Catching up with Matt Valverde
Thanks for having me back on Milspofan, its nice to say hi again. Things have been quite frenetic for us over the summer. My wife Sylvia received orders to RAF Lakenheath in England and that required us to spend a couple of months living out of our suitcases on the road. We are finally settled down in the lovely town of Newmarket, UK and things are starting to get back to normal.
I haven’t completed a watercolor painting in ages, and the big reason for that was with all of the moving and visiting of family and friends before our move to England. I would like to complete some paintings in the near future with all the history and architecture there is in our little English town.
Creatively I have been busy building my portfolio of designs and logos and learning all I can in Adobe Illustrator and other programs that are available in Adobe Suite. It has paid off because I have successfully transitioned into a new career field. I was hired in September at a marketing office at RAF Lakenheath. I am very excited for this new chapter of my life because this has been a goal of mine for quite some time. I am excited to work with an amazing team and look forward to contribute to all the great things they are doing.
Previously I was asked to contribute to the MilspoFAN logo in Alabama, but I could not devote much time to it as I would have liked. I reached out to MilspoFAN in July and asked if we could have another go at making something cool. I was very happy they were receptive to collaborating, and process was a lot of fun. It was a nice challenge to make something that spoke to the organization and at the same time represented them. There was several logos presented, but I am so happy that we settled on what I believe is the best possible design.
Ultimately they chose my fragmented, stained glass design. For me it shows all these different pieces in various colors and sizes. They are broken, but we are able to put them together nicely like a puzzle. The end result is one cohesive unit. It’s a nice metaphor that we all come from places all over the world with our different cultures, backgrounds, and styles of art. I hope its an image that will be appreciated and used for years to come. It’s also rewarding when any design I contributed to finds a home on websites, IG, apparel and stickers.