The Journey

I am extremely passionate about art and design. I began at St. Louis University with a double major in Business: Marketing and Studio Art: Graphic Design and Painting. Transferring schools can be messy in terms of curriculum and requirements. I graduated from the University of Kansas with my Bachelor’s only in Business Marketing. Knowing that I wanted to pursue a career in design, I made the decision to continue my education. Playing professional volleyball in different countries isn’t very conducive to a traditional university setting, so I decided to enroll in Savannah College of Art and Design’s eLearning (remote) program. I completed my Master of Arts and Graphic Design and Visual Experience in March of 2018.

As a freelance designer for the last decade, I have used these skills to help many businesses establish their visual identity and create their home on the web. In 2019, in addition to my personal freelance work, I began working with the OFarrell Group as a design and development contractor. I became the client and project manager as well as lead designer and developer on almost all projects and existing sites. The owner, Angie OFarrell, decided to retire from the web hosting business after accepting a full time job with a long term consulting client. We made the decision to transfer all client accounts to my company, Verdigris Digital and continue to utilize the OFarrell Group staffing resources and Angie as a consultant.

It is our mission at Verdigris Digital to ensure that your business stands the test of time through a combination of classic and contemporary design and development. We are here with you every step of the way, offering a full suite of services to ensure that your every need is met. Verdigris’ range of services includes logo and graphic design, website design, web development, domain registration, web hosting, premier Wordpress hosting, email hosting and more.

Today

My focus is on web design and development. The last couple of years have shown us that presence on the web is extremely important to individuals, businesses, non-profits, schools, towns, etc. We are spending more and more time on our screens, and technological progress continues to sprint ahead. Good design is much more than aesthetically pleasing layouts. Good design utilizes every aspect of content, medium, and user experience to interact. In addition to good design, our focus has been on keeping our clients sites and data as secure as possible.

What do I love about Web/Screen Design?

One of my favorite aspects of designing for the screen is fluidity. Like oil painting, there are rules to be followed and rules to be broken. There are certain unchangeable aspects (time spent for oils to cure) and layers upon layers of change and complexity. The final product hides layers of preparation and technical components. The finished piece is only possible due to the work leading into it. The hidden pieces of web design (the code) are layered and broken into pieces that need to be put together in just the right way. It’s a puzzle to be solved. Nothing is quite as exciting as solving a coding problem you’ve spent countless hours on! Its incredibly rewarding seeing all your hard work come together in a successful and meaningful design. The moving pieces come together.

Work With Me! - My Process

Excellent performance is dependent on the routine, the process, and the preparation that lead up to it. This is true in design, volleyball, and life. Creativity and inspiration are especially fickle. To harness our elusive genius (as Elizabeth Gilber might say), its important to be able to recreate our success. In this pursuit, I have honed my creative process into the following steps:

I am blessed to have grown up with parents who believe in being a well-rounded individual. They support me in everything that I want to pursue. Even at a young age, athletics immediately became my focus. Throughout my childhood I participated in ballet, soccer, softball, basketball, swimming, track and field, and, obviously, volleyball. I am lucky to have an incredible role model in my older sister. She started volleyball in fifth grade (I was in first grade). Mom brought my twin brother and I along to nearly every practice and tournament. With him, other siblings from the team, and on my own, we constantly were playing with a ball. I completely fell in love with the game. At age ten, I finally got to join a team of my own. As I grew, I slowly narrowed the sports I participated in. Since day one, volleyball was always the dream.

My teams throughout the years have reached many levels of success. Every club team that I was apart of made the USA Volleyball National Championships at the Open, National, or American levels and placed on several occasions. My high school volleyball team won four State Championships during my four years. In 2011, I competed with the USA Women’s A2 Team in Tucson, Arizona. In 2012, I headed to college at St. Louis University on a full ride athletic scholarship. I loved spending every single day (outside of my studies of course) focused on volleyball. In 2015, I made the most difficult decision of my life, transferring universities. I left St. Louis University for the University of Kansas, where I felt I could contribute to the success of the team at a higher level. In 2015, our team went to the Final Four in the NCAA Division 1 Championships. To this day, that experience was one of the most incredible of my life.

Thanks to my older sister’s very successful volleyball career at Wichita State University, I knew that it was possible to play professional volleyball overseas after college. (Sadly, the U.S. doesn’t have a professional indoor league). At KU, we went on a European Tour with the Bring It Promotions volleyball agency. I have been represented by Bring It since graduation from the University of Kansas (Dec 2015). The following summer, I secured my first contract in France for the Association Sportive de la Vallée de la Sauer for the ’16-17’ season. I played my second and third season with SCU Emlichheim in the 2nd Bundesliga in Germany (17’-18' and 18'-19’ season). In May of 2018 I had the opportunity to represent the USA in 12th Annual Binh Dien Volleyball Cup, hosted by the Vietnam Volleyball Federation. For the '19-20' season I played for Geneve Volley in Geneva, Switzerland as an outside hitter in the NLA (the top Swiss League. In '20-'21 I played in the 2nd Bundesliga in Germany again as a libero, this time for VC Neuwied. We had an incredible season with just one loss, and I helped the team move up to the top league in Germany, the 1st Bundesliga. In the 21'-22' season, I played with VC Neuwied as a libero in the 1st Bundesliga in Germany. I am currently still in the 1st Bundesliga playing as the starting libero for USC Münster where we have ended the first half of the season ranked 4th. You can check out my volleyball highlights here.

Outside of playing professionally, I work as an international tour guide for BIP's volleyball tours, I coached a youth team in Germany for SCU, worked as a camp coach for Midwest Volleyball Performance, coached in various collegiate summer camps, and work as a private volleyball coach.

Experience

USC Münster, 1. Bundesliga, Germany 2022-2023
Highlights

VC Neuwied, 1. Bundesliga, Germany 2021-2022
Highlights
3x MVP Selections