004: Paul Mendoza of AIGA Los Angeles

So I was in night school because I was working in TV at the time as a script coordinator. And so I would proof scripts during the day and then, go to graphic design class at night. And a year in, one of my professors, Henry, reached out to me and said, you know, you would really be good for AIGA, I think. We have a student chapter here, and you should get involved. So I became co president of the chapter for my second year of the program.

Finished the program essentially because I just ran out of classes that I could take. They, you know, just kinda like, you're done. Out. Go work. So I changed careers.

I pivoted to graphic design, and at that point, once I had left school, then I started volunteering at AIGALA. Know, name tags and putting out food and drinks and stuff. The board at the time were like, let's ask Paul to do more things. Maybe a report here or there. Eventually that became joining the team of the portfolio day that AIGALA had done for several consecutive years prior to the pandemic.

I was part of that team in 2015, and that made enough of an impression where I was invited to attend my first leadership retreat, which was peculiar because I hadn't really been elected or appointed to any sort of official board position yet, but a spot opened up. And so I had the good fortune after working on Portfolio Day to join the delegation from Los Angeles to attend my first leadership retreat in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That was in 2015. Yeah. So see, that's the I kind of you know, when we talk about this, we talk about this for people who've been involved in it for a while.

There was something in the water in Grand Rapids. There was something very special happening over there. I agree. And so that was the first one, that really taught me so much and introduced me to so many people who would change my life. So from 2015 onwards, served on the LA board for two years, went to another leadership retreat in 2016, Raleigh in 2017, was asked to join the Chapter Advisory Council in 2018, so I was back on the leadership retreat circuit for Baltimore and for Atlanta in 2019, and simultaneously I was asked to volunteer, then lead a team of volunteers, then manage all of the volunteers, then produce the AIGA Design Conference.

And that was a track from 2016 up until 2023. So in addition to serving locally and serving chapters regionally, I was also very I had the good fortune of working closely with the national office on several projects. And that brings us to today. Fantastic.

You were with me as part of the delegation because you were on the board too. And I did not know people at all. So to roll with you was a very eye opening experience. I don't think I could fully appreciate the caliber of talent and how many people I'd be meeting all at once. I looked back and I was like, Oh, right. I met Terence Weinzel from Monotype, just very casually.

Phones were up. Everybody was recording. That was an incredible moment. It was just like all of a sudden everybody knew or wanted to know who Paul was.

I know my way around a karaoke bar. I've got my songs. I've got my songs picked out. I know what works. I also have, like, different paths that I can choose depending on what the vibe of the room is. So, like, you got y'all got queen that So means it was a it was a that means it was a very lively room. That's what it means. You know? So that's because I I kinda feel like Freddie only shows up if if if folks are, like, hyped for it. I remember Sara Kle le from West Michigan.

I got you at West Michigan. She was just kinda like, oh, you're amazing. And then I think they were about to close the bar, and Sara was like, No, no, no. We need time for one more song. We need time for one more song.

This man is gonna sing this song, and then they let me sing one last song. And it still works. That's generally like even now, like, I was at a a conference and, like, a gala last year for a different association, and it's a similar situation. I didn't really know anybody. But they they put on karaoke with a live band after the big award ceremony.

And I can very audibly hear people in the audience like, Who is that? And then the morning after, Graffe. Rick Griffin comes right up to me and be like, I saw the video. And I was like, oh no. Okay.

There's the informal tradition where the queer members of the leadership retreat would find the one gay bar in whatever city they happened to be hosting, and then we would just catch up there, informally referred to as gay IGA. Shout out to Josh Silverman, who I believe started her tradition. And so it was me, Andrew Twigg, Arlo Vance, and Seth Johnson. And Seth's first question to me at the day was like, Who are you and where did you come from? And so yeah, no, it was just like a nice little party trick that allows me to open some doors.

And so I got this gift in 2017 or 2018. But, yeah, so from 2015 to 2019, on that last night of the leadership retreat, there's a push to join the 6AM club, which was the other shirt that I was, was thinking I would wear. It just wouldn't read as well on camera.

Club, if you say so. And we would just talk about our lives and careers and everything and get very personal about it. I honestly feel like for multi day gatherings like that, the magic always happens after the clock stops because then you leave things up to serendipity. And then because that's something that I've definitely learned from just making a lot of these events myself. You can only plan so much.

Honestly, maybe that's the one that's gonna get my top pick. Because it was on the second night, I believe, of the retreat, and it was official programming. But then I worked with Darrell Ross, who at the time was an officer for AIG in New Mexico, to pick a bar, figure out where we were going to go. We didn't really have a ton of expectations because it's only ever just a handful of people who still have the energy to do so. But I think this year was notable because it was 2016, we were in Raleigh, North Carolina, and HB1 was a hot issue that year.

Mhmm. So that was the North Carolina bathroom bill, and that was a piece of legislation that nearly resulted in many chapters pulling out. They were definitely leaders who are like, I am not attending this. I am not going to North Carolina, not for this. You know?

Wow. So for those of us who were like, we're going, but we're going to support queer businesses and then be very vocal about what our opinions are about this bill. So we chose the bar, and then, like, everybody rallied together because you meet a friend, you meet a friend, you beat a friend. So there needed to be a procession from where the official party was to where the after party was for gay IGA. And so there were people who chained up because it just walked down a few blocks to get to the place.

And that room was packed. I think that bar was like, I feel guilty to a degree because I probably should have told the bar how many people we would actually be expecting. We're talking at least 30 to 40 people. That's all the entire bar in addition to the people who would just be going there on a normal Thursday night or whatever it was. Then I walk in after everybody's made the transition, the guy who I had met at that bar sees me and is like, You, you're the And I was like, Yeah, sorry, I know.

Hopefully we'll tip you well. I'm sure we did. And then what was nice about it is it was great to meet a lot of folks who identified as queer, but then it was just great to see the allyship from fellow AIGA leaders in that space. And that's just one of the extra bonus y things that wasn't official, but I knew how important it was and how much it meant to me to experience it the year before and to be able to pass that on to people. And people still ask me about it, even in New York.

I'm working on main stage stuff now, I've still got volunteers or folks who are paying attention to being like, so is there gay IGA this year? It's just like, y'all can do that. You should do that. You tell me, you should tell me and I will show up. Yeah. That's probably my favorite. It means a lot to me.

I think for, what he's very careful about is just the foundation. You know, there's a lesson in here, the foundation and the base, and the basis of it and just your posture and how to generate support, because a lot of the times if you're on a base, you think that on all of your individual limbs you would need to bear the weight, but what makes that easier to bear is when you start leaning on the other folks in the foundation, and then, and that just sets up for a stronger pyramid. I have the tips, but I think just having him present as a coach is super rewarding.

He will know and have a lot of experience about the merit or the success or the likelihood of success of any of those particular ideas. But for him as an educator and facilitator, as a mentor, it's important to be like, it's going on the board, and we're gonna support these ideas that are going on the board. And that's the role. Oh. You know?

So So that's what it means to really be a foundation for someone. That story always sticks with me. So many stories from all sorts of leaders really stick with me, like meeting Rich Holland in 2016 and all of his stories, getting the baton passed from myself to from Joe Schramm to myself for CAC, the Chapter Advisory Council, that was in 2018 in Baltimore. Like, so many great just conversations there. It felt like a a Linklater movie.

You know? It felt like just these, delicious and, eye opening and very open conversations with people, really talented folks. Those are the kinds of roles that always appeal to me, and it always struck me as very unique that AIGA would attract so many and have a hand in building Yeah. So many leaders of this caliber.

She is the senior program manager for events and gatherings for Amazon Design Excellence. And a lot of what she had learned from AIGA carries over to the work that she does throughout the year, including working on their major in house design conference called Conflux. And that's been happening since, I wanna say, 2011, '20 '12, so going on a little over a decade. And she was in a position to expand the team, asked me what I was doing, and my answer was, I'm working for you. The things you want, I want.

And when I think of AIGA leaders and members and how that compares to Amazon designers and that design community, it is similar in that there is a lot of thought about proximity. Locality is still something that is very influential in the way that folks identify. It's not even so much about what you might do day to day in your role as a designer, but I think there is a difference in culture certainly between, say, a Seattle design community and an LA design community. The products you're assigned to, the things you're working on, just all the other environments that are around you. Being attuned to that was something that carried over really well from AIGA to Amazon.

When we produced Conflux, we went live from three different cities. So up until that point, we only really went live from one city, had a host city in Seattle, obviously, because it's Amazon and that's where HQ1 So we went live from three cities this year in an effort to reach out to more designers and be able to attract more local speaking talent as well. And so we went live from New York City, and we went live from San Francisco, and that's where I was. So I grew up in the Bay Area, I should mention that. I grew up Cupertino.

My parents live in Pacifica now, just a little south of the city. So I just love being in San Francisco, period. And I was really glad to be assigned to San Francisco, honestly, because I feel like having grown up there, going to grad school there, and just being a lifelong Californian, there's just a level of understanding that I have, I think, with designers from that hail from there. Ultimately, it's just bringing joy into the proceedings, and that's something that AIG demanded. That's something that we were so good at doing at the leadership retreats both in official and unofficial capacity.

It is very easy to be very focused on whatever your strategic plan was, whatever your quarterly goals were, and keep this very demanding machine running. But I think there is a very large appetite for a creative profession to infuse joy and a breath of fresh air into the proceedings to have to bring a bit of sunshine, which is something that I know Alicia for very, very well, and she's so good at doing it. And, you know, I've had a lot of practice at it myself. And so it was great to bring that energy as well from AIGA to Amazon.

We had a pair of hosts in each city. Alicia and I worked on that very closely, what the script would be, how we would hit outcomes that was important for Amazon leadership to hit, but then also writing to character. What I liked about this assignment was it's a design conference that I'm familiar with, it's a design community that I'm familiar with, but I get to put my TV hat on for a little while. You know? Yeah.

Nice. I get to, like, write a little bit and think about, like, what what are just some just some bits to say. I mean, it's it's it's still we're still at work. There's only so the jokes are pretty gentle. I think it was great to work with people who wanted to be on camera and go through those paces of finding a voice and finding delivery and thinking about how work is presented beyond, say, the wireframes or the presentation decks that they would ordinarily put together or the things that they would ordinarily write.

So it's great to write for the show and then also to coach speakers on their, presentations performance.

And I was so proud, particularly for folks who are very early on in their career. These would be students in one of my classes, it was grad school or if I were teaching. The stakes were kinda high because they'd never really been on a stage like that before beyond their immediate reporting team. So mostly it was after getting to know them as people and then also getting to know their work and how they want that to show up and as part of our programming. And it was just great to see them shine.

So, yeah, make me really proud.

Of course, you'd want to be in studios all the time. But when it does show up later on, and this is where AIGA, I think, historically has been good at filling the gap, you feel that difference. You feel the impact.

Yeah. That might that's kind of a goal for me for this year in addition to finding, like, other conferences to work on is to work on my own individual practice.