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Mini Bio: Nestor Luis Grajales








Let's jump over the first 24 years to the present. We will come back to that period at another time.

I have been in the desktop publishing field for 22 years. Starting as a typesetter for a local Orlando magazine using the initial Macintosh LISA computer and Pagemaker 1.0. Not the mention the T-Square and wax rollers. During this period of time I have tried to maintain myself knowledgeable in all aspect of the publishing world. From Pagemaker 1.0 to Quark 6.5 and now InDesign CS2, Digital Darkroom1.0 to Photoshop, Illustrator 88 to the new CS2 version. Over the years I have seen the DTP arena grow and encompass the transition from paste-up mechanicals to electronic page production, proof flats to online PDF soft proofing, acetate film to digital media and 4-color film separations to CTP processes.

Most of my education has been real world experience. Nevertheless, I attended college as time allowed and received my A.S. from VCC. Would you believe the Graphic Technology degree?

On a side note, I met my wonderful and lovely wife, Kathy while attending Valencia. We have been married for 17 years. We have 5 wonderful children. Not to mention the standard family dog and cat. For family pictures go to my family page. BTW- that page is a work in progress, and I will be posting more recent pictures soon.

Over the last 6 years I have been working full-time at Harcourt School Publishers, Florida. Prior to that, I was the senior graphic artist at Sprint Publishing in Maitland. As a production manager for Harcourt, I work in the Technical Production Services department that oversees technical development and electronic setup for the various textbook programs. I enjoy meeting new challenges in the evolving print world. I like being involved in new processes, and engaged in R&D for new software applications and the publishing workflows.

For the last 4 years, I have been teaching evenings at Valencia Community College. As an adjunct instructor, I teach graphic design courses, mostly Photoshop, Illustrator and the like. I truly enjoy teaching, and with the constant software updates there is always something new to teach the students at Valencia Community College. To learn more about my Graphics Technology classes, please visit my faculty site. There you will find information on all my classes, their syllabi, assignment information, etc.

One other thing I like to do is, sport fencing. I have been fencing for 23 years and during that time I've accumulated a few awards here and there. I began fencing at Florida Institute of Technology. I continued to fence in Puerto Rico and became a member of the Puerto Rico national fencing team between 1986 and 1991. I moved to Orlando in 1984 and have fenced with the Orlando Fencing Club ever since. When I can, I assist with instruction at the OFC. I had to choose a night off sometime, and until recently I was teaching a beginners level fencing class at Valencia Community College.

Some fencing highlights include: Bronze Medal Team Foil-1986 Central American Games, Havana Cuba; Saber Finalist-1990 Central American Games, Mexico City, Mexico, 2000; 1995 SE Sectional Saber Champion, 10-time Foil and 5-time Saber finalist in SE Sectional Championships; 6-time Foil and 2-time Saber Central Florida Divisional Champion. In addition to that, playing softball, building models airplanes and miniatures.

Eventually I will post more images of the above activities. In the meantime, come back to visit when you can.


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