TL;DR: I’m Bethanie, a graphic designer & illustrator from Pittsburgh, PA who moved in 2018 to St. Petersburg, FL. I have over a decade and a half of experience in graphic design & illustration, and several in web design as well. My true passion is illustrating, but I also love drawing, cats (especially my sleepy princess Matilda/Tilly), drawing cats, cooking, books, bourbon, TV & movies, and plants.
HELLO!
I’m Bethanie. I was born and raised just north of Pittsburgh, in between three farms in a township where our closest neighbors were still usually a few miles away. So as a latchkey kid growing up in Pennsyltucky, I was forced to find my own means of entertainment. Armed with markers, crayons, and a vast imagination, I spent all my free time drawing from the first time I could hold a pencil. I designed and sewed Barbie clothes, drew my favorite characters from novels, sketched CD covers for fictional pop punk bands I was sure I’d become famous for starting…
From a timid tomboy with a knack for doodling, to a fiery cat lady taking on the world.
Then at a high school career fair, I saw a presentation by a professional graphic designer–coincidentally, the daughter of one of my favorite teachers. Until that point, I wanted to become an architect, because I had figured it involved drawing, and I always liked making elaborate houses on The Sims. But now I was learning that graphic design was getting paid to do all the things I’d always done for fun! Flash forward: I left Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with a BFA in Applied Media Arts/Graphic Design in 2013, including an internship with Digiguin in Web, Graphic, and Conference Design. Before the ink dried on my diploma, I was packed and ready to return to Pittsburgh (those two hours to the north brought way more cold weather than I was willing to endure for even a second longer). I freelanced and worked remotely for a small graphic design firm based in Washington, D.C. Wanting more stability than freelance could provide, I worked as a designer and production artist for Giant Eagle, a grocery chain in the northeastern US. After two years there, I picked up and moved to Tampa, FL with my cat, Matilda (my sleepy, silly princess). Finding the city of Tampa to be not quite a perfect fit, I pretty quickly moved to the other side of Tampa Bay, in St. Petersburg, where I now reside. Still with Matilda, of course!
I love to read, and I own more books and graphic novels than I’ll ever be able to actually finish. As an Italian, of course I love to cook, and when I’m in my element I talk loudly and emphatically and with my hands. I possess a ridiculous amount of random knowledge (my weekly pub trivia team cleans up pretty well). I watch entirely too much TV and movies, but it’s usually on in the background while I’m doing any of the other 487 things on my never-ending, ever-growing to-do list. I love making lists…
Impeccable file organization, perpetually messy kitchen.
I’ve been a perfectionist since birth, and my attention to detail is why I excel at all things design. Whether it’s a logo or identity, an illustration, a book, or anything in between, I will use everything in my metaphorical toolbox to make your next project as close to perfect as possible! I like to maintain a wide creative skill set, too: I have been sewing since early elementary school (my mother and grandmother were seamstresses), indulged light obsessions like quilling (6th grade), calligraphy (9th grade), and paper cutting (college), learned to weld, helped my mom start her own book sculpture business, and so on, as well as a life-long love of typography and hand-drawn type (one obsession that will never fade). Combining these with my more conventional design and illustration skills means I’m not just your average designer. I am almost always ready to take on a new project, so if you’ve got an idea, email me and we’ll get started!