Angel Acevedo is a grand mix of everything creative. Seriously. He is really uber talented in a lot of ways, but his design is KICKIN!! Angel and I have never met but we have been internet friends for a about a year now. Haha. The internet is CRAZY! Everytime I talk with him he is always up late, and busy with some type of project, OR line up of projects. I would say that music shows to be his passion and he ROCKS at designing for musicians and music artitsts or editorial type projects. I hope you guys will enjoy this interview I did with Angel. He has some really corky and AWESOME stuff to tell us. haha. visit his main website at: www.angelaacevedo.com

1. Who are you? What do you do?
Hey! My name is Angel A. Acevedo. I’m a 28 yrs old dude, from Fajardo, Puerto Rico but always representin’ my peeps in Miami. I am a graphic artist slash pizza enthusiast slash disc jockey (to which I own my own alter-ego as… DJ Soundwav (wav, wav, wav, wav) *insert dramatic echo there* Which is pretty cool, since I always wanted to be like Peter Parker (Spiderman); you know, the whole goofy secret identity while unbeknownst to everyone you’re like an awesome hero… and then you get to marry a hot supermodel and stuff. So yea, I like to think of myself as that.

2. Describe your work
cultural. reactionary. inventive. My work is a mixture of things. It’s a direct result of everything I’ve learned through my design career and my academic career.

3. What designers/artists do you admire?
Awesome question. I can go for days talking about talented individuals, but I’ll spare the rant. I took a Design History class at my University and I haven’t been the same. It’s like, everything that every designer has said in regards to learning from the past smacked me right in my face.

Before that class, I had a select few of modern designers, you know, designers that are still alive. Here’s just a small list of young guns and veterans: Stefan Sagmeister, Jeremy Kennedy, Chuck Anderson, Joshua M. Smith (Hydro 74), Mike Stefanini (Atomik Studio), Raymond Gems Adrian, Samuel Erics Kohlver, Karol Kolodzinski, Jonathan Ive (Apple).

Now after taking that class, I found some amazing graphic designers from way-back when. These guys (mostly from the New York School) paved the way for modern design and I have a strong feeling their style will make a comeback. A. M. Cassandre, Piet Zwart, Herb Lubalin, Paul Rand, Lucian Bernhard.

4. When and how did you start designing, did you go to school for it?
It was a snowy Christmas day, about 20 years ago, I got my frist Tonka dump truck. Then, 12 yrs later, I started working in a Print Shop. Sort of a long story, but in a nutshell I feel strongly it was divine intervention. I used to work at a shoe store (DSW Shoes) and was sort of fedup. Long and behold, an opportunity at a Print Shop opened up and all I knew was Microsoft Paint. I started backwards. Got tons of experience then three years ago, won a National Design competition that allowed me to attend The Art Institute in downtown Miami. (Miami Int University of Art and Design) which I’m currently in my Senior Year.

5. Was there a particular moment in which you realized you could do this for a living?
I wish I could pinpoint one exact moment. It would be a designers fairy tale, but reality is, I was juggling deejay’n and design. Finally my superheroe dileman caught up to me. It was as if I was ALREADY doing it for a living. Sort of fell into it. I definitely must say, I was working at a design form with Ambert Rodriguez, and I enjoyed that whole laid-back atmosphere of a small agency better than the hustle of a print shop. Though I do encourage every designer to have some sort of print-”sweat”-shop experience.

6. What is your favorite type of project to work on?
The answer is in the question, type. I had an amazing professor, Penn Aragon, at MIU and though I had a thing for typography, she allowed me to experiment with type, and with that a passionate affair was born. So I really like pushing the boundaries with typography so most of the time I catch myself enjoying Poster & Editorial projects.

7. What is the deep ultimate message you want people to get from you and your work?
Might sound cheesy but, the ultimately that my work, my achievements, my talent or gifts, that anything my hands create, everything points back to a loving Creator that gave me all these things to begin with. That anyone with a passion for creativity can accomplish great work.

8. What is the thing you enjoy most about designing?
I think it would be to see all the research, the brainstorming, the screwups, everything come together. To see the final piece done and more specifically, printed.

9. What is one mistake you wish you could take back?
So many. But mainly it’s the same mistake over and over; my lack of reply-ability. Tend to forget about emails and phonecalls to return to clientele.

10. Do you have a business schedule? office hours? do you work at home? studio?
I used to have a business schedule, but now, I just work when I work (usually in the wee hours of weeness). I’m very unorganized unfortunately. And my time-management skills… well, what time management skills? It’s like, you look at one of those heroe cards, I’d have -2 for “time ability.” Matter fact, that would be my heel of that Akilis guy.

I work at home in my bedroom/studio… at least I like to think of it as my studio. So it’s where all the magic happens, creatively speaking of course. I also work at a radio station on the weekends at Radio Revolution FM. Another sweet part of my life.

11. What is your most used gear? programs? favorites??
Definitely Illustrator and Photoshop along with my scanner. I scan everything. I’m work on both format XP and OSX, so I like to consider myself bilingual! A good designers design’s on anything.

12. what is your design process like from start to finish?
Handy dandy list:
1 Accept the project.
2 Consider if it’s worth it.
3 Get a smoothie
4 Brainstorm on how it would have been designed
5 Discard original brainstorming session
6 Re-brainstorm on other ways to design
7 Research
8 Research some more
9 Sketchout (if necessary) preliminary
10 Break
11 Talk to some other designers about it.
12 Start designing
13 Get approvals (Sell/Pitch idea, let client know to trust me since they hired me for a reason)
14 Make changes (if necessary)
15 Chug some redbull
16 Create final
17 Cartoon Break
18 Send final
19 Send a REAL final
20 Do a happy dance.
21 Get paid.

13. how do you network? market? promote yourself? how do you get work?
You know, I rarely do real promotion. I have a deviantArt account that has gotten me a lot of work. But the BEST type of work is word-of-mouth. I don’t like doing work for street-clients. Meaning clients that just randomly picked up your card. I love doing work for people that purposefully want your style of creative.

14. What do you think of Promise?? is she AWESOME?? HAHaha
Bundle of snazzness. I think she’ll be a rockstar oneday. She’s an amazing creative but I think she’s an even awesomer thriftstore-finder-of-cool-things person. Not only that, I think her hair should have it’s own website, totally owns.

15. Anything else??
Yes, this thing took me about 3 hours. I watched “Twighlight” Movie and ate a Chicken Carbonera from Quiznos while at it. I also caught a bit of “Family Guy” And I’d just like to mention, I’m addicted to “The Office”, “Scrubs” and “30 Rock.” Also, Rockwell, my favorite typeface for this month.

THANKS Angel for taking the time to answer these questions. YOU ROCK! I am SURE that the readers learned alot and really enjoyed what you have to say. It is always an inspiring trip to understand how other artists process and think.

Please be sure to leave some love and appreciation for Angel in the comment section.