ABOUT MELISSA
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Design Experience
Melissa Delzio is a freelance graphic designer and creative entrepreneur living in Portland, Oregon. She has over 5 years of experience producing print and web graphics for international and local consumer brands alike. Whether designing a Nike shoe box or a local farm logo, she emphasizes strong conceptual thinking, strategy, and artful executions.
Professionally, Melissa strives to evolve the greater creative community she is a part of. Through serving on the Board of Directors for AIGA Portland (the professional association for design), and serving on the committee for the Museum of Design Portland, she actively volunteers to strengthen the local Portland design scene. These organizations also help promote a secondary goal, which is to create experiences in which the general public is exposed to and made more aware of design thinking.
With that intention in mind, she initiated and lead a team that brought Cut & Paste, the international digital design tournament, to Portland in 2007. Through the team’s efforts, over 700 people turned out to the Wonder Ballroom on the evening of September 21st to watch chosen local designers battle in this unique design tournament.
In 2008, Melissa founded a book project that promotes design and storytelling on the topic of Portland. Our Portland Story is a book project that sought submissions of short stories from average Portlanders describing one thing they love about Portland, and paired those stories with different local designers who graphically bring the tale to life on the page. Altogether, the book will create a cross-section of community views and values told through personal stories and graphics. Our Portland Story is expected to be published in 2010.
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Background
Melissa Delzio was born in the sweltering Colorado river town of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, home of the London Bridge, party location for underage future porn stars, and destination for a slew of snowbirds promoting large Sunday pancake breakfasts. After 18 sunburned years of the big Arizona sky, windswept sand dunes, and palm trees, Melissa started her journey north. She settled for four years at the base of the San Francisco peaks, in the quaint Route 66 hippie town of Flagstaff, Arizona. There she spent her time breathing in the fresh pine air, attending anthropology, sociology, geology, among other “ology” courses, and most importantly, design classes at Northern Arizona University. She obtained her first job in design, advertising for a local entertainment company, that specialized in bringing second-rate comedians and artists to the stage in front a large student audience.
Two days after basking in the glory of her BFA degree in Visual Communication, Melissa continued her journey north, packing all her worldly belongings in a ‘95 Honda Accord and hitting the road destined for Portland, Oregon. Upon arrival, Melissa quickly fell into a designer position at a small firm and set about making Portland home. Five years later, Melissa is a full-blown esplanade-jogging, npr-listening, Pinot Noir-drinking, art-obsessed Portlander. She is an overzealous recycler and can sing the entire Greek Alphabet.
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