Meet Marlon Urrutia | Graphic Designer & Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marlon Urrutia and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marlon, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I haven’t taken any big risk yet mainly because I feel like I’m still in the early stages of my business. I guess the closes thing relate to taking risks would be experimenting on my instagram with different things I enjoy to do. Sometimes inconsistencies can ruin a brand but I believe sometimes you have to try things in order to see what you enjoy and what others might also enjoy.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Since a young age I always enjoyed drawing and reading comic books. I use to always draw during class and even had one teacher who would put me aside to teach me about perspective drawing. When I was about 12 years old I started getting into Photoshop. I use to Photoshop my godfather in different locations because it would really make my dad laugh. I enjoyed the reaction it brought to my family. In high school I took a class on Photoshop and illustrator and wanted to continue taking more classes but unfortunately the classes got canceled. Once I graduated from high school I ended up going to Cal State Northridge, where I started majoring in illustration and where I met some of my closes friends that I now consider family. At the end of freshmen year all my art friends were going to take different classes because of their graphic design major so I was left with the choice of sticking with illustration or switching to graphic design because all my friends were doing it. So I chose graphic design. Once I learned about what graphic design was and all the possible areas to focus on, I really started to push myself to improve. I seemed to always lean towards graphic design that involved illustrations specifically on packaging. Towards my senior year I started looking into agencies that had the same design style I was hoping to work on. After graduating college my friend Linn Sarmiento invited my wife and I to table at Designer Con. I think it was about 6 of us crowed in one 8 foot table intimidating people. At the time I only had stickers and buttons. Since then I have created more stickers, enamel pins and started experimenting with t-shirt designs. I definitely want to keep growing Meugraphics. I hope to one day publish children books and comics. I’m a pretty religious person so I alway leave it on the hands of God and hope to do my part.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I pretty much live under a rock since I don’t do much but I guess it would be unfair to throw the under the rock lifestyle at my friend so I would take him to restaurants, museums, and book stores. I always find those places exciting. This is somewhat how I would plan the week: Day 1: We would start with going to Redondo Beach to eat at “Charlie’s Place”. They have a delicious teriyaki and seafood plates. We would then take a walk around the pier, visit the arcade and go to the movies. Day 2: We would eat breakfast at Beeps Diner on Sherman way and Woodley. They have some of the best chili fries I’ve ever had. We would then go to Universal City Walk, checkout the stores, eat at Bucca di Beppo and walk again before heading home. Day 3: We would spend the day at Universal Studios enjoying the theme park and finish the day eating at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Day 4: We would visit museums, stuff our face at Hiccups Tea House (they have amazing noodles), and visit the Arts District. After a while we would end the day at Kura Revolving Sushi Bar. It’s great having sushi come to you. Day 5: We would go laser tagging, lunch at Picka Rico (A Mexican Thai Fusion restaurant), and visit or revisit places my friend would like. Day 6: At this point I have probably ran out of places to go so we would just stay home, invite friends, play board games, watch movies and order pizza. Day 7: Drop him at the airport and good riddance! Just kidding. Depending what time he has to go I would take him to eat at a buffet to make sure he is stuffed before heading home, say my goodbyes, and hope to see him again soon.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
This one is a difficult one because I have so many people that inspire me. Both people that are my friends and people who don’t know I exist. When it comes to illustration one of my top inspirations would be Chris Lee from The Beast is Back and Night Cake Press. I just love the way he illustrates and how he makes his ideas come to life. When it comes to graphic design and the business of design Nick Longo (one of my favorite design professors from CSUN) is one of my inspirations because he is always working on something, giving back to the design community and forming relationships. When it comes to friends Cartier Saucier who goes by @cartier_saucier on instagram is one of my inspirations because the way he illustrates just seems to come out so naturally. When we worked together we use to work on our designs during our lunch break and I always enjoyed looking at his sketches. I always thought his style of illustration was really cool. Another person that really inspires me is my wife Cynthia Tizcareno from Meow Amor Creative. She is always working hard and coming up with new products to grow her business. There was a time she didn’t talk to me for a whole day because she was really focused on her work. I didn’t exist that day but I always enjoy seeing her determination. Her drive and passion is truly an inspiration.

Website: www.meugraphics.com
Instagram: @meugraphics
Other: Dribbble:@Meugraphics