88 Questions

Get to Know Anne

 -  4 min read

Our trumpet-playing Web Developer/IT maestro poses some queries to our constantly crooning Designer.

Where is your hometown? What attracted you to Chicago?

Cincinnati, Ohio, is home to me. I lived there for 26 years and then moved to Chicago to go back to school to develop a design portfolio. Chicago was an easy choice! I have family that lives in the city, and when I need a little Cincinnati love it’s a pretty easy drive home. Chicago is just an easy city to love! (Aside from the pizza. I’ll never love deep dish pizza.)

I’ve observed that music is often a part of a designer’s process. Is there a go-to musician, band or genre that you listen to while you design?

This is quite a complicated question because I am very specific about what, if anything, I can listen to while working. I love podcasts, but I’m embarrassingly really bad at listening, so podcasts are best for projects that don’t involve copy, like drawing or going deep down a Photoshop rabbit hole. Since we work in such a collaborative space, sometimes no music is best! Though when I’m not listening to music I typically just end up singing to the people around me (sorry, Andy). When I do pop headphones on, I like to have a long playlist that kind of bounces around all over the place genre-wise to keep me engaged.

What kind of food or meal can you not live without?

Fizzy water. And if I’m being completely honest I would add pickles and tacos—but that starts to sound like a death row last meal, so I’ll just stick with fizzy water.

Who was your favorite teacher in school and how did s/he impact you?

I was fortunate to have several talented professors in college, all of whom influenced my work in a variety of ways. I had one particular painting teacher who became my mentor during the five years I spent in undergrad. He helped me understand the importance of developing a process, which had an incredible influence on the work I was making at the time. He was also very diligent about keeping sketchbooks of both drawings and writings, which is a practice I took to heart and have continued to use to this day.

What is the most important personal attribute that you bring to your job?

If it isn’t my singing voice (trust me, it’s not) then I think I have a slightly stubborn, determined quality about me when I really care about something. This obviously can be a negative trait at times, but at work it allows me to dedicate time and focus my energy on a project. I’m also the kind of person who thrives on doing many things at one time, which is beneficial for the kind of collaborative, multitasking creative team we have.