Selfportrait
Alberto Cerriteño
I'm Alberto Cerriteño, I was born in México 31 years ago. I think I'm a graphic designer ever since my love to draw, to create and in general to express my self through graphics was born when I was in preschool. Then when I was in high school I've got a job as a graphic designer in a government office, a few months later I started my professional studies in this field.
I worked in some creative agencies and design firms, and in 1997 I founded my own design firm: Caracol Diseño & Multimedia. At first only with freelance projects and then it was so much work that in 2000 I decided to quit my main job so I could dedicate 100% to my clients.
I used to call myself a multimedia designer because I like to use different tools in one single project, for example, I like very much to illustrate, to create motion graphics, 3D stuff, interactive applications all to create an original way to communicate some idea or message successfully.
I'm really in love with my job because I like to do everything, I enjoy every step of each project, from conceive the creative concept, the original idea, to make the production, development or programming, all with special care in the details.
As for anybody else, to be recognized for my work made me extremely happy and I'm very proud of the awards I've won in my career. Recently I had the honor to win a special award as the Best Mexican Web Designer in the most important interactive design fest in Mexico: Flash for Mexico. Even that it isn't my main purpose, those things motivate me to continue learning, developing and sharing my work.
I basically work with Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Director, After Effects and I also use HTML code, Action Script and Lingo.
Design in motion is great!
Case Study
© Alberto Cerriteño
Start Project
First I sit down with my client, to talk about his needs and restlessness, and then I analyze the options that I can offer, always being very objective in maintaining equilibrium in the visual thing and its functional aspect. I Always try to provide originality and own personality to each one of the projects that I carry out.
I like to put me in the place of the client and above all, in the place of the receiver or user, that is going to receive the information. This helps me to understand how he thinks and also tells me, how I would like to see things. Throughout this process we can receive an interactive project: the visual elements at the moment of designing, the volume of anything that we see on the street, in the movies, in the books, the trips, the cartoons. Any image of the daily life provides me with sufficient material at the moment to design a project. At determined moments, any object can detonate a brainstorm, so they can be expressed in a visual or interactive project.
A fundamental rule that I have to work out is to feel flavor and passion by developing each project. I try to focus on work in an exclusive way and not to initiate another one, until the first one is finalized, although this reduces my capacity of production but improves a lot the quality of the final work and in the future, this will be what will generate me more work. What I like about this work is the liberty to create. I see my clients very seldom, generally two times: at the initial appointment and at the moment of the payment. Sometimes I do not even meet them personally, the tools of distance communication help a lot to work in this manner and this, of course is favorable for the creative process. This way I am not stressed out by the traffic that exists here in Mexico City. This is a plus!
Work Process
Once it made the main structure of the project and analyzed the size, I always try to offer a single graphic proposal of design interface that can be polished and improved according to the client's comments. On seldom occasions I had worked on the second visual proposal. I believe that is a great virtue, to manage to visualize, since the first interview is about, what the client would like to project, of course it needs something of conviction work. It is rare to find a client who knows exactly what he needs in an interactive project.
The first step is to have an approval of the layout and visual aspect of the project. I achieve this by working on the designing of the interface, mainly in Photoshop and sending a JPG file, so the client can have a real vision of how the graphic elements are going to look: the typography, the distribution of the elements and the information in the screen. We also talk a little to near effects of animation or navigation.
After this I begin to work in all front-end side it already in functional applications as Flash and consecutive Director delivering advances for approvals. Once it is accepted and finalized all the front-end is how to work in the back-end of the special programming for the applications advanced. I try to be involved in almost everything that requires increasing my knowledge in this matter, but I also need support from expert professionals when a project requires some advanced application or very special.
The final phase is destined to give the client time to test the tool. He gives his final comments and adjustments in the applications. It is a period of prior tests to the final delivery.
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AlbertoCerriteno.com
© Alberto Cerriteño
Personal web site that shows my professional profile, as well as a portfolio showcase with me as an illustrated character. In this project I sought to project my work and my personality so I decided to include my own person in the presentation of my information to achieve a amiable and nearby contact with the visitor. In spite of the fact that already a formal briefcase existed like Design Firm (Caracol Diseño & Multimedia) I had the need to have a personal project in line that reflected my anxieties and skills as a multimedia designer and also the search of an internationalization, not yet I have had the opportunity but I would like to acquire the experience to work in another country.
The first version of this project does not have any relation with the final description, neither in concept and visual, I believe that the idea was very good, presented a virtual version of my self that showed the information, literally speaking. Since an opposite plan to "my" (front to front) the visitor could sail and request content manipulating my finger in a board between the visitor and me. Nevertheless the final result did not convince me, the idea was good but the design was very simple, I believe that pretty and clean but flat, did not propose a lot of (project 7 personal site v. 01). I have never put it online; actually I have not even finished it. I began to work on other projects and I left it aside.
After almost 6 months I took it up again from an idea that was born to represent me as a caricatured personage of me, in this manner managed to maintain the initial idea to project own identity in the place and showed the passion that I have for the illustration. So I worked on a new version with an esthetics more proposal of design, wanted to show a visual tendency with a lot of personality and ultimately based on what I liked, the use of depths and textures, I think that in interactive projects these elements achieve a more real effect than traps the user in the environment that reflects the place. They also offer a new sensation to the plan of the screen.
 The first version of this new idea was developed in full color design, nevertheless the interfaces were seen too much reloaded and the samples of the briefcase did not emphasize, I tested utilizing a monochromatic effect in the interface with all the elements in gray tones and a color to accentuate elements that wanted to emphasize. The backgrounds are textures created from collages of diverse projects that I have developed, this reinforces my work.
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