Peer Interview with Byron Escobar

Interview with Byron Escobar

Concentration: Graphic Design 

Thesis Interview

We began our interview by opening up sketch books and going through each others’ web portfolios and blogs. The following is our discussion upon reviewing some of our recent work.

Byron: Wow, I didn’t realize you did this!

Me: What?

Byron: The MAD logo redesign process page [Referring to the floor plan connection]

Me: Yea, the logo shape was base on the floor plan of the museum, I wanted to go with the idea of the arts and craft template concept. that is why I decided to use the floor plan as the fundamental shape for the MAD museum logo

Byron: The process layout that you have up on your website is really interesting. I guess I should have paid more attention to your progress on the project in class. I dig it Jenny! =)

Me: I would have showed you my ideas but you almost never made it to class. :P

Me: For the odd sensation book, why were you not able to photograph the 3 different endings? I realized the photographs of the two dudes drinking coke-diluted whiskey was all photographed by you of your friends.

Byron: I meant to have some sort of hand in all the content in the book including the images. I called up a few hospitals to see if they would let me photograph an empty recovery room and everything seemed like it would play out nicely, but I just never got around to setting aside time to photographing the endings. I really wished  I could have, but in the end the message was still there and to my relief did not lose much of its intended impact on the rest of the class

Me: I think the images from the ending of fire and water looked really awesome, and it definitely made a good point

From looking at your portfolio website online, I see you are very interested and involve with photography. What sort of theme or topic do you usually photograph and have you thought of integrating your photographs in your design thesis?

Byron: Photography is great. I have supplemented my Graphic Design studies with a lot of Photo exposure during the course of the last 3 years. I realized I enjoy portrait photography the most because of the interaction with the subject, thematic elements and relationship that is built from the whole experience. I definitely want to include my own photo work in my thesis, but I will let the content and concept of the project determine whether or not it needs to incorporate photo.

Byron: You sometimes have work that involves some sort of Chinese or Asian aesthetics. Are you interested in making work dealing with cultural issues and identity?

Me: I've been thinking about my focus in thesis, it is going to be focusing on transitional periods through cultural and how my identity has been "merging". From there, I have been trying to come up with visual concept on the idea of two aspects merging and playing into each other's parts.

Byron: So I'm on the right track!

Identity and Culture hmm.. Would you like to focus the project more heavily on informative design work or something a bit more subjective to the viewer and I guess personal?

Me: nawh I don't think I will do anything related to informative design i thought about incorporating painting, using oil as medium and also graphic design

Me: I wanted to focus on how there is no define line in transitional stages. It’s almost like on the gray scale, there is no line that jumps from black to white. There is a stage in between that is blurred.

Me: Where do you think your focus for thesis is leading you right now? Have you come up with any initial plans?

Byron: I've been reluctant to talk about my thesis because it sprouted from a reading this summer called World War Z. It's a novel about the oral history of the zombie apocalypse and the accounts of the survivors after the "Great Panic"

Me: Zombies huh? My favorite!

Byron: I got my idea from a certain chapter that dealt with the effects of film on the public both psychologically and socially. Then I started thinking about the concept of a virus and paralleling that to the concept of and idea---INCEPTION. I want to get into mass media, propaganda, viral imagery, and subliminal messaging as a few topic points to begin my research.

Me: I haven't watch INCEPTION yet, but isn't it all about imagination and things that goes on in Leonardo’s head?

Byron: Hahahaha YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT…I will download you a copy!

Me: Make sure its dvd rip!

Byron: …which goes back to what I was talking about the accessibility of information

ya dig?...everything is so easily spread these days There is a vehicle that allows things to move about the masses, and that’s the Internet. That’s one path I can take with it…what I'm also interested in is exploring the effects of imagery, information, media, etc. on people. More specifically, on people and socially and psychologically when there is lack of structure, (post apocalyptic). I feel like I could find a lot about emotional and cognitive responses to intelligent design.

Byron: The character in the book I was telling you about made short films about survivor accounts of the zombie apocalypse and by doing so the rate of certain psychological disorders went down in the towns that screened his films. The government later captured him and gave him resources to continue making these types of films to renew hope in the people.

Byron: I don't have an idea yet, I guess. I just have a direction I want to take.

Me: Good start Byron! I can't wait to see where this is going to bring you. You really do have a lot of good ideas flying around. Yea, we all need to do more researching on our ideas to take us to the next step. :(

Byron: Now hahaha tell me more about your idea? Have you seen or read anything lately that stirred some thoughts up?

Me: Nope. I haven't really seen anything related to what I want to do. I will have to keep looking into it. I fly to china and fly back here a lot, and I see a lot of different things in between. I just want to be able to turn all my cultural and identity aspects into some visual concept

Byron: Hmm...You said you don’t want to do anything design related...Are you open to any medium at this point?

Me: I do want to do something design related. i want to incorporate painting and design element into my thesis work if possible.

Byron: Oh right.

soo..

Me: What else would you like to know about me?

Byron: I feel like we need to advance our ideas a bit more

Me: I want to focus on cultural changes, identities merging. But I DONT WANT to do anything just related to identity. You know what I mean?

Byron: So cultural diffusion

Over time

Your time

Me: That makes sense.

Byron: All right, yo. This has been pretty good. I have a better idea of what you want to do

Me: Okay, Byron.