Meet Diego Buller | Graphic Designer & Photographer

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

Hi Diego, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I think a creative career was the obvious choice for me. Design checks all of the boxes for how I’ve always loved to interact with the world. I was designing as soon as I could smear paint with my fingers and will continue to design for as long as I breathe. If I wasn’t fortunate to make this my career, I’d be creating anyway. Design affords me to express myself visually and solve complex problems that can have a tangible positive affect on the world around me. I wouldn’t want to do anything else.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I graduated from ArtCenter College of Design with a degree in Graphic Design, Transmedia track. This essentially means I’m a designer that has an insatiable desire to get my hands in everything: identity systems, print, packaging, UX/UI, creative coding, spatial design. Anything that needs designing, I’d love to be involved. I’m particularly drawn to work that I can touch and occupies physical space. I’m also very interested in light and color—both the physics and the psychology of it.

I’ve always been a creative person with a vivid imagination. I started drawing cars in pre-school with finger paint. Ever since I could hold a pencil I was filling sketchbook after sketchbook. Like many young boys, I loved exotics like Lamborghinis and Ferraris, Spykers, and Koenigseggs. But I never drew such cars. I was more enthralled by the prospects of designing my own. I dreamt of one day founding my own car company, Sapphire Automotive. My older brother, more mechanically inclined, would be head of engineering. Once I had designed the company logo, it was all over my school supplies.

In addition to drawing, I loved photography. When I started, the iPhone was just making its debut. Good phone cameras didn’t exist then. I was taking pictures on a tiny little slider phone with a 3.2mp camera and shutter delay, making timing photos an added challenge. I grew up in an area with abundant trail systems and was active outdoors so naturally I gravitated to photographing nature. I figured I must be able to improve the colors that came out of my camera to match what I saw and stumbled upon programs like Paint.NET and Gimp, free apps similar to Photoshop. And it was there where my love for cars and photography began to merge. I could now create much more complicated artwork for Sapphire Automotive, with and without my camera.

My brother recognized my budding talent and bought me a DSLR camera. By the time I was in middle school, I joined the yearbook committee as a photographer. As part of the team, I was tasked with designing page layouts and I took to it like a fish to water. I finally found a way to channel all of my creative interests into a single art form. By Freshman year I was the design editor, weighing in on the creative direction and overseeing the design.

By the time I graduated high school, I knew I had an intuition for working with type and images, but I didn’t yet know what the occupation was called. In the meantime, I was considering applying to ArtCenter College of Design for automotive design. Working on my Gen. Ed. in a community college, I stumbled on a course called Graphic Design 1. Reading the description, it was exactly what I had been doing. It ticked all of my boxes: an interests in aesthetics, an opportunity to solve challenging problems, and the ability to affect real change in my environment. I flourished in that class. Soon after I became the designer for my community college’s literary magazine and worked on every issue for 7 years. During this time I was accepted to ArtCenter, now for Graphic Design.

ArtCenter was a magical place. The halls oozed with creativity. I felt like I was a better designer by merely being in the presence of so much knowledge and talent. I could go on and on about the place. It encouraged me to set a standard far above my current position and drove me to attain it. It refined my skills, matured my creative flame, and broadened my scope for what design could be. It is there that I learned more about myself as a person and as a designer than anywhere else. Now I’m privileged to call design my profession and I’m excited to see what the future holds!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Although I’m very organized professionally, I prefer my adventures to be a little loose. I’m imaging it to be a little bit of a broken up roadtrip hitting some of the great museums. We’d start a little past the northern border of LA County at Port Hueneme and head south on HWY 1 towards Malibu. I love the architecture of some of the houses along this stretch of beach, particularly at El Sol are quite neat. Definitely mid-century modern vibes. Heading further south, paying a visit to the Getty Villa and pick up some tea at Urth Cafe in Santa Monica. Heading inland, we’d visit the Getty Museum, and meander through the neighborhoods of Bel Air and Beverly Hills. Onwards towards Pasadena and a hike at Eaton Falls is on order after visiting the ArtCenter galleries. Coming back down towards the 210 and heading east, we gotta go to Claro’s Italian Market for sandwiches. The best sandwiches I’ve ever had. Continuing east, see the James Turrell exhibit at the Benton Museum of Art in Pomona. To top it all off, see a show at the Pomona Glass House.

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?
So many people have played a pivotal role in my development. My parents for always encouraging me to explore, my brother Alex for always supporting me; my aunt, Cecilia, who first told me about ArtCenter and was always excited to see my work; my yearbook teacher Mr. Waggoner for being the first to light the fire; Susan Gardner, Denise Reilley, Svetlana Kasalovic, my first design instructors who fanned the flame; Tracey Tennenhouse for the opportunity to design the Moorpark Review for many years; Cheri Gray, my professor and mentor at ArtCenter who has given me opportunities I could never have imagined; and finally as a long-time Teacher Assistant and a newly appointed adjunct Instructor, I’d like to recognize my students who I’ve been given the opportunity to inspire.

Among so many people who have shaped my career, I’d like to give a special shoutout to my brother, Alex. He always had my back and has always been my #1 fan.

Website: https://www.diegobuller.com

Instagram: @diego.buller

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diego-buller

Image Credits
Diego Buller, Kyle Berman