This is the story of a visual designer on a journey into product design
I continue to learn and grow everyday with the UX/UI community. I keep up with new ideas and trends that come into play in our design world.
My current role is at Gannett working as a page designer & editor. Here I am creating visually pleasing news pages with stories and photos.
A current hobby of mine is concert photography. I have dabbled with cameras and editing since high school and have fallen back into the love of photography the past couple years.
After graduation, I worked at the Chicago Tribune as a page production specialist. There I created weekly tabloid papers in different regions of the east coast and in the greater Chicago area.
During my time there I began a UX/UI mentorship where I learned to integrate my editorail design and journalism skills with UX/UI practices. My mentor, Chris Courtney, opened my eyes to a new design world I was unfamiliar with but suddenly felt so drawn to.
I then landed a role as a visual designer for Northwestern Mutual. I worked alongside their UX/UI Lead helping to rebuild an existing internal business site. Here I learned a plethora of skills with not only experience design but as well with collaboration with engineers and coders.
After graduation, I worked at the Chicago Tribune as a page production specialist. There I created weekly tabloid papers in different regions of the east coast and in the greater Chicago area.
During my time there I began a UX/UI mentorship where I learned to integrate my editorail design and journalism skills with UX/UI practices. My mentor, Chris Courtney, opened my eyes to a new design world I was unfamiliar with but suddenly felt so drawn to.
I then landed a role as a visual designer for Northwestern Mutual. I worked alongside their UX/UI Lead helping to rebuild an existing internal business site. Here I learned a plethora of skills with not only experience design but as well with collaboration with engineers and coders.
I chose Ohio University because of its strong journalism program. While there, I studied Information Design with a track in publication and editorial design. To complement my major, I joined the student newspaper where I gained valuable experience by collaborating with writers and working on real-time deadlines. I would work on simple illustrations to complement a story, cut out photos to create eye-catching covers and work with typography to get myself comfortable branching out to create unique designs each week. Working in a different design position each year, I was able to grow as a designer not only creatively but also with communication and collaboration skills. The work provided me with invaluable practical experience. My classes and newspaper work also put me on track for a summer internship my junior year at The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina.
Born and raised in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, PA., my interest in design and media began in high school where I signed up for a media class my freshman year. By the time I finished my senior year of high school I had taken broadcasting, journalism, yearbook, photography and mass media. Beyond my classwork, I became involved in my high school yearbook. During junior year, all soon to be seniors get to I created a yearbook design concept that became the seniors’ yearbook theme. My ‘Shaping our year’ theme, which took me about 3 months to create in photoshop, is one of my favorite and most rewarding projects. Looking back now, I smile to think of how I could create that project so much quicker now as a better designer. My high school yearbook experiences and journalism classes sparked my interest in design and led to my choice of major when the time came to apply to college.
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Born and raised in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, PA., my interest in design and media began in high school where I signed up for a media class my freshman year. By the time I finished my senior year of high school I had taken broadcasting, journalism, yearbook, photography and mass media. Beyond my classwork, I became involved in my high school yearbook. During junior year, all soon to be seniors get to I created a yearbook design concept that became the seniors’ yearbook theme. My ‘Shaping our year’ theme, which took me about 3 months to create in photoshop, is one of my favorite and most rewarding projects. Looking back now, I smile to think of how I could create that project so much quicker now as a better designer. My high school yearbook experiences and journalism classes sparked my interest in design and led to my choice of major when the time came to apply to college.
