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.