Chuy Ortega works like the city he's from: fast, layered, always in motion. Since 2015 he's led design at Alfalfa Studio, and since 2020 has run an independent freelance practice alongside it, moving easily between the two. His work spans branding, editorial, motion, and environmental design, and each project becomes its own set of rules to figure out rather than a fixed formula. Hand him a brand system, a gallery wall, a jersey, or a public installation, and he'll find the shape suited to it.

Raised in New York City, that same directness runs through his work: quick, layered, comfortable with contradiction. A clean identity system and a hand painted wall pose the same kind of problem to him, just wearing different clothes.

Off the clock, he's usually on his bike, which is where his eye never really clocks out.