Interview with Natalino Carlo of Infernozilla

I’m not a digital designer or artist, but working in digital marketing in this day and age means you need to diversify your skill set and abilities. You are also more supported now than ever before. With powerful programs and technologies at your disposal you can effectively cover a lot more ground in your work which includes digital design and art.

This is how I’ve operated since the very beginning. With Infernozilla growing to what it is today we now have an in-house graphic designer team who produce impeccable work.

Infernozilla is an award winning Video Game Marketing Agency that specializes in Social Media and Community Management as well as Grassroots Marketing services. We’ve served large studios with over 100 employees to even singular indie developers.

To this end we are known for working with recognizable games such as Escape from Tarkov, Ready or Not and Black Mesa to name a few. In starting up Infernozilla, I used to wear many different hats. Since we’ve grown, I, of course operate as CEO and growing our agency among managing and consolidating relationships with our current clientele and expanding our portfolio.

It would have to be web design. As an entrepreneur, I have a continued interest in business ideation and creation. It’s always fascinating to break down the elements that make up an effective and powerful website that fully encapsulates a brand and their messaging. I think this is due to the design representing more than just striking visuals, and having a purpose behind every element.

A design that understands its purpose and is anchored to these principles through and through. While there is value to utilizing some of the latest trends, it’s always important to not get carried away. Less is usually more.

Whenever I’m involved in design, it tends to be a more frugal approach. However, I do like to be bold where applicable. We like to hone in and focus our efforts on making sure that the goals of the design are met but this doesn’t mean that we’re not willing to try new things or be experimental in piloting new ideas or designs.

For Infernozilla this process looks different for every single one of our clients. Each of our clients have an entirely different brand and overall feel or goals for their marketing approach.

Quite simply it starts with identifying what needs to be achieved and envisioning or empathizing as the audience. This informs most elements of the design where we test and improve on until we feel we’ve met our goals.

There’s a lot of inspiration that can be found in-house. With multiple teams within Infernozilla who manage entirely different brands, everyone is aware of concurrent projects and there’s a wealth of inspiration to draw from each other and emulate.

I hate to repeat myself and also chime in on a discussion which is talked about ad nauseum, but you can’t deny the power of AI technology. There are now amazing plugins for software such as Photoshop and even game development tools which could revolutionize their respective industries in terms of designs.

Whilst most are concerned of its effects, I still believe it takes a skilled and experienced designer to utilize these tools efficiently as they understand the core fundamentals of design.

Thank you so much. This has been a watershed year for Infernozilla and winning such prestigious awards is extremely validating after everything we’ve achieved in the past few years. It’s of course gotten everyone really excited and only fired up to keep delivering.

We’ve taken home 11 Platinum and 2 Gold Wins so there is too much to mention. However, the entries we submitted were easily chosen as they were highlights of our work we knew had the best chance from Social Media Campaigns to Contests and Promotions and Digital Marketing Campaigns.

With our portfolio that covers many different brands and styles - the challenge for each of these entries were completely different. However, it boils down to each of our teams understanding the audiences of each brand and the goals they needed to achieve.

We’re still in our early days but we're already noticing a difference in having an extra conversation starter and it’s always fun to open up about our past work and pride in what we do. We have genuine interest in what we do, so any opportunity to talk someone’s ear off is always an enjoyable experience for us!

It’s stimulating as there’s always a new challenge to face and problems to solve. Also how there’s always new things to learn or account for. We get to do what we love and bring exposure to amazing and awesome video games made by developers who have massive passion for their work.

Mainly that your worst enemy is yourself. As a company within the United States, we have access to almost anything you can imagine with opportunities at every corner whether it comes from networking or ways to solve specific problems. So it’s more about you being set up for success. If you don’t capitalize on this then you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

As I mentioned before, I think there would be a larger separation between good designers and great designers with the advent of AI. Great designers will find a way to utilize this as part of their toolbox and use it far more effectively than the next person due to their expertise and understanding of their craft.

Constant immersion into other designers’ work is a great starting point. You definitely can’t learn in a vacuum and if you constantly grow your network of many different designers you will pick up invaluable lessons learnt from each and every one of them. You could also run through the Vega Awards winners lists and analyze some of the award winning work that are on display. Don’t ever stop wanting to improve.

Nothing beats the time tested approach of university or college in studying design or digital marketing. While it is possible to forego having a diploma or degree, you’re at least ensuring your success by taking this path. So besides enrolling into one of these programs, there are also fantastic online courses and resources you can find online including Udemy or skillshare and even using YouTube.

I have a weakness for strategy games. If one comes out, there is a good chance you'll find me pouring some time into these as a way to decompress.

There is a few but I would say Iman Gadzhi. I’ve followed him since he was 16 years old around his personal growth and how he's built his businesses from such a young age. As I’m a similar age, I learned a lot from following his footsteps via his YouTube channel and his education programs.

Especially during the early stages of my career, I had a lot of things I took away from his work. I’ve applied this to my own work with my own spin as well as incorporating ideas I have learned from others.

I’ve mentioned before about having the willingness to learn and better yourself. Let your ambitions be the fuel to your success. If there’s one thing you could take with you is that if you don’t want something bad enough, you won’t do whatever is in your power to achieve it. You have to always be humble and admit to yourself when you are wrong, and most importantly make an active change to learn from these mistakes.

If you haven’t heard about us, Infernozilla is a Video Game Social Media & Community Management and Marketing Agency with over 105 phenomenal titles in our portfolio. We have grown considerably in the last 2 years and we take immense pride in the work we’ve executed for our clients.

Having the validation of the Vega Awards is an awesome recognition of our expertise and sheer passion in what we do. Thank you so much for the opportunity!