Hello!
First off, thank you for coming to my portfolio! Secondly, thank you for taking the time to come learn a bit about the designer behind the work.
I am so thrilled to be someone who gets to say she loves what she does and it's my pleasure to share how I got here, what inspires me and what I am like outside of my work.
And if you're my mom trying to explain to your friends what I do for work again, just call me.
How do I spend my time?
Pottery gives me the opportunity to physically shape for human needs and wants, to balance form & function
My interest in design stems from my love for art and creating with my hands. I have always painted and drawn since I was young but I have recently dove into my newest medium, clay. While my pottery skills are still improving, I enjoy the intersection of art and functionality combined with the challenge of using your hands. Pottery teaches you a tremendous amount of patience and the ability to let go of work, no matter the effort level you put into it; a lesson I often find myself returning to in my design career.
Painting & Drawing
Painting and drawing still remain in my life as a way to express my appreciation for the world around me. I lean toward still life pieces because I have always loved the absence of people and activity. The backstory is something the viewer gets to decide for themselves and that is one of my favorite parts of viewing art.
Where did I begin as a Product Designer?
Learning from one of the founders of UX design, Don Norman, in his lecture on The Design of Everyday Things at UC San Diego
I was incredibly grateful to attend University of California, San Diego where I started as a material engineering student, then a computer science student, then a speculative design student….. (freshman year really was a journey of self-discovery!) A few quarters in, by the grace of a college advisor, I landed in my first Human-Computer Interaction course. I took Don Norman's 'DSGN1: Design of Everyday Things' where one of the great minds of UX design inspired me to pursue the career that I am in today. I still refer to his book to this day in my problem-solving.
Outside of the Classroom
Nothing says college quite like waking up at 4am to go practice for 3 hours.
Not only was my academic experience at UCSD pivotal but I also had the incredible opportunity to be a part of the D1 women's crew team during my four years. Besides meeting lifelong friends (the mushy stereotype is true), I learned some essential skills that have followed me into my design career.
Early Career
After college, I did what many fresh graduates did; the start-up grind. I began in event software at a company called Whova in San Diego. However, the craziest thing happened in 2020 that made event software a bit obsolete, pushing me into a new and unexpected direction. Sports! I landed at the NFL for my first big corporate product design job. I could not have asked for a better opportunity! I had the most supportive design mentor that developed my design process at scale and began my understanding of design strategy for business.
