Meet Vivian

Hello there.

I’m one of those multi-passionate people who can’t describe what I do without a bunch of commas and slashes:

Artist, graphic designer/web designer, illustrator, and certified creativity coach.

My Story

A million years ago, I went to art school. After college, though, I didn’t create much art. I had lots of ideas and I planned to do them. But they never got made. I was too much of a perfectionist to ever get started. Because what if they didn’t turn out how I wanted?

So instead, I worked as a bookstore manager in Boston while continuing to study performance art, children’s book illustration, and improv.

In the mid-1990’s, when the internet was in its its infancy, a friend’s fiancé told me about his job as a “web designer” and I was fascinated. A few months later I quit my bookstore job, enrolled in graphic design classes, and accepted an unpaid internship at an interactive startup. 

I then worked at design agencies and software companies as Senior Designer, Art Director, and eventually, Design Manager over the next 20 years.

The Cuppa Creativity Story

I started Cuppa Creativity in 2013 as a creative consulting business and art studio. I was working in an increasingly technical design management position at a software company and was itching to step away from the computer and make art with my hands again.

Unfortunately, it still wasn’t happening. Too many years of perfectionism, procrastination, and resistance had paralyzed me in front of a blank page or canvas.

I soon learned about the field of creativity coaching and figured if I couldn’t make art, maybe I could help others do it instead. So I became certified as a Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach, and in the process, using the tools I learned, coached myself out of my perfectionism and procrastination, took the pressure off myself, and began painting – a lot.

The name, Cuppa Creativity, was created out of my love of coffee, bright colors, and all things British. It was intended as a fun, imaginative, yet casual space where my clients could feel like they were sitting down for a “cuppa” with a friend.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, I got laid off from my full-time design job. So I added graphic design and web design to my services and took Cuppa Creativity full-time.

Today I offer clients the full range of my art and design skillset. But my original mission is the same – to make the design process low-pressure, collaborative, and fun. When you work with me I’ll guide you to the best design choices, while also encouraging you to listen to your intuition.