Alan Oronoz; Freelance Graphic Designer from Northern Mexico

Aug 13, 2011 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Designer Interviews, Graphic Design Tips

With over 6+ years’ experience as a graphic designer in the design industry, Alan Oronoz decided to rediscover his passion for logo design somewhere in the year 2007, and hasn’t looked back ever since.

Alan had an opportunity to work with the likes of HostGator & Discovery Network, some of the most popular and well known companies in their niche. Who exactly is Alan and how has he managed his design business? What made him choose freelancing? Who exactly are his clients? What graphic design tips does he have for us? Alan tells us all this and more in an interview below…

DesigningTips.com – Please tell us a little about yourself, where are you from and how did you end up being a designer?

Alan Oronoz – My name is Alan Oronoz. I was born in a small town of the state of Chihuahua in Northern Mexico.

I am a freelance graphic designer since the year 2005, with big love for identity design, illustration and passionate about everything related to vintage advertising, cartoons, toys and books. I’m a cheerful person, with an infantile soul, and always trying to have good time with people around me.

My very first approach to this beautiful profession was in early childhood. I remember spending more time drawing sketches rather than playing with the classmates; which eventually led to my first logo design for a club that I had with my childhood friends, nearly at the age of 8. My biggest influence was my father. He was also dedicated to architecture and had the opportunity to design a logo of my high school, which certainly influenced my way up.

When I had to choose a profession, my skills as an amateur cartoonist had grown, and I already had begun selling my drawings to a couple of nearby design agencies in the town. In the year 2005, I began my career as a freelance graphic designer, and on my way, I rediscovered my passion for logo design.

I can say from bottom of my heart, that I love my job, and I hope can do it so for many years to come.

DesigningTips.com – Is it necessary to go to design school to learn how to be a good designer or is it enough to “attend the school of hard knocks?”

Alan Oronoz – I attended a design school, but to be honest, I am a self-taught person in some of the core design areas, such as logo designing. Since I hadn’t received enough information from school about what interested me the most in graphic designing.

For me the real school is out there, while working on different design projects, where you never stop learning and always discover new aspects and exciting possibilities. That is where you will find your style, your passion and your way to go about in the design industry.

I think you can be a good graphic designer with or without attending design school.

DesigningTips.com – What are the key elements of a good design? Is good design a function of creativity … of sound experience … or both?

Alan Oronoz – I would measure a good design based on its functionality.

On your own, it can be very difficult to calculate the creativity of your design, because your work will always be judged by a client, or a third party who might criticize it or like, however at the end of the day if your creativity satisfies the client requirements, it will always be counted as a good design.

The 6 years experience in the design industry helped me in discovering a lot of better solutions, to speed my design process and of course helped in improving the quality of my work, but I don’t think it’s a key element for a good design. In my opinion, great designs and ideas can come from anyone out there.

DesigningTips.com – Is there any real difference between graphic designing (brochure/pamphlet/logo), room in a home and clothing for a beautiful woman?

Alan Oronoz – Of course, every game has its own rules. Even though some areas of design have a lot in common, but it would be presumptuous to say that one possess the design skills necessary to perform any and every type of design work just because he/she is a designer.

DesigningTips.com – How do you work on your design projects? I mean, what design software, applications and design tools do you use the most for your projects?

Alan Oronoz – I always work on design projects with an ABCD process:

• Analysis: This is where I start by analyzing all the information made available by the client to identify their needs and determine the best path to follow.
• Brainstorming: During this phase, I only use a pencil, my sketch book and a cigarette (I’m working on fixing my smoking habit and advise beginners to never follow that one). I make little sketches with random thoughts and design ideas that really help in focusing on what I want to do.
• Conception: Here I try to make a selection of the strongest ideas and that’s when the polishing begins, to obtain the final drawings of the concept, of course again only on the paper.
• Develop or Design: This is the last and final stage where I start using the design software’s to vectorize graphics, do color tests, work with the proportion and land at the final design concepts. I like to use different tools; for logo design, it’s always Illustrator and Corel Draw (I keep on using this tool because it was my first design tool and at times, I am quite fast with it) for illustration purposes, Photoshop, illustrator and a Wacom Cintiq. Occasionally, I also use 3DMax and ZBrush to achieve other sort of visuals results.

DesigningTips.com – Are there ever times when design changes are radical?

Alan Oronoz – Yes, sometimes the client doesn’t have a clear idea of what they are looking for. That can be challenging, because graphic designers are not mind readers. That’s why a good brief is quite important or else changes become routine work during the design process.

DesigningTips.com – Can you tell us about your design portfolio and clientele (people you have worked with)?

Alan Oronoz – I’ve had the opportunity to work with clients from all over the world, however most of my clients were from Europe and the United States, and some of them were the size of Discovery Network and Hostgator. I worked on different kind of projects involving web design, packaging, character development, food illustration and mostly logo design.

But I believe there are no small clients, and I work hand in hand with small businesses or start-up companies and watching them grow gives me an immense satisfaction.

DesigningTips.com – Any graphic design tips you would like to share with freshers just starting out in the design industry?

Alan Oronoz – Enjoy what you do, love what you do!

You can find more about Alan Oronoz from his website here.

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