I was the in-house designer for REC Solar for 10 years; the very shortest description of what I did is “anything the public might see, I’ve touched at some point.”

Before that, I was a marketing generalist, assisting with proposals and database administration.

Graphic design is communication first, art second: I prioritize clarity. Sometimes that means altering colors to accommodate color-blindness, or designing PowerPoint templates to be legible on the worst projector in the office.

For sales collateral — the bulk of my work in-house — graphic design is a puzzle. I’m given all the pieces and it’s my job to make a cohesive picture.

• Custom paisley bandanas (REC Solar)

• Airstream wrap (REC Solar)

• Sketched assets (DESS)

• Thanksgiving rotoscoped animation (DESS)

I got my Bachelor of Science in Graphic Communications at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2013. My concentration was Design Reproduction Technology, or, Make Sure Whatever You Design Can Actually Be Made and Made Within Budget.

My favorite class was a lab — operating the old Goss Community Press. It was magical, working late into the night, covered in ink, making something that everyone would see the next day all over campus.

I’m informally apprenticed to a master gardener. I spend a lot of time in our shared garden — learning about urban farming, water conservation, food preservation, urban foraging, herbalism, invasive species removal, and seed banking.

I have two cats, Hairy Houdini and Sir Purrcival; I teach them how to communicate with buttons with recorded words. Their favorites are “pet”, “brush” - and “all done” near the end of my work day.