Silicon Valley De-Bug, News Report, Adrian Avila, Posted: Oct 07, 2011

In Silicon Valley, there is a connection between those who innovate the technology and the working poor, who are often times immigrants. Adrian Avila, a young self-made graphic designer, writes about how Steve Jobs was a catalyst to a his dreams that once seemed out of reach.

When I found out from my friend Tiburon that Steve Jobs died, I stopped typing on my iMac and froze for a few moments. Really, it was shocking to hear “Jobs” and “dead” in the same sentence. Working in a commnuity center that only works on Macs, both old and new, I have come to be a Mac-head. I use to be a PC man, Sony Vaio’s to be exact, but the sleek clean design and performance of Apple computers stole my heart.

I am truly thankful for all that Jobs did for my generation. Steve Jobs was a genius and a visionary that called the Bay Area home, and being from the Bay myself there is a certain pride that comes along with that. No matter what corner of the world you travel to, Apple and Steve’s presence can be found. It is a presence that is sleek, stealth, and very powerful. When I was 12 years old I wished I could have a device that would play my music, games, and also show me the schedule of the next bus I had to take and tell me if it was going to be on time. Now with an iPhone or iPad, you can do that and so much more.

There is nothing hypothetical about my admiration for Steve Jobs. His products and brave innovations were the great equalizers that gave me upward mobility, from an immigrant who came from humble roots to a graphic designer with my own design company. Speaking as a graphic designer and a screen printer, I can honestly say that I would not be in this profession if it wasn’t for Apple computers and their devices. I was given the opportunity to learn my craft using Macs as a teen, at a time when I was without a direction in life. Now, I can make a living doing what I love to do.

As any artist or craftsman, the accessibility to needed tools is what really helped me, and my tools of choice by and large have been made by Apple. Today, there are young people like me all over the world, now more than ever, who are striving to become professionals in fields that for so long excluded us.

Just last week I visited Apple’s main campus in Cupertino, California, and I was in awe of the place that has brought the world so many advances, from iMacs to iPhones. It was like visiting the pyramids in Egypt, both mysterious and fascinating.

Without a doubt, Steve Job’s passing will affect numerous people, but his life has already impacted so many of us (in ways we may never even fully understand or acknowledge) and will continue to do so, as the company he helped create will continue to bring advancements to the way we live our lives now.

A genius has died, a genius that rose up from the great Silicon Valley. Steve Jobs once said (while introducing the iPod to the world), “My job is to destroy this.”  He meant “destroy” in the context of creating a new and more innovative product, never settling with just a product that sells but creating a new product that can continuously change and evoolve. To me, his ingenuity was never about products, it was about ideas and imagining new ways in which the world could operate.  It is something that we can see is happening in the young geniuses of today -- on Wall Street, in Oakland, in San Jose and all over the globe, as they try to create a new world.

Thank you, Steve.

Adrian Avila is the Art Director for Silicon Valley De-Bug, founder of AD Prints, and a "Mac-head".