Agustin Garza Guage Speaker Series

The lecture given by Agustin Garza yesterday was probably the most impactful presentation I have had in  terms of design. I have had some great speakers in my time, but Garza's charisma and way of reasoning definitely shadows his success. Although I highly admire him because he is a well respected figure in Los Angeles as well as the Latino community, it was his rationale behind design and how his life revolves around it that was uplifting. 

I believe myself to be an entreprenuer, but I also believe that I have a whole lot to acheive. Garza's words definitely made it a lot easier on me on how to deal with acheiving all that I want to do in life. As I raised the question to Garza last night on how to deal with multiple tasks, I realized that I was sort of repeating a question that I ask myself all the time, and often answer it. Of course, every time I answer it, it always changes, just like my method of creativity and design. And because I have been multitasking since I got out of high school, it has been a continuous struggle as well as an extraordinary experience for me. I think its great and I encourage everybody to engage in as much activities as they can handle as it will definitely benefit them down the road.

On another note, seeing Deborah Sussman and Agustin Garza's work has definitely opened a new window of goals for me: Environmental Design. For years (seriously) I have always wanted to do projects like design a theatre, or a million squre foot mall. The truth is I never knew the proper term for it. Now that i know what it is, I can further study it and see where I can get my hands on some projects. The new Student Union building might be a great opportunity. 

Great Book Idea (I hope)

When doing my research for the 3rd project for our 413 class, I wen ahead and visited the old trusty AIGA websites and dug through some 500 examples of book design. After looking at I don't know how many book covers, none of the gave me the inspiration or idea I needed for the book cover of the AIGA Business Ethics that was chosen as my historical document. I originally wantedf a 50s style vintage kind of book design that is inspired by cartoon characters such as the dude from the comic book "Blondie".

I figured this would have been a good exploration for what could be a great project. After thinking about it long and hard, i figuredit probably wasn't a good idea to use such a playful approach on such a document with so much value and honor (if there is anyone who hasn't read it,  I encourage you to do so). After digging through the archives I visited the AIGA medalists section and found a perfect image for my book cover: The AIGA medal that was designed by James Earle Frasier in 1920. I decided to use this image and digitally recreate the image using only the letters a, i, and g. I think this would be a very effective way to get the idea of what the book will be about.

My next challenge is seeing what kind of binding and finishing options I can get away with. Not to mention the grid I'll be using for the book as well as the entire construction of the book. I think I got aheat of myself for a minute. With only three weeks (maybe less) I would consider myself lucky if I can come up with and an embossing or spot UV finish.