GAUGE Speaker - Ismael Obregan

On Thursday, I attended to the see the GAUGE guest speaker, Ismael Obregan (creator of Oishii Creative http://www.oishiicreative.com/ - design company). This was a first time for me attending an event with a guest speaker who is in the career of my major (graphic design) and with high credibility. "Oishii" means 'delicious" in Japanese, which was cute since their logo was a sushi piece. It was not obvious since the logo was three colored oval as sushi, but it was still ingenious. The company do various design work for a lot of high profile clients, such as EA games, NBA, NFL, Disney, etc. Ismael was entertaining and had a sense of humor, even making fun of himself. I had fun at the event as I learned a lot from him about the design world.

The main point of Ismael's presentation was words / language. Words are the most powerful tools for designers, especially when using it for visual languages (illustration). The challenge is to use words in an innovative way that is not so obvious. His example was the name - Oishii creative, as the company name instead of the obvious last name. Cute and smart idea as it's something unexpected. The visual languages are a way to communicate messages to the audience. A short video Words was shown that have short clips that connects to each other through transitions by movement, action, and words. For example, someone falling off building to plate breaking; and kid sniffling to wet painted on wall. Hardly any words were spoken, and the various mini video clips were connected to one another in a not so obvious way. That was an interesting video since it was unpredictable for what would show up next. Kinda wanted to see more afterwords.

Ismael then had a Q and A session for everyone in the music hall. He gave out a lot of useful information and advise in this section, especially for the anticipated graduating design students. Since Oishii Creative was his own design company, his advice for starting one is to learn lots of rules for how things are done. Really doubtful that I would do something like that, but something to keep in mind. He pointed out that as designers, we need to listen to the clients when discussing the design, and not imagine doing them as what we want but what they need. Since it's the designers' responsibility to translate the message of the client into the visual image.The other advice that I find useful was concerning networking, go to other events with guest speakers and meet people there to have connections. He was also really helpful concerning interviews as he is a company owner. His advice on portfolio is to have diversity with different styles, and to be open-minded. Really great advices that will definitely be helpful in the future.