Reviewing portfolios for RGD

I’ve been invited several times to review student portfolios for my design organization, the Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario. Yesterday, I participated in my first professional review, and it was an awesome experience. Together with two other RGD members, we interviewed candidates to determine whether or not they are fit to be members. Applicants must prove that they can articulate their role in a project and that they have a good grasp of the design challenges encountered in it. Good work, overall!

Recent Work

Social, learning and networking events are a staple at the Centre of Social Innovation, where I keep my studio. Below are some posters and flyers I’ve designed for a few recent ones.

 

 

>Recent work for the Centre for Social Innovation

>Art Director, designer: Gil Martinez, RGD

An ad for Spacing Magazine advertising the Centre’s delights, and a poster promoting an upcoming party at their new location. woohoo!

>Pulse Magazine

>Art Director, Designer: Gil Martinez, RGD
Illustrators: Gérard Dubois (If leadership…), Megan Halsey (Dorothy Wilie)

Pulse Magazine is the official publication of the Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. This exciting re-design was a fun and rewarding project. The client requested a book that looked less corporate and appealed to nurses of different ages. These are the results.

>Golfstyle Magazine

>Art Director, designer, photo retoucher: Gil Martinez, RGDPhotographers: George Whiteside (fashion and cover), Elaine Aquan-Yuen (equipment)Models: Doug and Antonia: XXXXFashion makeup: Marinella InfanteFashion styling: Amandia ReeseFashion production: Anita Draycott

Golfstyle is the best fashion magazine for golfers in Canada. These four spreads were part of the Spring 2011 issue. Fashion was shot on location at the new Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Equipment was shot in the photographer’s studio. The magazine has received much praise. In fact, the Dutch Golf Weekly rated Golfstyle the number 1 source for golf fashion worldwide.

>Mentoring the youngins

>I’ve been reviewing student portfolios at the Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario student conference Headstart since 2009. As part of the event, established pros review portfolios and offer advice to improve both the work and the presentation. This year I saw two good books and one that really knocked my socks off (that’s me in the plaid shirt). Good work in Ontario Schools!

>The cat’s meow

>Art Director, designer: Gil Martinez, RGD
A friend recently left the wonderful Centre for Social Innovation—where I keep my office—for other opportunities. I made this poster to say farewell :)

>Martyr—from the archives

>Artist: Gil Martinez, RGD
Although I am now an agnostic, I grew up catholic in Mexico, where there is a fascination with the gory depiction of martyrdom. You might be exposed to the torn skin and exposed vertebrae of Christ on the column, St. Lucy with empty eye sockets and her eyes on a little silver plate, or the bloody body of St. Sebastian riddled with arrows.
In 1998 Matthew Sheppard, a normal college kid from an unimportant small town in middle America, was picked up at a bar by two men, beaten, and left to die in the countryside. His mother, Judy Shepard, has since been a passionate speaker for gay rights and anti-bullying measures. At the same time, the Catholic Church, led by Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has made a crusade against gays and lesbians a central part of Vatican agenda. This 2007 piece, depicting this young man covered in blood with exposed clean skin only where his tears have washed the blood away, with the attributes of martyrdom, is a modest effort to change the narrative while keeping the gory tradition of icons alive.

M. Shepard ’98—2007
7.5 cm x 10.2 cm
Acrylic and metal leaf on maple wood

>Ten Lives

>Artist: Gil Martinez, RGD
This is a piece I did recently using original want ads looking to buy and sell slaves, and capture fugitives. I am an avid collector of old engravings, and I found several that illustrated each of the clips, including the center image of the piece, from Godey’s lady’s book, ca. 1845. On the whole, the images seem idyllic, and the piece itself is similar to some 1890’s crafts I’ve seen at auction, but each little image contains an insurmountable amount of violence, in the form of ten lives that were never free to run themselves.

Ten Lives—2010
43 cm x 58 cm
Antique engravings, gold leaf, newspaper clippings (ca. 1780-1840), glass and wood.

>Happy Chrismukkah!

>Art Director, Designer, Illustrator: Gil Martinez, RGD