Leah's life by design

Design has been a part of my life from the moment I was born.

As a kid, I loved going to work with my dad before the digital age. He had every graphic design tool in his office to help my young imagination fly: a rack of markers in every color of the rainbow; stacks of stock photography and design magazines; drawing boards, T-squares, rulers, and light boxes; photocopy and mounting machines; you name it and it was fair game. I remember admiring the design work around his office and used it as inspiration for my own creations.

With the elements of design and the aptitude for technology in my back pocket, I followed my passion for the environment which led me to pursue a degree in the sciences. I enjoyed the aspects of my work that focused on research, design, and communication. After graduating, I designed a program to remove an invasive plant species, gathered thousands of data points, and created a detailed manual to educate volunteers involved in the project. I found the most joy in the design aspects of this project.

With a lull in environmental work I found myself back at my Dad's office, this time organizing databases and assisting with web design.

For a year I enjoyed the stability of an office job and the new coding skills I acquired. However, I didn't want to lose sight of my environmental roots, so I started an MBA in Sustainable Business and moved to Oregon to be nearer to the graduate school.

Fast forward a couple years, I received a Certificate in Sustainable Business, completed a full-stack web development bootcamp, and toured the world with my brother during his second album release.

Following the tour I landed a job with moovel, a white label transit ticketing app development company. Similar to my environmental work, I found the design and front-end engineering work was most rewarding to me. I realized that I wanted to learn more so I started a UX/UI bootcamp. Since the bootcamp I have designed internal products at Hinge Health, explored chocolate packaging designs for a small chocolate company, and have collaborated with the musician, BØRNS, to prepare his website for his album release.

Reflecting on my route, communications design has always been an integral part of my life. I believe that design can be a vehicle for positive change and growth. If done well, it can be an effective tool to inform and educate, especially with the inundation of information from social media, news outlets, political campaigns, etc.

I want to design communications that encourage others to think outside the box and ask questions. Just like what my dad would say every day we left for school. “Learn lots, fill your head with knowledge, and ask 3 questions.”