Marvin Asuncions Blog

I decided it was time for a visual change on the blog. Thanks to E Harrison for designing this kind of snarky, fun, and easy to read theme.

I’ll get to work on designing my own WordPress theme eventually. Still haven’t gotten around to even setting up my own website. Busy busy busy.

When I was working on my BFA concentrating on industrial design, it was around the same time that the manufacturing industry around the Detroit area began collapsing. These companies that make consumer products were coming to a point where they weren’t only not hiring new product designers, but they were downsizing their creative departments.

I saw it coming, my classmates saw it coming, and we felt like there wasn’t much we could do about it. We stuck with I.D. because it’s what we loved doing and by this point most of us were already too far invested into it to switch gears.

The point came down to this: the field you specialize in isn’t doing very well. So what do you do?

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The Venture Bros., if you’re not familiar, is a cartoon series on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Coming into its fourth season, it has cultivated a mass cult following. If you’re a fan of snippy adult humor, nostalgic references and art, you’ll understand why.

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It has been well over a month since my first post. Shame on me.

In all actuality, it’s been a crazy month for me. There is a lot of events coming up for the Arab American National Museum, which is terrific, but it entails updating and managing a lot of content in a small span of time.

One of our most intriguing upcoming events, in my opinion, is the opening of our Connecting Communities exhibit.

Connecting Communities is an exhibit that explores the stories of immigrants from around the Detroit area, spotlighting Hamtramck, Dearborn, and Mexican Village, amongst other areas. Individuals give accounts of their experiences as immigrants and how starkly these experiences contrast with the stereotypes and misconceptions held of immigrants. I have a deep personal connection to the exhibit and it’s concept, being a 2nd generation Asian-American myself.

I think it’s going to be extremely interesting to hear the views and stories of these individuals, and what’s even better is that visitors to this exhibit will be given the opportunity to record video of their reactions and relations to these immigrant’s tales right from the exhibit which can be immediately uploaded to YouTube.

Connecting Communities opens Thursday, October 1st with an opening reception beginning at 5:30 featuring complimentary refreshments that is free and open to the public. The exhibit runs through March 28, 2010. If you live in the Detroit area, or plan on being around the area anytime between October 1st and March 28th, I highly suggest you check it out. It’s sure to be an enriching experience no matter what background you hail from.

Also beginning on October 1st is Global Thursdays, which is a running event that is held every other Thursday featuring musical performances and film screenings. The first Global Thursday is featuring Rahim AlHaj, a world-renown Oud virtuoso, performing at the Arab American National Museum from 6:30 to 9 P.M. You can buy tickets for this event here.

Besides these two things, there are many more upcoming events & exhibits that are definitely worth checking out. Hopefully as everything slowly begins to calm down for me, I’ll be able to update on a much more regular basis.

- Marv

As a front-end web designer, I’m way behind the times when it comes to the blogging aspect of the field, more specifically with WordPress.

Many thanks to Jai Nischal Verma for designing and developing this great-looking theme that I’ll be utilizing until I feel comfortable enough to dig in and create my own.

So, I suppose this is the best time and place to introduce myself. My name is Marvin Asuncion. I graduated 2008 from Wayne State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, concentration in Art and Industrial Design. I’m currently employed as the web designer for ACCESS, a non-profit human services organization based in Dearborn, MI. For the time being, I’m working primarily for the Arab American National Museum, a project of ACCESS, which is the first and only museum in the world devoted to Arab American history and culture.

While my job title is web designer, the websites’ designs are currently locked into the CMS (designed and built by an independent design firm prior to my hiring), with no internal employee access to edit the source code. So, because of this, my primary job functions are basic site management and front-end maintenance. I haven’t let it get my creative side down though, most of the work I’ve been doing has been graphic design and layout for promotional web and print material. I’m currently working on kicking up my freelance work, too. I’ve been fairly dormant lately, but I’ll be getting the ball rolling over the next few months.

Besides doing creative work myself, I love checking out what other people are doing in design, art, music, writing, and anything else that springs from a creative perspective. I’m sure I’ll post work and tutorials on here that I really enjoy and find particularly inspiring and helpful.