“the
moment we said hi, we started the game”
|
I began to work in The Model Institutions for Excellence
program at the University of Texas of El Paso (UTEP) founded
by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the summer of 1999. I
started as part time work-study with little experience, with one
more year pending to finish my Bachelor’s degree. I continued
to work there while attending to my Master’s degree. In 2002,
after finishing my graduate degree I was hired by the MIE program
as a full-time multimedia designer and as an events coordinator.
In Spring 2003 Elizabeth Alderman, coordinator of the graphic design
program at New Mexico State University invited me
to teach ART 356 Graphic Design and Multicolor Digital Production,
an upper level class.
In that class, I taught 17 students. Most of them had less than a
year to graduate. I thought this was going to be a course for the
students to refine some of their technical skills, but soon I learned
that the majority of them had never touched Illustrator before and
most of the students had little experience with Photoshop. The reason
for this was that my group ended up being the transitional cluster
from the old graphic design program —heavily attached to printmaking— and
the new program that Professor Alderman was designing.
|
I
started by teaching them the usability for the different image
formats (TIF, PSD, EPS, JPG, GIF, etc.). Then we touched on
the different color systems and their appropriate use (CMYK,
RGB, Web safe colors). To make use of all the information thought,
I had the students make printout and web design projects (for
examples, visit academics).
In 2004, I was promoted to Chief Designer in charge of all necessary
materials to promote the NSF’s initiative: posters, power
point presentations, pamphlets, web sites, t-shirts, brochures
and ornamental products like medals and pins. In addition, I was
responsible to manage estimates and to maintain a balanced budget
for the printing-materials inventory: paper, printer cartridges,
etc. Furthermore, because of my knowledge of technology, I took
charge of fixing common and daily problems with computers, printers
and to keep the equipment up to date.
During
this time, I was also hired as freelance by other UTEP programs
and departments. Among them: the UTEP’s Library of
Special Collections, the Environmental Science Program and
the Inter-American and Border Studies program. (to
see examples of my work please visit portfolio)
In 2005 I got enrolled as a student in the Doctoral program in
the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Texas Tech
University. My wife and I moved to Lubbock, Texas where
we just intended to reside for 3 and half years but other opportunities
arrived and now I am an Assistant Professor in the Communication
Design program at the School of Arts. I am still pursuing my PhD
degree which I intent to finish in less than a year and in addition,
I am preparing projects to gain tenure track in a few years.
pako:
aug.2007
|
