Good design goes beyond telling a story, it earns the right to be heard through creativity and intention.
Hi, I’m Joshua Castillo. I’m a designer, creative strategist, and storyteller with nearly a decade of experience finding creative ways to make ideas easier to understand and more interesting to engage with.
A lot of my career has been spent in public service, where good communication really matters. I’ve worked on everything from branding and publications to social media campaigns, video, events, and community outreach. Sometimes that means taking something complicated, like a City budget or procurement process, and figuring out how to make it approachable. Other times, it means building an identity from scratch or finding a creative way to get important information in front of the people who need it.
That variety is one of the things I enjoy most about what I do. My work has included brand identities, annual reports, editorial design, resource guides, public information campaigns, mailers, infographics, social content, presentations, environmental graphics, merchandise, illustration, photography, video, and event creative. I’ve worked across government, nonprofits, small businesses, and personal projects, which has given me the chance to design for very different audiences, formats, and challenges.
I’m just as comfortable building a visual system for a large, information-heavy publication as I am illustrating a character, designing a Fiesta medal, developing a social campaign, or figuring out how an idea should translate from a screen into something physical.
No matter the project, I like to start by understanding what we’re actually trying to communicate, who we’re trying to reach, and why they should care. Then I figure out the best way to bring it to life.
Beyond the Portfolio
San Antonio is a big part of who I am, not just where I work. I love the character of this city, its neighborhoods, its cultures, its traditions, and all the little things that make San Antonio feel like San Antonio. After spending so much of my career creating work for the community around me, the city has naturally become part of my creative perspective, too.
I’m also someone who is constantly documenting things. I love traveling, taking photos, and filming the places I visit, but I do the same thing in everyday life. I’m always collecting little clips of my day, sometimes without really knowing what I’m going to do with them. Eventually, I’ll piece them together into a montage, finding a rhythm or story in a bunch of ordinary moments. Sometimes I share them, sometimes they’re just for close friends, and sometimes I keep them for myself.
Sometimes an idea is reason enough for me to make something.
That curiosity carries into pretty much everything I do. I love photography, video, graphic design, music, illustration, branding, and experimenting with new ways to make things. I produce electronic music, DJ, draw weird little characters, and occasionally start personal projects simply because an idea sounds fun and I want to see where it goes.
I think that’s probably the common thread in all of it. I like noticing things, collecting ideas, and figuring out what I can make out of them.
