Michelle Crippen

Senior Art Director, Xuma Communications

Denver

Michelle comes to Denver by way of Kansas where she received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Design with an emphasis in Visual Communication from KU. But one day, she found herself not in Kansas anymore, but in Venice, Cornuda, Bologna and Parma, where she worked under master printer Alessandro Zanella at Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione. (While no one is sure exactly what that means, it sounds really impressive…every single time she brings it up.)

Armed with an artist’s eye, a farmer’s work ethic, and the ping pong skills of a quick wristed Chinese Olympian, Michelle pleases her parents by actually using the skills she studied in college to make a handsome living.

With stints at two Kansas City agencies, Fleishman-Hillard and Sporting KC, Michelle was also a senior Designer at IMM in Boulder. Currently, she’s a Senior Art Director at Xuma Communications in Denver where she spends most of her time working on Steamboat Ski Resort, as well as an athletic shoe and sports apparel company headquartered in Portland Oregon. Her work is featured in award shows near and far, and her early work, which many a critic would agree is quite undisciplined, and her brother considered "abhorrent, irrelevant and a blight on our home" hangs on her mother’s refrigerator.