Education
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
BFA
University of Rhode Island
MLIS
Bio
I grew up riding BMX bikes and absorbing its culture and history through graphics,1 photographs,2 and video,3 While not immediately apparent at the time, it’s easy to see now that this new and mysterious visual world helped direct the course of my life.
As a teenager I took photos,4 made fanzines,5 and edited videos.6 When it was time to go to college, the only logical next step was art school. I had every intention of studying visual communication but after an enthusiastic typographer tried selling the program to us via the virtues of typesetting books, I wasn’t buying it. I wanted to continue my explorations into graphics and zines. I switched to photography. It’s funny how short-sighted we are at 18.
While studying photography I spent a lot of time making books and zines7 the vehicles to show my photos. This focus on self-publishing was a roundabout way of learning design fundamentals from friends, elective classes, and intuition.
I never wanted to be a commercial photographer and art photography isn’t the most lucrative career choice. After graduation I got a job at the library in my hometown while working on a photo project.8 I liked it enough, and could work on my projects on the side. I eventually kept working in libraries, and while working in the Art&Music department of the Los Angeles Public Library, I thought it might be a solid career for me. I went back to school to get my master’s degree in library science.
While working on my master’s, I continued my projects. I made zines,9 and co-ran a shop for zines and artists’ books.10 I found a path in art librarianship and got a job at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I settled into a near decade long career as an academic art librarian. While working at SAIC, I got intrigued by design again and started working on projects for friends. The typesetting of books that I couldn’t bare the thought of at 18 was all of a sudden of deep interest to me. It wasn’t a reach to see how my time organizing information in libraries and databases could translate to design. I began to seriously freelance on the side.
In the way that these things happen, everything came full circle. I have been happily working as a designer full-time since 2020. In my spare time, I still take photos11 and make zines.12 And, I’m happy to report, that, for better or for worse, I still ride BMX bikes.
Footnotes