Editorial Design

Although the bulk of my experience in this area comes from managing legal texts on small product labels, I am no stranger to layouts you could find in magazines or books. Most of the actual work I've done in this category cannot be posted here, but what I can post is a particular academic project which I think showcases my capacity in this area rather accurately.

 

Humano Obsoleto

A bleak look into the future of human labor

The assignment was to design the cover, opening pages and index of a 3 tome collection of books, plus the first 50 pages of the initial tome. The most important requirement was that a very defined style, complementing the tone of the chosen narrative, had to be established and consistent across the entire project.

I chose to work with the effect of automation on the future of human labor and divided the tomes into manual labor (goodbye hammers), professional labor (goodbye ties) and artistic labor (goodbye paintbrushes). I wanted the collection to have an informative appearance, but a serious tone. Like a manual that calls for reflection.

Color
Each tome is designed to use only three inks: a primary color, a secondary one, and black.

  • Titles, subtitles, and highlights appear usually in the primary color.
  • Images are mostly converted to duotone using the primary color and black. 
  • Miscellaneous elements and other details are used mainly in the secondary color.
  • Base text is always black.

Typefaces
Only 3 typefaces are used in this whole project:

  • Nexa Bold, for titles and subtitles
  • Gotham light for the base text, with its medium variant for highlights
  • Fixedsys Excelsior, for miscellaneous elements and other details.
     

Resources
The main resources I use to define the visual style of the whole collection are ASCII art, pixelated elements, and binary code.

  • The first is most notable in the three covers, which are basically pictures I converted to ASCII sequences with a web tool and a lot of patience.
  • Pixelated elements are mostly used as ornaments, but there's also a system of pixel icons that identifies each chapter of the tomes.
  • Binary code is used on the endpapers, chapter covers, and other smaller instances to complement the style.
DSCN3362_ret.jpg

Below you can click the thumbnails to check out the spreads I designed for the first tome.
Don't mind the text tough: it's just segments from a paper on a similar topic that I spliced up arbitrarily to use as placeholder text.

Animation

Animation, in general, has been an interest of mine ever since I was a kid. I started with Flash and worked my way up to After Effects, even entering a tad into the realm of 3D. 
Video editing is another passion of mine, and I really enjoy it every time I get the chance to work on a project that involves it.
I wouldn't call myself a professional in either area, but I would say I can manage them well and would love any opportunity to expand my abilities.

 

Elephant alternative opening credits

This was an academic project I revisited and updated a few years after it was presented. It was one of the first things I made with After Effects, but I think it still holds up pretty well.

 

Martin Añón's WWISE demo reel

Marin was working on this demo and needed help creating some visually interesting backdrops for the titles and lower thirds. After a short exploration of references, we started experimenting with a couple of After Effects plugins that reacted to the sounds and music he was showcasing.
(Note: in this case, I only worked on the graphics and special effects, the filming was done by Tomás Figuredo and the editing by Martin himself).

 

My demo reel

The same that plays on my homepage. It showcases some of my design projects and segments of some of my animation projects. I tried to create a small scene for every project that would complement its style or concept.

Image Editing

Few things get more frustrating than having an idea and lacking the means to materialize it. In this section, I intend to showcase the variety of tools I've acquired over the years that aid me whenever I need to make concepts tangible. 

 

 

Photoshop

From making a subtle adjustment to a photo all the way to creating an entire poster from scratch, digital image editing is something I do almost daily.
Most of what I know I learned on my years working in Grupo Berro. There, I created and edited an innumerable amount of packaging mockups (mostly for internal development with SC Johnson) and made major adjustments to studio pictures of packaging and books, amongst other things.
But due to the collaborative nature of GB's work methodology, I wouldn't feel right posting any of those works as my own here. Instead, I've compiled a short gallery of academic works and personal projects you can check out below.

 

Analog techniques

I include this subsection here to make it clear that I'm willing to get my hands dirty if necessary. What I mean to say is that if we need to, for example, add an ink stain to a design, maybe instead of googling for one and calling it a day, it's better to get ink, make some stains, scan them, process them, and only then use them. The gallery below contains images showcasing some of the analog graphics techniques I've applied in the past.

 

3D Tools

I never ventured too deep into the realm of 3D Design, but I was always intrigued by the tools and techniques involved. My curiosity has driven me to learn the basics of some of the tools, and in time I found them to be a valuable resource in aiding me as a Graphic Designer. Below are a couple examples of some quick projects I worked on making use of Blender or 3D Max.