selina cleary

OVERVIEW

I am a graphic designer living in Portland, Oregon. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from Portland State University in August 2016. Originally, I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area, where I studied English and Creative Writing at San Francisco State University for three years before transferring to Portland State University. That's where I found my love for Graphic Design. Now I am on a journey to gain industry experience, and explore as many personal projects as possible.

 

THE EARLY YEARS

I come from a highly creative background, and was surrounded by musicians, writers, and artists growing up. I also come from a background of educators and altruistic individuals, who have always inspired me to keep learning and to try to do something good for the world. All of these people, and many more, played a huge part in shaping me as a creative individual. My family has always respected and encouraged my desires to create, and have inspired me to be a decent and independent person.

 

For most of my teenage years, I dabbled with illustration, photography, and silly Photoshopped images of myself and friends. I always wanted to create art, but I focused most of my creative juices on learning the violin and guitar, as well as writing short stories and poems.

 

DESIGN GOALS

I took a year off before I transferred to Portland State University in order to gain work experience and rethink my career path. During that summer, I rediscovered my love for creating art through illustration. I began to experiment with visualizing one of my short stories. At this point in my life, I wanted a way to combine my love for Creative Writing with Art, and Graphic Design felt like the natural step to take. Ultimately, I would love to make comic books or work on cartoons for television. I also have a great love for fashion and apparel, as I have spent my years in college working with clothing and apparel in a retail environment, and so I'd like to continue to explore the world of apparel and visual merchandising from behind the scenes. 

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ME & MY WORK

I have always had a natural love for humor, and try to bring it into my work as long as it's appropriate. This often shows up in my illustrations. I also try to experiment and push myself as much as possible while working on projects. One of my favorite parts about design is the story behind the design. I do extensive resarch with all of my projects, and bring the story into the design which makes it conceptually and visually strong. I also love working with others on collaborative projects. I enjoy designing for web and mobile interfaces, and I am always focused on the user experience and interactivity while desiging for these platforms. My interests and hobbies include fashion, television, music (Dad Rock & Hip Hop), playing music, basketball, film, videogames, football, food, and cooking.