AIGA Portland Board Members
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Joaquin comes to the AIGA President position with over 12 years of experience in the internet field. Also the President and founder of Metal Toad Media, he has worked as a web designer, programmer and manager which has given him a breadth of experience he brings to AIGA, as both the custodian and advocate for the AIGA web properties.
Throughout his career he has built successful digital strategies with a wide assortment of technologies and platforms. Whether a project calls for content management, blogging, mobile, video, social media - or all of the above - Joaquin excels at helping clients identify a clear path for success.
Over the years he has worked with industry leaders such as Verizon Wireless, Limewire, the Linux Foundation, Sony Picture Television, 76 Lubricants, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, American Suzuki Motors as well as numerous small businesses and internet start ups. With over 12 years of experience in his field he is still as passionate about the internet as ever.
Joaquin is a graduate from UCLA with a degree in design.
Kristin is an experienced art director and designer with 15 years in identity design, brand development, and communications design. As a Portland board member since 2003, her past board focuses have included membership and sustainability. In 2005, she brought AIGA and WorldStudio's Urban Forest Project to Portland.
She currently works as a freelance designer and Art Director for Bitch Media, best known for publishing the magazine "Bitch: A feminist response to pop culture". She has worked in a large variety of design and business environments from start-up to Fortune 100 to non-profit, and while she has a special love for publications she is a big proponent of general user experience design and creating the right form for the message. As a design leader, she has over 10 years of experience managing creative teams, as well as creating strong cross-functional teams and a loyal client following.
After moving to Portland in 2001, she spent 9 years heading up the in-house design group at Oliver Wyman Leadership Development, an international management consulting firm. She is also the Creative Director for ORLO'S Bear Deluxe Magazine, a publication of art and the environment. Before moving to Portland, Kristin worked with DaCapo Press and Perseus Publishing. Her work has been recognized by PRINT's Regional Design Annual, Seattle's Bumbershoot arts festival, Utne, and the New York Times. She is a published poet and essayist, and has taught and lectured in the creative field at primary, graduate, and professional levels. She’s continually energized by the active, open, and articulate design community in Portland.
Erik Ratcliffe is a rare bird indeed. He started adulthood in the civil engineering industry as a draftsman and a site designer; after a decade or so of that, he broke camp and set himself up in the Linux industry where he did all things technical, co-authored a very long Linux book, and followed the dot com wave to stock-option-millionaire status only to lose it all when the market crashed in the early 2000s (not his fault). He walked away from Linux a few years later and entered the University of Utah as a graphic design major. He earned a BFA in 2007, and immediately afterwards he and his wife traded arid Zion for moist Portland.
Since moving to Stumptown Erik has kept busy with Portland AIGA as a general purpose volunteer, a dMob greeter, a DesignSpeaks event co-chair, and is now the Portland chapter Treasurer. He currently works as a graphic designer at LaCie in Hillsboro and has been known to do freelance work around the Portland metro area as well as in Utah. Erik keeps Portland AIGA's finances in order as well as inspiring and getting inspired by the wonderful design community in and around Portland.
Angela Reat is an accomplished graphic designer with 14 years of experience in the U.S. and abroad. She currently specializes in identity and branding for the food, beverage and hospitality industries. After graduating from San Francisco State University, her wealth of creative experience comes from working with clients such as Disney in LA, The United Nations in Rome, and as an Art Director for the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). However, it is the small projects that often capture the heart, and Angela has had the pleasure of helping numerous individuals launch their dream companies – clients with stringent budgets but lots of enthusiasm.
Angela is currently active in branding and peripherals for the nationally recognized wine and restaurant arena in Portland. It is a vibrant and competitive scene in which innovation and craft walk hand in hand. Her approach, and her results, are in-sync with this industry’s marriage of tradition and creativity. It gives her great pleasure to represent her clients’ products in a striking and memorable style.
Melissa Delzio is a freelance graphic designer and creative entrepreneur. She has over 6 years of experience producing print and web graphics for international and local consumer brands alike. Professionally, Melissa strives to evolve the greater creative community she is a part of. She actively volunteers to strengthen the local Portland design scene, and works to promote a secondary goal, which is to create experiences in which the general public is exposed to and made more aware of design thinking.
With that intention in mind, she initiated and lead a team that brought Cut & Paste, the international digital design tournament, to Portland in 2007. Through the team’s efforts, over 700 people turned out to watch chosen local designers battle in this unique design tournament. In 2008, Melissa founded a book project that promotes design and storytelling on the topic of Portland. OUR PORTLAND STORY is a project that sought submissions of short stories from average Portlanders describing one thing they love about Portland, and paired those stories with different local designers who graphically bring the tale to life on the page. Altogether, the book creates a cross-section of community views and values told through personal stories and graphics. Our Portland Story launched its first book in September of 2010, and can be found online at www.ourportlandstory.com
Melissa Delzio graduated from Northern Arizona University with her BFA degree in Visual Communications. She has been involved in AIGA to some capacity since her college years, and is thrilled to now be the Volunteer Chair for AIGA Portland. She is dedicated to helping to get more designers involved in this historic and inspirational organization.
Heather is a spirited interactive professional with nearly a decade’s worth of experience delivering high-quality client solutions. She has worked in both start-up, corporate and agency environments servicing both b-to-b and b-to-c clients. A business-minded, strategic thinker, Heather skillfully merges client and audience goals and marketing best practices to develop effective and dynamic digital marketing and user experience solutions for her clients. She is a proven leader, with a demonstrated ability for managing people and processes, as well as establishing solid cross-departmental and client relationships.
"I am an advocate of being the change you want to see. My dedication to AIGA is born out of a sincere and passionate belief in the importance of design. In support of this belief, I strive to educate the larger business community about design and provide valuable education and mentorship opportunities to the design community."
Lisa Holmes is a co-founder and art director of Yulan Studio, a marketing communications firm specializing in web, interactive and print. With over 23 years of experience, Lisa designed print materials for several years before becoming obsessed with new media. She designed and developed interactive CDs in the early 90s and began designing websites in 1995. Yulan Studio's clients are from diverse industries: from non-profits to economic and workforce development agencies to architecture & engineering firms.
Lisa formed the AIGA Portland chapter's sustainability initiative in 2008 and currently serves as Sustainability Chair. Over the past several years, she has led a green team of volunteers and together they have worked on developing sustainable design resources for local designers and creating two quarterly event series: SHIFT and Green Salon Meetups, in addition to the first annual ReSource: Green Design Expo.
Billy Huys (link http://twitter.com/brandedbyhuys) has been a designer for almost two decades, and received his BFA in Graphic Design from Indiana University. He cut his interactive teeth as an Art Director for Agency.com’s Vail office in the late 90’s while also becoming an active member of the AIGA Denver chapter. Somehow — after guiding snowmobiles in the Rockies, serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala, building web sites and leading volcano treks in his spare time — Billy landed in Portland to continue his design career. He is currently the Associate Creative Director at The New Group, and is excited about the opportunity to serve as Sponsorship Chair for AIGA Portland.
Nicole received her BA in Art from Idaho State University in 1999 and her BS in Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Portland in 2003. She spent the next four years at Ellington Leather working her way up to Accessory Designer and Lead Graphic Designer, while branching out with a variety of freelance gigs. Currently at Pacific Northwest College of Art, she's well-versed in generating creative and sustainable solutions to benefit the students, the faculty and staff, and the College. In her free time, she stays entertained with rock concerts, a 1927 fixer home and two frisky pups. Nicole is excited to be a voice for students on the board, and to help connect them with the variety of opportunities AIGA can provide.
Shona Lepis (http://twitter.com/eyedesignstudio) is Owner and Principal Designer at Eye Design Studio (http://www.eyedesignstudio.com/) where she works with lifestyle brands to translate their visions into artisan handcrafted website and print designs to effectively brand and market their business. She is also a founding member and art director at Branding Salon – an international collective of creative women, based in Paris, Bali, Mendocino and Portland, who shape small brands for big success. She is currently serving as the AIGA Portland chapter Interim Communications Chair.