Getting to know Amy Ubelhor

Amy Ubelhor, assistant director of creative in Creative and Print Services, is a third generation Californian who landed in Evansville, Indiana when her father's job transferred him to the local Mead Johnson. She came to USI in 2014 with freelance graphic design and magazine layout experience. Whether it's brochures, posters, billboards or illume magazine, Amy's goal is to make the imagery pop. In 1999, she opened her own studio, called studio U!, where she continues to do fine art commissions. Let's dive into the mind of Amy Ubelhor.

You and your team play a huge role in the visual layout of the magazine. Tell me about that process.

I don't ever think it's one person or one department; it takes many. It's as much Photography and Multimedia as it is University Communications and Creative and Print Services. It's a collaborative effort.

Before anything is on paper, Connie (Connie Stambush, editor of illume magazine) and I talk it through. She tells me what the stories are going to be about. I then tell her what I think the visuals should be. It's a monster of a project, but it's so much fun. I'm really big about things having an ebb and a flow and a balance of lightness and darkness. As much as Connie does with her words, I do with my pictures.

I make sure Zach (Zach Weigand, senior graphic artist) and Laura (Laura Everest, senior graphic artist) have input in everything because I don't want it to look like only one person designed it. I want to give it life. I want it to bounce. 

You try to sneak pictures of animals in each issue of illume. Where did that come from?

It started at as a joke and now it's become sort of a mission. I've used a font called Lemon Chicken, and that counted for me. If you just saw photo after photo of students on campus, you wouldn't turn the page, but if there suddenly a large photo of an ant lifting a crumb - that's the unexpected. You might stop because it's not the same old thing.

I hear you like to paint. What subjects do you like to paint?

Usually gardens or landscapes or flowers, because I like color. It's really less about the subject matter and more about color. I've painted oceans that have a ton of color in them. I did 10' x 10' abstract paintings that are in the conference room in Tropicana Evansville (casino and hotel).

At home, my kids always say it feels like they live in one of my paintings. There's not a surface that is not touched with color.

Who's your favorite artist?

Interestingly enough I've had a crush on him since high school, Édouard Manet. I thought his work was revolutionary, moving art into impressionism and away from realism.

What was your favorite childhood television program?

The Big Valley. It is about a family who own a cattle ranch outside of Stockton, California. I would watch the reruns. I remember sitting in Indiana as a kid watching them, and it made me feel like - because my grandparents were in central California - I still was there.

It was like "Jared, Nick, Heath, the barn's on fire!" But I was more interested in the landscape. I have a really deep connection to my family and California. And that show is so not me, but they would be talking about places I knew. It reminded me of my grandparents and where they lived.

Did they have cattle?

No, they had a pharmacy and they played a lot of golf. 

If you were ruler of your own country what would be the first law you would introduce?

Slow things irritate me to no end. I can't stand slow computers. I can't stand standing in line for too long. I like people to be concise. The world would move at a brisk pace and everyone would speak in witty banter.

Have you ever misheard lyrics in a funny way? If so, what did you hear and what are the actual lyrics?

When I was little, it was a song called "Love Rollercoaster" by the Ohio Players. I thought it said "friendly Kojak" instead of rollercoaster.

What is the strangest thing you believed as a child?

I used to freak out when I realized there was a skeleton inside my body. It was like having something scary inside me that I couldn't get out.

If you could speak to everyone in the world at the same time, what would you say?

Follow your bliss. Do what makes you happy.