James
Nguyen Vázquez
He/Him
I love to experiment with anything audio/visual. The blend of these mediums surprises me as technology brings new experiences. My interests lie primarily in visual arts (video, photography, motion graphics), branding, advertising and music. I want to explore ways in which elements outside design can integrate with the creation of visual narratives to elevate storytelling.
Through my 4th year in the program, I had the opportunity to be part of the Design Student Organization (DSO). It helped me develop my photo/video skills while experiencing an encouraging, design-loving community alongside inspiring designers whom I considered friends and family.
Through my 4th year in the program, I had the opportunity to be part of the Design Student Organization (DSO). It helped me develop my photo/video skills while experiencing an encouraging, design-loving community alongside inspiring designers whom I considered friends and family.
Visualizing a Journey: Psychogeography Through the COVID-19 Lockdown
Exploring the literary device of the travelogue, we had the freedom to choose the medium to create a thoughtful and engaging visual narrative. The notion of psychogeography describes a geographical location's effect on individuals' emotions and behaviour. We had just passed the first year of living through the COVID-19 pandemic and considered the empty streets and the stories indoors as the narrative's primary focus.
Ideation process and sound design exploration.
Product Branding, Strategy & Campaign
This project required us to choose an existing product category within a particular market to create a brand serving as a new competitor. For our brand’s launch, an advertising campaign consisting of social media, magazine, and store-front poster advertisements was created based on a strategy backed by target audience analysis from existing brands. As a final deliverable, a tangible mockup of our brand’s packaging helped bring our concept to life.
A mixed media approach to advertising and packaging in the guitar pedal market is something I have yet to see to this day. Creating a brand that represents visual soundscapes is a vital objective to differentiate from competitors. The artwork and the opportunity to achieve an emotional response were the prime interest of this project. Considerations from all brands researched include packaging, naming conventions of their products, and the presence or absence of brand identity.
The concept behind this pedal is around tape emulation. It creates a sound from an era before our time. A sleeve presented great opportunities for product identification and recognition of the effect the pedal can produce. Mixed media elements on the cover serve as its own brand. Collage elements resemble retro/analog visuals making it look and feel old. Right: shows the back of the sleeve with copy unique to each effect pedal.
Magazine and storefront advertisements. As musicians vary from young beginners to industry professionals, approaching the more mature audience preferring physical magazines and visiting the music store, it was essential to strategize advertisement placement to promote the brand effectively. MusicRadar comes to mind for people looking for the newest gear, and storefronts such as Long & McQuade facilitate showcasing the product.
I was inspired by fonts in art nouveau works to convey the whimsical branding. The audio contains powerful kinetic energy when cranking the volume up. As pedals are carefully engineered, I wanted to add a sense of mechanical nature to the metal used to create the pedals. Together with the typography style, this becomes an oxymoron to the floatiness and flow of the lettering. It also elevates art awareness and manufacturing appreciation.
Micro-Interactions
Based on Google's Material Design, we had the freedom of creating an app of our own showcasing a feature utilizing micro-interactions — UI animations that provide visual feedback to help prevent errors and improve user usability. Strider is a music player app that allows those who like to write their thoughts as they analyze or notice a particular part of a song. They can then revisit their notes and realize their ideas.
The ideation process determined the most fitting animation system for music player apps. Soft and quick fade-throughs showcase the app’s responsiveness with power users in consideration. Standardized menu icons and UI design were carefully assembled to keep a consistent brand across the interface.
Conceptual Still Life: Space Keyboard
We were asked to promote a product with a concept tied to weightlessness. Mechanical keyboards have flourished in a growing online community introducing hobbyists to search for the perfect keyboard. The weightlessness theme existed as a space-themed keyboard. The use of gray in the background adheres to the monochromatic palette of the keyboard, creating a void that reinforces zero gravity space.
Carefully suspending the disassembled keyboard from a special rig makes the space in between each layer create a visual rhythm while showcasing the machinery. Three-dimensional renders of keycaps placed around the keyboard simulate a planet’s meteor ring, giving the impression that the keyboard has a gravitational pull. Adding film grain to blend the photograph and renders placed both elements into the same artificial world. Gray Studio’s Space 80 is the newest model in their space-themed keyboards.
