Maya Alvarado is a multi-disciplinary graphic designer based in Los Angeles, currently pursuing a BFA in Graphic Design at CalArts.
They’ve most recently worked with their friends at Place & Page. Maya is most passionate about sharing and forming connections through design—always keeping curiosity and community in mind when they create is an important part of their practice.
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Inchworm
Spring 2024
Identity, Branding
Typographic System
Iconography
Logotype Exploration
Copywriting
Application Usage
Inchworm is a speculative public transportation system specializing in safe everyday traveling for kids, located in Los Angeles. With the day-to-day challenges many busy families face, Inchworm provides an alternative mode of transportation to make guardians' lives a little easier, and the lives of littles a lot more fun.
Children board with their K.I.D. lanyard pass and ensures every child arrives at their correct destination utilizing Inchworm location technology. On every train, Safety Supervisors are available to check in all travelers, monitor kid activity, and provide playful experiences. After a secure guardian checkout and a fun day with friends at Inchworm, children can look forward to their next train ride adventure!
Salazar Park
Summer 2023
Environmental Wayfinding, Branding
Cantilevered Signage
Lightpost Flags
Sandblasted Patterns
As a Design Intern at Place and Page, I collaborated with SALT Landscape Architects and LA County Parks to reimagine the signage components of the historical Salazar Park.
Conducting research, attending community meetings, and partaking in joyful collaborations were major parts of my involvement. Designing the visually informative aspects of the park allowed me to consider the ways I could honor the history of the activists involved and the community it currently serves.
The park was an important site for the Chicano Moratorium on August 29, 1970, a peaceful march that ended at the park, erupting in police violence. Ruben Salazar, one of the most renowned Mexican American journalists of the 20th century, was killed by police nearby during the march and the park was subsequently renamed for him.
Afterlove
Fall 2023
UI/UX, Branding
Afterlove is a dating app designed for lonely ghosts in need of a romantic partner in their afterlife, casual or long-term. Users can create profiles based on what they remember of their past and current selves and are given the option of connecting with someone in/before their time era.
Based on your manifestation, the app includes a wide variety of human forms to mingle with including poltergeists, nature spirits, and orbs. The app also provides date destinations and ideas most appropriate for ghosts, for example, finding dating spots with minimal human activity, haunting the people who live in your old house, or having a night under the stars in the cemetery.
Two Lines Align:
Corita Kent & Bráulio Amado
Fall 2023
Print
11x17” Poster
A two-sided poster highlighting the commonality between the historical Corita Kent and contemporary Bráulio Amado.
Quantity, chance: the two come hand in hand in Kent and Amado’s methodology. The two designers embody optimism, understanding that there’s an art to being observant, everything becomes holy. “To create is to relate. We trust in the artist in everybody. It seems that perhaps there is nothing unholy, nothing unrelated.”
Gemini: Type Specimen
Spring 2023
Print, Publication
11x17” spiral-bound book
A type specimen featuring the expressive Gemini—designed by Franco Griani in 1964. This typeface was influenced by the new age of spacecraft called Project Gemini, which was NASA’s second human spaceflight program.
Gemini’s style is the typographic equivalent of high tech in the late '60s and early '70s. It has rounded edges yet still maintains its overall boxy shape—the chunky bases paired with the thin strokes make the characters look like they’re wearing blocky moon shoes.
CalArts Print Fair
Spring 2023
Identity, Motion, Print, Event Managing
4-color screenprinted poster, 22 x 30”
2-color risograph pamphlet, double-sided
The 12th Annual CalArts Print Fair co-organized with Kari Trail. The identity for the event is based on the new beginnings of Springtime and is an overall celebration of the print culture at CalArts.
This project allowed me to thoroughly explore the process of designing and producing screen-printed posters, carrying on the printmaking history and analog traditions of the event since its creation in 2012. My team and I designed the identity of the fair from the ground up and produced over 45 four-colored posters, with extra assets including pamphlets and spray-painted tablecloths.
Selected Posters
2023-2024
Print, Collaboration
A special selection of posters made in collaboration with friends, for events, and personal interests! Utilized various printmaking techniques: screen printing, riso printing, and wide format printing.
Posters made in collaboration with: Isa Eugenio (Al Jarnow), Shivangi Chopra (CalArts Drag Ball 2024), Kari Trail (This Emancipation Thing & Bandung)
Selected Illustrations
2023-2024
Image-making
A collection of illustrations I’ve made over the years using various image-making mediums—all capture my feeling of delight in creation.
The mediums I play with often coincide with the pictures I illustrate. Kind and fragile dreamscapes, soft moments met with rough textured edges, and aspects of storytelling excite me most. Watercolor, gouache, inking, digital painting, colored pencil—these mediums have provided me solace for as long as I can remember and continue to play an important role in my practice.