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My  training as a graphic designer began early. As the youngest daughter of an award-winning art director and photographer,  it was my father  who taught me my first and best lessons in design. He was a master at synthesizing concepts into a single thought-provoking and clever image. This synthesis of themes became for me the hallmark of what separates great design from the merely good. The greater part of this approach, aside from the nimble cleverness, is a belief that a designer must always respect their audience and reach for the highest common denominator.
 
I received my Bachelors Degree in Visual Arts in 1984 from Illinois State University where I studied both Design and Theatre Arts. I began work at a Sales Promotion agency in Chicago but was lured into the world of feature animation.
      
I worked on animated title sequences, commercials and then animated feature films such as: " FernGully: The Last Rainforest", the Academy Award Nominated animated short ,"Technological Threat" as well as Disney blockbusters  "The Lion King", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Pocahontas" .

While working in the animation industry as a color stylist I was able to immerse myself in the use of color to create mood, lighting and character. I learned a great deal about design during these years while working with some of the finest draftsmen and most creative animation artists in the world. When I returned to graphic design, my work was invested with a bolder, more energetic quality than it had known before.

I remain fascinated by the raw and expressive quality of the gesture drawings that make up the earliest stages in the animation process. Before they are cleaned up, painted and subjected to the camera, these drawings contain a beauty that rivals the finest master's works for their ability to capture movement in a static image. I try to bring some of that organic hand-drawn warmth to my design projects whenever possible. In a field littered with bad clip art and cold, mechanical perfection, I amuse myself by remembering that the human imagination is still the greatest tool at our disposal.

I like to push my designs beyond the conventional whenever that approach is appropriate for the client. It is easier to pull back into their comfort zone, once we’ve moved past it into something truly unique and creative.  It is an intuitive process that is not unlike that of an actor creating a character- much of the work is in the subtext and nuances that create a rich characterization never entirely defined by the script. In this same way,  graphic design uses shape,  color and type to create a rich characterization of the client and their vision.