I felt that every project I had shot in the class up to that point was too serious for my taste and instead wanted to go in the other direction. I wanted to shoot something that was dream-like, humerous and funny. Eventually I decided that I wanted to play with the idea of shadows which I had seen in fashion photography but was also childlike in Peter Pan. I asked three of my friends to shoot them using shadows that I felt that represented them. Using all boys, I wanted to tap into a childlike mentality that is lost when you’re an adult but still somehow affects you from day to day. Using large rolls of paper, I had each person some in and be suprised with each character they were give. As happy as I was with the end product, the process of working with friends, physical paper and making something that I wanted made the process the best part.

Star In LA is the approach for the UCLA DMA 2010 Summer Institute. I was originally working with collegue Chris Tuyay on the project and it eventually feel through, so I ended up working on the project alone. When I was brainstorming on how to go about this project, I knew that I wanted to integrate photography and depth. The identity the previous year had be 2-D and ’safe’ to some extend.

The first day at Markatos Moore, they put me on the ROXIE project, which is San Francisco’s oldest theater. I was really happy to be able to work on a project like this just because it required research, going through the history of the theater and I was able to pursue my own pitch.

I like to think that whether you like it or not, when you have tons of fun working a project, it is going to show in the final product. I feel that this was the case for the 2009 UCLA DMA GRAD SHOW brochure / book. Working on Henri’s office all the time, we are across the hall from the grad students. Personally, I always feel that this gives us a chance to engage with them as friends rather than just our T.A.’s. They always seem a little crazy (in a good way) and out-going which is always relevant in their work. So when they asked us to design their posters and signage for the, we were not only delighted but also felt that we can design something as crazy as their work.

On the other hand, some projects take 2 hours and you’re completely satisfied about it. Usually these projects also don’t come with pay so you don’t feel as pressured. I’m hoping that one day I find a balance in the work place where I am happy with (almost) everything and the pay is great. Back to the project, I was asked by the department to make a flyer for the first annual DMA Career Day. The only thing I was given was the lecturers, the date, the title and a message from the chair, Casey Reas.

Out of all of the projects that slipped through the cracks, I have to say that I am most sad about this one never happening. Henri and Renee Dalderr had currated this show called TIME BASED CONCEPTUAL ART which was a symposium with a collection of conceptual video art that doesn’t get displayed very often. After the symposium finished, it would be traveling around so they felt that it would be great if a catalogue went around with it.

Planning in advance doesn’t always work, especially when the plans cha-nce. Tiffany Huang and myself were asked to design and typeset Erkki Huhtamo’s PhD dissertation which had just been completed. We were allowed to do anything we wanted for the book, but try to keep it as cost effecient as possible using european paper sizes. The title of the book was THE ROLL MEDIUM that focused on the history of panoramas. The really amazing this is Erkki has such a large collection and alot of what is displayed in his book comes from his personal collection. We were both inspired by the idea of creating a panorama with the layout of the book, so that when you opened the book, the dimensions would be the closest proportions of a panorama. Sadly, this didn’t happen.

I have been lucky to continue a working relationship with David Porras after IDA Y VUELTA. The next project we tackled was for his thesis film, LA VIUDA(THE WIDOW). This time around, I figured it would be fun to really push the limits of the cover and try something a little more festive. I have seen very fewSpanish movie posters, but I feel that majority of them are illustrated or really playful. We took the same primliminary measures on getting started on the project yet this time he mentioned there was a lot of symbolism within the film. I became more interested in this aspect of the film so I asked him to create a list of all the symbols and what they represented. I used the Criterion Collection as a major reference from this project for their bold and playful covers that all portray such strong emotions for all their films.

The final series that I worked on was with Tiffany Huang under Henri which was the SILKSCREEN series. I specifically remember working on this series and we were having a hard time trying to visualize the information we were  given so we  decided to just go at it and just produce work and see what happens. It always funny how Tiffany and myself have worked with each other for so long and at some point, we are able to design the same things without talking. I guess this is what happens when you design with the right person. Finally, we turn to each other and we are playing with the concepts of silk-screening again mixed with the protests for the Karen Finely poster, but Tiffany had a much more striking use of imagery. It was pretty much finished at that point with some minor color changes but she hit the nail on the head with this one. We took the same concept and use of color and adapted it to the whole series. For myself, everytime I think of silkscreening, I always think of Andy Warhol, which of course is never a bad reference.

This is the oldest project I could think of while working with Willem Henri Lucas.I do specially remember seeing he was the founder of Funny Garbage and wanted to do something with drawings to make it funny? Yeah, I know. Somehow I got a King Kipple image (this I dont remember getting, maybe it came in the file) and I overlayed it ontop of his bio pic. Then the ‘Kippe’ in the thought cloud ended up on top of his forehead, which I thought was the fun-niest and most clever thing to do. I wouldn’t say this is one of my strongest pieces, but its probably one of the most memorable ones for myself.