Juan Carlos Pagan is a New York based multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and typographer whose work blends expressive craft with rigorous precision. His practice explores the intersection of art, design, and cultural storytelling, creating visual work that moves fluidly between brand expression, image-making, and letterform experimentation. Juan has created work for clients including NPR, Pinterest, Cîroc, Under Armour, Nike, Google, Apple, Disney, New York Lottery, Curry, Hoka, and YouTube. His editorial work have appeared on the covers of The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and Variety magazine.
Juan has held creative leadership positions at DDB, Deutsch, MTV, and 72andSunny, where he contributed to brand defining campaigns and advanced the role of design within contemporary visual culture.
Juan's work has been recognized by The Type Directors Club, The Art Directors Club, The One Show, Communication Arts, Graphis, Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD, AICP, 4A’s, AdColor, and Print Magazine, among others. In 2013 he received the prestigious Art Directors Club Young Gun Award, was nominated for Print Magazine’s New Visual Artist “20 Under 30,” and was named #1 on Adweek’s Talent 100 list. In 2018 he was honored with the Type Directors Club Ascenders Award which recognizes designers who are 35 years of age and under for their remarkable achievement in design and typography.
In 2017 Juan co-founded Sunday Afternoon, a hybrid design studio and artist management agency, which he has since led to multiple major recognitions. In 2020 Sunday Afternoon was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in America, and in 2022 it was recognized by Print Magazine as Design Agency of the Year.
Juan holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design and completed postgraduate studies in typeface design at The Cooper Union.
Representation: Sunday Afternoon
For inquiries, contact: audrie@sundayafternoon.us
Personal email: Carlos@jcpagan.com
Published in: Mastering Type, The Essential Guide to Typography for Print and Web Design, 2011