AMANDA BLOIS

I attended Shawsheen Valley Technical High School, where I built the foundations of my career focusing on design and visual communications. I applied to several art schools in Boston and ended up choosing the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. At MassArt, I learned a lot about collaboration and creating systems within design.

During the summer after my sophomore year of college, I worked at Elnk, a company that develops electronic paper display technology. I started there as an intern doing data entry, where I would transfer information from their old system into a new system. While working here, I was able to gain experience using Reliance, Agile, and Excel.

The summer after my junior year, I worked as a graphic design intern for 360 Branding and Communications in Boston, MA. I spent my time there sharpening my hands-on skills in Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator files. I was tasked with stock photography searches, design research, and packaging/sending design files to clients.

I received my first real job offer as a junior production artist at EH Publishing after attending MassArt from 2012—2016, where I received a BFA in Graphic Design. There, I made designs and edits for:

• CE Pro

• Commercial Integrator

• LiveSound

• Campus Safety

• ChannelPro

• TechDecisions

• Electronic House

• Security Sales & Integration

• Worship Facilities

• Worship TechDirector

• Peerless Media

• All Things Media

• EH Impact

At EH Media, I assisted two senior designers on magazine layouts for eight different magazines. My responsibilities also included creating Facebook advertisements, white-papers, promotional flyers, business cards, newsletters, and logos. Toward the end of my time at EH, I was able to redesign media kits.

I left EH Media in 2018 and found a contract position with Curriculum Associates, the creators of i-Ready—an online learning program. At Curriculum Associates, I started as a production designer, doing mostly print production work including preflighting and sending files to press and making designs and edits for brochures, flyers, postcards, guides etc. I was hired full time just under a year after I started, however was laid off in 2022 and hired back three months later under another contracted position. Since returning back to Curriculum Associates, I have been leaning heavily into more design-based work as an associate designer for the company.

Since starting my career, I have made sure to keep passion projects alive. I have done several logos, band merch, and album artwork as well as hand-painted murals. I started volunteering at Express It Art in Hudson, NH and helped teach art to kids in my community. They were truly inspiring little souls who brought the joy of creativity to life for me. I was able to team up with the owner, Denise Thompson, and some of the children at Express It Art to work on a mural in the gorilla cage at Benson Park located in Hudson, NH. I felt inspired to play with watercolors and illustrated and wrote a book called Koi-Fairies. I learned how to sew at Express It Art and started to make my own book pillows to sell at craft fairs along with my children's book.

The past few years have been focused on my two adopted children, William and Ayana, who have given me a reason to pour my heart across their walls. In William's room, I hand drew and painted in acrylic a Pokémon-themed room. For Ayana's room, I created a starry night fairy butterfly room. The past four years I have also participated in either Inktober or Drawtober. I love a design challenge and enjoy the process of projects coming together.