Young graphic designer stays ahead of the curve

For Gino Broccolo, being original and innovative is not tantamount to neglecting his roots. Both are possible.

The founder and sole member of the new Rochester graphic design firm, Ninety Two, has worked with the likes of Netflix, Google, Major League Baseball, and Hulu, but as of April he returned home to invest in the world of Rochester design.

Ninety Two, located at 149 Cherry Road in Gates, offers a variety of design-oriented services including logo design, branding, digital marketing, signage, vinyl installations, web design and search engine optimization (SEO). Among the designer’s short-term ambitions is to re-integrate into his community and build clientele after living in Philadelphia for the last two years.

“I want to build a bigger following,” says Broccolo. “I really want to get my name out there and put myself in front of people so I can take care of them. My goal is to change design in Rochester.”

After the 26-year-old earned his associate’s degree at Monroe Community College in 2016 for visual communication technology, he shipped off to Philadelphia to pursue his graphic design dreams in a bachelor’s program at the Tyler School of Art at Temple. The aim for Broccolo was simple: to complete his degree with only two years remaining in his program. But he ended up not attending.

“When I got there they said, ‘It’s going to be four more years,’ ” says Broccolo. “At that point, I decided I can’t afford the time or the money. So that shifted gears for me.”

Not completing a bachelor’s did little to halt Broccolo’s progress. If anything, his presence in Philly, bolstered by his freelance work right out of MCC, allowed him to get in the position of working with some of the biggest companies around. Through the agency MKG, based in New York City, Broccolo clinched a gig with Netflix on both Season 2 of “Stranger Things” and Season 1 of “Santa Clarita Diet.”

The designer says “Santa Clarita Diet” was his favorite project to work on. The 2017 flagship Netflix series starring Drew Barrymore was a comic thriller about cannibalism, and the streaming service needed posters for the series premiere in Los Angeles. Broccolo was responsible for the illustration and design—six 7-foot movie posters parodying old films with puns about cannibalism. And he says it was a blast.

“I think my favorite poster was ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s,’ but ‘Breakfast is Tiffany.’ And I immediately thought, Audrey Hepburn, on a platter, with a little bit of blood. It was super animated and super illustrated, so not gory or gross. It shows you can take a project and go with it.”

Broccolo loves to have fun with his work when he can. The big companies had the cash to throw around to make that happen. MKG as a liaison helped realize that.

“I freelanced with MKG right out of college. That was one of my first really big jobs. I freelanced for them until I got the job with Major League Baseball,” says Broccolo.

Being in the big leagues—in more ways than one—marked a big shift for Broccolo’s understanding of what he wanted to do with design.

“I worked the corporate life for a little bit.” he said, “But I found that I liked freelancing a little better.”

In spite of how much creative freedom the big companies could provide, he disliked just how few people he got to see. Interacting with the client is a privilege for Broccolo, and big clients simply can’t provide that experience.

“I want to pull personal traits, as well as traits from the company when I’m working with a client,” says Broccolo. “And there’s no better people to speak on their company than a smaller business.”

This small business fever for Broccolo is much more than a surface-level work preference. The designer spent his early years working as a small business hand at a familiar name’s autobody shop.

“Broccolo Tree and Lawn Care is owned by my Aunt and Uncle. And then Broccolo Automotive is my father’s company.”

Being partial to freelance work and more intimate interactions in large part steered Broccolo to return to Rochester, but his family and ties to the area were among the biggest motivators, too.

“I’m a Rochester native, and my family is really important,” says Broccolo. “Plus, I didn’t want to start a business where I was brand new. So it was really the connections that I had.”

Part of the designer’s long-term vision, he says, is to reach out into New York City with some more of those connections, and then other cities after that. Before approaching his ultimate goal of expansion, however, Broccolo intends to differentiate himself from the conventional Rochester house blend of design by tapping into his roots. His roots not just as a Rochestarian or a small business worker—his family heritage as a European.

“I enjoy the Swiss design, so I pull stuff from that and bring it into my work, where people will go ‘woah that’s weird, what is that?’ ”

He says European designers stay ahead of the curve, and he has that ambition for Ninety Two and its future growth.

“My main goal is to get ahead of the curve, which is not always easy to do. But if you can do it, I think it works really well.”

Being a design whiz, however, doesn’t mean that Broccolo is without challenges. Graphic design is principally a service for other businesses, which places entities like Ninety Two at the whim of general business trends. He says the summer, in particular, is hard since firms save the brunt of overhead and marketing strategies—like bringing in a design firm—for the fall; the times that they aren’t vacationing or focused on signing new clients.

On the horizon for Ninety Two, Broccolo plans on expanding his team by creating a marketing and PR wing for the young firm. In order for clients to depend on his ability to update and improve their brand appeal, he knows businesses must see Ninety Two’s own brand as solidly composed. The designer is also interested in introducing more equipment and bigger printers, making Ninety Two more capable of taking on larger signage tasks.

In the midst of all this tireless relocating, founding, and growing a brand, Broccolo’s life doesn’t just hinge on business.

“I just bought a drone, so that’s been fun. I’m trying to implement that into my business as well.”

The young entrepreneur also enjoys playing golf and motorsports.

“I try to keep myself away from work when I can, to not get burnt out. I know that I’ve heard too many stories of designers just going full force and just extremely burning out and then just not wanting to do it anymore. I just don’t want to get to that point because I love it; it’s a passion of mine.”

Marc Gabriel is an RBJ intern and a student at Nazareth College.