Meet Lirona: An Award-Winning Designer

How important is it to do something you love if you want it to be successful? Can you even make a name for yourself by doing something that doesn’t inspire you? Is it true that if you “choose a job you love, you will never have to work a day in your life”? 

We here at Domain.ME believe that doing a job you’re passionate about is essential to building a successful career, especially if you belong to the creative industry.

And the story of Lirona, another awesoME member of our ME team, is there to prove it.

About Lirona

Lirona’s full name is ​Liron Ashkenazi-Eldar and she originally comes from Israel. She is a recognized designer, motion artist, illustrator, and typographer currently living in New York City. She is now a Senior Design Director at Buck. In addition, she works as a freelancer, trying to increase her own client pool, and sells her artwork on her website lirona.me. 

Lirona draws her inspiration from talking to people, solving problems, overcoming challenges, and improving designs. In fact, brainstorming allows her to tap right into her creative energy, producing creatives sure to impress her clients. Also, she devotes herself completely to every new project and client, ensuring that the outcome is nothing less than amazing.

She loves what she does, which is obvious to anyone taking the time to really see her work. Every design element she uses is carefully placed together to tell a story, evoke a certain emotion, and convey a vivid impression sure to stick with you for a while. Her designs are bold, striking, unique, minimalistic, contemporary, colorful, and truly one-of-a-kind.  

No wonder then that working on creating brand identity and brand image is one of Lirona’s strongest points. If you want to create a unique and memorable brand, your brand design needs to be well-thought-out, consistent, and original, aiming to make an impact on anyone who sees it. It should represent the true spirit of your brand, which is something that many designers fail to achieve.

Many, but not Lirona.

About Lirona’s career

Her designer story started when she was only 16 years old. Right during that time, she realized that her career should be both her creative outlet and her safe spot. That she needs to create in order to be successful. 

And that’s exactly what she did.

Learning The Ropes

Lirona started her career back in 2009 when she got her first job as a motion graphic artist for Gravity Creative Space. She stayed with the company for two years, learning the ropes and improving her skills. In 2012, Lirona enrolled in the School of Visual Arts and turned to freelancing. In the three years that followed, she focused on projects related to motion graphics design and animation. 

This helped Lirona to land a job at Sagmeister & Walsh, one of the renowned design studios in New York. She used her time there to further expand her knowledge of animation and hone her skillset while building a career and tackling different design fields and disciplines. 

First recognition as a designer

Also, during this time she got her first recognition as a designer. In 2016, Lirona won a PRINT Magazine “15 Under 30” new visual artist award. This means that she was recognized as one of the most talented young creatives working in the design industry.

Upon graduating and getting her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, she became a co-founder of TimesTwoStudio. Even though this project did not pan out as expected, Lirona managed to land a great job at The-Artery. The-Artery is one of the most esteemed design studios for every aspiring designer in New York. 

Lirona had many responsibilities while working there. She was behind The-Artery’s own brand, voice, and website design (she even won an Awwwards Site of The Day Designer award for it). She was also in charge of various design-centric projects, creative directing branding, and motion graphics.

Lirona was dedicated to acquiring her own clients and guiding other design teams, helping them excel, before she became a Senior Design Director at Buck, a global talent-driven creative company she currently works at. 

About her personal website

Lirona’s personal website – lirona.me – is a great example of how a designer’s website should look like. Simple, straight to the point, containing just what we came for – her astonishing work. Such a minimalist site design allows us to navigate the site with ease and focus on what’s truly important. 

Both layout and structure of the site are completely logical, and her About page allows us to get to know her a bit better. However, what truly speaks for her is her artwork, which you can purchase on her website store.

Knowing how people love to see the real artist behind the work, Lirona used her online space to create a personalized portfolio (you simply can’t get more personal than .ME, can you?) that features her best designs. By doing so, she made it easier for potential clients to get to know her work. That way, they can quickly decide whether her style is up their alley or not. 

Taking care of your digital footprint is crucial in today’s online world – if you want to create a strong personal brand you need a website that’ll help you stand out from the crowd. You can use it to reveal the true you and show your skills, quirks, and works to the world. Just like Lirona did.

To sum up

Lirona’s story just goes to show that you don’t choose your profession, but your profession chooses you.

Just remember to ask yourself what you would enjoy doing the most. Once you get your answer, make sure to act upon your heart’s desires. 

Lirona listened to that inner voice we all have and now she is one of the best young designers out there. Kudos, Lirona, keep on rockin’ the designers’ world!