Miguel Alejandro Castro Sánchez

Successful editorial illustrator and poster designer, he joins our approach of less competing and more sharing.

With his original perspective and his talent for creating interesting and useful content, Monkc has much to offer, for his new ideas and his freshness.

Graduated from the Instituto Superior de Diseño (ISDI) of La Habana in 2015 and typography professor at the Institute during his social service, Monkc has developed mainly as an independent designer.

After social service, even during that last year, 2017, he had the opportunity to obtain a position as a designer in a foreign magazine that circulated in Cuba, the Caribbean and Latin America. This magazine is called Excelencias del Motor, which belongs to the Excelencias Cuba group. For the first time he had the opportunity to earn, by the standards of his time, quite a bit of money. It wasn't fair, but it was quite a bit. He began to savor what it is like to work and be paid well. That's where he started working independently.

Finalist and winner in multiple design and illustration competitions, his talent has earned him a place in the Ibero-American Illustration Catalog. Recently, he was recruited by the Canadian agency with international reach Anna Goodson Illustration & Motion. He is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Spain.

Editorial illustrator, graphic designer and art director based in Valencia, Spain. He completed his Master's in Illustration at the Escuela Superior de Arte + Diseño Barreira of Valencia (2020) and graduated in Visual Communication from the Instituto Superior de Diseño of La Habana (2015) where he also taught editorial design and typography classes.

His work has been published in The New York Times (USA), Nature Magazine (United Kingdom), Dwell Magazine (USA), Gràffica Info Magazine (Spain), Fast Company (USA), Mr.Porter Post (United Kingdom) and Shopify (USA). Bronze Trophy Winner at the 2020 Bowery Awards (USA) and Winner of the 62nd Annual Communication Arts Illustration in 2021.

One of his greatest passions in life is drawing. His artistic and design work is influenced by the graphic movement of the Bauhaus school (1919-1933), the Polish poster design school (1950) and Scandinavian illustration.

His illustrations and posters are often characterized by simple use of symbols, metaphorical concepts, geometry, patterns, typographic collage and vintage colors. His designs are simple and direct, often using an aesthetic approach inspired by screen printing. Illustrated maps, design covers and illustrations have appeared in various international magazines and newspapers around the world.

Monk, in English, means monk. At first he used it as a pseudonym, simply Monk. Google translated it automatically to Spanish and he didn't like it. Given this inconvenience, Cuban graphic designer Miguel Alejandro Castro Sánchez (alias Monkc) added the c. The c as his own domain, as a mark of exclusivity. A coined nominative ex libris, like a print, to his name.

For a long time he was obsessed (enchanted, we might say) with medieval imagery. He still remembers that first book: The Pillars of the Earth. "It's a book by Ken Follett, a British writer," he specifies. He became obsessed with Gothic typography. He studied it. He drew it. What he preferred was the atmosphere. He read Umberto Eco. He read The Name of the Rose. His thesis was also on typographic design.

An important moment was when he won the first poster competition called by an independent Cuban poster group called CartelON, with the sponsorship of the Spanish Embassy in La Habana. It was a competition dedicated to the eighty years of the bombings in Guernica. After that competition, he won two or three more. He was a finalist in others and was selected for one or two international poster biennials. Thus, the poster became a very beautiful way to reach people and receive good feedback. In some way that made him feel good.

He continued making illustrations professionally to the point where he no longer designed for the national context and began to illustrate for abroad. The decisive moment in this regard was when he received assignments for Radio Ambulante, a Latin American podcast group.

Then years passed and he continued making posters for cinema, festivals and other competitions. In 2019, he decided to organize his papers to pursue a master's degree abroad. He was able to do it in Spain. He also discovered that there are international representation agencies for illustrators. He wrote to one of them. In fact, one of the best in the world. He wrote to them saying that he would be interested in them looking at his work and, if they were interested, he would like to be under their representation. They responded saying they loved his work, but didn't give him a definitive answer about representation. It was during the period when he was preparing to travel and, just on the flight to Spain, they wrote to him and gave him the good news that they would love for him to work for them. Today it represents one of the greatest challenges of his life. He faces very demanding clients, projects that require new ways of him. They are all different. It fills him with great pride and hope. It is very gratifying to have the opportunity to work with such important clients.

Monkc's work is recognized as one of the most outstanding in the field of Cuban graphic design (both within the island and beyond the seas). Currently, the Cuban designer is part of the catalog of the Canadian agency with international reach Anna Goodson Illustration, one of the most important agencies for illustrators in the world.