Teresa Au chats with graphic designer Magdiel Lopez about all the spaces for creativity in his life, from his famous “A Poster A Day” project, to his personal artistic practice, to the buildings and offices that his firm transforms into art-filled, meaningful spaces. They also discuss how immigration shapes your thinking, mental health in the face of internet stardom, and what Magdiel is doing to revitalize his hometown of Richardson, Texas.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

Magdiel’s harrowing story of immigrating from Cuba via Guatemala and a Mexican jail
How Magdiel got his design start with Photoshop, but no internet
The power of communist art
How “A Poster A Day” got started
Thriving vs surviving
How to maintain your creative spark
What it’s really like to blow up on Instagram
How Artist Uprising transforms spaces
Magdiel’s impact on his hometown

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Born in Havana, Cuba, Magdiel Lopez spent his childhood years inspired by the colorful culture that surrounded him. Naturally, such upbringing played an integral part in forming Lopez’s keen sense of style, art, and design, which can be realized in his works today. Looking for freedom and a better life, Lopez moved to the United States at fifteen, where he continued working on his skill for the next 10 years privately. Magdiel decided to reveal his work in a series called “A Poster A Day” — releasing one piece of artwork on his Instagram everyday for 365 days. Each day garnered more attention from a global audience and press coverage by the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Entrepreneur, and Awwwards. Via his firms Artist Uprising and Belmont he has worked with brands such as Adobe, Apple, Nike, Absolut Vodka, MTV, Warner Brothers/DC Comics, IBM, and Coca-Cola.

Teresa Au (@tautastic) is an executive for community engagement at Adobe, where she focuses on empowering creatives and students via workshops, panels, and podcasts. On creating In the Making, Teresa says “I knew I wanted to amplify the incredible personal stories of the talented and unique humans I’ve been meeting online and at our Create Now events across the world.”

Learn more about this podcast, and find transcripts and links, at adobe.ly/inthemaking. In the Making is brought you by Adobe Express and Adobe Creative Cloud.

Past episodes of Wireframe can still be found in the show archive within this feed, or online on Behance.

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#1127 What Makes A Good Life? - Robert Waldinger