As a part of our ongoing Member Spotlight series, we recently had an opportunity to talk with new member, Art Director and Designer, Guz Lima.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m Guz Lima, a Brazilian Art Director and Designer, currently working at Sway in Norfolk, Virginia and also I’m an FWA’s Jury member. I’ve been working with Art Direction and Design for 12 years with experience in worldwide agencies and some nice clients/brands.
I am a full-time dad of a little girl, husband, and a retired video-game player.

Where are you from?
I’m originally from São Paulo, Brazil.

How and why did you get involved with AIGA?
When I moved to the USA I said to myself that I’d like to have everything related with design on my radar. I heard about AIGA from some folks at work and I realized that there I could be in touch with everything I was looking for design wise. It is a perfect source of inspiration.

What would people be surprised to know about you?
I’m a very simple guy and don’t nothing crazy, but one story I always like to bring up is that I studied to be an engineer for 2 weeks in early 2002. Well, it clearly didn’t work. Just realized that were too many numbers.

Over the course of your career, what has been your most challenging project?
I think every project has a challenging moment, no matter if it is a whole TV campaign or a simple banner unit, but I can say the most complex one I’ve worked on.
It was a website for Coca-Cola, where all the bottle caps had an icon where scanning them on your webcam would turn them into music, for example, a guitar icon gives you the options to have a guitar solo, so collecting all other bottle caps, you could create your own music with them.

I remember being really involved with that project, from the UX, to UI and to presenting it to the client. It was a hard project but at the end was rewarding.

Do you have any ongoing projects?
I continue to work on graphic design projects and personal art outside of school, though my time is limited. I’ve recently been practicing block printing and want to meld my illustration skills with the new media.

Describe your creative process. What are your major steps.
I try to be as much organized as I can and I’m very methodic with my steps that are all the same in every project. I start looking for examples, what people have been doing, what companies have been doing, what are the trends. Then I create a mood board with the ones I consider to have something nice, then share all that with the team and just after that go to the software or paper.

What are you currently working on?
I’m working on a website that celebrates the 20th anniversary of a singer’s album.
That is all I can say 😉

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to yourself?
Don’t waste your time and energy being mad with little things. Being an easy going person is the key to success and learn to say “NO” when it is necessary.

You can find Guz Lima’s work at guzlima.com , Dribble and on Behance

AIGA Hampton Roads strives to highlight its members. If you have any ideas for our next spotlight, please contact us at info@hamptonroads.aiga.org.