Employee Spotlight: Sebastian Rut, Graphic Design Director

Meet Sebastian Rut, Graphic Design Director, who is at the center of the look and feel of FitzGerald’s corporate identity—he recently guided and executed our latest rebrand—as well as the presentation of many of our design concepts and built spaces as both an in-house renderer and terrific architectural photographer. He has even lent his talents to creating environmental graphics and murals for some of our multifamily and workplace clients.

Seba is passionate about photography as his creative outlet, and reports that most of his free time is spent either preparing for a photoshoot, shooting photos, or editing. His photographs are mostly conceptual, involving the building of sets and working with models, but his guilty pleasure is to photograph industrial landscapes (which you’ll see in the slideshow!) His work has appeared in several gallery shows and has been acquired by a few collectors and institutions over the years.

Seba also enjoys cycling, cooking (though his guilty pleasure may surprise you), and attending various styles of musical performances including the opera and symphony—he even dreams to own a personal chair at the Metropolitan Opera. However, Seba is anything but one note—his go-to karaoke song will prove his musical appreciation spans many genres! Learn more about Seba in today’s Q&A below. We also invite you to get to know him further through his staff bio.

We took some time to get to know Seba, and here’s what we learned:

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
“I graduated the Music School, played clarinet and piano. Hated clarinet.”

What would you sing at karaoke night?
“Rammstein.”

What’s one item you want to own that you don’t?
“Personal chair at Metropolitan Opera.”

If you could create a new invention, what would you create?
“Sebacoin?”

What led you to this career?
“I was always interested in art, design and architecture. I went to the same Art School my parents did, my mom was an architect, my dad interior designer.”

What’s something you’ve done, but will never do again?
“Climbed pretty substantial peak in the mountains during the winter by myself. On the way back walked across semi frozen lake for shortcut, in order not to miss the train back home. I told my parents I went skiing with my friends.”

Who has influenced you most when it comes to how you approach your work?
“It’s a collection of various designers and artists. Can’t really name only one.”

What was your first job?
“I worked for this very shady “interior designer”. Tons of crazy stories, but didn’t last very long. My second job was at the high-end frame shop. I loved that place. Great owner, coworkers and I was able to work with fantastic art. Visited lot’s of unique private collections.”

What’s your guilty pleasure?
“Culinary – $0.99 ramen soups.”