To Holly, Nature is the alpha and is written with a capital “N”. She earned a B.F.A.
in graphic design (with a minor in art metals) and studied in Germany for a year, where she says, “I got a powerful example of the negative impact people can have on
the environment when, in 1990, I visited a coal-darkened East Germany”. After getting
the credentials, Holly garnered a cornucopia of field experience at firms like Studio Flux (an eco-minded partnership with op.002), Gardner Design, Shea, Inc. and Target.
Holly is much beloved for spontaneously spouting thinkers like, “Hummers are
an affront to humanity”, and “Try to imagine a world without oil.”
sample portfolio.
Dixie's restaurant: identity.
Designed a new identity for Dixie’s, a well-known St. Paul institution with authentic Southern cuisine. Inspired by weathered vernacular signage, whiskey labels
and roadside barbecue shacks.
Design: Holly Robbins, Art Direction: Holly Robbins, Design Firm: Shea, Inc.
Marshall Field’s: Marketplace Café.
The Café is an example of a unified environment concept. The brand, signage
and environment were designed in concert by a graphic design and interior design team.
Design: Holly Robbins, Art Direction: Holly Robbins, Interior Design: Mark Whitnack, Illustrator: Jane Mjolness Design Firm: Shea, Inc.
Radioactive Legacy: packaging.
Radioactive Legacy was a documentary that chronicled a Minnesota community’s fight
to stop the storage of radioactive waste on the Mississippi River at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant. The cover is a tongue-and-cheek nod to books of the 50s like,
“Our Friend the Atom” that propagandized nuclear energy in the face of its unprecedented dangers and waste issues.
Design: Holly Robbins, John Moes, Art Direction: Holly Robbins, Design Firm: Studio Flux