It was announced Monday that Joe Diaz of Pontiac would be one of eight CorelDraw Masters. He was chosen from a group of nationwide artists.
He recently won an international design contest by Corel, using CorelDraw software. His award-winning design was a brand for a fictitious company, which won that category, and ultimately won the overall contest.
Since then, he’s been traveling to attend trade shows and conducting webinars for Corel.
As a finalist for the CorelDraw Masters, he was flown to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to Corel’s headquarters.
“I got to meet a lot of the employees and different designers that work for Corel,” he said.
While he was there, he toured the company’s facilities and demonstrated his use of the product for various groups, including the marketing, creative and user experience groups, and lastly, he met with the developers.
“I would sit in front of each of the groups for the three days I was there, and they would ask me a lot of questions, like how I used the software and what type of work I did. Then they would put a laptop in front of me that was connected to a projector and would watch me work for awhile,” Diaz said.
He said the company does this a lot to see how people use their software and how they can expand or improve on it.
Being a CorelDraw Master brings some new responsibility to Diaz.
“I have to do a few more webinars and write a list of 12 tips to be used on different social media sites, which could be tricks that I use when I work. I also have to write some tutorials,” he said.
Diaz is a 2002 graduate of Pontiac Township High School. He grew up in the art industry, as he’s the son of Bill and Jane Diaz, owners of Diaz Sign Art. He received his associate’s degree in art at Heartland Community College and worked in another sign shop, but eventually came back to his parents’ shop in Pontiac.
“We never tried to tell our kids to do what we do. We always encouraged them to do what they wanted to do and we’d be there to support them,” said Jane Diaz of her son’s experience.
“In this industry, you’re always learning and there isn’t really a good trade school you can go to and learn these things. In the sign industry, you just have to get in and get your feet wet and learn from there,” Diaz said.
Diaz was the first of eight CorelDraw Masters announced Monday.

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