Luis has a long-time love and respect for the arts ever since his days of watching Saturday morning cartoons. After realizing the business/accounting world was not for him, as his parents suggested, he left sunny Florida to attend ILIS. Though he was initially interested in Fashion Design, he eventually chose and graduated in 2000 with a BFA in Media Arts and Animation. Ironically, he soon landed a job in the fashion retail world.
Over the next 10 years he would undertake various roles such as Graphic Artist for Apparel, Senior Graphic Designer for Packaging and Lead Product Designer at Sears, Kmart and Target. In late 2011, he and his wife left their cozy design jobs at Target to return to IL and start their own design studio, Idea Monster.
Today they love to take their combined 20+ years experience and work with large companies as well as smaller, family-owned companies. Notable clients include American Greetings, Crayola and Wilton. During his time at Target, Luis received awards and recognition for his skills in team building and innovation. It should also be noted, Luis dislikes writing in 3rd person.
Documentary filmmaker and community activist Pablo Korona is first and foremost, a storyteller. A production professional for nearly 10 years, Pablo has now focused his attention on “Our City, Our Story,” a community-based storytelling project based in Rockford, Ill. He created the ambitious series to give voice to the people who give life to the city and to help the community diversify its perceived identity.
Though the stories told are specifically about the people of Rockford, Ill. they have garnered attention far beyond the mid-size city’s borders and been featured throughout the world. Recent episodes have ricocheted throughout the halls of NASA and anchored an all-staff rally at Etsy, the innovative and highly successful world marketplace. Our City, Our Story uses cinematic documentary production in episodes to tell compelling stories that redefine the city’s intricate identity. Just over a year old, Our City, Our Story is in the exploratory process of expanding to other cities.
Pablo and Our City, Our Story have been profiled in Fast Company and the work has been shared by Etsy, Entrepreneur Magazine, Washington Post Blog, Mental Floss, BoingBoing.net and Kottke.org.
It's hard to explain to people what I do and why I do it. It's hard for me to understand why *I* do it. I'm a freelance artist, specializing in sequential art. COMICS. Some people like running. Some people like knitting. I love drawing stories for people to read. I love it so much that I sit in my studio for 10-14 hours a day doing it for lower than desirable pay. That means I don't leave the house. Like, ever.
In my early years, before attending ILIS, I developed EnterVoid.com, a website designed to help budding illustrators learn how to hone their skills through comic battles. After a few years of constant user growth, I created Pulpo Press, an independent publishing group. As chief editor, I was in charge of developing, editing and printing three 200+ page anthologies and several graphic novels featuring artists from the website.
I've been drawing comics professionally for close to a decade. I've worked for companies like DC, Marvel and Image. Along the way I managed to pickup an Eisner and a Harvey award for my color work (they're sorta like Oscars or Emmys, but for comics).
If I had it my way, I'd move to Tibet, run a pug farm, and draw comics for myself all day- everyday.
Vicki Vassallo has more than 10 years of experience in the creative industry and has uniquely served roles spanning Creative and Advertising, Account and Project Management, Operations, and Marketing.
She has a passion for premium quality, as well as for ensuring the right decisions are being made for the current business and for future growth.
She attributes her success in the creative industry to the willingness to always be open to learning something new, living with a positive outlook, striving for maximum efficiency, and pushing any project to its limit for the best possible outcome even when extreme challenges arise along the way.
CG Cookie was founded on a laptop and a drive to create awesome Digital Art while documenting the process.The evolution of CG Cookie, Inc has been quite the unexpected journey. Originally created in 2008 by Wes Burke as a universal 3D Tutorial directory site, it has since then grown into a network of focused education sites viewed by millions around the world.
I was first brought into the Cookie studio after being called in for an interview from seeing my work at a Portfolio show. That next week I was brought in as a concept art freelancer for a few days a week. By showing them my dedication to the company they took the risk of introducing a new site that would be focused on strictly concept art. Thus Concept Cookie was born and my title as the site manager. A 5 month trial was set in place to see the success of the site, and with it's success came my full time job position offer. I am living a dream job.
Richard Zeid Design, his personal practice design consultancy, serves a wide range of clients from not-for-profit theatre companies to Fortune 500 corporations. Prior to establishing his own practice, Richard was the corporate senior designer for Morton International, Inc. His work has been recognized by Creativity, Art Direction Magazine, American Corporate Identity, Graphic Design USA. "Logos: Making a Strong Mark" published by Rockport Publishing and LogoLounge 4.
As a full-time member of the faculty at Columbia College Chicago, Richard teaches throughout the graphic design and advertising programs. Richard has served the past eight years as the Education Chair of AIGA Chicago. Richard received his bachelor of arts degree in design from Columbia College Chicago and his master of arts degree from Syracuse University in advertising design. Richard's expertise has allowed him to serve as a judge for the Ad Club of Central PA, Syracuse Ad Club and the Louisville Graphic Design Association (LGDA) as well as for the past three years for Square One. Richard holds professional memberships with the the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), Society of Typographic Arts (STA), The One Club and the Chicago Advertising Federation (CAF).