Chicago-based graphic designer, art director, and illustrator Nia O’Reilly-Amandes is a creative with an analytical mind, using observation, research, and experimentation to solve design problems. Her personal style is cheerful and colorful with a retro vibe, inspired by midcentury fonts and signage, botanical illustrations, vintage home decor, and Scandinavian textiles.

In her career, Nia has worked as an in-house creative, largely within the live entertainment industry, and as an independent designer. She’s created bespoke illustrations and logos, built comprehensive branding systems, produced thousands of marketing assets, and designed the packaging for over a dozen albums.

Aside from her many skills as an artist and designer, Nia is also adept at analyzing processes and operations. She’s an enthusiastic collaborator and a resourceful and accessible expert in her field. By creating comprehensive brand guidelines, usable templates, and essential training documents, she allows teams to produce visuals that are visually consistent without too much second guessing. The goal is to alleviate insecurity and give designers the freedom to explore and experiment within the comfort of well-defined and reassuring parameters (which leads to less revisions, which leads to more exciting opportunities, and so on and so forth … )

Nia has a general love of all things aesthetic. She’s a trained photographer, has a passion for home design, and is currently developing her block printing skills. She recently launched her Spoonflower shop, where she sells fabric and textile products featuring her original surface pattern designs.

Learn more about Nia and her many creative endeavors here!