Dwayne Pesquira, 25, graduated from Honolulu Community College in spring 2013 with a Communication Arts Degree and was quickly able to put his education to use, starting up his own freelance business and going to work for one of the biggest names in Hawai‘i—Local Motion.
After graduating from Kapolei High School in 2010, Pesquira enrolled to Honolulu Community College’s Communication Arts program because his graphics teacher in high school recommended the program.
While a student at Honolulu Community College, Pesquira won the bronze prize in the student division in the annual AAF District 13 Pele Awards competition for Hawai‘i design and advertising.
During his last semester of school, he started to take on freelance work and enjoyed being able to do real world work. Immediately after college, his journey began by joining the Clutch Design Group.
“My design work really picked up after college and three years after I graduated, I started to work for Local Motion,” he said.
Local Motion seemed to be a perfect fit for him, for in his spare time he enjoys being active by hiking, working out, surfing, and paddling, the lifestyle of customers Local Motion tries to reach.
“I love to surf. It’s my passion and my outlet, and really eases my mind especially when I have so much work to think about,” he said. “For my career field as a whole, surfing has been essential for me because it gives me time for creative thought, reflection, and inspiration.”
Local Motion has only three people working in the graphics department, and Pesquira mainly designs for Hawaiian Style, which is a brand under Local Motion targeted more towards Hawai‘i local-people. He creates graphics for a variety of merchandise including shirts, socks, lanyards, and stickers. He also helps manage social media and website design for Local Motion.
Pesquira continues to strive to become a better and well-rounded designer. He constantly finds new ways to solve problems and believes every new challenge is a new frontier.
Honolulu Community College helped him prepare for his professional journey by working with instructors who actually work in the design field and assign real world-like projects, Pesquira said, adding that his favorite instructor at Honolulu Community College was Scott Kawamura, who taught his first major design class. After Pesquira graduated, Kawamura offered him a job with his design firm before he moved on to work for Local Motion.
A lesson Pesquira learned in college that helped the success of his career was time management.
“In school I thought I could get away with things and waited to do an assignment last minute right before it was due, but after school, time management became so important,” he said.
His advice for current students is to look for inspiration everywhere, learn time management, and follow your passion even if taking a risk seems scary.
Tiffani Lau wrote this story while a student in Honolulu CC’s Journalism 205, News Writing class.
