A creative director and artist based in Los Angeles, CA.
My current practice is Failure to Comply, a studio built on the belief that taste and perspective are the great leverages as we enter the AI renaissance.
I believe perspective is worth more than technical skill, especially now. When AI can execute any design technique instantly, what matters is having something worth saying and the lived experience to say it well.
I've spent years building that perspective: seven continents traveled, two languages spoken fluently, a decade-long theater career that taught me how humans process emotion and story. Time in major creative capitals. Exposure to how the world's great institutions communicate their ideas. The immigrant experience of navigating multiple cultural frameworks simultaneously. Turning around every project I’ve led from obscurity to relevance.
I studied Audiovisual Communication at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, immersing myself in semiotics, visual rhetoric, and communication strategy, while training at William Layton Theater Lab's acting conservatory. After graduating, I moved to New York City to continue studying and performing off-Broadway, earning several nominations from local theater awards. I landed at IATI Theater, a 50-year-old nonprofit, where I became Communications Director and led a transformative period of metric-shattering growth.
I later moved to Los Angeles, where I continued acting—working on commercials for clients including Google—while freelancing as a graphic designer and strategist for several agencies.
In January 2025, after creating transformative change for multiple organizations, I consolidated my practice under Failure to Comply, leveraging my ability to see patterns others miss, connect disparate ideas into coherent strategy, and bring criterion and taste to problems that don't have template solutions.
Currently I work with clients across the country and around the world. My areas of focus include the AI space, re-envisioning legacy industries (banking, entertainment, live performance), public development, and ambitious tech startups.
To work with me, visit failuretocomply.studio