Ciara Elend is a graphic artist who specializes in block printing, an antique method where designs are hand-carved in wood or linoleum blocks to create a relief. A longtime visual artist, Ciara was first introduced to the block printing technique while at Parsons School of Design (AAS, 2005). As a freelance graphic designer, she has worked in a variety of media such as drawing, painting, collage-making and printmaking, and has designed identity, branding and graphic packages for clients such as CBS. While designing a brochure for the Queens Chamber of Commerce, she grew to love her home borough.
Drawn to the diversity of people, architecture landscape and art, she began producing block prints that paid homage to Queens. Those initial projects lead to the creation of Queensbound, a graphic tshirt line reflecting the landscape of Queens. Queensbound’s mission is to promote the borough by offering fashionable, reasonably priced tshirts, along with other products like hoodies, chocolate bars and totes. Part of the proceeds of each Queensbound purchase go to promote local artists in Queens.
In November of 2007, Ciara expanded her offerings to include her couture line - high end tshirts that mix the urban, industrial essence of Queens with the elegance of couture fashion. All Ciara Elend products are printed in Queens, where she maintains a design studio and teaches block printing classes.
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