Today we’d like to introduce you to Arthur Tejada.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story starts at Mesa College where I spent my time navigating general education classes but found that nothing was very intriguing to me. I ended up taking a variety of design classes from fashion, music, interior design and a ton of art classes. I fell in love with creating art no matter what class I was in at that time. At Mesa, I decided I needed to make design my career goal when my mixed media art instructor notified me there was an open house for a local art school that weekend. The next semester I transferred to the now defunct Art Institute of San Diego for their Graphic Design program and three years later, I graduated with a bachelor of science in Graphic Design.
Trying to find a design job in San Diego in the early/mid 2000’s was a little hard, however the industry was everywhere from Orange County to Los Angeles. The first position I applied to in Orange County offered me my first design job before I even got home from the interview. I spent nearly three years working with this company creating advertisements for Hyundai, Kia, Merecedes-Benz, Ford, Nissan, Mitsubishi, let’s just say if you can name the car company, we probably handled that account. I learned the ins and outs of working in a small design team that school can never prepare your for. Thankfully my design manager and colleague showed me the ropes on a lot of design procedures and how to carry out a lot of daily design tasks.
In the market crash of 2008, I ended up losing that design position and found myself doing freelance work while perusing the job market back in San Diego. It was that moment where I came up with the name Thirdvisual Design Lab, a name I use today for my web-based storefront. I worked at a variety of design positions such as start up companies and small business ventures as a multi-media designer before ultimately taking time off to just do freelance work and travel.
I used Thirdvisual as a portfolio for prospective clients and companies, however after becoming a father, I spent a lot more time at home with my son and found more time near my computer. Like a lot of business ventures, I created Thirdvisual Design and the web store during the pandemic. My wife urged me to use my creativity and create an online store sharing product designs on the site. A lot of my personal interests translate over to what I create for the website, everything from classic Japanese cars, cultural influences, travel, quirky wooden jewelry and more. I have been a part of the hip hop community in San Diego since I was younger so there are a few things on the web store that are directly influenced from that background. At the beginning of the pandemic, I began to relearn the art of beat making, it was always something I wanted to learn and made it a point to create beats while everything was shut down due to the virus. Most of the beats I have created are individually available on the web store with the plan of creating an instrumental beat tape in the near future. With creating products for the web store I haven’t taken on much freelance work anymore, however if there is a small project, I will almost always say yes to creating a logo or simple layout design for a client.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, I can’t say that anybody experiences a smooth and easy transition when it comes to starting a new business or anything new. Mainly because the small struggles are what help define your mindset in what you’re setting out to do. I spend a lot of my time with my son so balancing any design work with family time can be interesting. Most creatives will agree that the design bug will kick in at 11:59pm at night, at least for me that holds true and my mind locks in on that design for the next few hours. Whether if it’s hearing a song and wanting to create a beat with a sample from that song or deciding I want to create a flyer for a client, I have to be able to create within a decent time frame to balance family time.
Another obstacle would be getting general interest in your brand or products. I have a background in online marketing and customer retention, but it’s a whole different world when you’re trying to promote your own creations. There are the obvious accounts on social media, but grabbing the interest of a target market and holding their attention long enough that they don’t scroll to a funny meme gets harder. I mean who doesn’t like a good meme right? If the product is eye-catching, the right crowd will heed your call to action. You have to hope that generates to prospective buyers, or at least to your posts being shared to other interested parties.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Lately, I’ve focused on wood engraved products. About ninety percent of what I’ve created for my web store lately has been cutting boards with engraved designs or wooden jewelry. A lot of earring designs have popped up on the site, my wife loves the fact I can design a pair of earrings for her on the fly. Most of the designs relate to our cultural background, for example I created a pair of earrings using the hashtag, “Stop Asian Hate”. I felt I needed to create these earrings to help spread awareness of the uptick in Asian hate crimes around the nation. I also DJ, so when I have my nights out spinning music, I offer the Stop Asian Hate earrings for free to whoever responds to my Instagram posts and shows up to the DJ nights.
I am most proud of being able create products that represent our culture, I am a Hawaiian born, San Diego raised son of immigrant Filipino parents. My wife immigrated to the East Coast from the Philippines in her youth. So putting out products that directly relate to things we saw growing up in our households is in our creative juices. You will see earrings with the Philippine sun engraved among the design, the famous spoon and fork, a can of SPAM, the infamous Filipino Barrelman, the list goes on. We have plenty of ideas on the way so look out for those to release in the future.
I would have to say what sets me apart from others is that I have a wide offering. I can create something you can buy as a gift, buy as music to spin at your next DJ gig, buy to wear to your next car meet and if offered, it can be customized. Currently, the only customizable product are 45 RPM adapters for DJ’s that like to spin vinyl at their gigs.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Surprising? It might be surprising to some, but I’m an avid fan of Korean dramas and Korean R&B music. You might be able to tell from the Squid Game earrings I created for my site, I loved the basic shapes of the circle, triangle and square throughout that show. I ended up using those to make the calling card earrings. I’ve watched so many series I can’t even count now, but my favorites include Itaewon Class, Hometown Cha Cha Cha and Vincenzo. It might be because I’ve been to Seoul and experienced how fun it is to live the nightlife and experience great food there. As for the music, I think there are some quality tracks being produced out there. Everything from Jay Park’s AOMG label to Mamamoo has some great production. A lot of it can range from Hip Hop to Pop, but I enjoy a lot of it.
Pricing:
- Earrings $16 – $25
- Shirts $30 – $35
- Prints $35 – $80
- 45 RPM Adapters $12.50 – $14.50
Contact Info:
- Email: designlab@thirdvisual.com
- Website: https://www.thirdvisual.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdvisual/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ1InSz4AKQes-4QEUO58ZA
Image Credits
For the headshot image credit: Jeffrey San Juan Photography
