Senior Thesis:
Mitos Encantada
I seek to communicate a brand’s true narrative with tools like shape, color, typography, and imagination.
I invite you to view the selection of projects below and gain an understanding of my process.
An Online Encyclopedic Experience of Taino Short Stories
A true labor of love; mitosencantada.com is the live website I designed and built as a catalyst for sharing my retelling of Taino myths from Puerto Rico.
This project began as my senior thesis, but I have since become enamored with this process and the opportunity to share my culture with the world. In this project, I researched texts from as early as the 16th Century, rewrote existing Taino myths for a contemporary audience, and then illustrated them through digital assets from found photography to collage art, and digital paintings all created by myself.
Branding
I seek to communicate a brand’s true narrative with tools like shape, color, typography, and imagination.
I invite you to view the selection of projects below and gain an understanding of my process.
Latin Art Store
A massive storm, with a death toll higher than that of Katrina, hit Puerto Rico on September 16th, 2017. This force of nature was Hurricane Maria, and it killed over 3,000 United States citizens. However, rather than headlines describing us as people in need, I only saw phrases like “foreigners”, “immigrants”, and “freeloaders” to name a few.
People here in the states did not realize we as Puerto Ricans, like them, are United States citizens. This massive ignorance was further empowered by the many tweets and discussions by Donald Trump, who disrespectfully stated
“Puerto Rico is one of the most corrupt places on earth.”
I was distraught as a Puerto Rican. I was infuriated as a Latino. I was driven as a graphic designer. This harrowing series of events led to my creation of Vené, an online store, and platform dedicated to the representation and education of Latin culture, beginning with Puerto Rico.
Motion Graphics
Adobe After Effects is a daunting tool to overcome, and I am still learning its ins and outs. But, as a creative, I enjoy challenging myself especially if it leads to a new exciting method of content creation.
Below are three of my favorite motion graphic projects and I hope to do more in the near future.
Puerto Rico Matters
Based on a poll by Morning Consult, “only 54 percent of Americans know that people born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens” [Dropp, Kyle, Nyhan, Brendan, 2017, ‘Nearly Half of Americans Don’t Know Puerto Ricans Are Fellow Citizens’, The New York Times, 26 September, Accessed January 2019 from The New York Times website], and as a result, many felt we as a country did not need to aid the island in the devastation after the storm. Ignorance continued to fuel these opinions, so I designed a motion graphic in support of Puerto Rico, emphasizing that we are not just Puerto Ricans, we are United States citizens.
Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party:
Malika Favre Entry
Upon studying the women artists of the world like Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Yayoi Kusama, I was introduced to Judy Chicago and her feminist work The Dinner Party.
As the many guests included women from a plethora of backgrounds, professions, and educations, I was given a choice of who I would like to include should I be given the chance. Which would be very cool by the way!
Anyway, the women here are known for their acts of heroism, courage, talent, dedication to academia, the arts, and many iconic feats during their lifetimes. I decided to choose a woman who inspired me as an artist and continues to represent an elegant standard of quality and attention to detail through her work, Malika Favre.
Escape
Wonder Woman has been my favorite superhero since I was a child. Even so, I did not create artwork based on her. I never felt like I was capable of producing anything that would be good enough to reflect what the character meant to me.
Since studying design, I discovered new means of self-expression, and motion graphics is one of the most interesting mediums that I would love to learn more about.
In this motion graphic, I pay homage to the escape scene of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman film. I illustrate the scene through a combination of color, transition, and minor motion effects, as well as kinetic typography.
Web Design
When I first arrived at Hopeworks N’ Camden, it was for a graphic design internship. That turned into a web design internship, which led to my future position as the lead designer at Sagapixel.
Much of my professional design experience lies in the work I did there, which was primarily on websites. Though I want to represent that I can do far more than just web design, I still enjoy the experience and want to show some of the best websites I had the privilege to design and build.
Doctors Who Create
The Doctors Who Create are a group of creative healthcare providers who seek to find creative ways to combine their artistic hobbies with their approach to patient care.
The doctors came to my team in need of a website and logo redesign, merchandise design, and a specific place to list their weekly podcasts.
In this project, I designed the website by myself, and then the merchandise with elements from my team under the direction of Chris Myers.
If you would like to view the XD link to the design mockup, please click here.
Sagapixel
When I think of Sagapixel, I experience nostalgia and a fondness like that of an old alma mater. Memories of my earliest exposure to professional design experiences stem from this small independent SEO-focused online marketing firm.
Sagapixel was my very first paid position as a graphic designer, and I will never forget the time I had there with Frank Olivo (CEO) and my coworker Roger (I used to call him ‘roger! roger!’ like the droids from Star Wars.
One of my favorite projects was redesigning the Sagapixel website for a modern audience. The goal was to craft an experience that would better reflect the quality services and dedicated approach to every project that Frank ensured.
I took a lot of chances here with layered opacity effects over images in the footer, moving elements along the body of pages, and motion banners in above-the-fold sections of every page.
Wallstreet Dermatology
I am a sucker for white. White color, white space, and the opportunity to craft an elegant experience. On Wall Street Dermatology’s site, I took the time to guide users towards a feeling of elevated expert care.
When you are trusting someone with your health, especially with a scary diagnosis looming, peace of mind and trust are imperative to communicate to the target audience.
Through a combination of before & after treatment examples, a lighter neutral color palette, and confident body copy from the expertise of Dr. Tzu, I delivered a website comparable to the quality services found at Wall Street Dermatology.
MSW Law Group
Designing for attorneys taught me patience and the importance of checking my work a million times before publishing. You have to be aware of the copy, and the legalities of whatever images you use, and ensure no false advertising or models appearing as attorneys in stock images and such.
It is a designer’s minefield since mistakes can appear in a myriad of ways that could cost your client some serious financial penalties. The pressure is constant from the initial mockup phase, down to the wire at the debugging phase.
For me though, all of these ‘hazards’ made designing this and other attorney sites a fun experience!
Lourdes Radiology
Lady of Lourdes presented the biggest challenge of all my website design projects at the time. Lourdes required a website for their radiology services, in addition to 20+ pages, there was a special need to highlight their Women’s Center, Diagnostic Radiology, and Interventional Radiology services. I focused on outlining the meticulous services with a series of iconography, and layout structures to provide a clear but concise experience for users.
The Lourdes Radiology website turned into the largest that I ever designed and built. I am happy with the outcome of the project.