Buenas! I'm Santiago,
a freelance graphic designer based in Toronto.

Background

I’ve been working as a freelance designer for a few years now while working in the food industry in Toronto to sustain myself. I take on different projects like creating posters, commissions, and recently, creating a brand identity for Chubby Choy.

I've always loved drawing. As a kid, I would draw my own toys and characters, cutting them out for my friends and I to play with, we would make origami spaceships and dragons. In school, I constantly doodled in the margins of my notebooks and daydreamed about fantasy worlds. I always knew I was not cut out for a typical 9-5 office job and wanted to be more creative in my day-to-day life.

Colombian Flag
Illustration: WhiteCrow naping under book

Education

I studied Media Design at Seneca College, where I learned about video and photography, design principles, UX, and web design. My education allowed me to work creatively in many ways while collaborating with others, and learn the importance of self-teaching. Real growth in design only happened when I went out of my way to teach myself and deepen my knowledge independently.

Strengths and Skills

My strengths lie in illustration, web design, and brand identity. I am most skilled with Illustrator and Procreate, but I am also capable in the rest of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite such as Photoshop, Premiere, Affects Effects, and Webflow.

Illustration: WhiteCrow with Sword
Illustration: WhiteCrow with Philosophers stone

Design Philosophy

I love having the ability to create. It’s so special to me the way we are able to visualize something in our heads and then make it real. I love that we are able to materialize our thoughts and dreams, then share it with others. The entire process feels pretty magical to me.

Future Goals

Currently, I aim to create more. I want to build my own brand and online shop to sell my art and illustrations. This includes T-shirts, stickers, magnets, pins, etc. At the moment, I am learning more about printing techniques, materials, inks, and embroidery as well as figuring out how to provide value in order to bring my own brand to life.

Illustration: WhiteCrow with spotting scope