AstroBrandMedia | Mike Matamala
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Astro Thoughts

Design Blog 

When the Marines call... You Post Up!

8/16/2019

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Business card Designed by Mike Matamala
My friend, Hector Ojeda has known me for over 15 year, when I served in the United States Marine Corps. Over the years we have been friends. He started doing some fantastic photography and I took immediate notice!. We started chatting and he is planning on opening up his own photography business. He does great work. I designed a business card as he develops his business. He has built quite a following on Instagram.

You can see his work on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hector__ojeda/
​Here is some of his work! ​
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Audition for the Voice in the Shower!

3/8/2018

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I was part of a really fun project! I had to create a fun and interesting ad for a thermostatic mixing valve. It is a device you place on a water heater where it increases the capacity of hot water without buying a new water heater. In essence, you can have more hot water. I tried to conceptualize the pain points of losing hot water in the middle of a shower but also the benefits. Here were my initial concepts:
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Trusted Repair Man Concept
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Dad is usually the last one to take a shower, this time the water does not get cold!
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It can get scary when you run out of hot water! No More!

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Same concept, end cold showers!
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During the holidays, when family is visiting, never run out of hot water.
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Sing longer and Harder in the shower!

I refined a bit more, changed up the branding and reformatted the creative for social and digital ads:

Concept: Product Focused

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Concept 2: Singing in the Shower!

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I really love this ad! 
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CX is UX? Customer Experience Revolution!

3/31/2017

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The highlight of my week was attending the CX Revolution hosted by the San Diego American Marketing Association. Jeofry Bean was the speaker and his expertise is on creating customer experience using data to guide your customer through the marketing funnel. He believes the customer experience starts way before the purchase, it is everything about your company or service. Using data to craft customer experience mirrors what designers and developers do when they construct user interface for websites.

It was a logical look at marketing, it was really cool to see how Jeofry connected the dots. I volunteer at the San Diego AMA and I designed the social media marketing campaign for the promotion. Here are a couple of pieces I worked on.
SEE THE FULL EVENT RECAP
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Here we go! First Blog!

3/2/2017

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I've been wanting  to start a blog for a couple of years. In that time I've  been exposed to so much. My latest geek out is on social media. It is fascinating to see it grow and evolve.

Long story short, Social Media is not new media, it is 
THE MEDIA. Throughout my career I have seen the transition from print to web, from still pictures (photography) to moving pictures (video) and from television to online media. All of these are one way broadcast tools. Social Media tells the a story in the one of the most authentic and interesting way possible with an immediate feedback loop. Social Media allows for conversation and real time analytic proof, showing what  your content, story or message is doing. I love it. 


Origin Story
My career started in the Bronx when I was 18, I charged $20 for a water color painting of 11" x 17" super hero illustrations. Wolverine, Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, anything, you name it. I studied at the High School of Art and Design and I used those skills to make extra money. Not being able afford the tuition college tuition of The School of Visual Arts, I was convinced by my parents to take business courses at Baruch College. Taking Economics was fascinating but was not as fulfilling as the feel of a pencil on paper, or feeling the texture of my croquil pen on bristol board. In search of adventure I joined the Marine Corps at the age of 21.

​Forgetting my passion for illustration, I gave the Marine Corps 100%  of my effort and I saw 10 countries including a couple in the  Middle East. I was stationed in Japan, and was later deployed on a Navy ship and eventually was deployed to Egypt and Kuwait. It was in Kuwait where I picked up a pen and pad again. Using the pad my brother John  sent, I started storyboarding a comic book where I eventually developed the characters and wrote the story in college. After the Marines, I wanted to harness my new found electronic communications skills into the business world without any luck. I found an employment ad for the night shift in print production at Kinkos, I figured I could use my electronics training in the print world. After several applications, attempts, begging and pleading sessions, they hired me with no experience but the willingness to learn. I excelled. The lead designer started to teach me Photoshop, it was the bridge between the analog and digital world. When I say HOOKED, I mean it. I slept, ate and drank Photoshop, Illustrator and In-Design. I was consumed with typography, color and layout.  ​

Experience (More Design/ Half Social)
I got my formal training at The Art Institute of San Diego California. I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and Advertising. I worked as a production manager at a small print shop where I cultivated my leadership/decision making skills and tested my design skills in the real world, designing projects for real customers. I later designed graphics for other companies eventually becoming the creative director at a boutique digital design agency. It was there where I learned the power of social. I designed websites, print advertising and social media/post/ads in fully integrated campaigns. I saw we would get more interaction from our social campaigns. Print was on the decline so we needed to adopt more of a digital strategy. I currently work in an In-House Marketing Department for a national brand where we heavily develop social media campaigns and content marketing tools. I was later recruited by the San Diego American Marketing Association to be the VP of Social and Earned Media last summer. I have always created content but in this position, I can see what it does first hand, I can manipulate the creative so it performs better, track video performance to the second  to make edits improving viewership and cultivate the community. We have had significant growth. All organically.

That's me! 
I'll be experimenting with video, social media and design. I'll be bring you my findings.
​It is going to be fun.



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    Mike Matamala

    Mike Matamala

    Creative Director,
    Digital Designer,
    ​Content Creator, Marketer

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  • Design Work
    • Holdrite Design
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    • Zodiac Pools
    • Logo Design
    • SAS Apparel
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