I have been fascinated by the power of art since I was a child. Early on, I discovered the joy of coloring, drawing, painting, creating make-believe worlds and recording the world around me.

 

I received my bachelor of art degree (painting and drawing) from Purdue University where I earned numerous awards, participated in group and solo exhibitions and showed my work in Europe. it was a great experience.

 

After my successes at Purdue, imagine my surprise when the corporate world was unimpressed with my education and achievements!

 

Businesses demand quanitfiable results, so I taught myself graphic design. In time I became a senior designer and art director. I have worked with marketing professionals, SMEs, CEOs and small business owners aiding them in increasing their business, branding their products, creating identity systems, and much more.

 

I am a creative problem solver. Working with tight budgets and short timelines simply adds to the challenge. Researching the needs of my clients, their target audience and their competition is a passion of mine. Good design is more than just making pretty images.

 

My love of art and design led me to the classroom where i was able to share my passion for design. For eight years I taught professional visual design theory and practices to inner city public high school students. My students won several championship competitions. Along the way I became an adjunct professor of a local community college and experienced the joy of seeing young people begin to recognize and achieve their potential.

 

My time in the classroom writing curirculum, designing hands on projects and learning activites, facilitating student internships and providing live project work has led me to my latest challenge: Instructional Design. This discipline combines analytical and problem-solving skills, graphic design, learning theory, gaming theory and excellent communiction skills. E-learning is embraced by education and corportations. UX Design is another huge interest. So is motion graphics. I am exploring and learning new skills in all these areas! The field of graphic design has been opened wide with the web and e-commerce. The sky is the limit!

"Graphic design is the most ubiquitous of all the arts. It responds to needs at once personal and public, embraces concerns both economic and ergonomic, and is informed by many disciplines, including art and architecture, philosophy and ethics, literature and language, science and politics and performance.

Graphic design is complex combinations of words and pictures, numbers and charts, photographs and illustrations that, in order to succeed, demands the clear thinking of a particularly thoughtful individual who can orchestrate these elements so they all add up to something distinctive, or useful, or playful, or surprising, or subversive or somehow memorable."

Graphic design is a popular art and a practical art, an applied art and an ancient art. Simply put, it is the art of visualizing ideas.”
                                                                                                            - Jessica Helfand