the graphic design blog that speaks the truth

Well, both parts are tied together. My school is a public school, with almost no resources, so the education is pretty limited regarding technology access. We have no computers at school, and class groups are huge, so you can imagine the feedback is slow. All student works are presented in class in printed format, and are hanged on the walls for the rest of the class to see and comment, which helps our work evolve and improve. There are many negative aspects, like the fact nobody can teach you to use the digital tools (programs and such), so you can imagine the first works were really hard to overcome… Positive aspects are the teachers. They have an awesome technique to work out of almost nothing, and to make us see and understand what needs to be done in each and every project of the class. I think their effort for us to get the best education possible with almost nothing has always been understimated. As class assistant for many years, I have seen this from the other side, and honestly there’s nothing I’d like more than my school to get some economic support at some point, so the education level can rise.

This project was made for my signage design class (2005)… It was a icon system design for a primary school. Every class and workshop had it’s own icon, that was supossed to be used in the entrances to each classroom. All the students entered in a contest, and my project was selected to be used in the school. Still waiting for that to happen
tho hehe. This project introduced me to vector illustration, and i learnt lots about how to look for the best reference for an icon, how to synthetize, and specially how to draw with nodes. I can say today, I don’t like the resolution of some of the images for this project, but I can say that it definitely was a turning point in my design style.

Well not really. I studied a career that was aimed to print design, and today I work 100% on web design, so well, I had to learn many extra things along the way. However, I did take in the main aspects of design from school, which do not depend from the medium you work in…

Well, my future to me is a mystery. I am moving to Norway in a few months, and will start in someway from zero there. I plan to keep working on blogs if I have the chance, but who knows?

We were taught to do design using traditional media. Everything we created and designed for school was hand-rendered for the first 2 years there. It’s only now that we’re doing our designs digitally and we’re already in our junior year. This type of training has really helped train our eyes and hands. There is no formal training, however, on software such as Photoshop or Illustrator. We’ll have to learn that by ourselves. Most of my classmates are at a loss with this. I’m happy I already started learning the software prior to my college education.

This project is for a recording studio based here in the Philippines. Our creative team designed the logo, business card, letterhead and website design for the studio. We also helped design the studio as well.

Yes, very much. Our curriculum includes a lot of subjects that give us a wide range of career opportunities. We cover everything from advertising design, illustration, corporate identity, fashion design, and photography. I also have a very cool subject right now called ‘Advertising Production.’ We basically discuss how the production process goes. Our professor gives us pointers on what to do in certain situations. It’s all common sense, really, but it helps listening to their own experiences. Other lecture subjects such as ‘Advertising Practice’ are very helpful should we want to find a job in an advertising agency.

My best case scenario would be me being a full time freelance designer. I’ve always wanted to do this since I was 10 years old and I don’t see myself doing anything else.