George Garrastegui, Jr’s Profile
Design, Branding, Typography and Process
George is an educator, designer, advocate, and curator looking to elevate the creative process by shifting the focus to how we work over what we produce. George has over 20+ years of experience in publishing, marketing, and strategy, and has crafted solutions for brands such as Esquire, Ford, Cadillac, and Popular Mechanics. George also teaches strategic problem-solving and design research at City Tech and hosts an award-winning podcast, Works in Process.
My Courses
COMD Communication Design Internship Coordination Site
This site is designed to help you find fieldwork/study situations of approximately eight hours per week at an internship site approved by the Department Internship instructor such as an advertising agency, graphic design firm, corporate design office, publications art department, photography or illustration studio, TV or multimedia production company. Students will be required to keep a learning journal of their internship in the form of a blog using Openlab. A portion of the class will be devoted to presenting and sharing experiences with classmates. Students will learn how to assess their talents, update their resume, and promote themselves and their work through social networks. Students will be required to setup and maintain at least two social media networks such as: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. The instructors for this class are there as mentors if you have not yet found an internship before registering for the course. However, the instructors do not find an internship placement for you. It is your responsibility to find a position that fits your personal career path and help you transition to full time employment upon leaving the halls of CityTech. Ideally, you will use this site to find an internship the semester before taking the COMD 4900 class.
Working independently, students engage in research, conceptualization, and the development of a comprehensive project spanning multiple media platforms. This project employs design thinking to tackle a modern-day concern.
Development of each student’s strategy for entering the design profession. Faculty and professional advisors critique cumulative work. Students work independently with faculty supervision to edit and refine their design work to develop a portfolio that meets professional standards.
This is a foundation course in advertising and graphic design. Students are challenged to combine foundation skills with conceptual thinking in order to develop creative solutions. Students develop the ability to communicate ideas visually through art direction, and verbally through copywriting. Project-based assignments from concept through digital output challenge students to consider the relationship between the product, its’ target audience and marketing objectives. Students learn the importance of conceptual thinking, professional execution and presentation of their ideas. Students may work in teams on the concept, design and development process.
Working independently, each student researches, conceptualizes, and develops an in-depth project across media channels, which uses design thinking to address a contemporary issue. ** Any faculty member teaching this course may clone and adapt the course. **
My Projects
City Tech’s Source for Academic Affairs Information
An online system of advisement tools for COMD students at City Tech
The COMD Hub (IN DEVELOPMENT) provides support for faculty and staff, including teaching, admin, and program development resources. Join The COMD Hub to receive essential communications from the Department Chair, CLTs, and the City Tech Administration.
The purpose of this project is to create a forum to ask questions, generate discussion, and share teaching materials, resources, and ideas about teaching and learning on the OpenLab. Avatar image: “The open door” by hehaden.
A private working space for the OpenLab Committee.
My Clubs
We are a design club at New York City College of Technology. We host Meet the Pros (facebook.com/meetthepros) speaker series and we release an annual design magazine, Command+J.