Who is Pollia Design?
Hi! My name is Michelle Murgia. I am a designer and artist living in Pittsburgh, PA. Without being too cheesy, I want to bring more beauty to individual lives and help great ideas stand out through powerful design!
I received my education in Industrial Design at Virginia Tech, and have gone further and further down the hand lettering and digital painting rabbit hole since then. I have been a practicing artist since I could hold a crayon and will occasionally return to hand painting when the mood strikes.
My foremost loves include hand lettering, digital painting, and my two fur babies and husband. As evidenced by the designs for sale on this page and in my Redbubble and Teepublic profiles, I can binge watch TV shows with the best of them, and I have been known to stay up all night reading a good book (or even a medium book, honestly). A few more parts of my current and past life that show up in my designs are Maryland (301!), swimming, water polo, and krav maga.
You can find images of my process on my instagram or twitter, @polliadesign everywhere.
What does "Pollia" mean?
The Pollia berry is a small, rock hard berry which happens to be the most intensely colored biological thing on the planet (as far as scientists have found). This berry reflects massive amounts of light and color because of the structure of its cells – called “structural color” – similar to a scarab beetle or some butterflies’ wings. The berry’s tissue keeps its bright, iridescent blue color for years or decades, and as such it is commonly picked up by creatures in it’s natural African habitat and used for decoration (such as in a bird’s nest).
The sparkly, speckley bright colors I use in my branding reflect the berry’s intense shimmering colors. Pretty cool!
If you would like to learn more about this awesome berry and the science behind structural color, check out this article at smithsonian.com
Image via PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA)
You seem cool, can we talk?
First, thank you, and yes! You can contact me at michelle@polliadesign.com or by direct message on instagram.