The Visual Identity Book of Renée Carraggi
author:
Renée Carraggi (of course, I’m not that famous - yet.)
My name is
RENÉE CARRAGGI and I’m sorta like Hannah Montana:
my life leads two sort of “identities”.
here is
URBAN
me
here is
me
I’m comfortable with both, and here’s why: for starters, I was adopted at birth, but since I was a
family adoption I grew up knowing my
birth-family
Ann Roy (Nana) (Grumpy)
Gail (Momma)
(Grandpa) Steve (Grandma) brother & sister Fran Steve (Poppa)
Wesley (PepĂŠ)
Kim
(Birthmom)
Carmella (MemĂŠ)
While I live here, the Dirty ‘Gus, also known as Saugus, MA. This is considered a “historical landmark” of our town.
My birth-family lives in beautiful
Nova Scotia, Canada
L
uckily, I never spent much time in Saugus , I went to private school in suburban Melrose and Peabody, and spent some time in places like Revere , Lynn , and sometimes Everett , and Medford which are the places my parents grew up in. By the time I was 13 years old I knew my way around the Faneuil
Hall/Quincy Market area by myself.
T h e u rb a n me i s d e v el o p ed t hrough
my parents, they grew up as rough
& tuff “city” kids. I’ve known the “urban” me my whole life
- it was in my upbringing.
side note: I photoshopped them into this 80’s yearbook. This picture was around when they first met - they were 30! I love the 80s.
The nature me I found on
my
own, with a little help from
my goofy, outdoorsy boyfriend.
my
I’ve come to find this side of me is kind of in my genetics, my birthfamily is quite the adventurous type. M y PepÊ once kayaked around an entire island in two days.
So why does all this matter?
Well, truth be told, my two identities don’t only say what I do in my spare time, it’s what inspires my designs.
Urban RenĂŠe loves geometric patterns, straight lines, monochrome themes, etc .
N
ature RenĂŠe perfers hand lettering and calligraphy, pastels, sketches, & everything inspired by or involving nature.
Something consistent in my life is that both RenĂŠes are always a huge fan of classic rock - specifically,
Led Zeppelin and Queen.
“soon I will be...� a stationary and package designer! ... I think??????
W
ell, truth be told, I have no idea. So far, I have yet to narrow down what exactly I want to do in Graphic Design. I think it’s partly because of the whole “Hannah-Montana” thing…
So it all starts when I was seventeen and thought I had the mental capacity to go into Hospitality. I was driven to become a wedding planner. I love weddings, I’ve always thought they’re so beautiful and happy, I’ve had mine visually planned since I was about twelve, which sort of scared the crap out of every boyfriend in the past.
Soon after I realized I’m terrible at math and numbers and well, planning things, I discovered via Etsy that wedding invitation design is a thing. How perfect right? My nature me sure thinks so because of all the invitations usually being composed of calligraphy, nature, organic shapes, etc. I loved it!
So I was set , I was off
to college to become a wedding invitation designer as my parents prayed their estimated $30k a year would give me a little more than that. Then one day, my boyfriend’s dad - who knows my adoration of dogs (specifically Bernese Mountain Dogs) - shows me a beer bottle that looks like one of these.
It was there that I thought “wow, maybe I could do that!” I never knew packaging design could be so fun, mainly because we’re usually exposed to pretty bland stuff sometimes. But look how cute those little dogs are!
The whole package reminded
me of a Hendrix poster, which of course always makes me think of this picture. The Otter Creek design was new, it was fun, it wasn't the stereotypical beer bottles you see everyday.
From there, I started to look more into packaging design, and I’ve really come to love it. This interest appeals more into my urban side in that most of the packaging designs I’ve come to love are simplistic, geometric, and feel new.
“I’m here to get really good at...”
a little bit of everything!
I hope to improve and learn about every aspect of Graphic Design during my time at MassArt. Since I was a little girl, my dad has expressed how important school is, because as much as we want to believe we do, we don’t know everything.
I’m only 20 years old. I have so much more to learn and I’m excited to see what Graphic Design throws my way. For the first time in my life, I have no clue what exactly I’m gonna be doing in two years, and I’m okay
Hannah Montana says: “life’s what you make it, so let’s make it rock.” with it. Like my girl