After graduating from Art Center College of Design, Christine started work as an illustrator, mostly in entertainment and publishing, but also various other avenues including greeting cards, packaging and whatever else rolled along her way.

Business was going along nicely when a favorite client, Applause, offered Christine an in-house job as a product designer of plushies, whimsical teapots and seasonal giftware. She loved this! What an incredibly fun job with some incredibly fun people.

After several years working in-house as a product designer while maintaining a free-lance illustration career, Christine went back to full-time free-lance work, this time as an illustrator and product designer. Adding in jewelry design, a bit of furniture, homegoods and clothing design, and a deeper dive into toy design.

The opportunity to combine her illustration skills and product design knowledge presented itself perfectly with her illustrated series of children’s music books for Alfred Publishing, Music for Little Mozarts. She designed the characters for the books, Mozart Mouse, Beethoven Bear, JS Bunny Bach… And then adapted those characters into small plushy dolls, adding a bit more fun to music and practice time. The series grew into a twenty-year relationship, illustrating a number of books that are still available today.

Christine is now a Senior Lecturer at Otis College of Art and Design in the Toy Department, teaching the next generation of toy designers.

This all brings Christine back full circle to her first love, illustration, where she hopes to share her illustrations and stories, and perhaps a bit of toy design collaboration, back out into the world.

Thanks so much for taking a look at Christine’s portfolio!