PRINT’s latest Designer of the Week, Michigan-based Kristen Uroda, will captivate you with her use of color and inspire you with her perspective on what art and design should create in our lives.
Name: Kristen Uroda
Location: Holland, Michigan
Website: kristenuroda.com
Design school attended: Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA
How would you describe your work? Playful and colorful
Where do you find inspiration?
I think I find inspiration in a lot of random things. I love nature, color wheels and paint swatches, jazz and lofi hip hop music, a quality story about adventures in space, and listening to other artists and poets talking about their work and creative process.
Illustration for Hawaii Business Magazine’s non-profit spotlight featuring a foundation that helps to educate and support families with Autistic children
Who are some of your favorite designers or artists?
I’m a sucker for Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, but I also really love Taiyo Matsumoto, Hayao Miyazaki, Oliver Jeffers and more recently, Jean Giraud.
Do you have a favorite among all the projects you’ve worked on?
I had a lot of fun doing season 2 of NPR’s “Invisibilia” podcast. Not only did I learn a lot from the podcasts themselves, the projects really stretched my creative muscles.
Kristen Uroda for NPR
Kristen Uroda for NPR
Is there a project that stands out to you as having been the biggest challenge of your career so far?
Not yet!
What do you hope to accomplish in the future?
I initially became interested in drawing and illustration because of comics. I hope to make my own one day and produce a few [children’s] books as well.
What’s your best advice for designers today?
Take care of your body, schedule in rest and remember to have fun. The brain is an amazing innovator when it’s resting and playing, but there’s always the temptation to push through assignments and creativity blocks by working harder and sleeping less. The end result is a burnt-out body and dissatisfaction. Art and design should be life-giving, not life-draining.
A Place of Rest By Night
Kristen Uroda for NPR; Reference: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Kristen Uroda for NPR
I Can Do It!
Support PRINT!
The experts who write for PRINT magazine cover the why of design—why the world of design looks the way it does, how it has evolved, and why the way it looks matters. Subscribe to PRINT today, and get in on the conversation of what the brightest minds in the field are talking about right now—essential insight that every designer should know to get ahead.
Treat yourself and your team to a year of PRINT for $40—which includes the massive Regional Design Awards issue ($30 on newsstands).