Welcome to the third and final celebration of the “Northeastern Three,” the student-designers who won the Analog Playoff at this month’s HubSpot/Dribbble meetup. Today we fete Northeastern junior and HubSpot co-op Stephanie Lee, who claimed third place by taking the Playoff skyline global.
Who are you? How did you end up at Northeastern, and what is your focus there?
I’m Stephanie and I am a junior graphic design and interactive media student minoring in computer science, currently a web design co-op at HubSpot. I came to Northeastern a thoroughly confused freshman with an undeclared major. What drew me here was the co-op program, and as an undeclared student, the wide range of people studying different things and the possibilities of what I could pursue, not that I had any idea of what that would be at the time. Ever since I was little, creating things, whether it be illustrations for a made-up book, a photo collage, a Valentine’s Day card, or a craft made from glitter and felt, has been my favorite thing to do. Northeastern has taught me that I can transform something I have always loved into a career.
Write a professional description of yourself. In other words, describe yourself as a designer/artist — influences, styles, mediums, favorite subjects or type of work.
I love being able to call myself a designer because it is somewhat vague. I believe being a designer is the way that you think about things and the way you are able to organize information visually. I have a few design-related obsessions that when I see beautiful examples of, have proven to make me giddy, and when I get the opportunity to work on get me even more excited. These include illustrated infographics and poster design, hand lettering, icons, and honestly, web design in general. I’m inspired by how design can tell a story and I enjoy the challenge of trying to tell different kinds of stories. Granted, I also have an infatuation with England so I jump at the opportunity to design anything involving Big Ben, teacups, a Union Jack, or really anything travel-related. I used to do a lot of colored pencil work as well and have always loved watercolor and I think that has a strong influence on the styles I gravitate towards.
What are your post-graduation goals?
I’m very attracted towards print and poster design as well as the technical and logical side of coding. This is why I find web design and development such an awesome medium to work with. I love the fluid, imaginative process of design, and then thinking through a design logically and making it come to life in the form of a website you can interact with and move around in. From past experiences, I think I have discovered that I am drawn to the close and connected feel of a small team. After graduation, I would love to work on a team which does web, graphic design, and branding. However what is most important to me is that I get to work and collaborate with people who are incredibly passionate about what they do and what they are creating. I have learned so much from the people I have had the opportunity to work with so far, and hope to get to continue learning from awesome people throughout my career. I am not positive where exactly all that will take me and if wherever it takes me will lead me into something else, but right now what excites me is the community of professionals which surround the design world as a whole. I cannot wait to hopefully work with many of these people in the future, become a part of that community, and continue creating things that make me excited (and if that path so happens to lead me to London at some point, that would be great too).
Finally, choose a favorite shot. Tell us why it’s a favorite.
I haven’t uploaded very much on Dribbble yet, however my favorite shot is probably my first one (History of Controllers). A really memorable part of my childhood was spending hours on hours playing video games with my older brother. I had a lot of fun doing the illustrations for the different controllers and reminiscing on how much fun those earlier games were, including the Nintendo 64 which I admittedly still play on a regular basis.
Find Stephanie at Dribbble and at stephalee.com.
Did you miss our other Northeastern profiles? Click on their names to read about Aaron Tenbuuren and Sophie Greenspan.
Find more Updates stories on our blog Courtside. Have a suggestion? Contact stories@dribbble.com.
