Who do you want to be tomorrow?

Melissa Agostino (1976) and Henry Tyminski (1974) worked for a few years in the Netherlands, then returned to their homeland Canada and in Toronto, set up their own studio: SALI TABACCHI Mega Advertising Super Design. Creatie’s request: Visualise your current identity.

We have been lucky – we’ve been able to work creatively in both North America and Europe. After working several years at Concrete Design Communications Inc., one of Canada's top design studios, we lived four years in Amsterdam and worked at Artmiks [image builders]. During that time we were also able to explore Europe. Now we are back home in multi-cultural Toronto, where we are able to interact with a variety of people from around the world in one place on a daily basis.

“Who are you today?” and especially – “Who do you want to be tomorrow?” – that is our definition of identity. If we look at our work today – and hopefully tomorrow – it shows just that: enormous variety. Therefore, we work in a variety of styles, for a variety of projects, for a variety of clients. Even more so, variety is our creative fuel: with regard to ideas, experiences, people, places, food – everything.

We didn't call our own studio SALI TABACCHI for nothing. In Italy, variety stores there are called ‘Sali e Tabacchi’ – literally selling ‘Salts and Tobaccos’ (Melissa is of Italian descent). These days, they sell much more than that. Much like variety stores – they are a one-stop-shop for almost anything you need. Interestingly, if you compare all variety stores to each other, they are all different - much in the spirit of their name. As ugly as they are: isn’t it nevertheless splendid?