Gastón Lasarte

My dad is a radio communications expert: Morse code, circuit boards, soldering irons, antennas. I grew up taking things apart to see how they worked.

In 2002 our first computer arrived, and with it the internet. I found IRC, taught myself networking basics, then FrontPage, then the Macromedia suite: Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver. I wanted my own videogame site, so I learned how to build one and put it on GeoCities.

It’s still on the Wayback Machine.

That same year I discovered Hip Hop. When my dad saw how hooked I was, he played me Cypress Hill’s "Latin Lingo." I took it as my BBoy name; it got shortened, and since 2002 everyone has called me Lingo. It’s my Slack handle to this day.

I danced and competed in Breaking from 2002 to 2020. I founded my crew in 2010 and competed nationally and across Europe.

Graffiti culture pulled me into illustration. I never painted walls. I filled sketchbooks with characters, calligraphy, and letterforms instead. Some older drawings were later digitized or redrawn on an iPad; newer ones started there.

I studied graphic design at the University of Buenos Aires and taught myself HTML, CSS, and JavaScript when cross-browser work was still a battlefield. CSS architecture led to freelance work, then frontend roles at OLX and Strands, where I worked on internationalization, localization, and RTL for white-label products.

Product design gave a name to work I was already doing around the interface. I moved into it full-time, but I kept the frontend lens. It helps me see when an interface is asking for more code than the problem needs. It also lets me explain the cost of that choice to the people making the call.

I don’t make those calls alone. I listen to Engineering and the people closest to the business, then make a recommendation. If the final decision goes another way for reasons outside my scope, I say what I think and keep the work moving.

• DOUP

  Co-founded an urban training center: started building the space in early 2017, opened on a pre-sale, and grew it past break-even before moving on in 2018. Still running today.

  Instagram

• Hey Lingo!

  My illustrations became a personal merch brand that I ran on and off between 2018 and 2023.

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• Cafe de Saign

  A design podcast recorded with three colleagues during the pandemic. All episodes on YouTube and Spotify.

  Episodes

  

• Mentoring

  More than 90 students at Acámica across Latin America from 2018 to 2020, in evening classes after full workdays. I also mentor through ADPList.

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• 16 months on the road

  From late 2021 to early 2023 I worked as a digital nomad, driving across Argentina with my dog while designing TruVideo remotely. Documented on YouTube.

  YouTube