Blogging 4 the Public -Jay Rodriguez Photography & Graphics – Tips, Tricks and Inspiration.

A Lil’bit Inspiration for 2009 – Graphics, Photography and More.

I’ve been into graphic designs since I was about 5 or 6 years old. I remember watching my dad and uncles come home at night after putting in many man hours on the press with samples of the work they had just finished running. They both arrived happy with the quality of work they produced and even happier knowing the customer was happy and is sure  to come back with more jobs for them to produce in the future.

Back then they didn’t have the technology we have today. A couple typewriters, 1 computer (maybe) that ran DOS for invoicing, a couple templates with different typefaces and 2-3 artists onboard that did the work with a pencil and paper. Printing was very time consuming back in the days. No 24-48 hour turn around, considering that they had to do  just about everything from scratch then document it.  After the layout was designed and approved, the printer will then burn a metal plate or process a film out of the design for the press to print. Later, after the job was done they will then archive the plate/film for later use…just incase the customer wanted to print out more, this saved them from repeating the process over and over again.

Unlike today printing companies had very big space for their very big machines and their documents. Then came the computers…this is where I caught the interest on making graphic designs and photography my everyday joy. I started out sketching letters and numbers, then from there because I grew up with a more modern generation I started blending it all into Graffiti letters and made something cool out of it. My other uncle (my dads younger bro) kept on inspiring me and giving me tasks to mock-up and add my style into them. From there on I continued on my own and met the good sides and the bad sides the graffiti world.
Spray paint, markers and a whole league of friends who also liked to “tag-Up” was what keep me in play. I then started to think on how can I benefit out of this talent that I have been given. How can I share with the many others that like colorful art and not have it be a burden to others.

I started marketing my talent with friends and family in the neighborhood. Drawing out pictures, designing the friends notebooks and their backpacks, airbrushing colorful names onto clothe, hats, jackets, T-shirts and more. I did this for 2-3 years at most then started bigger projects. I was getting hired to do signs, huge banners and sometimes decorate children’s rooms with acrylic paint and brushes. Colorful designs is what they all craved, and me and a couple of pal’s were the ones you contact if your desired this taste of what we called Art.

Soon enough, times change, people change and we all move on to other interests. High School helped us become a popular crew… we painted, published and went on.
After high School we all went on our own direction. I still stay in contact with very few of my old pals who also stayed within the art world, the others followed a different route that we couldn’t follow or participate in.

Later I soon moved to Florida to catch up to myself. My hometown was really noisy so I wanted a change. I started doing odd jobs such as landscape, managing electronic stores, music stores and working for a liquor store. At this time I was yet to find what I wanted to do. One day I decided to submit my resume to several different places to see what I can accomplish. I still kept on drawing but didn’t realize “This was what I want to do!” so I kept pushing it aside.
A couple weeks later a printing company called me in for an interview. Yup you guessed it (“–-> son of a printer <—“) I got the job! Though at the time I didn’t know the inside of the printing industry, but I did know how hard the work was and what was involved.

I started out as a front counter person. getting familiar with the work ethics and the jobs that came in and out the doors. Then I got moved into blueprints, getting familiar with the machines, inks, tones and deadlines. Sooner then later I was moved into production… no not on the press but with the graphics team. Proofreading, typesetting, assisting in and directing and making sure the jobs get out the door. During all of this my second son was born and I was yet again a proud father of my baby boy.

Time had flown by and 3 years dedicated to the company. All this dedication was worth it all, hard work, family oriented and it was also close to home. I kept on wanting to get a shot on doing a job on my own. designing a logo, doing a cover for a brochure or even designing a 4 color business card is what I craved, then I got my shot. A owner of a publishing company walked in the door and needed a job done for as he said “yesterday”. Money was not a problem, he was very familiar with the steps involved. So we took in the job and yes ‘”yours truly” got to get behind the computer and show the boss what he knows. The job was done on time and we all got invited to the ball, his way of thanking us. We all enjoyed the festivities and moved on back to the real world. Later that week I bumped into the  owner of the publishing company and got offered a job on his graphics team. I lasted 1 year with them, they sent me to school… gone public and the staff was cut in half. Yup, I was part of the half that didn’t make the team!

I moved on with several personal clients on my belt. Work was pretty good considering that I have to work double time because baby boy #3 was on his way and I was determined to have everything ready once he was born. Before you know it I was working with 3 print shops feeding them continuous work and was making good money to provide my family. I took on some classes on HTML because at the time it was in demand.  Work was good, but then we ran into family troubles…so I moved on – Back home to New York. Despite the separation I had to still provide for my boys Xavier and Joshua. Once again, back to odd jobs, sending out resumes and job postings.

Later, people started calling and jobs started coming in, still working my 9-5 I was doing graphics work at night and doing hard labor in the day. Still submitting my resume regardless of my position I was on a quest to be a graphic designer and have my work on Broadway!

Working for a Toy distributor didn’t do it for me, in fact working for many others didn’t do it for me so I kept on freelancing with more experience added to my belt. I started surfing the web and picking up tips here and there. I finally realized that web work wasn’t paying well because there was allot of work involved and the clients didn’t want to always pay. Then I got my first digital camera, this expanded my abilities, and at this moment I knew that I was on my way to Broadway!

Today the year 2009 I am still doing my thing “thank god” and I am pretty comfortable with it. I’m doing what I love and believe it or not I’m still freelancing with several employees on my staff. We all respect one another and get the job done. I am happy with the steps I have taken through the path of knowledge, responsibility and determination. I don’t work for me anymore, though I love what I do, my goal is to hopefully retire at 50 (i’m 33 now) and pass the passion to one of my boys…or girl!

Thank you dad for teaching me to keep my head up and my spirit alive!
Thanks to all 3 of my sons for keeping me on my feet and continue going forward.
I also thank my wife Judy and her daughter Daniela for helping me out on the days that I needed help on their opinion on jobs and the continuous coffee they kept on giving me when I needed it.
Thank you to my friends (you all know who you are) from all over for keeping me inspired and sharing your knowledge in the field.

Last but not least thank you all for reading this blog post!
I hope this helps you get familiar with what we all go through everyday in the publishing world. Also, I really hope that this keeps you going forward and not stop you from your passion in graphics design, photography, advertising… etc..etc.

Whatever the case may be, just be smart with your position, honest with your clients and keep your creativity alive!