2013discovery book

hey!My name is Juan Aguirre; aka Phil Hoa.

I’m from Colombia, but before moving to the USA two years ago, I lived in Spain for three years. I’ve been learning about design for five years now, and that’s the main reason why design has become my life-passion.

I just graduated from high school, and my next step is to study graphic design at Montserrat College of Art. So I know this summer internship will give me a lot of experience and knowledge.

That’s a good question, because what I hope to get out of Youth Design this year is more than a simple experience. Since this is my second year within the Youth Design crowd, I hope to get knowledge, vision, creativity and improvement of all my skills in design. Also, I want to create new relationships, live funny moments, and construct great memories, because that’s what life is made of.

June 29 orientationThis was my first official participation into the program this summer.

During the orientation I had a lot of fun; I met the new interns and saw my old mates, and we worked together on the exercises that we had to complete. What I liked the most was Alisa’s creativity exercise because I made a piece that everybody liked.

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July 8 Meeting our mentors

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This was an awesome day for me. Since I already knew where I was going to work, I was very eager to meet my mentor for this year. I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew he was going to be a very cool person. So I met Aaron, an incredible graphic designer, music lover and better person.

I remember that Alisa introduced me, and we started talking instantly. I knew some information about his company, Alphabet Arm Design, so I asked a lot of questions about it. And so did he, because he was really interested in knowing how I am.

After all, I realized that I was going to have an amazing and funny summer with him and his team.

“AlphabetArm” refers tothe alphabet

tattoo wrappedaround one of Aaron’s arms.

note!

My first week was a fantastic experience! I met my new work-mates, and I started working on a project since the first day. The best thing about it is that it’s related to music.

I also realized that this is like being at home with your friends. We are always joking and laughing, the music is on all the time (good music!), and there’s no stress at all; it’s a very comfortable place.

My work mates!

Aaron

Ryan

ChrisJo

rdan

...at the office

This second week at the office everything got more serious. Not in a bad way though. I finished my first proyect for the firm and automatically Aaron gave me more work. Now I have to design some kind of funny stuff to put on new buttons. What is really interesting about it is the free style I can work with. Because Aaron seems to like new ideas, no matter the style. Once again, I’m really happy with what I’m making here.

Pre-college design workshop

The second part of this workshop was absolutly fantastic. Sadly, we didn’t have time enough to present our logos. I would love to show my ideas and develop them because I feel really comfortable creating logos, though we had a good time when we saw the posters we prepared last week, and tried to find a good name for our brand.

Personal work this week!

Yes! I also work at home, and I’m currently working on a logo for a metal band from Spain. Isn’t that cool?

Practicing typography helps me to improve my skills and my creativity. It is not easy to find a good way to make letters work together, but the more you practice, the more easy it is. This is how I spend my “free time” at home.

The first workshop was more focussed on researching what we wanted to design: specially inspirational images and information about that product we needed to create. That was okay, a good activity where we found out how difficult it could

be to create something new, because the marketplace is already full of new ideas. Then, this week, we started working on the brand name and its respecting logo. Since my group chose the “Afrocentric” theme, we decided to look for words that were

not in English; we tried some words in Spanish because they sounded different but finally those didn’t work, so we picked a ficticious word (at least that’s what we think) that could represent our brand and our concept.

work, work, work... and fun!

This is exciting!!!I think I’ve never been this excited before while working. Every day we meet in the morning to talk about the projects we are working on, ask for feedback and show the progress of the work. This is really amazing because Aaron and Ryan have a great knowledge of what a mentor is. They really are very helpful.

This week I submitted my final options of my first project. Remember I talked about that the first week? It was a T-shirt design for the Bostonian musician Corin Ashley. I hope he chooses at least one of my designs!

As I also said, I was working on some buttons for the company. So this third week I started to digitalize my ideas. I’m still waiting for Aaron to check my work, but I’m sure he’ll like most of them.

Also, I started working on a logo for a record label. I’m currently drawing some sketches, selecting fonts, and looking for ideas on the Internet and a lot of books. This project makes me feel very comfortable because this is the kind of work I am used to makeing by my own.

Thursday Session at DigitasThis Thursday was better than expected. Why do I say that? Well, last year we also were at Digitas, but the experience was different. We walked around and only saw some things, nothing really impressive to me. Yet this year was fantastic, we saw amazing thing such as the Google Glass, a 3D printer, a new sensor they are developing to replace the mouse of computers, new phone and tablet’s applications, and many more things. This year was also interesting when we were talking with the

employees. There were a lot of questions and very important advice to us as youth designers.

I think this is very interesting and favorable to know how these companies work, because we can see, now, how the real world of design is.

“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”-Abraham Lincoln

During these four weeks I’ve been having fun, laughing, and enjoying my time. Yet I’ve also been working hard and learning a lot.

While working, I have learned about some new programs. I was not used to using Adobe Illustrator much, but here at Alphabet Arm it is basically the only program I use, which is really good because I am getting experience with it. The same with Adobe InDesign, which was a program that I had never used before, so working on this book has been very helpful for me because I’ve been learning how this program works and what kind of cool things I can make.

However, that’s not the only thing I’ve learned here. Now I know a little bit more about working in a group, scheduling my work, being cooperative, and having fun while working. Sometimes when ideas don’t come out, I have these amazing mentors to help me with that and give me some advice.

Oh! And the most important thing I have learned is that I need to get some books! There are amazing, inspirational books in the Alphabet Arm’s library that I would love to have.

Take Action!

the best. But this activity helped me in my decision.

I started working on some ideas, and getting some feedback from my Virtual Art Director and my mentors at Alphabet Arm.

We also were talking about the Take Action project that Youth Design organizes every year. In different groups, we shared our topics and the ideas that we had in mind.

In my case, I was really undecided because I had four topics and I didn’t know which of them was

Our visit to the ICA was fabulous! My mentors Aaron and Ryan already had told me some things about Barry McGee’s work, but I didn’t expect it was that amazing.

My favorite part of this exhibition was that “wavy wall” with doz-ens of his art-works. That was really impresive and new for me.

I definitely enjoyed my time there!

Thursday Session at ICA

This is my fifth week at Alphabet Arm and it’s sad to think that it will finish in a few more weeks. How-ever, it is great to find out that my experience with Youth Design and this year in this company has been very enriching in many ways. Obviously, I’ve been learning new things about the professional world of design, but I also have been learning English. Yes, English!

Working in a professional environment has helped me to know new “design terms” and better ways to comunicate with people, specially clients. But it is even more significant for me, because I started this program with a lack knowledge of English as that was my first year in this country, so it was very difficult to me to talk and be clear in my ideas. Now, I can keep long conversations and speak out loud to let people know what I think and show my ideas in every meeting we have. I lost me fear to make a mistake while talking, and my shyness of sounding weird with my accent.

Being part of this family

Thursday Session of this week made me feel very helpful and integrated with the program. As I said in my presentation page, I graduated from high school this year, and I’m attending to Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA this fall. So that Alisa Aronson told me to make a presentation of my portfolio to let the new Youth Design Interns know what kind of work they should present when applying to colleges.

Showing my work to the other interns was very special because I felt it could be very inspirational for some of them, and again, I felt more into the Youth Design team.

About the rest of the session, I think that was very convenient because the process of applying to colleges is not easy, and could be very stressful sometimes, so, being prepared and having this kind of help is something really good for those who have to start the process.

Visiting the MFAThis was our last Thursday Session before graduation., and definitely a good way to end the summer. We visited the Museum of Fine Arts and saw some incredible designs. Most of them were very old drawigs of textiles, buildings, patterns, logos, etc. And that was something that I never expected to see at the MFA.

But the best part of this visit was the Hippie Chic exhibition. Even when I’m not into fashion design, it was really nice to see those old styles all in the same room.

It was a good morning and a great opportunity to see how design was years ago.

This entire week I was working on the vectorization of my Take Action Competition entry, so I was really busy, and I lost my sense of time. I could swear I had one or two more weeks for finishing it, but then, when I arrived to the MFA, other interns told me it was due that day. It was a total surprise for me because I thought we had more time.

My enjoyment here at Alphabet Arm has been a lot, so I was never looking at the time, never wanted to get out earlier and never got bored while working. I would say that’s why I forgot, because I was really enjoying my time.

However, I worked hard that whole day after the thursday session to complete my entry, and I did, so I submmited it the next day.

But it’s kind of sad to know the summer is about to end and I have to leave my desk. I have had an amazing time here.

takeactionThe Take Action Competition this year was a really amazing experience. I worked on it with my Art Director, Kathryn Yee, and my two mentors at Alphabet Arm, Aaron Belyea and Ryan Frease. They were a really important part of the process to get to my final design.

When I chose my topic, “Gay Pride,” I didn’t know how to express it on a design, so my Kathryn made me some helpful questions that guided me. After that, I had the idea of working with typography, because that woud be an easy way to express a message and make it catchy, clear, attractive, and beautiful at the same time. So I did some research, and drew some sketches. Then, I picked the best and started the vectorization process. This was the most difficult part, because I wanted it to be perfect.

During this process, I added and substracted some things from the original idea, which is normal.

Once I finished the vectorization process, I tried to add some colors to conect my design with my topic, but none of the options worked for me, nor my mentors. So I tried one solid color for the entire type , and a “rainbow ribbon” to specify what I was talking about. This time I liked, but Aaron suggested to change the ribbon. After trying different ideas, the little, vertical rectangle came out and seemed to work very well.

My mentors and I are really happy with the final product.

I can’t believe this is the last week. Now I feel like I don’t want to leave my job! Isn’t that crazy? But seriously, I had an awesome internship this summer, and I’m happy that I met these people from Alphabet Arm.

I will miss this place and the good time I have had here, but I’m happy I’m about to start college!

I have learned a lot of new things, and I can’t wait for looking at this book in the future and remember how amazing was my 2013 summer, notice how much I’ve improved through the time, and feel happy of doing what I really love.

nooooo! why do I have to leave!?

This was an amazing summer, an amazing job, an amazing experience!!!

In this last page, I want to say THANKS to all of those people who has been there for me in any moment. Because, without their help, I couldn’t be who I am right now, I hadn’t learned what I have learned, and this experience jus wouldn’t be the same.

First of all, thanks to Denise Korn, for believing in me, and giving me the opportunity of being a Youth Design intern; Alisa Aronson for being there for me whenever I needed her help, for going to my graduation, and supporting my work; Alex Barbosa for those amazing pictures during this summer; Dhakir Warren for his amazing job in the program; Aaron Belyea and Ryan Frease for their help, for giving me a place this summer in their company, and letting me have the most wonderful summer ever; Kathryn Yee for her help on my Take Action Competition entry; and finally to all the Youth Design staff for being a very helpful group of people with the great objective of leading and helping us to develop our skills, and improve our love for design.

Thanks!

Seven weeks of learning, improvement, laughter, fun, enjoyment, and hard work!

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About Youth DesignAs a second-year-intern, I have had the opportunity to learn a lot of things in the program; not only about design, but also about myself.

Something nice that happened to me was that I used to think that museums were boring, and that I would only find old art in them. But thanks to Youth Design and their visits to museums I realized how different it is.

Also, these two internships have been amazingly

helpful for me. Now I have a clearer vision of what I want for my future in design, and of course, I feel more than ready for college. Because this experience with Youth Design gave me a plus for starting college.

On the other hand, this program helped me to build and develop relationships with people that may be helpful in my future, as well as they are right now.

About my skillsWhat I have learned out from Youth Design has been very useful. I remember I started this program with a good level in Adobe Phothoshop, but that was the only tool I was able to use proficiently. Now, thanks to my mentors and the guidance of the Youth Design staff, I can easily work with programs such as Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator, which are very important and useful tools for a

designer. I feel much more comfortable using these programs, and I realized how practical they could be for my personal work.

Nevertheless, the most important thing I’ve improved during my internship is my language. And I’ll never get tired of saying that Youth Design has been the reason why my English has become better

About myself

and better in only two years.

Learning a new language is very difficult, but it gets easier when there are people helping you in the process. The last summer I was afraid of it because my English was so poor, and I wasn’t sure how to communicate with people. But these people were there to help me, to try to understand me, and finally try to correct me.

That’s how Youth Design has helped me to

improve my skills, and at the same time, enrich my knowledge about art and design, which is going to be so helpful in college.

Making some reflections about myself and how this summer experience helped me personally is really meaningful for me. Of course, when I entered in the program my idea was to improve those skills that I already had, but I never thought it could help me in personal situations, nor it could help to grow as a person.

This experience helped me to decide what I wanted to do in college, and what I was going to do with my future. Since I have been learning about design for many years, at that time I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study after high school. So being

surrounded by professional designers and these other interns was incredibly helpful to make a decision.

Also, being here, and specially this year, helped me to grow as a designer, as a creative person, as a comunicative person, and as a good person. To have the opportunity of sharing my experience with others and being an inspiration and a helpful person for other interns is one of the most important things that I have learned from Youth Design and my internships at both Continuum and Alphabet Arm.