The first design I ever did was a stationery set and recipe card for my mom in 3rd grade using rubber stamps, crayola markers and a typewriter. I've always been interested in art and graphic design from my first drawing class in kindergarten, to glassblowing in high school and currently, letterpress. I never thought I could make a career out of it until my first job out of college. I was marketing manager for an in-house web design team and realized I liked the designer's job much more than my own! That's when I decided to get my degree in fine arts and make a career out of graphic design. Been lovin' it ever since!

Anything can be inspiring, it just depends how you look at it. I'm mostly attracted to (in no particular order) beautiful typography, quirky illustrations, organic shapes found in nature, textile patterns, vintage package graphics and fashion.

At the beginning of my graphic design career, I found myself staying up pretty late at night, usually slaving away on some project. I love food, good food, and good food late at night is just pretty darn hard to find in San Francisco unless you are fine with going to the same place every time you get hungry past midnight. Finally I got so fed up that I compiled a list of EVERY late-night dining spot I could find in the city, called each restaurant to make sure they were indeed open late (meaning midnight or later at least once day a week) and got an insane excel spreadsheet going -- sorted alphabetically, by district and by cuisine.

You can imagine how difficult it got opening up a spreadsheet and sorting through all that data every time you wanted to eat late at night. What better to do next than to put my design skills to use? To make a long story short, Open Late SF was born.

I told some friends about the map and soon, more and more people started asking me for copies of the map. "Here's the PDF", I said, "Go print the thing yourself!" (By the way, printing ONE large poster costs about $75 each!) Finally through the generosity someone much more well-off than a starving artist like myself, I was able to get the map professionally printed, and distribute them to gift shops and book stores around the city.

There were no limiting restrictions or rules on the design, which made the buttons cards project the most fun I've had designing in a while! Being in a client-driven industry of commercial graphic design, it's rare that you get a project that you can really design according to your own taste and style. With the buttons cards, I felt like I had the freedom to do what I wanted, and that is always so much more enjoyable and refreshing. Thanks, Sampler!

I'm currently working on a line of pretzel packaging that will be released next year. By far my favorite design to date.

If money were no object, I would be traveling around the world and designing from a laptop on the beach. I love being in new cultures, trying new foods, exploring a new city. In my own backyard, I like being outdoors, whether it's running or biking in the park, or just taking an urban hike in the city! I am also constantly scouring the web and heaps of magazines for fresh new products, inspiration and just to keep myself updated in the design world.

Keep it simple, and don't try to over-package your product beyond recognition. Let your product be the hero. Create one strong element that people can easily recognize, whether its a color, symbol, interesting typeface, or even just a unique placement of a word. Experiment with new and unexpected package or print materials. And when possible, use recycled or recyclable materials -- people will notice and appreciate it!