As a child Blondina always experimented with her creative
talents. At the age of 11 she had already made up her mind
she was going to be an architect. Though she has never designed
any buildings, Blondina has achieved her professional goal
and is an architect of two-dimensional (and three-dimensional) communication supports as well as a designer of letterforms
and typefaces.

Professional parcourse

Blondina has lived and worked in Martinique, France for 8 years;
where she graduated summa cum laude in 1999 from Insitut régional
d'art visuel de la Martinique (IRAVM) after a 3 year passage in the
faculty of Communication Design. While completing her studies
she set up as an independent designer and established a number
of clients  including l’Office de Tourism de Fort-de-France. Her talent led her to some of the major agencies in the territory which gave
her the opportunity to work with clients such as Mercedes, Peugeot,
Coca-Cola, Bouyges-Telecom, Carrefour amongst others. Blondina
founded atelier Elms in 2002. Her clients can be found in USA,
British Virgin Islands, Martinique, Dominica and Barbados.
She returned to settle in Barbados in November 2003, on a mission
to inject her experience and passion into the local design industry.
On returning, Blondina was hired as Creative Associate at
McCann-Erickson where she managed the creative department.
Here she worked on campaigns for clients like Coca-Cola,
AmericanAirlines, RBTT Bank. Her passion and years of experience
keep Elms on the cutting edge.

From 2007 until 2010, Blondina was a visiting tutor and lecturer
in typography at the Fine Arts Department, Barbados Community
College. Here, she taught at 2nd year Associate Degree and 1st year
Bachelor of Fine Art (Graphic Design) levels.

In October 2010, Blondina left her island home to pursue a longtime
dream and her passion for typography in the Typography & graphic
communication department — University of Reading, United Kingdom
— where she was awarded a Master of Arts in Typeface design.
There, her research was focused on children and typography.
Her practical work was focused on Latin, Hebrew, and Kannada
letterforms and type design.

In a constant pursuit to be the best she can be, Blondina enrolled
in the Expert class Type design (2012–2013) at the Plantin Institute
of Typography, taught by Frank E. Blokland in the world renowned
Plantin-Moretus Museum. Her studies included a revival project based
on Jacques François Rosart's Grand Canon Romain and a personal
project based on the pointed nib pen. Here Blondina attained the
degree of Expert class Type design with distinction.

In 2014, she developed Elms The Boutique, a chic lifestyle brand
featuring Blondina’s original works available only in limited edition.

Currently, Blondina lives in the south of France (where she taught
typography at the École intuit.lab from 2012–2016). In 2017 she was
awarded a Master of Humanities & Social Sciences in Education
(MEEF option Applied Arts) with distinction from the École supérieure
du professorat et de l’éducation, Aix-Marseille Université and is now
an Education Sciences PhD student at the Aix-Marseille Université.
In addition to her research and running her studio, she passionately
passes on her creative knowledge, organizes and conducts typeface
design, design, and creative workshops around the world.

References

• Poster and invitation for 'l'expo autour du graphisme' IRAVM

• 2000 New Year greetings card IRAVM, Martinique

• Corporate Identity of Madiaplans, Martinique

• Brochure 'The key to your dreams' Trinity Homes, Barbados

• Poster and brochure for the 1st edition of 'Festival du film de

  l’environnement de la Martinique' for Parc natural régional

  de la Martinique

• Poster, invitation and brochure for 'Challenge international'

  Association Cibles d'Or, Martinique

• Corporate Identity of Dance Place Martinique FWI

• Conception, posters, banners for 'reflections' Christmas 2004

  Campaign, The Royal Shop, Barbados

• Corporate Identity of Barbados Photo Adventure, Barbados

• Calendar 2005 Wibisco, Barbados

• Conception, poster, radio for 'Christmas Loan' Campaign RBTT  

• Packaging VHS and DVD 'Healing our lands…' CREP

• Catalogues (direct mail) Carrefour Lamentin, Casino, Martinique

• Web site design Caribbean Splash Waterpark

• Web site design Cave Shepherd (shopatcaveshepherd.com)

• Corporate Campaigns for Orange Caraïbes, Dominica

Workshops

• Massimo Polello — Capitalis Romana with flat brush (ISType 2013)
• Savas Çevik — Ottoman calligraphy workshop (ISType 2013)
• François Fabrizi — design workshop on the rum of Martinique  

• Ruedi Baur — design workshop on the identity visual of IRAVM

• Leipzig, Germany — Hochschule Fur Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig

  (School of fine arts) included the visit and discovery of Bauhaus

  buildings and Master Houses in Dessau