AIGA Student Portfolio Day!!!!

All the sweat and blood of getting my portfolio ready in time for the AIGA Student Portfolio Day has paid off! I had the most amazing time today! I met some of LA most leading designers and got to meet with a bunch of them one-on-one. Below is a list of designers I got to speak with:

10am - Dominic Parero
10:30am - Ishmael Obrigon
11am - Vesna Petrovic
11:20am - Linda Weinman (THE creator of LYNDA.COM!)
(yummy lunch)
(Got to see Rebecca Mendez speak and talk about her amazing work)
2:20pm - Dave Stolte
3:00pm - Milka Broukhim
3:20pm - John Coy

After already speaking with 7 amazing designers, I decided just for the hell of it to walk by the room Rebecca Mendez was in, knowing full well she was completely booked up. As if by chance, the person she was suppose to see, hasn't showed up quite yet, and there was some confusion as to who should go next, so I ceased the opportunity and quickly snuck in and sat down with her!!!!! What she had to say was very enlightening. She praised most of my work, and gave me very good constructive criticism as well. She loved the directions that I was exploring both personally and technically and told me to push for more extremes and exploration. She has mentioned an upcoming show at the Pasadena Museum of Californian Art called "Getting Upper: Graphic Designers and Artists Reconsider the Alphabet". She recommended I go see it since I am so passionate about typography. I looked it up and found the info, the opening reception is on May 14th from 7-10pm, you can find the rest here:

Click Me

Overall it was a very positive day. I left with a sense of accomplishment. Everyone I spoke with praised my work, though they all mentioned things that I could improve on and I definitely feel that I still have TONS of learning to do to hopefully one day find my true voice.

Conversation Provoking Tag Lines

Came across this article in the Advocate talking about a billboard which has people talking. You can take a look at it here:

Click Me!


Having just completed a project consisting of pro and con arguments in regards to Gay Marriage, this stood out to me. The people behind the ad, Central United Methodist Church, said that this ad is intended to be a conversation piece between people of differing perspectives and I honestly think it is a very interesting approach. The tag line "Being Gay is a Gift from God" displayed in Toledo, Ohio is sure as hell going to raise some religious peoples eyebrows. Considering how this is a billboard that people drive by, many probably will just see that line rather than anything else on this ad, unless they actually stop. The idea is simple.... if God created this universe, then he must have created everything with a purpose and a reason, because God... being God... doesn't make mistakes, right? I think this is an interesting approach to pro-gay issues from an angle that religious people could understand. What do you guys think?

What did you do this weekend?

Mine was a "Lost Weekend" lol. I tried catching up on TV as part of mine "Back to Civilization" campaign, especially since I am now taking this Advertising Art Direction class where we have to be familiar with whats happening in the TV Land. However I mostly felt like I wasted a bunch of time, so I am hopeful that this has helped me on some sort of a subconscious level, and will allow me to write better headlines that make references to popular media.