Keynote.0 - Uniamérica
Agency in the real world!
0. Introduction
Earlier this month I was invited by the incredible
to present a keynote to a freshman design class in Uniamérica. Letícia is a rising teacher and inspiring creative professional with a Master's degree in Communication, Education, and Sociocultural formation.This was a very special day for two very mindblowing reasons: a) Leticia and I worked together at Sentient back in 2019-2020 and hadn’t seen each other ever since. b) I hadn’t stepped into a classroom for years!
Putting together a presentation and having the opportunity to talk about my career to young students was very much stepping into a time machine where I had to nostalgically navigate through my very first artworks published on DeviantArt when I was still a teenager up to the ticking moment of the breathing present where I had the opportunity of working in extremely inspiring projects from around the world.
The goal was only one, help the students demystify the concept of UX Design in the market today and also help them understand the many different roles and ways within the communication and design professions.
It had been 11 years since I truly started my own path, first creating fan artwork for my favorite bands, movies, games, and tv series and then moving to real advertising by working in multiple local agencies in my hometown, Foz do Iguaçu.
Later on, and journeying through my graduation in Advertising, I started focusing on working remotely and freelancing my career through creative global platforms.
When it came to the internet and the digital dimension, I never really saw frontiers, whether it was because I felt native to it or because growing up as a gamer made me engage in different communities, if something was on the internet, it only meant that it was global in a sense.
One of the first international projects that not only made me push my own limits but also crawl the walls with anxiety for such responsibility was a redesign for one of the biggest tourism platforms in the world. Guide to Iceland.
The year was 2016, my email signature looked… childish and easy… it was not. But Ingi, the client was very supportive and communicative and so we coordinated the redesign of many different pages including the checkout which was a tremendous pain in the ***. But I stood firm and did my best until I got the first feedback that truly made me confident about my career decision.
I was still understanding what I liked so much about UX/UI and it wasn’t really a subject that was covered in college so I had to study on my own until I started seeing the field as something very specific. It felt to me like designing Jewelry, because the attention to detail was crucial, and a 1pt line of stroke in an element could make all the difference in the aesthetics and the experience.
So with the help of my colleague and dear friend Kaique Rocha, we decided to embrace the subject as our graduation thesis. “Application of User Experience Design in the development of a mobile application for "Cine Cataratas"
While developing our research, I kept pushing the horizons and participating in creative contests, and competing with other strong designers in order to build my network around the world.
There would be no way to know that at a given moment, I would win a contest that would completely change my plans and teach me all marketing.
Focusing on another field within communication never really meant putting aside my aspiration to be a UX designer so in parallel, I kept working on different projects while keeping a watch on how the market was evolving.
About the Author
Thiago Patriota (A.K.A Offspring Thi)
Made in 1996. Born & Raised Brazillian. Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising and Communication. Adept to autodidactism. Photojournalist. Curious Soul. Author of Adeus, Aurora. Founder of Sentient.
That’s me in a nutshell but you can learn more about Agency and myself on the About page!