The Creative Industry Today Series: Part 5 — Fidel Peña

2025 Applied Arts Design Awards multiple award winner Underline Studio for "PerfumeHead LA LA Love".

Over nearly two decades and more than 500 awards, Fidel Peña shares his distinct perspective on the creative industry’s trajectory. As Co-founder of Underline (est. 2005), he works alongside Claire Dawson and a multidisciplinary team to lead an internationally recognized practice across branding, design, and motion.

What do you see as the primary forces driving these changes?

Social media, global holding companies, technology, procurement culture—or a combination of all three?
I think it’s mainly global holding companies and technology. Those two forces drive social media reactions and procurement culture. Of course they all affect us, but those two primary forces are also driven by economic demands that overpower cultural ones.

How have these shifts reshaped your design studio’s structure, culture, and business model?

Although our studio structure and business model on the surface remains similar to many years ago — we are a small studio of six, where five of us are designers — our studio dynamics keep changing constantly. The type of work we do now is very different to that of ten years ago, not just the format, but even the way we explain and sell it. Design without strategy and thinking keeps losing its value as technology keeps catching up with its development.

What pressures feel most acute right now—creative, financial, or human?

Creative and financial. Financial to convince clients of the value of design, and creative to find the time to do creative work within time constraints.

How are you approaching AI within your organization? Opportunity, threat, tool, or unavoidable reality?

A bit of all of the above. Trying to see the opportunities within it, while being aware of its threat. But, how long can we use AI before we run out of energy and fresh water?

What does sustainable creativity look like at the leadership level today?

Impossible to answer, as this shifts every day and sustainability has mostly become an empty word for boardrooms with barely any impact on reality and the environment.

Are you optimistic about the future of design studios? What gives you hope—or pause?

To survive design studios will have to keep evolving, not sure how much we can evolve until we become something entirely different. Perhaps we will, but I’m sure creativity will not disappear.

What advice would you offer to those stepping into leadership roles in this climate?

Keep exploring and growing but don’t doubt the value of the expertise and knowledge we bring.

If you could redesign the industry, what would you change to make it more viable for both clients and creatives?

Education for the value of design and aesthetics to clients. A shift in client’s mentality that their values are enhanced by good design.

Fidel Peña’s perspective reflects a career built on consistency, collaboration, and evolution—offering a grounded view of an industry that continues to shift.