A bit about me

Life experiences shape who we are. If you want to know where someone has been, you have to understand where they are from, what makes them who they are and what shapes the way that they think on their methodology and intent.

My father played professional baseball for 18 years. He signed with the Dodgers when he was just 16 years old. I grew up in that environment of hard work and passion at the highest levels of competition. I see him still coaching so many years later with the same passion in his eyes for baseball. This is something that I take into my design. 

I have always been that kid that sees a toy and instead of playing with it, I want to take it apart and understand how the wheels are moving. I remember a distinct time that I took apart a car, and took a small orange juice carton and recreated the car in that, just to see if I could do it. It worked for a while, I got the engine to turn the back wheels but since the tires were made out of glued plastic bottle caps, they did not last long. 

I, later on, got into drawing, and I also enjoyed that and was not too bad at it. My high school art teacher said that there was this field called Graphic Design and that I should look into it, and that is where I found the ability to use my curiosity and problem-solving passion with my love of art and design to make a career. 

I also played baseball, and I was always a hard worker, learned that from my dad and I take that into everything that I do. Especially in design. Below are a few of my core believes and they can give an insight into how I think. 

What do I believe in

Don’t take shortcuts

I believe that well thought out design doesn’t just happen. There are times that a great idea will come soon, but even that, it’s just a seed. Strategize first, write second, design last. I feel like I encounter so many people that walk in the room with a solution and a budget in mind before understanding what the problem is and finding out the right solution. 

Core believer in the designing thinking process

Design thinking is my favorite approach to bringing ideas to life that make an impact on the project, not create something that looks good but create something that works. It is not something written in stone, it takes many shapes and forms, it can jump back and forth depending on the findings, but ideally, I want to work in a linear way of:

Empathize/Discover: In order to create an actual desirable product or service, we need to really understand the person or people that is intended for, what they are expecting, their challenges and pain-points. This step takes assumptions aside and gives a real insight into what the goal needs to be. 

Define/Ideate: What did we find in the empathize phase? Let’s gather all of the themes and patterns that we see and come up with a solid idea of what the problem is and this will become my north star. This is where I like to explore different ideas and strategies, ultimately narrowing down to a priority set of strategies that I believe will have the most impact on our objectives.

“A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.”
– Charles Kettering

Attribute to Charles, I love this stage because it takes away some of the guessing work. 

Prototype/Create: This is where all of the research and strategies start to take shape and come to life. Some of it can be a scaled-down version of the brand, website or product. This is to leave some room for feedback and edits before going all-in on the design. Or, if it’s approved, I will start to implement and create in full scale what the solution is. 

Validate: Once I am done designing, does not mean I am done. Gathering feedback is a huge step. I need to make sure that the solution comes across as intended. Testing with user surveys, A/B testing, or just Analytics reviews are incredibly important steps to ensure lasting success and recurring work. 

Every project is different, and the steps timelines can change depending on the due dates, but this are steps that I always want to keep. 

Everything that can be designed, should be

I believe in the concept of designing everything because no client should ever get the feeling that the work will ever suffer in quality. We spend so much time in creating presentation decks and estimates and once the client is in, we spend less time in creating the follow-up elements of projects. I never want a client to associate anything that comes from the brand with less quality and care as we initially presented. 

The clients that are shown care in every detail knows that that level of quality is being added to every part of the work that is being done for them and are far likely to not be impressed by another agency trying to get their business with well design presentations. Taking time to make everything matter can take a bit more time, but I believe it yields great results.

Teamwork

I believe that the best kind of work comes from working together. Different points of view, different interpretations, and different life experiences are the only way to ensure that your message comes across the right way to the largest audiences.

This is especially true when working with creatives. I enjoy asking my animators how a poster looks because their brain intuitively adds motion, and if they can see the movement, they will tell me if it’s off-balance. Asking my DP how an animation looks because they see it through the lens and can tell me how the camera should be best moved in the project. And always ask my fellow designers, we all design differently but the core basic fundamentals should never be broken.

In conclusion

Manifesto is described as a “public declaration of policy and aims” and I feel like that is what I wanted to get across. I am someone that really cares about design, I care about making great work and it stresses me out when I have to do things that I know are wrong and go against these beliefs. 

Thank you for getting this far on this post, I want to give more insight into how I think and hope this is something that also matters to you. 

Thank you