Design
Forbes: Feel like the only one? How to build your own professional community by Emily Joffrion (2019)
I started Bay Area Black Designers in 2015 because it was hard to be a designer and rarely see other people who look like me in the design world. I thought other Black designers might feel the same way so in my free time I started hosting monthly gatherings to help us find each other, build our professional skills, and build community. This article breaks down my playbook so that other people facing similar challenges can replicate our success.
Fast Company: We study the UX industry. Here’s what will change in 2020 (2019)
Most of us have participated in at least one “2020 vision” project at work. Now that 2020 is finally here, it’s time to bring our so-called visions into fruition. I contributed to the report by the UX Collective on what I expect to see in 2020: the rise of micro design communities.
Format Magazine: 20 Female Designers you should be following on Twitter by Hannah Nussbaum (2017)
Adobe Blog: Ask An UXpert: What’s the Best Design Advice You Received in 2016 by Sheila Lyonnais (2016)
"With the industry growing and changing at such a rapid pace, we thought it would be fitting to ask a few UXperts about what they learned this year. What shifted their thinking, left an impact on them as a designer, or made them think about their work in a new way? Four UX designers reveal their greatest lessons from 2016 in hopes of inspiring other designers to think outside the UX. Here’s what they had to say."
Creativity & building community
Design Feast: ”User Experience Designer Kat Vellos cultivates optimal conversations through Better Than Small Talk” In Sept 2017 I was featured on Design Feast, a long-term blog project by Nate Burgos, dedicated to creative culture.
St Augustine Record: “Six Who Are Shaking Up The Scene” by Melissa Pracht for Compass Arts & Entertainment Magazine, an insert to The St. Augustine Record. The article profiles “six people who are forging a new direction for the city’s arts and music scene or providing new resources for the next generation of creative people in St. Augustine.” She listed yours truly as one of ‘em.
St Augustine Record: “Speak Out! Poetspeak brings out scribes of all kinds” by Melissa Pracht for Compass Arts & Entertainment Magazine, an insert to The St. Augustine Record. Full-length article profiling Poetspeak, the spoken word, poetry, and literary event that I created and ran from 2002-2005.
Janes Stories: “What is a chapbook” by Linda Mowry for Janes Stories Press Foundation. In her article about chapbooks, Mowry references my poetry chapbooks: “Kat Vellos, who is a graphic artist as well as a writer, creates chapbooks which are visual works of art…”
Compass Arts & Entertainment Magazine: “A Time of Transition” by Lauren Sonis for Compass Arts & Entertainment Magazine, an insert to the St. Augustine Record. Chronicles Poetspeak’s transitions upon my exodus from Florida, as I embarked on a journey of national service.
Musiplication: A CD that I made to help kids learn their times tables
Kids Music That Rocks, Warren Truitt, Kids’ librarian and eternally hopeful rock star reviews music for children. He wrote a sweet lil review of Musiplication in September 2008.
One of the Best Family CDs ever!, Kathy O’Connell, contributing writer to MetroKids and host of the Peabody-award-winning Kids Corner radio show on WXPN 88.5, wrote a glowing review of Musiplication in her MetroKids’ Sound Off! section. Says O’Connell, “This excellent rhythmic teaching tool does double duty for double-Dutch calls and recess activities. Vellos’ CD teaches a rap for each number from 1-10, but don’t mistake this complex mix of concepts and counting for a preschool tool. Vocabulary lessons line the album cover, defining numerical words from songs such as “quintet” and “quadruple.” Vellos’ intimate, low-range delivery works well with her subject matter. If repetition is the key to learning math skills, the beats on Musiplication hit a bullseye. Kat Vellos may convince me what years of teachers couldn’t: that math can be fun.”
Zooglobble, Stefan Shepherd blogs about kids music worth sharing, and he reviewed Musiplication in October 2008.
Kids Place Live This was the week that one of Musiplication’s songs hit #1 on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Kids Place Live weekly countdown; December 12, 2008. It made me jump up and down and feel warm and fuzzy inside.
KBCS DJs’ Favorite CDs of 2008, Musiplication made KBCS 91.3’s year-end lists for both Notable Northwest Recordings and Notable Hip Hop Recordings.
FreeKidsMusic.com gave Musiplication a shout out and posted my two free MP3 downloads. Go ahead and download ‘em, then boogie down to numerical funkiness.
AmeriCorps: Serving the community
“Service Corps: Toughest gig you’ll ever love” — PNWLocalNews.com (originally appeared in The Federal Way News, 2007), April 25, 2008. This article was a profile about me while I was an AmeriCorps member.
“AmeriCorps is officially launched for 2006-2007″ — From the blog Afterwords: Reflecting on Service Learning and Campus Involvement in Sustainability Issues, Edmonds Community College, 2006. During the launch, I shared spoken work poetry as the performing arts presentation of the program. In the blog’s writeup afterward, Eco Encore member Jonny Robbins wrote, “What influences people more than art? It was obvious that the words of Kat Vellos inspired many. The standing ovation she received was well earned, for her poetry reached into the depth of many of us. Words of encouragement, fellowship, and joy poured forth into the room as Kat spoke. One line of her work reminded us that sometimes the only thing competing with apathy was our service.”