Who I am

I am a level 81 visual designer here in beautiful San Francisco, putting my skills to use in graphic and web design, motion graphics, and fine art. My daily inspiration comes from a drive to make designs that not only benefit businesses, but create better experiences for everyone.

How I got here

I am originally from Northern Virginia, about fifteen minutes outside of Washington D.C.. I made my first logo when I was nine for a ficticious business named "Amber and Hannah," where my friend and I sold walking sticks we found in the woods. When I was ten I began working with Photoshop and my dad gave me this very website as a gift. I have been working on it ever since, and it has evolved from a place to put terrible cat clip art and sparkling gifs into my professional portfolio.

After I started working with Photoshop, other programs soon followed. When I was in middle school, I found myself playing around with Flash (back in the Macromedia days) and even tried to make simple music videos with it.

When I was thirteen I found a digital artist named Sandara who inspired me to create digital paintings. Soon afterwards I found a network of websites dedicated to making layouts and photomanipulations, and I immediately began learning as much HTML and CSS from my dad as I could. I borrowed his heavy coding books and started creating my own website layouts, one after the other, exploring different techniques and perfecting designs styles. It was around this time that I realized my passion for web and graphic design.

Since then, I have always strived to learn more about web and interactive design, updating my skills and mindset as new technologies arose and new techniques were developed. I attended Academy of Art University, San Francisco, California in 2009, where the Web Design and New Media department fit my passions perfectly. I immediately devoured the curriculum, refining my skills and developing new interests. The New Media department created the perfect environment for me to grow; without my wonderful teachers and fellow students, I could not be the designer I am now.

Today I continue to expand my knowledge of graphic, web, and motion design through fellow designers, articles, seminars, and internet frolicking. I believe that perfecting one's craft is a lifelong endeavor, and I intend to be enjoying design for a lifetime.

Embarrassing Baby Photos

Here are some archaic versions of my website. Since this site has been around since mousetrails were the bees' knees and flashing gifs were the only way to get attention, it has gone through quite a few changes. I've come a long way since drawing in ClarisWorks and using Notepad to code. Note - I no longer use Comic Sans.