Template Designer – Direct to Consumer
Hello, I’m Gabriela Gutierrez and this is my Avery journey.
I started at Avery in the summer of 2014. I was fresh out of art school and excited to begin my creative career as a template design intern for Avery Products. Today, I am no longer an intern and not so fresh-faced but I am still happy to be a template designer and excited to work for a company that I love!
My beginnings
Getting down to the nitty gritty, I was born and raised in southern California, only venturing out of Los Angeles County to attend Cal State Fullerton where I earned a BA in American Studies and, more importantly, my Bachelors in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Illustration.
I am proud to say I will always be an LA girl deep down in my heart. I’ve been lucky enough to travel, and LA will always be my favorite city. Without leaving the continent, I have yet to find a city that compares in the sheer breadth of diversity, culture, and art. In all my travels, it remains to be my favorite city to fly back into.
A little bit more about myself. I am the youngest of 8 (fair warning, it is true what they say about last borns) and the happy mother of two mutts that I love very much.
In my free time, I love to nap. But we can’t always nap, so when I am awake I fancy myself an amateur mixologist and I usually fill the role of bartender at any family function (remember what I said about last borns?).
My absolutely favorite role is that of “Nina” and “Tia/Auntie”. Sporting a formidable bunch of 23 nieces and nephews, I am Nina to 5 and find there is nothing more fun than being the cool, young aunt.
Most recently, I embarked on a millennials worst nightmare and moved out on my own. This has seriously impeded on my napping hobby, but also expanded my interests into interior design and plants. I’m not very good at keeping plants alive but I like to think I have a knack for decorating with them.
At Weeeeeerk
Time to Tarantino this, and flashback to the beginning. I started my Avery journey as a Template Design Intern, working on expanding our free design templates onto products for our, at the time, new professional printing service that we lovingly know as WePrint.
I was part of a small design team that I absolutely loved and was very excited when I was offered a full time Graphic Design position designing templates for our Design and Print Online software.
Something I’ve learned from my 6 or so years at Avery is to always be ready for ch-ch-changes (good thing I’m a Bowie fan). The biggest change thus far has been joining the WePrint team – officially – as part of a small group devoted to the division’s creative needs. I have truly never seen a harder working group of people that still manage to get along so well. I am so lucky to be part of an excellent team that supports one another and goes above and beyond for our consumers.
It’s never goodbye, just so long for now…
Time to wrap this up. And what better way than to share the one thing I love about Avery, and that is the room it has given me to grow. This company has made a major impact in my life and has helped me blossom from a nervous little illustrator into a confident Adobe savvy graphic designer, whipping out templates like nobody’s business. The company’s core foundations and lively family of employees is unlike any other, and I am forever happy to call it home.
