ABOUT
Jose Rafael Hernandez is a fashion image and creative strategy practitioner exploring how brands construct worlds through visual identity, cultural research, and storytelling.
My practice is interested in the relationship between image and meaning — how architecture, character, archetype, atmosphere, and cultural references can transform a fashion brand into a world of its own.
BARCELONA, SPAIN
PRACTICE
I approach creative projects through research first.
I am interested in the questions beneath an image: what cultural conditions produced it, what identities does it construct, and what kind of world does it invite an audience to enter?
From these questions, I develop visual and strategic directions across brand identity, campaign development, editorial image, and creative direction.
My process moves between research, insight, narrative, and visual development, allowing strategy and image-making to inform one another rather than functioning as separate disciplines.
BACKGROUND
My approach has developed through working across fashion design, communication, and brand strategy.
At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I studied Open Studio with a concentration in Fashion Design, developing a foundation in silhouette construction, material exploration, image-making, and conceptual design.
I am currently completing a BA (Hons) in Fashion Marketing & Communication at IED Barcelona, where my focus has expanded toward brand positioning, cultural research, visual communication, and the strategic role of narrative within fashion.
Moving between these disciplines has shaped the way I approach fashion: not only as a physical object or image, but as a system of meanings, identities, and environments.
EXPERIENCE
My experience in luxury retail and visual merchandising has given me a practical understanding of how brand identity operates in physical environments.
Working directly with customers, product, visual presentation, and store environments taught me to think about branding as something that is experienced rather than simply seen.
This perspective continues to influence how I approach image, atmosphere, spatial composition, and consumer experience within creative projects.
INFLUENCES
ARCHITECTURE
Space, Form & Light
FASHION
Urban Rhythm
CULTURE
Sketches & Systems
IMAGE
Form & Silhouette
MATERIAL
Texture & Tactility
CURRENTLY
Based in Barcelona and completing my BA (Hons) in Fashion Marketing & Communication at IED Barcelona.
My current research explores worldbuilding in luxury fashion, with particular interest in architecture, semiotics, cultural narrative, and the ways brands construct identities that extend beyond the product.
I am interested in developing this research through creative direction, brand strategy, fashion image, and editorial practice.
CAPABILITIES
BARCELONA, SPAIN
2026
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