Education
| Time Frame | Official Major | What I learned | Institution |
| 2004-2006 | Film | A History of Revolutionary Ideas, Alternative World History, Critical Theory, Art History, Writing, Entrepreneurship+Financial Literacy, HTML+Online Networking, How to curate, put on, and publicize an art show. How and why the world is the way it is. | San Francisco Art Institute |
| 2002-2004 | Transportation Design | Ethic of Excellence, Design, Graphic Design, Sculpture, Pop Culture History, Woodworking, How to Make Stuff Look Professional | Art Center College of Design |
| 2000-2002 | Industrial Design | 2D Visual Communication, Zoology 101, Intro to Ecology, Design makes me happy! | Pasadena City College |
| 2000 | Wilderness Expedition | What Life is About, How to Feel Alive, How to Stay Calm When You're Hanging Off a Cliff, What To Do When You're Afraid | Outward Bound |
Experience
| Time Frame | Official Title | What I learned | Institution |
| 2005-2006 | Design Intern | How to create a seamless analog and on-line work flow. How to present professional work for instant feedback. Professional and prompt design response. How to communicate and present proposals. How to work around technical difficulties. How to package a cover design for printing press. | Leonardo Magazine |
| 2005 | Design Intern | Packaging a logo design for a client. Putting together dynamic Power Point presentations. | Spectacle |
| 2004 | Barrista | How to give great customer service. How to work a cash register. How to make ultra smooth cappuccino foam. The meaning of "business model" and "turn key operation." | Starbucks |
| 2003 | Freelance | How to collaborate with the client. Understanding and listening to the client. The difference between an engineer and a design patent, and how long it takes to get one. Designing for a market not oneself. | Dan Cunanan |
| 2000-2001 | Teacher's Aide for Product Design | Leadership skills. How to be proactive. How to listen and give good feedback. | Pasadena City College |
| 2001 | Project Assistant and Residential Advisor | Research skills. Telephone and office etiquette. Professionalism. How to put together a summer school program for gifted high school students. How to put together a slide presentation. Better knowledge of Los Angeles tourist attractions. How the design workflow works within a group dynamic. | Institute for Educational Advancement |
| 1998-2000 | Various office clerk positions | Professionalism. How to work the copier and fax machine. General overview of PR concepts. How to glue paper and stuff envelopes. |
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Community
| Time Frame | Official Title | What I learned | Institution |
| 2004-2005 | Weekly Volunteer | Proficiency in the band saw and disc sander. Learned how to work the metal cutter and how to weld band saw blades. An introduction to museum maintenance. | Exploratorium |
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
- Coming up with lots of ideas/ brainstorming. I love generating ideas. I'd like to think I'm idea prone. This is my strength: I play the numbers game, the idea is that the more ideas you come up with the better chance it is to hit a good one.
- Online/ library research. Whatever it is, most likely I'll find it. It's like treasure hunting or a scientific experiment looking for information to support design decisions. I find the more thorough the research, the better design solution I'm able to come up with.
- Analysis for design criteria. All that research is futile if not put together within the context of a design problem. Translating what the research mean for what I'm designing is something I'm good at.
- Rapid visual communication/ sketch phase. The rapid sketch method allows me to quickly visualize an idea on paper to see if it might work. I love this process, and I feel it translates in the result.
- Color theory/ making colors work. One of my key strength is the ability to recognize what makes a color scheme work or don't work. 16 years of painting and mixing different kinds of paint have taught me to detect the subtlety of hue.
- Proportion and balance. I'm still not entirely sure how this works but my theory is that years of drawing and painting have bred a kind of sixth sense for proportion and balance. For this I rely on my gut instinct, and it's almost always right.
- 2D design. I can do 3D design, but my strength is really in two dimensional mediums.
Weaknesses
- Design refinement process. I can do this, but it's painful for me. I get bored easily and want to move on to the next project right away.
- Market research. I've done this before but I'm not crazy about getting people to take surveys. I applied to canvas on an environmental platform before and lasted but a day.
- Super tight renderings. Not really my style, but if I must I'll do it.
- Too idealistic. There will be times when I'll need you to ground me in reality. I love coming up with bluesky ideas, but I sometimes need to be reminded that we're making this design sometime this millenia.
- Tendency towards perfectionism. OK. Trying to break this one. I mean at least be more of a happy balance. If I'm perfecting on some minor detail and it's getting silly, you'll just have to stop me.
How Can I Help You?
- Take advantage of my wide variety of skills spanning from traditional illustrative mediums, to quick rapid ideation sketching, to film editing and analog-digital 3D modeling skills. This means you get an illustrator, graphic designer, photographer, sculptor, color consultant, envelope stuffer, errand gal, model maker, researcher and writer all in one which translates to fewer design subcontracts for you.
- Solid design proposals.
- More choices = higher chance of hitting a great idea. How? Not squirming from the sometimes painful ideation process.
- Reliable and punctual.
- A designer who cares about politics, economics, social and environmental issues, and is well versed in these subject matters. Why is this important? I believe design is not immune from environmental, political, and social climate. Depth is only acquired through earnest research and telling the truth. The best designs reflect and comment on the human condition.
- I can take you to the next level: a designer who cares about you and your organization, and wants you to succeed.