Welcome!
Hello & welcome! I’m Chriss(ie) and have been designing for the last 7+ years. I thought I would take a moment to give a bit of a backstory before jumping into new content and work.
Childhood & Boston
I grew up in a little town in Southern Maryland called Shady Side (yes, “shady” jokes are welcome). My parents were both artists and were very encouraging of creativity early on in my life. I went to college at Boston University where I studied philosophy and worked for numerous creative companies in the Boston area including the Huntington Theatre and Albertine Press. I was also beginning to teach myself graphic design by creating wedding and baby shower invitations for friends and trying my hand with videography as a second shooter for local weddings.
While in Boston, I fell in with a group of church planters from Louisiana and was given my first platform for '“professional” creative work. I was a member of the church community throughout my time at BU and worked with the team in branding, print collateral, creative direction, set design, photography, and videography.
France
During my junior year, I took a semester off from school and applied to be an au pair in France. I got a position in Chambéry, a small town at the base of the French Alps. While there, I continued my creative practice by dabbling in bookmaking, illustration, and painting.
NYC
After graduation, I spent time in Annapolis and DC before heading to NYC to pursue graphic design more seriously. I worked at an emoji startup photoshopping NBA players’ heads, countless freelance branding and marketing gigs, a fin-tech consulting company, and a 2016 presidential talk series. I took jobs on Craigslist, met folks in coffee shops, and hustled my butt off to eventually afford the couch a friend was letting me sleep on.
Eventually, I realized I was getting increasingly interested in the tech side of things (websites, apps, etc) and decided to enroll in General Assembly to tighten up my UI/UX chops.
After GA, I worked for NBCUniversal, AirSwap, and Coinbase.
Virginia
In mid-2022, I quit my high-paying tech job and moved to Nellysford, VA with my partner and my dog. Since then, I’ve been messing around in my studio. I have big ideas for my professional future but for now, I am dabbling all over the place—photography, interior design, fashion, videography, painting, digital illustration, and more! I can’t wait to share some of what comes about!
Until then!
Xx