Art was my first love. I always knew I wanted to be an artist, I just hadn’t decided what I was going to major in. I tried many forms of art. First I joined martial arts. I continued it for 8 years. I also had a passion for dancing. After getting my second degree black belt I decided to pursue dancing. I tried many forms of dance from my highschool’s drill team, jazz, modern, hip pop, and ballet. Being a latina I grew up dancing salsa, merengue, cumbias, reggeaton, bachata, duranguense, etc. I thought I wanted to be a dancer.
On my visit to the SUVA campus I met a wonderful lady named Joanne. She introduced me to graphic design. Honestly I didn’t know too much about it. She encouraged me to look into it and consider it as one of my careers. She added that marketing would be a great minor, after all fashion, graphic design, and marketing go hand in hand. After one semester I realized graphic design was an excellent addition to my love of art. How could it not be? Graphic design is in everything. Any kind of business needs branding and marketing, and I can combine most of my loves. There are so many talented designers that have inspired me to want to be a graphic designer. My number one inspiration is definitely Masssimo Vignelli. During my visit to the SUVA campus I realized as much as I love fashion, it would have to wait. New Mexico doesn’t offer a fashion education and I wasn’t ready to move yet.
Vignelli is known for having a very clear aesthetic. He is a radical minimalist. I don't consider myself a minimalist but I like to pull from the minimalistic aesthetic. I have defined my Aesthetic in three words simple, clever, and elegance. These three words are easy to apply with any client I provided a service for. Designers like the Vignellis and Paula Scher are great examples of people who don't follow the “norm” and always apply their aesthetic to everything they do. I could go on, on people who have influenced me, but there has also been experiences that have shaped the way I view graphic design. I had the opportunity to go on a local agency tour. They had many interesting things to say but the most influential was 3advertising. They are a great graphic design agency in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They re-enforced my believe that esthetic is highly important. In their presentation they said something that has stuck with me “Don’t have a style, because style goes out of style. Be known for having a clear aesthetic. That’s what will distinguish you from the other designers.” That statement will forever push me to design in all styles while still being able to apply my aesthetic.
I have so many ambitions. I plan to pursue all my passions and even combine them. In graphic design I’m currently freelancing and on the side collaborating with several people. I plan to create a worldwide artist alliance. I'm in the preliminary stages, but like with anything great it takes time. I plan to further my education. It’s time to pursue fashion while also moving forward with graphic design. I hope to be able to merge my loves once I begin designing fashion. I hope to one day be able to do it all from painting, drawing, sculpting, writing (which is why I started blogging), installation art, fashion, marketing, and graphic design. I know it's a lot, some would even say overly ambitious, but at the end of the day I do it for the love of art.
