talk

Check out Google’s Zurich office here.

-Do you think they have better brainstormings?-

I love to draw naked people. Fat ones, skinny ones old ones young ones, for some reason that passion that I had in Art school of trying to capture as much as I can about a person by the expressions of their bodies lives with me still.
I realize that figurative work has not been in vogue for a while, and I wonder why I am still obsessed with drawing the figure inside out. I think it has to with an honest exploration of our humanness and its different forms of manifestations.

The body has a language that communicates so much. It can be subtle or flamboyant; awkward, self-conscious, tired, earnest, graceful, poised, monumental. Models say so much about themselves with their body movements. Maybe I’m also attracted to the idea that the unclothed individual occupies a timeless place, where the same thoughts, yearnings and attitudes and anxieties have existed for thousands of years. Over and over again I paint the experience, pressure, enlightenment, acceptance, sensuality, anger or ambition that each person presents me with. I relish the structure of their core, the curves of their reserves, the expression of their hands and feet and the experience of their faces. I capture with my line, what their bodies tell me with the same tone and intensity. I suppose the way I draw people also says a lot about the artist, but I’ll leave that to the viewer.

for more drawings check out more naked people.

I give special thanks to Eviva the monumental, Robin the brash, Rebbecca the beautiful, and those many others who’s name I cannot remember who graced the model stands at Pratt & Parson’s campus’s from 91 to 98.

Enjoy!

Internet week is here in June. For those of you who want to expand your online skillset this would be the perfect opportunity to seize. There will be plenty on digital marketing planning, analytics & metrics, monetization, social networking, consumer generated content, advertising and of course the evolution of branding. Get all the info here:

http://www.internetweekny.com/schedule/list

See you there!

When a reporter El Universal called me up to interview me for the 99th anniversary edition of the paper I was flattered. I’ve been in this country so long, most of my Venezuelan friends consider me “Gringa” and though I’m a proud co-founder and CCO of the vox collective, I can’t really say that I’ve done anything that deserved this kind of special recognition from my country of birth. This left me thinking, what could i do for my paternal country. How could I best serve Venezuela from my unique position on the outside. Could others do the same with out becoming some sort of partisan group with a political agenda? I believe it is possible to do good without serving a politically polarizing agenda. I believe sustainable positive change be fostered by actively pooling together the right resources, be it limited to social services and communication arts. I’ll be spinning my wheels to see what i can do on this front. If you have an opinion on the subject or would like to get actively involved in “doing good” for Venezuela with out a political agenda feel free to contact me at sjaramillo@thevoxcollective.com

http://www.eluniversal.com/aniversario/99/99a6_art_susan-jaramillo_28A1538305.shtml

Values have always played a key role in creating brands but they play a more critical role now as we face economic and political uncertainties. Leading brands should be able to understand how big shifts impact the lives of their consumers, and find a common ground in sharing that experience. That common ground is usually values that can bring the two together. When done well, the focus on one or two core values creates a groundswell of brand ambassadors and other key influencers committed to your brand. The vox collective has seen the power of this connection, which it calls branded movements, in many programs including one in one of the most challenging yet thriving consumer markets in the world, Haiti.

Many people have doubts about the ability of the NGO and private sector to work together. But the partnership between Yele Haiti, an NGO founded by music star Wyclef Jean, and Voila, a wireless provider shows that strong-shared values can inspire millions and benefit both. The vox collective created a joint program between both organizations around education and health for yele’s poor. The campaign allowed Voila to establish trust with the Haitian market and as a result gain market leadership.

Advertising has always looked at culture for inspiration to create engaging stories that bring the brand and the consumer together. But what happens when the product itself is culture? This is the challenge faced by the New York International Latino Film Festival, the nation’s largest urban Latino film event in the country.

Launched in 1999, the festival needed an invigoration to remain relevant amidst a whole set of different players who wanted to own the Latino movement led by a new generation of Latinos proud of their culture and increasingly influential in the general market, including film.

A festival, a movement

And it is this movement around Latinos in film and an entire community’s support for this movement, that this past year’s campaign sought to capture. In charge of the project was advertising agency “the vox collective.” The campaign is an engaging story paying tribute to Nueva York. The approach, like its market muse, was also very natural, with all on-air talent picked out of the local community. This is simply an ordinary day in our city. But when presented from a vantage point of respect and affinity, the day becomes simply artistic and extraordinary.