i’m danna.
(DAH-na)
I’m what you call a multi-hyphenate. I’m a product designer, a graphic designer, and a photographer.
Do you like stories? I’ve got a good one. But long story short:
All design abides by the same core principles. The only variable is the medium. Guided by the belief that design is worthless if it doesn’t function, I draw from my multifaceted experiences across industries, my research skills, and my storytelling skills, to get to the root of what and for whom we’re truly designing for.
And then I make stuff.
scroll for long version
*
scroll for long version *
2015-2018: Media & Entertainment
I love visual storytelling, which led me to TV development at Sony Music right after college. I turned into an ideas machine, cranking out new stories to tell and selling those stories to production companies. IT WAS BUSY: I learned how to craft ideas that would speak to different audiences, wrote show treatments, designed pitch decks and temporary brand identities for shows in development, oversaw and coordinated production. I even got a production credit or two along the way (didn’t help explain to my parents what I did). But I found myself at a crossroads when I realized it wasn’t what I imagined it might be when I was a wee little college grad.
2018-2020: Interior Design
After some soul searching (lovingly referred to as my Quarter Life Crisis), I discovered interior design as a way to tell visual stories and create tangible experiences used by real people. Studying interiors taught me that a design is only as good as it is functional, and your role as a designer is to be a researcher, psychologist, and visual problem solver all in one. I learned to understand people’s habits and motivations better than they do themselves and became a human behavior detective, learning to read the lines between what someone says and what was underneath, in order to pull the nugget of insight that drives the right design solution for a unique set of needs.
2020-2023: Graphic Design
That mindset flowed into my marketing and graphic design work. Collecting data and understanding the “why” behind the social media and email campaigns we tested was vital to crafting the right story, with the best copy and the right visuals for successful results.
Present Day UX/UI & Multihyphenatism
The skills I gained from all these industries directly inform my UX/UI mindset. I use my multi-faceted storytelling skills, visual design skills, and research skills to get to the root of what we’re truly designing for.
I still love telling visual stories. I still love making things that resonate with people. And design, across all mediums, has to resonate with people. If it doesn’t function, it’s just decorative. Which is great, we love that for fine art. But it’s not what you come to me for.
