With my big boy, Pierogi
About
My family moved to America for more opportunity, stability, and to escape political instability in China at the time. I am the first one in my family born in the United States and decided to follow in the footsteps of my calligrapher grandfather and pursue a creative career. I started with ambitions of becoming an illustrator. Quickly I discovered the possibilities of working digitally - specifically the possibility of undoing mistakes. I’ve been doggedly aiming for the most polished form of every graphical project I work on, even if I have to do it one pica at a time.
When it comes to my design experience, my journey began with packaging design, specifically creating custom boxes for Martha Stewart Crafts. Along the way, I’ve picked up the taste and skills for branding, I’ve using my experience working with big brands to launch a few style guides that were used internationally. While layout, packaging, and branding are the bread and butter of my experience, I continue to round out my career with projects that include designing apps, websites, wedding stationery, convention signage, and more. My illustration background comes in handy designing my own icons and graphics, I’m pretty mean with a pen tool. I own and operate a small online shop where people buy my enamel pins, patches, stickers, and prints of my art (check out my shop!).
On the rare times I’m not designing, I can be found making costumes (among the craft skills I’ve picked up are: armor-making, leatherworking, sculpting and casting, goldwork embroidery, etc.), drinking green tea in excess of what is reasonable, being a helicopter parent to my plants (I still have a 30% kill rate) and pestering my cats (and snake).
Location
New Jersey
1 hour from New York City
Education
2008 Bachelor of Fine Arts
Mason Gross School of the Arts
at Rutgers University
some clients I’ve worked with
Expo Logic
Morningside Evaluations
Spantran
The AbleGamers Foundation
Edgewell Personal Care
Lineage Studios
Dual Wield Studios
Aramark
The Penn Club
why work with me
My fanatical attention to detail, polish, and refinement, from concept to production means every project meets the highest standards.
I have exceptional communication skills and my responsiveness makes it easy to collaborate between departments, clients, vendors, or any third parties.
Even though I am focused on the details, I strike a balance between meeting deadlines and making sure the end result is the best it can possibly be.
I’m obsessed with learning more about anything and everything. I’m always researching, acquiring new skills and knowledge. I’m a researcher at heart.
I can patiently explain the difference between CMYK & RGB.
“Tina has been our go to graphic artist for well over a dozen projects that run across her vast skill set. Each job she approaches the project with passion and an eagerness to give us what we need.
What I love most about working with Tina is that she is an expert at taking our words and strange hand gestures and turning those into things that we love. It is a real gift.
If it needs to be created, no matter the request, Tina can bring it to life.”
“Discovering Tina 8 years ago was truly a blessing. She is very talented, her work is timely, she is dependable, and consistent. What really sets her apart is her creative vision. Tina will take the the written description of my idea and create exactly what was in my head. There is minimal back and forth, she just gets it and creates it.
It is great to have someone that I can trust to create the exact visual elements that I need and on time, while I am busy working on all the other moving parts of a project.”
“Tina is a talented designer and artist whose work is always on-trend. She is focused and passionate about her work. She is one of the most reliable and hardworking designers I have ever met.
As a freelancer, I can always count on her support in any design request. She is easy to bring on board with any type of project, she understands requests without having to explain multiple times, and she is is quick and on target with the delivery of projects. She is very intuitive and extremely creative in project development. I’m sure Tina will be an asset to any team she works with!”