I love going downtown. Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, any large city. I like being amidst all the action, history and culture that are unique to each particular metropolis. Not only that, the scenery. Oh, the scenery! While I certainly appreciate the vistas offered by nature, manufactured scapes can also be a sight to behold. I went shootin’ around LA today and here a couple of my shots.

One of the first things I’d like to address in this blog is question of how I got involved with graphic design. Let’s go back…

It seems fitting to tell a story of how I was intrigued with art and was composing designs since I was in pre-school, but that really wasn’t the case. I got my first computer when I was in 7th grade, and shortly thereafter is when my design sensibilities took shape. If messing around in MS Paint lends any credibility to my foundation as an artist, then let me state here I’d spend a good deal of time doing just that. However, I believe the much more significant development was my involvement with a program called Print Shop Deluxe. I was using version 2 or 3 at the time, but even then it was enough to keep me busy hours on end. I became pretty darn handy churning out greeting cards, and soon my father was asking me to create a design a card for the the latest upcoming birthday. Of course, there was more to the program than that, and I’d create signs for friends/family, I even designed a business card for myself. Ah, diamond border, how you served me well on oh-so many projects. I didn’t know what I was doing were elements of graphic design, but I enjoyed it. I remember, more than once, I’d compile a sheet of sample text showing off all my system’s different fonts. I was proud to have what I thought at the time was an amazing typographical collection, over 100 fonts (yes, including Wingdings).

Anyway, years passed, and my software collection grew more impressive (Photoshop 6, baby, oh yeah). I was creating flyers for local bands, making signs at work, a bunch of random jobs. I knew I liked this creative outlet, yet still didn’t truly associate it with design. I had regarded graphic design as more of a manual and illustrative process. So when it came time to declare a major upon enrolling at Cal State Northridge in 2000, I went with Marketing. I chose this because I felt Business was a safe path to a successful career, yet the Marketing allowed me to associate myself with Advertising, which seemed the creative side of business.

So I kept messing around on the computer with composing designs, and in 2001 added web development to the mix. This continued until in 2004, one semester short of graduating, I realized business is not something I want to do the rest of my life. I enjoyed a few of my marketing/business classes; the ones that allowed for unique approaches and creative thinking (consumer behavior, retail marketing, marketing strategy), but the rest were either far too numeric for my liking, conducive to the questionable ethics of fellow students, or were simply uninteresting. So I decided to return to CSUN the next fall for an education that catered to what I had been most passionate about all along.

As I moved along the art program, as well as tried my luck at a few design employment opportunities, I realized just how much the principles of marketing are tied to design. While my art education helped nurture my talent and foster additional experience, it’s my marketing education that allows me to have greater insight for which direction to take my design in order to most effectively and efficently reach the intended audience.

And that’s brings me to where I am today. Although my design history is rooted in the digital age, I also now understand and appreciate the importance of traditional methods, as any well-rounded designer should. It’s a privilege working in a field that I thoroughly enjoy. I love what I do, and will always seek to maintain a balance of innovation, effectivity, and passion in my work.

That I’m writing this entry means one thing, and one glorious thing at that - my website has launched! Wahoo. After months of development in the midst of a hectic schedule, I am happy to announce that charlesrubinoff.com is open for business.

Late last year, I found myself applying for an internship opportunity, but unfortunately I didn’t have my work online. So that night I worked fast and furious to throw up a temporary online portfolio page. That satisified a temporary need, but I knew the full site would be a much more daunting task. It was a challenge I couldn’t wait to tackle.

After numerous sketches, layouts, and looks, I refined the design to what it is today. I believe a portfolio, in print or online, should take a subtle design role to allow the work to speak for itself. I feel I achieved a successful minimalist design, while still giving it my touch of style.

The entire site is hand-coded by yours truly and I loved having complete control of that element of this project. I was fortunate enough to have some assistance with the development of the back-end PHP content management system in place, and consequently I have a site that is a snap to update. A couple of the presentational features took a good deal of research to perfect to my liking, but thankfully I did not have to compromise and was able to fully deliver on the vision I had from the start with this website.

As I am always mindful of learning new tricks and techniques, this website will remain a work in progress behind-the-scenes in an effort to always keep this site easy to update and running as efficiently as possible.

If you have any feedback on the website, I welcome your thoughts. See the contact page for more information.