Kathryn Rankin

I've been working in the creative field since graduating with two degrees in graphic design and photography from Mississippi State University in 2008. Originally from Mississippi, I've been in Texas for about 16 years now. After working in Colorado for a while doing graphic design and photography, I moved to Texas and went back to school for motion design at Austin Community College, completing that degree in 2014. That's when I really got into film and started doing commercial work. Currently, I work for a production company where I do art direction and motion design for commercials. In post-production, I come in and put special effects on footage, add any words on screen, and create special effect transitions. I also have the freedom to take on passion projects, which I love. One project I'm currently working on is doing video and photography content for a startup company called Splash Society, which offers aqua aerobics for modern-day women at boutique hotels. It's been really fun, and I really enjoy the women I work with - it's a good community. My career has evolved over the years, and I still do brand work and graphic design, but it's expanded back into content creation and photography as well. I've won some Addies for animation work, including projects for the University of Texas Center for Stuttering, where we created informative animations about how to interact with people who stutter, and for Austin Clubhouse, a local non-profit, as part of a fundraiser campaign. I feel good that the things I've won awards for are helpful to the community and to people. What I love most about my work is being able to take someone's idea and bring that to a visual conception, seeing the expression or joy or happiness that brings them when I can convey something they have in their mind that they can't fully express. That fills me up.