The Design Loop

I am very pleased to announce our Student of Term (October 2011 term) for Visual Communications: Ashley Macabenta-Torres!  She has been with us only a little over 1 year now, and is already proving to be a force to reckon with.  She is dedicated to learning design, has clever ideas, and works hard, often taking on additional projects simply to build her skill-practice (or maybe just for fun?).

These images are from a series of photographs she took for the Digital Photography class, matching up old family photos with their current environments:

Here are a few pages of her layout solution for Intro to InDesign class–she did all the drawings, too!  My favorite line, hidden among the instructions–”Crank up some Kraftwerk” (click to view larger):

I asked her a few questions:

Do you have a creative background?  Or how did you get into Art/Design in the first place?
As a kid, I drew graffiti art, played instruments, and wrote a lot of poetry. In High School, I originally chose to take Graphic Design, but was placed in Culinary Arts. I learned a lot about how art can be applied to food that we eat. When a spot opened up for Graphic Communication, I took it. It ended up benefiting me, because everything I learned about Adobe Programs, and print production has helped me in Westwood.

Where do you draw inspiration for your design solutions?  Where do your ideas come from?
I try to understand what the project theme is, and what my expectations are, and base all of my decisions around that. My ideas pop out during my commute home, or my downtime when I have an opportunity to reflect on the flaws or successes of my designs.

You’re about half-way through the Bachelors Program here…what, so far, has been your favorite project for a class?
My favorite projects were my video projects for Audio/Video class. I can’t choose one. They were all really great. I feel like I am able to show my true potential in 3 minutes of a video, rather than a design.

What’s your long-term plan?  What do you want to be doing 10 years from now?
I still want to continue my education by taking Digital Animation and Video Effects, and IT. I really want to base myself around art and technology, how it works, and what I can do with all of it.

Speaking of video, this is one of Ashley’s video-editing outcomes (coincidentally about her family, too):

Keep it up, Ashley!  We look forward to seeing what you are up to in a year from now, after graduation, and far into the future.