Hello!
I am Lily Eckenrode and a student at Drake University. I am a motivated junior studying graphic design and advertising. I’m eager to build experience in a creative field and begin tackling problems through visual solutions. Although I often find myself jumping from one school activity to another, I try to spend my Saturdays at the Des Moines Farmers Market or drinking coffee at a new cafe. Back home in St. Louis, I grew up surrounded in a city with a great art culture and took frequent trips with my family to the St. Louis Art Museum. It was there where I knew I belonged in the creative field and since then, I’ve pushed myself to explore various creative outlets such as ceramics, printmaking and film photography. Although it’s no secret that I am passionate about art, I also enjoy food, fashion and traveling. During my free time you can find me in the kitchen creating one-of-a-kind Eckenrode recipes, crocheting on a comfy couch or catching up on the Oscar nominated films of the year.
On the more professional side of things, I am currently working at Dotdash Meredith with WOOD Magazine as a design apprentice. I have been able to assist with a variety of projects, my favorite being, propping and styling photo shoots, attending issue planning meetings, iconography, social media template design and cover mock-ups. At WOOD, I have been able to take skills I’ve learned in the classroom and apply them to real-world projects and physically hold accomplishments in my hands in printed issues.
At Drake, I am a designer for Drake Magazine, the university’s lifestyle magazine. Drake Mag pushes me creatively and helps refine my Adobe Creative Cloud skills, specifically Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. I also collaborate with 12 other students on the design staff which has helped me grow my collaboration and communication skills. Working with a group of creative and driven people has taught me how to receive constructive criticism and when it’s appropriate to give advice to others.
In the past, I have held various design and media positions, such as, a graphic design intern for @stlbucketlist where I curated social media content, a Graphic Design Co-Chair on Drake’s Student Activities Board (SAB) where I designed advertising for all SAB events across a range of media such as posters, banners, social media posts and even magnets. I am passionate about design and can’t wait to learn more about the design industry.