Today we’d like to introduce you to David Loyola.
Hi David, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up drawing as a form of keeping still while at church. My parents would hand me a piece of paper and a pencil during church services to keep me from distracting others. This very well may have been an incubator for my creativity. By the time I was in high school, I was deeply enamored with all forms of artistic expressions.
Then my dad purchased a desktop computer from a friend of his. This was prior to all PC’s being tied to a single user’s profile. The computer came with several software pre-installed, including Adobe Photoshop CS2. Bored one day, I began playing with the software. I would take photos and apply filters or begin to draw on top of the photos. Once I figured out how to use layers, a whole new world opened up to me.
The combination of my interest in art, combined with a deep interest in exploratory learning, is what led to my design career. Every piece of software, almost all design principles, and best practices for print and digital design were all self-taught. A combination of simply trying new tools out, reading forums and eventually YouTube, and a few incredibly patient mentors is how I built up my tool belt.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Being fully self-taught has created both challenges and opportunities for me. The main challenge has had nothing to do with the hard-skills of software knowledge or even design principles. Rather, it has been an issue of the soft-skills revolving around networking and client acquisition. I don’t regret not having studied a degree in design, but I do feel that it limited my ability to create a network of peers and mentors that would serve me better in the long run. I’ve had to create my own network through meeting and interacting with people that have been incredibly kind and patient, giving me opportunities when they had no reason to.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an art director and graphic designer. As such, it’s tough to properly state a specialization because I thoroughly enjoy being a “jack-of-all-trades.” If I were to look at my career so far, the field I’ve mostly excelled at has been editorial design. But even when I think about my career experience in editorial design, layout and cover design are just a fraction of what I would do.
I like to say that I am a generalist craftsman. I like to come into a scenario with a problem or a challenge, identify the issue at its core, look through my skill tool belt, and either use an existing skill or tool that I have, or acquire a new skill necessary for the task at hand. Every scenario I find myself in is an opportunity to either sharpen my skills or acquire new skills. I may never truly say that I am a master of a specific area of design. But I am flexible enough to adapt or learn in just about any scenario I find myself in.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
Houston became a second home for me when my brother went to study at Baylor College of Medicine. Visits to the museums were a must every time we were in town. But perhaps what I loved most was being able to simply start a conversation with someone next to me at a line. The friendliness and the ability to engage with people was always a fun experience of the city.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.davidgloyolart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dgloyola/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgloyola/
