Work
Ricardo Camargo, Director
When Ricardo Camargo started Vapor Studio in 2003 he built his design/build firm upon more than a decade of experience launching and managing brands. His goal was to help both established and emerging companies expand their audience through innovative product design and marketing.
“Vapor Studio has worked with 400 million dollar companies and start-ups alike. We bring the expertise to every level,” Camargo says. Under his direction, Vapor Studio has the versatility to move brands further than they may have ever thought possible. Camargo combined experience of working with world class clients as well as being an active particpiant himself in the action sports lifestyle. Camargo believes this gives Vapor Studio the edge that companies want when building their brand identity or launching new product categories.
Prior to the creation of Vapor Studio, Camargo launched Gravis footwear for the industry leading snowboard brand Burton. With its untraditional style, Camargo established Gravis as one of the first brands of casual footwear that appealed to the action sports lifestyle. Camargo came to launch Gravis after two years as a Director with Burton Snowboards during snowboarding’s explosion in the mid-nineties. While with Burton, he repositioned the brand’s boot program to overtake industry mainstay Airwalk and become the world’s top snowboards boot line (a position that they still hold today).
Before moving to the US to work with Burton, Camargo resided in Toronto, Canada where he launched two snowboard companies in the early days of the industry.
Camargo presently resides in the town of Encinitas California with his wife and two children.
Eneri Abillar, Industrial Designer
Eneri Abillar came to Vapor Studio with a design resume that merges a bi-coastal US education with a global client history. Representing an eclectic background that bridges street culture and high style, Eneri’s one of the leading forces in the urban renaissance of industrial design.
A multi-dimensional approach of research and immersion are keys to Eneri’s design process. By getting into the head of the end user and also taking an outsider’s visual perspective with design, Eneri’s goal is not just to create a better relationship between the consumer and the object, but to make the relationship simply look better.
As a classically trained artist, Eneri can visually conceptualize scenarios for clients in a way that conveys not just the end design, but the final mood. Eneri is also a triple threat with physical media, employing a building skill-set that extends deep into fabrication, model making and sculpture. His ability to take ideas from paper-to-platform sets him apart from designers versed only in concept.
Eneri joined Vapor Studio fulltime in 2007, after acting as the contract design lead on a number of the studio’s high profile projects. Prior to his work with Vapor, he had collaborated with such notable influencers as Louis Nelson, IDSA designer of the decade Bruce Hannah and acclaimed furniture designer Charles Pollack. His design portfolio also includes working with New York creative consultancy ECCO Design on behalf of Lexus, in addition to operating a fifteen-person sculpture studio based in the Philippines.
Eneri’s personal influences in core sports and street culture also has him on the radar of top emerging lifestyle brands. Outside of his work with Vapor Studio, Eneri has collaborated with notable brands such as UNIV and Crooks & Castles.
When not at the drafting table or behind the acetylene torch for Vapor, Eneri can usually be found modifying (and most likely, improving) motorcycles, cars and bikes that have come his way.
Eneri received a Masters of Industrial Design from Pratt Institute, as well as a BA in Studio Arts and BS in Biology from Santa Clara University.