I was lucky enough to be a part of the branding and launch of West Elm's new store, West Elm Market. A "new kind of general store," Market offers beautiful and functional home products in four main categories: kitchen, care & repair, garden and personal care. The branding is simple and fairly utilitarian, yet still charming and a bit quirky. This is a sampling of collateral I've created for the brand, including the grand opening invitation printed on a dish towel, various promotional pieces and cards, shopping bags and gift packaging, branding for the in-store coffee shop, and product packaging. Created in collaboration with my lovely fellow team members Diane Shaw, Arnau Dot Sayos and Alba Hollister-Ruiz. Photography by Julian Wass.

West Elm's product team approached my fellow graphic designer, Alba Hollister-Ruiz, and I to create a collection of vintage-inspired graphic tea towels, some typographic, some illustrative, for an upcoming season. I hand-lettered and drew all of the type and illustrations in a variety of styles that all fit in with the Market aesthetic. Alba and I then also had the opportunity to design a series of tote bags for Market, again mixing different typographic styles, phrases and illustrations to create a diverse assortment that can sit together as a collection. Towels will be released soon, and totes are currently available here! Art direction by Diane Shaw. Photography by Julian Wass.

Invitations for West Elm’s store openings in Seattle and L.A. The design of each invitation references the feel of each city: simple and understated Seattle, fun and bold L.A. The Seattle invite was letterpressed with bronze and black ink, and the L.A. invite was printed with distressed gold foil. Made in collaboration with Colene Blanchet.

A sampling of print and web work I've done for West Elm. The Product Information guide and the Monogram Guide are two customer-facing books that outline the full product assortment and monogram options currently offered both in-store and online. I also manage the monogram program and its implementation on product, create a wide variety of in-store signage (signs for our holiday partnership with Etsy and our collaboration Ben Moore paints featured here) and have created homepage slides and emails announcing new arrivals and in-store events.

A wedding invitation and collateral set, inspired by the couple's casual, non-traditional September wedding and their love of any and all things Brooklyn. I hand-drew the custom script and illustrations to give the set a heartfelt and intimate feeling.

I was asked to design the book cover for the World War II novel Unpunished, written by William Peter Grasso. The striking image of the blood-formed head wearing an officer’s cap alludes to the murder mystery storyline that is central to the novel’s plot.

An identity system created for the Children's Museum of Richmond. The playful design references children’s blocks, crude paper cut-outs, and arts and crafts. The four initials tumble and form an infinite number of configurations, highlighting the interactive and lighthearted nature of the museum.

Poster for a concert featuring music from composer Philip Glass’s album Solo Piano that is entirely photographic.
To create this image, I took a photograph of a lowercase “g” through a broken kaleidoscope, which through the reflection of the mirrors created both Glass’s initials and also a mystical, repetitive, and dreamy image that is representative of Glass's style of music.

A 92-page book for the Podium Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes the literary and visual arts among Richmond Public Schools. The design, a collaboration with Brian Gartside, aims to display the students' work in a respectful and elevatory manner. Brian and I also had the opportunity to work with and teach a select group of RPS high school students, bringing them into the letterpress studio at VCU and having them letterpress many of the titles that are used throughout the publication.

Packaging for a iced frappuccino drink designed to stand out from many other similar items on grocery store shelves. Based off of the traditional pairing of morning coffee and a newspaper, and the French "Café Frappé" product name, the package is designed in the style of a French paper from the early 1900s, using actual headlines and images from the time period.

Collateral I created for the VCUarts 2011 Graphic Design Senior Show. Each of the forty-two graduating seniors is uniquely represented on the poster through his or her fingerprint. The "we're getting out" headline simultaneously references getting out of college and the "prisoner" implication of the fingerprints.

Letterpress poster for musical artist Florence and the Machine. The hodgepodge "sea" of ornaments references Florence's layered, ornate sound, and the silver anchor relates to the themes of sinking and death prevalent in many of her songs.

Collaborative poster with Brian Gartside for Ingrid Michaelson’s single “Parachute.” The design references both the music video’s celestial imagery and the song’s innocent, idealistic lyrics.

ABOUT

Hello, my name is Alyson Aversa and I'm a graphic designer. I currently live in Brooklyn and work as a full-time graphic designer for West Elm. I graduated from Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond, Virginia with a BFA in Graphic Design in May 2011.

I am always looking for new opportunities and freelance work, so please contact me if you are interested!

For more information, please take a look at my résumé.

CONTACT

e-mail me at alyson@alysonaversa.com or call at 804 901 0796.