Growing up in the mountains of Southern California, Mr. Trapane has been a true artist his entire life, winning contests in grade school to design a playground mural, having his middle school work purchased for permanent collection by the San Bernardino County Library and eventually moving on to high school where he won first place in Logo Design for the San Bernardino County Arts League. It was in a high school career program much like the one he is teaching that he learned to love commercial art and graphic design. Of course at that time everything was done by hand rather than on the computer. He learned skills like paste up, screen printing, layout, design, typography and more. These skills took him into many jobs right out of high school including working for a resort magazine in layout, art and printing, managing a print company as an art director for both printing and graphic design and eventually owning his own graphic design company in Southern California.
Deciding it was important to further his education, he moved to Los Angeles where he attended the University of Southern California where he met his wife and were married in the Los Angeles Temple. Here he found his talent in photography and fell in love with it. His first SLR film camera was a used Canon AE-1, which he still uses today. USC had great programs in both the School of Fine Arts and the School of Cinematography. He participated in both schools and won awards in the School of Cinematography for his photographic works. Mr. Trapane spent many happy hours in both the school’s darkroom and in an attic darkroom at his wife’s grandparents home. Graduating from USC with a degree in Public Relations/Journalism and a minor in Fine Arts, he was ready to face the world. Although he was offered positions in Southern California, he chose to move his family to the Salt Lake area to begin his career.
Starting out in freelance doing logo design and early web design, Mr. Trapane also worked with the real estate industry for many years, eventually opening up his own business again in Graphic Design where he worked with his clients in the real estate industry. He designed many personal and corporate identities in addition to newspaper and magazine advertising, print advertising, website design, architectural photography, portraiture, new home advertising and marketing and much, much more. He also pioneered 360º Panoramic Virtual Tours for real estate, setting the framework for the industry and was copied by others to much success.
Although he continues to do freelance work on the side from time to time, Mr. Trapane has chosen to focus his talents on training the next generation and sharing his talents and love for art and design. He loves working with his students and watching their art skills grow and develop. Many of his students have found their passion in photography, realizing their skills in art, and others have trusted him in developing and refining their skills and passions they came in with. This is the part of his job that he finds so rewarding and fulfilling.
What’s next? Life can take us in so many ways and down so many roads that it is hard to imagine what might be next. For now he continues to teach and finds joy in his students and their success!
