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We struck upon the great posters and artwork of Jaime Zuverza recently, we love his style so we hit him up to get a few words and his thoughts and feelings on design. Check it out. 

Hi Jaime, we came across your posters online, loved them and wanted to interview you - how did you get started designing?

In my late teens I studied painting and made some flyers for art shows and at the same time I had a conversion and started going to a pentacostal church. While at church I designed some Christian propaganda zines and also joined a Christian rock band. Show biz (religious or otherwise... well, isn’t all showbiz religious?) of course sucks if there's no one in the room so I made flyers and posters for the shows. But what put the nail in the coffin is when I got a job at the university media center where I learned how to deface a person’s face in photoshop. A couple of years later I left the church, but I kept on rockin!

How has your style changed and evolved over time?

Well, I used to crank out posters nonstop for my job, which was fun and good for a bit, but eventually it became detrimental. Now I make fewer things and have more time to find a way to express a view point or tell a little story instead of depending on “the surface”.

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Who would you name as an influence and who else's work do you admire?

The list is endless but today I’ll mention Robert Anton Wilson, Hieronymus Bosch, and I also admire how the Grim Reaper took Tommy Cooper home on Live From Her Majesty's.

What do you use for your designs, how much of it is computer based and what are thoughts on digital?

I use Photoshop, printed material, the internet, pencil, paper, and a scanner. I have no negative thoughts on digital (except the tendency it produces to explore no further than the infinite virtual world) although I do try to be negative about it. I think what a design can convey is more important, in my opinion, than its origin. I’d rather put some sort of idea or sentiment in a person’s head, than just hypnotize them with technique or style. Either way I’m gonna try to distance myself from the computer and start drawing and painting more while standing, but only because my nalgas have gotten pretty flat.

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When you are commissioned for a project, whats your process? How do you get ideas together and where do you start?

It’s probably similar to amateur improvisational experimental cooking, where you have a pot and you throw all kinds of good and also strange crap in it and slowly a certain flavor becomes dominant. Then you choose whether to exalt the flavor or strike it down like the clown it was born to be, over and over until done. It’s an inefficient way to work but in the end it takes you somewhere unexpected which is fun.

Are you excited for the future of design?

Yeah I’m excited, I think people will want to rebel more and more against the “establishment” in all kinds of ways and design, in part, will reflect this.

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Whats next for you? What projects do you have coming up? 

I plan to return to painting pictures using the strategy I employ in making posters. You can sell a painting for more than a poster. Either way most things I plan to do take years and years. Improvisation is my favorite.

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Whats the secret to great design?

Spinning in a circle while crossing your eyes, nodding your head, and saying “GOOD TIMEZ”. The results are fun and nausea.

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