Bode Men's Flagship 4th of July Windows
Assisted in merchandising of the holiday windows for the 4th of July 2024 at Bode Men's Flagship store in NYC.
Styled both looks and worked on installation of both windows.
Art direction by Patrick Roberts.
GRILL FRIDAYS VOL. 1 PRELUDE
Photo Magazine by Luca Veca
Grill Fridays started off as a weekly lunch I would throw for my coworkers at a warehouse job I was working. Every Friday I would set up a couple grills in the parking lot and we would take a long lunch to enjoy a few drops of sunlight. Each Thursday after work I would steal a few steaks from Whole Foods, and whatever else I could get through the self checkout line, and we would enjoy our bounty the next day.
Over time, word started to spread of our lunchtime shenanigans. We would make dumb Instagram posts on the @grillfridays account and people started to wonder why they weren't invited. Soon friends would ditch their 9-5s for as long as they could each Friday and I started having to steal more steaks.
Eventually we were asked to grill at some retail store events around LA and I was able to make a few bucks for some burgers.
I digress. Grill Fridays Vol. 1 - PRELUDE was a way for me to use this tiny platform and publish some photo work of mine alongside photos from one of my good friends, Brian Connors (@bootlegbimbo). I have been shooting photos since my early high school days, and felt like taking some images away from my dusty hard drive, and into the public eye.
Grill Fridays Vol. 1 consisted of 64 pages of photos Brian and I took during 2022. They are an amalgamation of the things we enjoy and the lives we live. I designed and sequenced the entire book over the course of six months using InDesign. I worked with Edition One Books for the printing, and made an edition of 50 magazines.
On December 16th, 2022 I threw a release party for the magazine, where Grill Fridays Vol.1, as well as full size prints of some of the images inside, were sold. The magazine sold out and my friends got drunk, so I was more than satisfied.
TRASHMANGRN X PRO-Keds ComplexCon 2022
Design and construction of the TRASHMANGRN x PRO-Keds collaborative booth for ComplexCon 2022 alongside Nick Cascarella and Lennard Macaranas.
TRASHMANGRN by Lennard Macaranas (@butterypat) is a line of upcycled vintage clothing and accessories known for its overdyed green hues and a focus on sustainability in fashion. The creator and his creations are known for their elusive and exclusive nature which contributed to the design of his booth for ComplexCon 2022.
Based on the typical row of porta-potties at a music festival or convention, the booth is intended to look like somewhere you would line up to perform a natural bodily function. The idea behind this came from Lennard's desire, some would say obsession, to stray from the fashion retail norms and potentially piss a few people off (no pun intended). Prior to 2023, the only place you could buy TRASHMANGRN product was from Complexcon, once a year, so we thought we could make it a bit more limited by hiding it behind a row of green bathroom doors.
Once inside the booth, we played with a high-low aesthetic. Modernica seating, a cellist performing classical music in the corner, and a single rack of TRASHMANGRN clothing as well as sneak-preview of the collaborative PRO-Keds sneaker. On your way out you were offered mints, chewing gum, cheap cologne, and latex condoms from the "bathroom attendant".
https://www.instagram.com/p/ClW8XZZSIjQ/?img_index=1
Head Corner Store - Design Platform
Head Corner Store is a platform that I started in 2021. It has always been my goal, and still is, to one day open a retail store where I can curate an array of products as well as release designs of my own. The ethos behind the project is to be able to bring together creatives who I admire that practice in various fields. Not only as a form of business that can support myself and the people I work with, but to also have a hand in all of the mediums that fascinate me. I want to use the platform to bring the things I cherish into a greater light, and expose them to the customer or follower.
This project was something I came up with for the introduction of Head Corner Store. To me, a simple spellout tee was a good way to introduce the name, and with that I was able to play with the marketing and visuals. The graphic is based on a LA County Jail uniform that I saw at a flea market. I liked the fact that the size of the shirt was displayed outwardly in the same size text as the rest of the graphic. The labeled size has equal significance as the name in the graphic in a way that I like.
The photoshoot was born out of an idea that developed in my head over time. The idea became a few sketches to help my photographer Jeremy Knies (@jeremyknies) understand what I was going for, and I sourced odds and ends for the set. Each rendition of the model (Jeremy Gomez @jeremgome) is wearing a shirt that increases in size from S - XXXL, along with a pair of mesh shorts that increase in size correspondingly.
I had no idea if I had the technical capabilities to edit the photograph, creating the cloning of the model. A part of me feels lucky that it worked out, but I also know that I put in enough mental planning to properly execute the shoot. Once I had all of the photos taken I worked on the final composite image over the course of a week in Photoshop. Through what I'm sure was a lot of backwards techniques I was rewarded with almost the exact image that I had in my mind before the project. I am very proud of this image and feel that it represents my design sensibilities well.
Head Corner Store - Fundraiser for Ukrainian Refugees
This project came from a desire to make a positive change in some way. It was a spur of the moment idea that was executed and released within 48 hours. War had just broken out between Russia and Ukraine, and I felt a desire to raise money in hopes of supporting some of the families that were being displaced.
Putin felt like an easy target, and in the end he was. I designed and printed a run of posters titled "TYRANT". A standard shooting target for the most part. However, the 1-9 that would usually sit in each ring were replaced by the area code for the Kremlin.
Myself and two friends, none of whom had ever shot a gun, went down to the LA Gun Club to try our luck down range. It took a bit of convincing, and a quarter landing on heads, before we were allowed to fire at our targets.
In the end I released an edition of 5 posters that had been shot, along with an edition of 20 that were unused. I was able to raise over $1,000 and donated the proceeds to care.org.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ca0LOCZAymK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Concept Brand Development - Fashion Design Program
California State University Long Beach 2019
While attending CSULB I took courses in graphic design using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The work below is from a final concept brand development project. While my taste has surely evolved from the things 2019 me would have designed, this work represents early technical skill using Adobe programs.
For the project, original designs and flat sketches needed to be produced for a concept brand. A brand message, target customer, moodboard, and garment hang tags had to be created to go along with the products designed.
Looking back four years later, and I'm not too mad at what I was doing as a 19 year old student.
