April Larivee
Out of Office
View April's art director portfolio
April is an art director currently roaming in the Pacific Northwest after spending the last 10 years working in Southern California; her interest in outdoor exploration being a major factor for relocating to Oregon and calling Portland home, for now.
April began her career in the Cali summer heat as an intern, commuting over an hour each way in a manual pickup with no air-conditioning. Pretty soon that job gave way to an opportunity to work more locally at West Coast Choppers in Long Beach. April took to the more casual work environment; "You were never quite sure if a pitbull would get loose and turn on you". She enjoyed talking to the many colourful characters that worked and visited the shop. Talented bike builders, celebrities, and the occasional gang member. One such person was Sam Childers (Machine Gun Preacher) for whom she, along with Paula Neff and Chhun Tang, worked pro bono. Working with Sam resulted in a trip to Sudan and Uganda to see Sam's life work.
After a trip to South East Asia in 2006 April was shaken by the human rights violations she encountered. She continued to work alongside Chhun Tang on pro bono projects for the Somaly Mam Foundation on and off until the organization's collapse.
Before her graduation from Cal State University Long Beach in 2009 April, volunteered to teach art for a month in Guatemala.
April's corporate career continued when she started working alongside her twin sister at Oakley. They'd commute together from Long Beach, terrorizing the freeways and canyons on their motorcycles. Her next adventure in corporate design would be with The Designory. Happy to be in the company of such great creatives, her projects took her to Spain and Miami shooting with some incredible photographers.
Out of the office April shifted her focus to exploring the deserts and mountains surrounding Southern California. Trip after trip was spent backpacking the local ranges, the high Sierra, and getting into the canyons of Utah and Arizona. Most recently her backpacking has extended internationally to the Drakensberg and rugged coastline of South Africa, as well as a 300 mile section of the Continental Divide Trail in Colorado.
April's work has been published in Colouring Your Brand, Simply Packaging, 1000 Packaging Designs, Pack!, F.O.R.C.E, Go Fish, and HOW Design. Her recent work on Infiniti has won Silver and Gold Addy Awards.
For her portfolio April chose our Jute theme. Her work is split neatly between projects; each showing off the finished result of her digital and printed collateral with brochures, packaging, and some beautiful pitch treatments. April has chosen Stacked layouts for her portfolio, allowing her to collate very different product and campaign shots together to create a cohesive case study of each of her projects. Jute's minimal styling lets her project content do the talking without getting in the way.