Melanie Hernquist is an entrepreneur and graphic designer who prides herself on creating joyful and inspiring items for women.
Over the course of her career, she has worked in fashion publishing, beauty packaging, event design, and direct sales. Graphic design, however, is her passion.
She has spent the past two years curating fashion, accessories, and jewelry designs for her an e-commerce online shop Lucky + Lovely.
We spoke with Hernquist about how she found her creative talent and turned it into a career.
What was your introduction to graphic design?
I went to Spelman and I minored in art. One of my girlfriends was always in the computer lab working on Adobe Illustrator and I was just drawn to it. We did all of the other traditional art forms including sculpture, painting and drawing. The last semester, I started teaching myself graphic design. This was back in 1996 when it was very rudimentary, very basic. It really used the principles of art and design to have the computer bring your designs to life. For my first piece at Spelman, I digitized an African sculpture and then I created my own invitation to Spelman graduation. People saw it [and] they liked mine better than the other. So as a senior at Spelman who never printed anything and knew nothing about the printing process, I commissioned a printer in Decatur, Georgia. They printed the invitations, stationery and envelopes and I sold them to people.
What inspired you to create Lucky + Lovely?
I started my store because I was looking for things to give people, and I was looking for something for myself and couldn’t find them.
Learn more on the next page.
