Theater Education & Design

I am the designer I am today, thanks to the my love of live theater! My parents started purchasing season tickets to the local theaters when I was in Elementary School, and continue taking me and my own family to plays to this day. In college I realized I could combine my love of live theater and art by studying scenic and costume design. As I was pursuing my Bachelor of Arts degree at Brigham Young University, I got a ton of practical experience by working as an employee of the theater department making props and sewing costumes, designer programs and and posters for main stage productions, and managing special events and performances as a resident stage manager.

When I joined the work force and started working full-time as a graphic designer / illustrator, I noticed that all of my coworkers have very distinct design art styles, which made me a bit envious. Then I noticed that they all had a hard time adapting their styles to meet our clients needs. This is when I realized how amazing my theater design classes were! Instead of focusing on one style, I had been taught to change my art style for each and every project (making me more marketable). Today’s project might be a musical set in 1950s, and tomorrow I might be working on a Shakespeare project that is set in the Wild Wild West!

Although I may not be currently working as a scenic and costume designer, I continue to use the skills I learned at BYU everyday. I owe my knowledge of creating detailed production files to my scenic drafting classes. My love of 3D paper projects comes from my costume draping and flat patterning classes. And my ability to be a team player comes from my years and years of reading playbills, realizing that not even a one-man-show can be put on by one man!