Noelle O’Reilly founded her etsy shop, Priss Designs after graduating from Georgia Tech with a degree in Industrial Design. Afterwards, she needed to find an outlet for her creative side.
Her work is modern, digital art but has a strong influence from her Southern roots, having grown up in rural southwestern Albany, Ga. You can see the influence of nature throughout her designs, whether in bird silhouettes, repeating birch trees, or vintage leaves; and she describes her work as “rustic modern.”
Noelle grew up in a family that worked with their hands, made the things that they needed, and were a part of the handmade community long before it was trendy. Her grandparents grew, canned, and sold vegetables out of a wooden store her grandfather built, plus her dad is a mechanic who has always known the importance of making something by hand.
She says that, “growing up in an environment where everyone makes what they need with their hands, it really influenced me to want to make things myself, and also influences me to support the handmade movement in general.” It was not until college, originally pursuing a degree in Aerospace Engineering, that Noelle decided she needed to find a degree that would better fit her desire to create and work with her hands the way her family always had. That is when she made the switch to Industrial Design.
Fast forward to today and Noelle is keeping busy with her etsy shop, selling designs that are a fresh, clean-lined take on the nature of southern Georgia that inspired her while growing up. She has combined these natural references with her experiences at an engineering school and a design degree to create truly unique work with a special Southern flair. She knows her roots are in the South and has let that help shape the creative person that she always had in her!
Be sure to check out Noelle’s shop, Priss Designs, where she is offering Pretty Southern readers free shipping for all of 2011. Just use the code “FREESHIP11” at checkout! You can also read more about her background and her creative process on her blog, Priss This.
