Rondi Designs

Sitting in computer graphics and studio art classes semester after semester, Erin Rondi came to fall in love with graphic design. Her love for graphic design helped her realize that this is what she wants to do with her life and career path.

Rondi is a senior at Sacred Heart University. In her free time, she runs an art account on both Instagram (@rondi_designs) and Facebook called “Rondi Designs.” On this page, Rondi sells art and invites people to send her pictures to recreate as digital paintings.

Rondi promotes the account mostly by sharing it on her personal Instagram story and Facebook feed, as well as asking others to post it on their own accounts when she makes something for them.

“She’s just overall a great artist and I’m happy that she’s showing the world through her Rondi Designs page,” said senior Devin Gavigan.

Rondi started her page as a place to post her artwork so she could see the progress she has made throughout college.

“Overall, I think Erin’s art is very impressive and personal. I have seen the many styles of art that she creates from beautiful paintings, to graphic design spreads, to articles, to advertisement posters, to simple sketches,” said senior Meghan Briggs. “She has a plethora of talent to share, whether it be for marketing or personal purposes.”

Earlier this year, while in quarantine due to COVID-19, Rondi started doing commissions of digital drawings for different people as a business.

“I bought a piece from Erin that was a recreation of a Spotify album cover with a personal picture that she transformed into an outlined photograph,” said Briggs. “I chose to ask Erin because I have known and followed her transformation as an artist throughout college and knew that she would do the photo justice.”

Erin conducts the sales of her art through Instagram and Facebook with their direct message features.

When making the Spotify frames, Rondi drew the picture on her iPad, then printed it out. She then drew the song title on the glass and added the picture to it.

“The ordering process was very easy. She started out by asking which photo and song I wanted. She kept me updated throughout the entire process with progress pictures and updates of when the piece would be finished,” said Briggs.

Once orders are made, customers use Venmo to pay Rondi. She sells the Spotify pictures for $25.

Rondi’s favorite design she has made is her “World Worm Charming Championship” poster. She likes the poster because she got to combine hand typography with a fun concept.

For her “World Worm Charming Championship” poster, Rondi started by doing a rough sketch and then cleaned it up and brought it into Adobe Illustrator. In Illustrator, she built it up and added color and texture to the worms. She then drew out all the pieces of the letters and colored them in.

“Overall, Erin’s art is so lovely and bright. I love seeing everything she’s posting because it’s always so well done and creative,” said Gavigan. “When she creates magazine spreads they’re always so professional and clean, and her portraits always look so real and detailed.”

Rondi’s most recent article spread, “Brewing Battle Over Venice Beach’s Homeless Crisis,” was one done in Photoshop. She used large pictures and handwritten quotes to bring more emotion to the piece.

“I like sharing my artwork with others because we all see and experience the world in such different ways, and it’s always interesting seeing how different people react to the same piece,” said Rondi.

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