Eric Ortega

Photo by Anthony Luis

I remember as a kid, all I wanted to do was be a baseball player. Then I flushed all those dreams down the toilet when I discovered Rock N' Roll music. Although, this sounds like an introduction to some famous rock star or something, it's not. It's my introduction. At 16 years old, I needed money to support the music career I was after. My father worked in the Graphics Arts industry, and thought it would be good discipline for me to start working for my money. He got me in part time at the company he worked at. I learned about film output, stripping for plates, proofing, and i saw the beginning of the digital age take form. The year was 1995 and Photoshop 1 was happening. And it wasn't long before everything was done on the Mac. Fast forward and many years spent absorbing everything about the print & graphics world, from start to the finished product, I absorbed every area over the course of 12 years. During my time as a production manager for a high end print company in 2007, I was offered to come onto the Agency side, which was a dream come true. That agency was TBWA/Chiat/Day. I ran and managed Arthaus, Chiat's own high end retouching/photography boutique, which was also a part of E-Graphics, (where I also handled the automotive accounts for print). Arthaus serviced all of the Chiat accounts, which were heavy in Nissan/Infiniti, along with Visa, Pedigree, Uncle Ben's, Pepsi, Gatorade, Activision, Sony PlayStation, Jimmy Dean.. to name a few. My everyday operations with Arthaus, often saw me where a Retouching producer, Photo producer or print producer hat. Depending on what the Art needs were. After 7 years, I decided it was time to once again, expand my horizons and take on an immediate available Art Producer role for Nissan. I hit the ground running straight away, producing many photo shoots, retouching projects and CGI builds. The work never stops, and neither do I. That's the way I like it. Oh... and did my dreams of being a rock star ever come true? That might be a story for a separate portfolio.