A Little About Me

Hello my name is Tiffany and I have been a Graphic Designer since 2003. I believe in telling stories through design and would like to take this opportunity to showcase some of my favorite projects over the years.

The Early Years

Art has always been my passion. As I headed towards my adult years I starting thinking about how I could get paid doing what I already love. I remember one day sitting at the dinner table looking at a bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing and thinking, somebody had to design that label. Why couldn’t that someone be me?

I just had one big problem. I hated computers. The extent of my artistic experience on a computer consisted of CorelDRAW. It was a clunky program only good for making colorful geometric shapes. I thought it was boring. But my dad had been in the printing industry for years and had tried his hand at graphic design back when designers still used rub on letters. He convinced me to give it a try. 

While still in high school I signed up for some art classes at the Santa Rosa Junior College and got my first taste of using actual design programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator. I was hooked. The obstacles and limitations that had made computers so frustrating to me in the past were gone. I had complete control and I loved it. I enrolled in the Graphic Design certificate program at the JC after graduating from High School and finished with, not one, but three different design certificates. Applied Graphics, Art: Graphic Design, and Art: Computer Graphics.

Work Experience

I finished school in 2003 and started working for a freelance designer. I gained my first real-world experience working with her. She had gotten overwhelmed and needed help getting caught up. I guess I worked too well because after only a few months I had worked myself out of the job. After that I worked at a couple local print shops for awhile but that just made me realize I wanted to work somewhere that was focused mainly on design. 

In 2005 I started a job at a marketing company that catered primarily to the dental field where I worked in the graphic design department for over 12 years. I learned so much from this job. We were a team of designers in a larger company but we worked pretty independently, which meant that each of us had to have a thorough knowledge of every aspect of the job. We each maintained our own client base and would work with each client from start to finish, including logo design, brand establishment and brand integration to web. Not only would we come up with the designs, we also coordinated with printers and vendors, researched competitive pricing, wrote proposals and handled reorders. This required excellent time management skills, attention to detail and the ability to work with limited, to no, assistance.

Besides printed projects I also had the opportunity to work closely with the Social Media department in coming up with social media graphics and campaigns. Some of those campaigns were completely digital while others were a mix of digital, print and promotional materials.