Joe Loera
Becoming a UX designer is the result of many design positions held within different media disciplines including web design for businesses, graphic design for print and web based applications, and sound design for film and television. With over 10 years of experience in design roles, I’ve learned to appreciate a deeper understanding of a businesses’ problems and creating transparent solutions to those problems.
After finishing up my degree in sound engineering from art college, I moved to Los Angeles and started an internship where I grew up real quick. Alongside my internship grind where I was picking up lunch for clients and doing dishes, I was soon given the opportunity to work on film and television productions. These opportunities grew over the years and I was lucky enough to do sound effect design and editing on films such as jOBS, Bad Milo!, and Welcome to Me.
Wanting something new from the Los Angeles entertainment scene, I had a great opportunity to work with a for Monster Design Studios, a small 3-man team where we designed and developed websites for many businesses around central California. I was asked to be lead web designer where I honed my skills in graphic design, color theory, WordPress CMS, and client communication. As the lead designer, I designed and built over 100 websites.
Monster Design Studios was eventually bought out by a local marketing company. Wanting to continue pursuing to find my role in tech while not letting my degree go to waste, I took positions as a graphic designer for a local baseball team, doing web design for a pre-screening company, and setting up video, audio, and graphic assets for a audio/video company. To say I was busy is an understatement! But my love for visual pleasing products that help businesses expand is never-ending!
That brings us to the present. I was told about a profession called user experience design. Curious but ignorant on the subject, I looked up what exactly a UX designer does. I continue to study the subject and graduated from a UX Design boot camp. I am now armed not only with the knowledge and experience of a graphic and web designer, but with the knowledge of what my clients actually want from the content I was creating.