Personal Creations
I believe color plays a decisive role in how we remember places and moments that matter. Whether it’s a soft gradient blending into a tranquil sky or the striking contrast of light and shadow, color connects us to our surroundings and deepens our understanding of the world around us. Each piece in this collection draws directly from real-world color palettes, capturing a specific time, place, and emotion. Through these designs, I aim to tell visual stories that invite viewers to pause, reflect, and step into the moment being portrayed.
20 Minutes of Sunset over the Rocky Mountains
Description: This piece captures the shifting colors of the sky and mountains during a 20-minute sunset over the Rocky Mountains. Working clockwise from the top left, each section represents a snapshot taken five minutes apart, documenting how both the sky and landscape evolved as the sun dipped below the horizon. I separated the mountain silhouettes into distinct layers, using the eyedropper tool to pull the exact color tones from each corresponding photo. The sky is rendered as a smooth gradient, built from eight sampled hues that appeared in the atmosphere at each moment of capture. The result is a layered visual timeline that shows how light and color transform over a short span of time.
Tools: iPhone Camera, Rhino3D, Adobe Illustrator
Sunset Reflection
Description: Inspired by a sunset over Lake Burgess, Michigan, this design captures the dramatic mirror-like reflection cast across the water. I traced the shape of the clouds to create radiating color bands, blending warm sunset tones as they fade upward into the darker evening sky. To represent the water’s reflective surface, I flipped the composition vertically and applied a subtle greyscale overlay, softening and muting the colors to mimic how light and color distort across rippling water. This piece explores the interaction between color, light, and reflection, turning a fleeting natural moment into a lasting graphic impression.
Tools: iPhone Camera, Rhino3D, Adobe Illustrator
The Colors of Pictured Rocks
Description: Influenced by the stunning geology of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, this design captures the rich earth tones naturally layered into the park’s sandstone cliffs. Using the sedimentary lines of the rock formations as visual guides, I selected the most vibrant colors—reds, yellows, oranges, and browns—to recreate the site’s distinctive appearance. To reflect how light shifts across the landscape, I applied gradient fills to shaded areas, mimicking the way colors soften and blend in low light. This piece was both a study in natural color mapping and an exploration of how geological history can translate into graphic art.
Tools: iPhone Camera, Rhino3D, Adobe Illustrator
2 Best Friends in Europe
Description: As a birthday gift for my best friend, I created this poster as a visual scrapbook of colors and symbols from our two-week journey across Europe, following the end of her study abroad in Budapest, Hungary. The upper left captures the vibrant tulip fields of Keukenhof in the Netherlands, where our adventure began. Next come the rich gold tones of Budapest’s iconic buildings, glowing at night alongside two of her favorite landmarks—the Liberty Bridge and the city’s signature yellow trams. A bright red phone booth from our layover in Sofia, Bulgaria, marks our unexpected stop before continuing to Jerusalem, where the golden Dome of the Rock rises above sandy landscapes near the Dead Sea and Banksy’s artwork stands as a reminder of ongoing struggles for peace and justice. The journey ends in the turquoise waters and dramatic cliffs of Zakynthos, Greece—where we soaked in the beauty of the shoreline and the memories we had collected along the way.
Tools: iPhone Camera, Rhino3D, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop
Sailboat on the Ionian Sea
Description: This design captures the natural flow and layered color gradients created as sunlight moved across the water of the Ionian Sea. The shifting lines of light and shadow formed soft bands where different shades of blue blended toward the horizon. Along that edge, sailboats rested in view—framed by the gentle fade between sea and sky, creating a naturally balanced and calming color palette. This piece reflects how light, movement, and color can come together to tell a visual story.
Tools: iPhone Camera, Rhino3D, Adobe Illustrator
August 19th, 2018
Description: On August 19th, 2018, during golden hour, the sky revealed five standout colors that captured my attention. Though the setting wasn’t a dramatic landscape like a canyon or beach, the subtle beauty of the surroundings inspired me to preserve the moment by arranging these tones in the style of a paint sample strip. This piece marked a turning point in my design approach—showing me how color alone can tell a story and evoke emotion. These five swatches went on to become the foundational color palette for my entire portfolio website.
Tools: iPhone Camera, Rhino3D, Adobe Illustrator (eye-dropper to select colors from photo)
