Interview with Valerie Moreno Morgan

Valerie, thank you for taking the time to provide www.eyesonpixel.com with this interview.

Please, introduce yourself?

I am Valerie Morgan. I am a graphic designer now living in Lansing, MI (USA). My specialty is editorial (magazine) design but I love to do anything that has to do with design. I lived in Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, New York, and Detroit before moving to Lansing.
_

Are you a self taught artist or have you been to a art school?

I attended the Art Institute where I learned some software, but I learned design theory and layout on my own through trial and error. I taught myself to do web programming and web design. I also taught myself illustration and am working on learning photography.
_

Where does your inspiration come from?

I am inspired by things I see all around me. A particular web site, a photograph, some graffiti, an interesting song, or a plant growing outside my window are all things that inspire me.
_

Who is your idol, do you have one?

I don’t have any one idol, but I have many people whose work I admire greatly: Alexy Brodovich (art director of Harper’s Bazaar in the ’40s and ’50s), the Stenberg brothers (Russian Constructivist designers), Paula Scher, Michael Bierut, and Robert Valentine to name a few.
_

How does your job as an artist influence on your everyday life?

As an visual artist, I am always looking around me for inspiration and ideas. A particular shade of blue in the evening sky can influence my design; a scrap of paper with an interesting typeface can be used in a layout; a texture on a brick wall can be photographed and used as a web site background. I look for possibilities to use things all around me in new ways.
_

What kind of hardware and software you use?

I mainly use a MacBook Pro or my iMac G4 for my designs. I use the Adobe Creative Suite daily. Web designs are mostly done in Dreamweaver and Fireworks. One of my favorite tools is the scanner. I love to find bits of things and scan them to see what interesting things I can do with them.
_

Tell us about your typical work day?

I don’t really have a typical workday since I am a freelancer. Some days are filled with correspondence to get new business or to line up details of a project. Some days are filled with designing one particular piece, some days I work on multiple projects. Sometimes I work on-site at agencies helping with overflow work. And some days when things are slow, I take it easy and just browse the internet or bookstores looking for inspiration.
_

What are your favourite websites?

My favorite websites are ones that either inspire me or are just filled with fun or interesting things to read or look at. Some of those would include: Smashingmagazine.com, TheDieline.com, Kuler.adobe.com, Designismine.blogspot.com, and TypeInspire.com. I also love allrecipes.com.
_

Where and how do you see yourself in five years?

I hope that in five years, my husband and I will have had a child and will both be self-employed (he is in school right now working on his PhD). We may still be in Michigan, or we might be living somewhere else, but my hope is that I will be busy with lots of great and interesting design projects but still be able to have time to hopefully have a family.
_

What makes you happy?

Many things make me happy: my husband, my dog. With regards to design, one thing that makes me happy is having that “aha!” moment when I finally make the pieces of a design come together and look beautiful. Making good design gives me a very satisfying, happy feeling.
_