Art Center College of Design is located in the Southern California community of Pasadena, just beneath the San Gabriel Mountain range and only minutes from downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood. Pasadena is also home to the famous Rose Bowl and Rose Parade, the Norton Simon Museum, California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and is where baseball legend Jackie Robinson grew up playing sandlot games before attending Pasadena City College.

Art Center is internationally recognized for its programs in art and design. The college is a leader in exploring the digital and new-media frontier, and is equally committed to the acquisition of solid traditional skills. It offers the bachelor of fine arts or bachelor of science degree in Advertising, Environmental Design, Film, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography, Product Design, and Transportation Design. Graduate programs in fine art, design, new media, and critical theory lead to the master of fine arts, master of science, or master of arts degree.

Gerardo Garza is a graduate of Art Center College of Design with an Illustration/Entertainment Bachelors of Fine Art degree. He's been heavily interested in art and entertainment for as far as he can remember and has often found himself inventing stories and worlds. He has studied the traditional foundations and principles of art and can transfer those design principles to any medium. His inspirations not only come from modern artists, but the great masters of painting such as Caravaggio and John Singer Sargent as well.

Not only does he struggle to create and design new worlds, but he practices his foundational studies by going out and doing traditional landscape paintings in gouache and drawing from models regularly. Along with studying how to see the world and design for entertainment purposes, he has taken time to study and understand film work. From experimental pieces to Hitchcockian theory to modern sci-fi action adventure movies, he understands the foundations of camera work and the importance of storytelling. He has worked on various team projects and learned 3D. The oldest of four, as well as co-managing his siblings since he was very young, he has the leadership and understanding of visual mediums to push the envelope for any company.

Growing up, I've always drawn though I'm not sure what was my initial inspiration. My family wasn't rich, so sometimes my brother and I would sit around and draw characters on pieces of paper, cut them out, then use them as toys. I've always enjoyed all sorts of artists. I grew up in a shop with ceramics and pottery, so I was always seeing imitation Michelangelos and Mexican folklore.

"To change the game." It may seem hackneyed and cheezy but really, to change the game. I want to become part of the industry to learn, do, and push the projects I work on to another level.

I personally love what Nintendo has accomplished over the years. There's something about their major titles such as Metroid Prime or Zelda: The Ocarina of Time that will always be something I can look at fondly. But then again, I grew up on Nintendo, so maybe my love for their games and characters was learned from a young age.

My hands, because I can draw with a brush or a pen or charcoal or vine or numerous other objects and I can create with whatever I can imagine given the proper foundation and understanding, but without my hands I can't do any of it.

Things that would probably upset your, and my mother, but I won't mind playing some Billie Holiday when they're around.

For some reason, Hatchet is still suck in my sub-concious from elementary school.

Moulin Rouge. Have you see those sets? That color palette? Those costumes? Completely amazing.

The last project I did was a group project through Art Center with Sammy Studios where we developed game concepts and ideas including visuals. We came up with various stories and figured out which one would work best, then we began to incorporate how we feel the player would interact in this world, and designed the main environments and characters in the game.