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How did you get involved with design?
AV: One day my dad—a
mathematician by education and a businessman by day—brought
home one of the very first Macintosh computers and Illustrator 1.0.
He loved the fact that he could “do” things, so he re-enrolled
in college at the age of 50 to study graphic design part-time. He
bought books and subscribed to magazines and by the time I started
college, I already had an amazing library at home. And a Mac.
My formal education, from a nice university in Mexico,
is in traditional print and identity design. I was the last generation
to be taught how to do mechanicals, and not a day passed that I
was not forced to use French curves, rapidographs, and even gouache.
BGP: One of my teachers
in high school decided to teach us about graphic design instead
of the traditional art course. She introduced me to rapidographs
and vellum, gouche and illustration board. It was through her that
my interest grew to the point of enrolling at the Universidad Iberoamericana
a couple years later.
What do you find compelling about graphic design
as a way to express yourself?
AV: I still have
trouble thinking of graphic design as a mode of self-expression.
Self-initiated projects can have that potential, but graphic design
as a service to a client is different. Sure, we instill design with
our own visual sensibilities, imagination, and experiences, but
the goal is to express somebody else’s product or service.
What inspired you to create Speak Up?
AV: Now I look back
and laugh, but Speak Up was inspired by me being pissed off. When
I got out of college, I stepped right into the dot-com boom and
saw hundreds of people starting to call themselves designers just
because they knew how to write HTML and animate in Flash. With the
Web came a new generation of designers more interested in snazzy
form than anything else, and it came with Web sites to support it.
Self-ascribed “design portals” were popping up, and
it was a visual link-fest, which is all well and good, but I found
the “design” attribution to be disturbing.
Initially, Speak Up was a reaction to that. It was
to be a Web site for traditional designers, where, in my own silly
words, we could talk about “real” design. The first
version of Speak Up didn’t get much attention, but it served
as a foundation for what I wanted to create: a medium to talk freely,
passionately, and honestly about graphic design.
BGP: Although I
was part of it from the beginning, it wasn’t until I realized
just how much Speak Up was to become part of our daily lives that
I decided to become more active. I left my back-stage status, and
joined the forces on the front line.
How did being a graphic
designer affect the way you approached creating Speak Up?
AV: I wanted it
to look good. When I first transformed Speak Up to blog format,
a lot of people said that it was “print-like,” and that
was one of my goals. I was trained as a print designer, but the
first two years of my career were an on-the-job education in Web
design and programming, so I was able to put together both for SpeakUp.
What work is involved with
running Speak Up?
AV: Speak Up is
really a 24-hour a day job. It is on my mind all day, every day.
I devote a good three to five hours a day during the work week.
This means late nights, early mornings, and short lunches so that
I can also manage to get some other work done. Chores include answering
e-mails, fixing people’s comments, uploading news and events,
and fielding suggestions for discussions. When we are selling something,
there is a lot of customer-service. On the weekends, I write posts
or make improvements to the site or work on spin-off projects. Weekends
are also when Byrony and I sit down for a few hours and discuss
Speak Up. We talk about what we want to do, what are we doing okay,
and what are we screwing up. Then we discuss what to make for dinner.
In essence, it becomes a juggling act between real-life and blog-life.
Luckily, I think, both are merging into a well-functioning-life.
BGP: My main focus
is Word It, the visual blogging section of Speak Up. I can’t
participate during the working hours of the day, which gears my
involvement to management and administrative issues. I am the bad
cop in this partnership, the one with deadlines, reality checks,
bank statements, and logistics in her bag.
What advice would you share with someone who
wants to create a blog?
AV: Stand for something
and be passionate about it. Don’t try to be all things to
all people because you can’t. Have patience and perseverance.
Find an angle that no one else has. And most of all, believe in
it. If you don’t, no one will.
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