Darcey Ohlin and Amanda Hughes’ passion for graphic design is present in the beautiful designs created at their office at Watermark Design on West Main Street. Ohlin explains how she has a more traditional design style, which, coupled with Amanda Hughes’ modern style, combine in order to create the unique art that satisfies all of their clientele. Their extensive portfolio includes logos for the Jefferson Theatre to the branding for the Afton Mountain Vineyards. Ohlin graduated from James Madison University and eventually created Watermark Design in Charlottesville, because she
With the emerging art form of graphic design, Ohlin is happy how Charlottesville artists particularly reach out to one another by communicating online and sharing news about their art.
Both Ohlin and Hughes are passionate about graphic design. “You get to be creative every day,” they say with praise of their art form. However, as with any art, there are challenges of graphic design in our contemporary society. For one, with emerging technology, graphic design becomes easier for the average person. “Online templates help to make it easier for anyone to do graphic design,” says Ohlin. Nonetheless, Watermark Design has been keeping up with the times, as they have had many accomplishments, such as an expanding clientele as well as an expanding business. Thanks to their artistic creativity and universally appealing style of combining the traditional with the modern, Watermark Design is not losing stride in the rapidly emerging graphic design world.
The two artists share many loves about Charlottesville. The artists’ lists include listening to music at the Pavilion and dinner nights on the Downtown Mall. They also love hiking at Sugar Hollow and snowboarding at Wintergreen.