Shelby Leontina

Explore. Learn. Don't Stop.

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W⚡️I✨P #paintnightswithshelb (at Tewksbury, Massachusetts)

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I created a problem/solution booklet to address the timely topic of texting and driving. It lays out the problem of texting and driving; explores why people text and drive; and explains why it is so dangerous. I used an info-graphic approach to convey much of the data in an engaging manner that would appeal to the target audience. My research also sparked a new and potentially game-changing idea for product design.

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Shawsheen Technical Institute hired me to be their art director for outgoing mail and course catalogues. This work represents a recent course catalogue design I executed—combining photography and type elements, as well as creating a simple format for course descriptions.

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My Mugford Street Players work involved designing a logo and identity, then a brand standards guide for their in-house team. I made the logo mark subtly suggest the familiar “comic and tragedy”masks and learned how to translate my design elements into words and diagrams that could serve as a guide for other designers to follow.

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Designing this Starbucks Annual Report was a really great experience. I took the content of the annual report from 3 years before, and estimated the numbers for this year, which gave me a good sense of how companies work and how stocks operate. This was a good opportunity to design something that I will most likely face once I begin my professional career. It was a challenge to work with a text-heavy book—balancing data, readability and design aesthetics.

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This Christmas ornament was submitted as part of a design challenge from The White House. My design represents Herbert Hoover’s time in office and the 35-foot tall Norway spruce he displayed back in 1929. Ornaments include a toy fire engine, (Hoover gave out 1,000 toy fire trucks to children that year) a Quaker star, (Hoover was a Quaker) and the number “31”(Hoover was our 31st resident). The card sentiment is a quote from a speech Hoover gave at a tree lighting ceremony in 1931.

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For a professional first impression, I create a new self-identity package every year to stay up to date with personal information and keep a consistent, contemporary design. In this iteration, I used a system of graphic icons as shorthand for my contacts, interests and skills and chose a more traditional font for my text to the offset the modern icons.

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Chiesa di Santa Rosa

watercolor, 2014, Viterbo

Santa Rosa was a girl that could supposedly heal people with her “powers”. She wanted to be buried at this chapel, but her request was denied. Years after her death, the decision to bury her remains was reevaluated and she was “dug up” and moved to here. But, when they looked at her corpse, it was preserved to look exactly as it did when she passed away. People assumed it was because of her healing powers that she would perhaps never decay. Out of fascination and worship, they put her body on display, 6,000 years ago, where it remains on display today at Chiesa di Santa Rosa. 

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streets of Viterbo, Italia

watercolor, 2014, Viterbo

Every corner of this city is a stairway to heaven. <3

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Il Labirinto, Piazza del Gesu

watercolor and ink, 2014, Viterbo

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Piazza del Commune, Café Commune

conte and toned paper, 2014, Viterbo

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street at night in Viterbo

watercolor, 2014, Viterbo

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Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo, home to the first and longest conclave in history.

Ink, 2014, Viterbo.

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Front and back designs of a Christmas ornament I submitted to the White House for the year of the Herbert Hoover ornament.

The Christmas tree shape is representational of the new 35-foot tall Norway spruce National Community Christmas Tree that was donated by Amawalk nurseries in 1929. The year before was the first year the National Community Christmas Tree had lights, and the weight of the lights along with the heat produced by them was enough to destroy it. It is significant in two ways. One, this is the very first year that the National Community Christmas Tree was decorated with ornaments as well as lights (rather than only lights), which is why the tree I designed has ornaments on it. It is also the year that the West Wing of the White House caught fire during the Christmas party, and the First Lady had to redirect all the children to the East Wing to safety, while President Herbert Hoover and some other men ran towards the fire to save historical items, documents, personal belongings, and even a young dog that was for one of the children as a Christmas gift.

The ornaments used to decorate the tree are a toy fire engine, a quaker star, and a 31. The fire engine represents the 1,000 toy fire trucks Hoover gave to the children as gifts the year after the White House fire, when he re-invited them back for the Christmas party. The 31 represents Herbert Hoover being the 31st President of the United States. The tree is topped with a snow flake, adding some more holiday theme to the ornament.

The quote on the back of the ornament reads as follows: “This the season and this the occasion, when the whole world unites in good cheer and good fortune.”The quote was pulled from Herbert Hoover’s National Community Christmas Tree lighting Presidential speech of 1931. 

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It is well to remember that a picture –before being a battle horse, a nude woman, or some anecdote– is essentially a plane surface covered in colors assembled in a certain order.

Maurice Denis, from Definition of Neotraditionism, 1890

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One must not imitate what one wants to create. One does not imitate appearance; the appearance is the result.

Braque, 1917

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Sometimes I think we're all just pawns in the game of Life, while God just sits back and plays us.

*late night thoughts*