Kelly Meissner

"My name is Kelly Meissner, and I am a professional Illustrator and Product Designer, but mostly, I just like to tell stories..."

So, here is MY story:

My career started in technical high school. I learned graphic design at the Eastern Center for Arts and Technology, where I eventually taught commercial illustration for a few years. After High School, I studied illustration at the University of the arts.

I became a tattoo artist to pay the bills while in college but eventually made the change from decorating people to decorating clothing, once I found out that T-shirts don't bleed or complain as much as people do.

A few years later, I started my own clothing line, with the help of Wells Fargo and the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy: I called it Ugly Apparel.

My experience with Ugly and the Corzo Center added brand and product development, as well as content marketing to my professional skill set.

I eventually moved into an agency setting, working as a pitch specialist and creating content for major global brands.

I continue to inhabit the content marketing side of the world in my professional life, where I am a Brandscape Architect.

Yep, like a landscape architect for brands.

Basically, I take the content associated with a product or company and help style and position it to support their business goals. Whether that goal is to sell the property or maybe just invite a specific kind of audience over for dinner, I help to create the right experience for the right audience through the content that a company puts out into the world.

While I genuinely love entrepreneurship and product and brand development, I still try to practice my own art. Illustration was my gateway to storytelling, so I try to get back to it in my spare time as much as possible - when I am not too busy rock climbing.

You can check out my work at www.kellymeissner.com