Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Angel Resto. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Angel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?

Corporate structure, to quote the philosopher known as Shaquille O’Neal: “like toilette paper, is proven to be effective”, so I’m not about to try to dismantle a system that obviously pays off for most. What I do wish we could find a solution for is what I think is a very niche issue with the specific brand of corporate America that I’m exposed to. I’ve been working on the creative side of the corporate events industry for 25 years (that’s right – celebrated on 3/29 with cake and all) and there’s something wrong with the strain that bureaucracy places on the decision makers where it comes to creative. Every once in a while, we encounter a decision-maker who’s movements are clearly guided by fear. Fear kills creativity. By nature, we are risk-takers who don’t mind failing spectacularly in front of others. When people who are wired that way have to run ideas by someone that prioritizes avoiding being questioned by a superior, getting a low-scoring evaluation or falling behind someone who’s breathing down their neck while climbing the corporate ladder – it can become challenging.

While I shouldn’t get into specific stories, I can say without equivocation that a number of companies during those 25 years did not get the most out of what we had to offer because fear acted as an unnecessary filter. A filter that distorted, diluted and in most cases, extinguished promising ideas. In the end, we still cash our checks and we’re proud of the outcomes for the most part, but those companies that invested millions on unforgettable experiences for their workforce or stakeholders were deprived of at least having the chance to even see those ideas in the conceptual stage. That, to me, is why this matters.

Angel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Let’s see… was fortunate to attend what is, in my opinion, one the premiere arts program-driven high schools in the world, Escuela Central de Artes Visuales in my beloved island of Puerto Rico. This institution forged my skills as an artist and prepared me for what I thought would be a life of working as an illustrator for magazines, books and album covers. Four years attending the now gone Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale made me rethink that path and ended up focusing on graphic design which gave me a new set of tools while also keeping me close to those illustration opportunities.

In my third year at AIFL, I landed a pretty cool gig at the time for a student which required me to design packaging for a commodities company based out of Miami, FL. I got the opportunity to design logos, illustrate characters and even come up with names for products such as toothpaste, batteries, candies and the list goes on. It was time for a change and when one of my closest and most talented friends, Nel Santiago, arranged for me to show my portfolio at the Boca Raton company where he was working at, I took a leap.

The company goes by MIG (Multi Image Group) and at the time I had NO IDEA what it is they offered. Live corporate events…what are those? I was then introduced to a creative space I didn’t know existed. It allowed me to put my graphic design skills on full display as those events needed branding, signage and digital content. The latter exposed me to animation and video editing which now are imperative elements to what we do as everything has reached a broadcast-like level especially when most of those events are also now streaming.

Working at MIG for those 25 years has given me the opportunity to collaborate with household name companies and those that are so big their names don’t register with most of us. I have done so in the capacity of Graphic Designer, Art Director and eventually Creative Director.

Aside from the camaraderie & benefits, the variety of projects is one of the greatest appeals about working at MIG. One week I could be working on a vehicle launch while the next I might be designing three-dimensional virtual space for a surgical robotics company. Not only has life at MIG expanded my horizons by introducing me to video/animated content, but it has also added a component of experiential / interactivity to my repertoire. Did I mention scenic design? That variety is food for the creative soul.

While I’ve been fortunate to enjoy such a robust selection of topics / industries, I do find myself wanting to still exercise my original love which is illustration. That’s where the freelance work comes in. Freelancing has helped me maintain those other skills and served as a much-needed palette cleanser which is essential to avoid burnout. Right… more work helps with burnout? It does… Trust me. It has to be as close to a passion project as possible though and that’s exactly what I was able to associate myself with.

What are those passion projects? I’ve gotten to design more than a dozen music album covers which allows me to combine a lot of fun disciplines like typography, photography, sculpture, photo compositing and illustration much like one of my heroes from the artistic world, Dave McKean. I love sports as much as I do music, so when my favorite sports show, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (I know… a mouthful) reached out to see if I wanted to help them on the visual front, I was IN before you could say “suey”. The show has a very distinct aesthetic which requires me to create all sorts of weird visuals (including caricatures) that more times than not need to be animated. Their world and influence expanded once they left ESPN with the help of Draft Kings and have since created a large catalogue of shows, partnered with HBO Max, and produced documentaries for Amazon and Apple. The last project worthy of mention has me playing the role of conceptual artist for a movie project that I’m really excited about. Variety!

I could thank years of training, passion and coffee for the rewarding things I’ve been able to work on during the past 25 years, but a loving family that puts up with my stress, moods and maniacal approach to things goes a long way. That’s the secret sauce.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Conflicted! There’s a lot to pack here. First, there’s the value component: Assigning value to something is quite the personal decision, no? Some people see the value in collecting small printed pieces of card stock, others are obsessed with hoarding stylized vinyl pop culture figures. So if you see value in owning a serialized digital copy of something, who am I to judge? I personally don’t share the enthusiasm, but I do understand why a segment of the population does.

The second thing that took some of the shine away for me was the phenomenon that festered after a few top-notch artists struck gold with their offerings. A deluge of copycats emerged and flooded the scene with what I thought were noticeably inferior products but that didn’t stop people from spending their money on those.

Now here’s a third comment with a Shyamalan twist: I have sold a few NFTs myself! Not only do I view the genre in a positive light because I’ve profited from it, but also because they provided me with an excuse to return to my roots and create some non-commercial art for a change. I enjoyed the process and quite frankly would’ve continued if I hadn’t gotten busy with work. Who knows… maybe I’ll get back to it!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I guess I could go into any number of instances in which three deadlines converged to create a maelstrom of stress and somehow pulled it off, but a lot of people reading this might have have 20 of those stories. I do like the following one because it shows resilience, it involves my favorite basketball player and a multi-million dollar court case.

Anyone close to me knows I’m a huge Miami HEAT fan and that I had an unhealthy obsession with Dwyane Wade since his rookie year. I always believed I’d somehow end up creating something for him one way or another. Speak it into existence, right? Well, at the end of a very, very challenging week I received a phone call from someone I knew that ran an illuminated signage company (malls, hospitals, etc). He said “You’re not going to believe who I’m making signs for…” Yep, he was making illuminated signs for none other than Dwyane Wade and his upcoming national chain of sports bars. He asked if I was interested in going to Wade’s birthday party at one of the locations and I completely blew him off by saying “forget about the party… can you get me a meeting with the people in charge”. Two days later, the guy calls me again with a name, number and address. Man he was clutch!

I organized my portfolio and created a custom restaurant menu card that featured some of my work as a leave-behind piece which proved to be very effective (more on that later). I arrived at the location and was given a tour of the soon-to-be-opened location. After the tour I was asked “So… what do you think about the design?”.My response: “I think is amateurish. I’d give it a B- “. Yep, I abandoned all decorum and manners I was taught by my mother. I truly was confident I could do better than what I saw.

I was then taken to the man in charge who was sitting at a table surrounded by his whole team (looked like something out of a Scorcese film). He was a large man… chewing tobacco and wearing a Guy Harvey shirt with a hole in it. This man was a restaurant entrepreneur – had a big reputation after creating several household name franchises. He said “So.. I hear you think our stuff looks amateurish” I felt every eyeball in the room burn holes in my shirt. I said YES without hesitating . He then said “Think you can do better? Let’s start with a logo.” I was over the moon! “When do you need it by?” I asked. I got the most dreaded answer: “By tomorrow before noon”. It was 10pm when those words came out of his mouth and I was 40 minutes away from home.

As I drove home I kept doing inventory in my head: What’s the concept? Color scheme? What signature moment from Wade’s career can you use as reference? Most importantly: Do you have the energy to stay up all night and deliver? So I pulled an all-nighter and delivered two strong options for them to chose from. Drove back to the location the next morning and presented them to the big man and Wade’s representative. They loved it and guess what? I still got to go to Dwyane’s birthday party the next day along with my lovely wife who wasn’t too ashamed of the look on my face as I bumped into NBA players. But maybe the look on my face was sheer pride. I was proud of how resilient I was under pressure.

After finalizing the logo I also was then tasked with creating a new menu (making that leave-behind menu piece served as a warm up) and redesigning the interior of the restaurants which was a fun project. Unfortunately, 6 months later things soured between the Wade camp and the restaurant builder to the point in which a multi-million dollar suit was filed. This was in the middle of Wade’s divorce and being a free agent which made it super stressful when I received a call from the builder’s lawyer asking questions a day before trial. What if what I said resulted in a loss for Wade in court so big it became the last straw that pushed him away from Miami? Wade settled in court and paid a big sum, but then re-signed with the Miami HEAT so all was well in the Universe.

Image Credits
Angel Resto