Originally from NJ, I started getting serious about “commercial” art in High School, selling a few of my paintings and sculptures. I also made quite a name for myself in school by being banned from the HS art show. They say the content was a bit racy, I preferred to call it artsy.

Then came the big party, I mean college, the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. After my first year of school, I was sucked into an ad agency, doing some illustration work but mostly paste-ups and mechanicals, I sure do miss the smell of rubber cement and a waxer (ask your parents about that kids!). Working in NJ agencies I built a nice portfolio, and set my sights on North Carolina where I could afford a house on the artist’s salary.

In NC I landed a job with a FireFly Balloons, a hot air balloon manufacturer, managing their graphics department. We would design and build balloons for corporations tired of the same old advertising media. Working that gig for about 4 years exposed me to working with fortune 500 companies and some really big egos! I married and had two great children and we decided it was time to move back North, (was I crazy?) this time to Upstate NY.

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Axie Breen is a graphic designer based in the Boston area. Her clients are arts and education organizations, social service and policy non-profits, businesses and political campaigns. She enjoys working collaboratively with organizations to develop effective, distinctive comunications: “Part of the fun is the variety of projects I work on, which could be a Doc Watson album cover or opera advertising or an annual report. It’s great to get the client’s feedback when they get a new piece that really delights them and surpasses their expectations.”

The studio helps entrepreneurs and established organizations create new projects that are on target with their message and their audience. Ms. Breen is pleased to use her skills to support service and policy organizations that are working to make the world a better place, like Women Employed in Chicago, Citizen Action Wisconsin, and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrant and Refugee Rights in California.

Ms. Breen’s work has received awards for brochure and annual report design. She has a BFA in graphic design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also teaches tai chi and kung fu in Boston.

Check out some of Axie’s work…
Advertising for Concert Opera Boston, a philanthropic organization	Season brochure for Chorus pro Musica, a Boston-based music group
Web site for The Immigrant Children’s Advocacy Project, a Chicago-based organization	Logo for The Living Room Project, a leadership development initiative in Wisconsin