Sofia is an branded environments designer. She received a BFA in Interior Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Magna Cum Laude. Working at a branding design office after college helped her exercise her design skills not only in interior design but in other fields including graphic design and industrial design. In 2017 after living most of her life in New York she relocated to the west coast to Oakland, California and hopes to continue her personal design growth by working with other multi-disciplinary designers in the bay area.
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A graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology she started working in the design field just after her first semester in college for an Interior Architecture firm in New York City. Her time in college working as a full time student, part time interior design intern, tutor for the interior design department, and part time food industry worker helped forge her tireless work ethic. After graduating in 2010 she held several freelance positions for interior design and 3D rendering services. In 2011 she began working for a branding company that helped her grow as a designer and a manager.
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In March of 2011 Sofia began working for GilmoreGroup, a multi-disciplinary branding company in New York City. She started as an intern but went up the ranks to become a Senior Interior Design Director over the next few years. Being a small to mid-sized company meant having the opportunity to work very closely with her design directors and the company partners directly. Additionally she was able to work with a wide variety of different designers, millworkers and vendors. As a consistent and talented member of the team she was an irreplaceable asset, capable of stepping in at any point of the design process; her freehand sketching, researching, and conceptualizing abilities were needed for schematic and conceptualization phases, her ability to create design drawings and skills in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator were needed in the design development phase, and her communication and eye for detail were needed to work closely with the clients and vendors for the prototyping and implementation phases. As a design director she led her teams through all the phases of design, maintained communications between clients and vendors, and worked closely with the partners on creating proposals and presentations for clients.
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Working in the fast-paced and highly competitive New York City design world Sofia felt her sense of self becoming overwhelmed by work. With encouragement from her co-workers, family, and friends she found another passion that helped her maintain a healthy work-life balance; dancing. She found a pocket of rockabilly loving Japanese dj's who held a bi-monthly record hop in the city who taught her the three main dances; rockabilly jive, bop, and stroll. Slowly but surely she became a part of the New York rockabilly scene, rocking and dancing the nights away, learning about vintage hair styling, and starting her love of vintage clothing and accessories.
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After moving to the west coast it took her some time to adjust and settle into the more laid back lifestyle. She is currently working as an Interior Designer for HDR Architecture in the San Francisco office and continues to work with talented designers of a variety of disciplines and interests.
