Creating Brands for Over 20 Years; Rudy Hurtado

Aug 16, 2011 by admin    1 Comment     Posted under: Designer Interviews, Graphic Design Tips

Rudy Hurtado was born in a family of doctors where his parents, aunts and uncles were all busy earning livelihood from their medical profession. Rudy was born in Leon Mexico, and studied Industrial/Graphic Design from Universidad La Salle before moving to Toronto. Canada.

Eagle Logo explained; being born in Mexico, Rudy Hurtado wanted to use the frontal Eagle that the very first Mexican flag (1812) had as a symbol (2 images below), along with his initials, nicely carved in it. Rudy realized that the rich Mexican culture was always present in his designs even if he wanted to stay away from it, so he embraced it instead.

In our one-on-one interview session, we break down a few of Rudy’s best design projects, and the DesigningTips.com readers get some motivating and valuable design tips from a veteran graphic designer. So why wait… let’s get on with another interview, with a great graphic artist.

DesigningTips.com – How did you end up being a graphic designer?
Rudy Hurtado – As a kid, I use to spend most of my time drawing graphics for my classmates, and my favorite Rock Band logos. I guess that’s where I fell in love with design; when I understood the combination between art and function in a logo.

DesigningTips.com – Is it necessary to go to graphic design school to learn how to be a good designer or is it enough to “attend the school of hard knocks?”
Rudy Hurtado - I guess if there was a class for TALENT most people would take it, with that I mean I don’t think you need to go to design school, but it definitely give you the ropes to start a design career. However, it is up to you thereafter to keep learning and getting inspiration from everything in the school of life.

DesigningTips.com – What are the key elements of a good design? Is good design a function of creativity … of sound experience … or both?
Rudy Hurtado - Yes, I think it’s a combination of both.

DesigningTips.com – Is there any real difference between graphic designing, room in a home or clothing for a beautiful woman?
Rudy Hurtado - No difference at all, the process is almost same. You see a problem you solve it, simple as that. If it lacks function then it’s a bad design, if the design has no function or purpose then is simply art. In the process of graphic designing you have to make decisions at every step of the way and if you take one wrong step forward, it will take you to the wrong end and the automatically design will fail.

DesigningTips.com –  How do you work on your graphic design projects? I mean, what software, applications and design tools do you use the most for your work?
Rudy Hurtado - I was trained the old way, where you have to sketch everything on a piece of paper, napkin, leaf, anything where you can put an idea down and then once you have conceptually solved the problem, go ahead and polish it. Computers, like laptops and tablets help a lot now days. I also use design applications like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Quark Xpress mainly to do any and every design project. At times, I also use a 3D program.

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

Rudy Hurtado - I would be lying if I said NO! At times, your research will take you in the wrong direction as the client (even with their brief description) would be thinking differently, but that’s the beauty of this relationship with clients, if they thought the same way as graphic designers, it would be boring and no creativity would come out of us. It is refreshing to meet in the middle sometimes, their point of view is so valid, and they know their company and products better than anybody.

Earlier, I used to listen to my male clients, and feedback use to come back regularly, until I realized that the reason they changed the strategy a lot because they took the design concepts back home from office for their better halves input and that would change things (design concept) quite often. However, now I tend to work directly with female clients, period! If the client is a woman, I design for her and if the client is a male, I ask for direct contact for design inputs of their wife, girlfriend, daughter etc. Trust me, gets much better results

DesigningTips.com –  Any design tips you would like to share with fresher’s just starting out in the graphic design industry?
Rudy Hurtado - I can only advice fresher’s to focus on the problem and solve it. If you listen to the problem it will give you the solution, sometimes it happens to all of us, we are set on doing something in a specific style that we forget to solve the real problem. That’s design creativity to you!

You can find more about Rudy Hurtado‘s design portfolio from his website here.

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