Constanza Gowen-Segovia

“I’m eternally curious and love learning new things.” asserts Connecticut based Graphic Designer Constanza Gowen- Segovia. “For your designs to be successful you have to immerse yourself in the culture you’re designing for/communicating to. A lot of learning takes place in the process, it’s never monotonous.” It is this philosophy that has helped the recent Hartford Art School graduate kick start her career with a lucrative position with co: lab (www.colabinc.com), a company located in Hartford that specializes in brand identity and launch campaigns.

Prior to attending the Hartford Art School, Gowen-Segovia attended Northwest Community college and her creations were primarily figure drawings and oil paintings. It was at the Hartford Art School,  where she received a BFA in Visual Communications Design, that she decided that graphic design would be the focus of her education, as well as her career. “I was always interested [in Graphic Design] but tried different outputs for my creativity.” She confesses “When I went back to school 2 years ago,  I realized I loved graphic design the most.”

So far, the most fulfilling experience for Gowen-Segovia as a designer has been her participation in an educational campaign with the creative think-tank Design for Global change, at the Hartford Art School during her senior year. The campaign entitled Water for India (designglobalchange.org), worked to “promote the values of respect, sanitation and sharing of resources while encouraging visual learning at a rural girls’ school” in a village located in the Northern Indian village of Abheypur. The experience had a big impact on the way Gowen-Segovia now approaches her designs, as well as the cultural and societal effects they can have.

Gowen-Segovia explains: “I liked being put out of my comfort zone and focusing on effective communication design, for real people in a different culture. It was a great challenge.” Gowen-Segovia continues to work with the organization which has expanded further throughout India, into Kenya and hopes to develop a project in the Hartford area.

In the years to come, Constanza Gown-Segovia would like to continue to work with organizations such as Design for Global Change, and to help strengthen and engage in the local creative community through her involvement with entities such as the Connecticut Art Directors Club and the local chapter of the American Institute for Graphic Arts. As part of her current position, she is helping to create Design is Love (designislove.com),  an online community for people to come together in support of their craft and non-profit organizations.

Constanza Gown-Segovia hopes to have a career in which she can affect a multitude of  people and mediums with her designs. For now, she is happy to focus exclusively on the work at hand, and take advantage of the variety and challenges that make her craft so exciting. “…I’d just rather work on whatever the best solution is to the ‘problem’ at hand. Sometimes it’s not a physical thing, which brings me to why I love design so much — options.”

Website: www.constanzasegovia.com