Lili Arnold

Lili Arnold is an artist & designer based in Santa Cruz, CA. She graduated from UCSC in 2011 with her BA degree in Art, and has since been using her skills to navigate the working world with creativity and purpose.

Though Arnold is a graphic designer & illustrator by day, her true artistic passions are fulfilled by way of art & printmaking. Arnold fell in love with printmaking during her years in the UCSC art department. With professors and mentors such as Richard Wohlfieler and Paul Rangell, Arnold was able to develop her understanding and appreciation for printmaking methods including lithography, intaglio, relief, and digital printing.

Upon entering the working world, Arnold explored a few different creatives roles before settling in as a freelance designer & artist. Her first job out of college was as a graphic designer at PACT Apparel in San Francisco, where she gained immense knowledge of design in the fashion & retail industry. With very little experience going into this role, she was mentored by the creative director, director of product, and company founder to gain many valuable skills. In the last two years of her time at PACT, Arnold was given the opportunity to design surface pattern designs for a range of organic garments. This experience melded hands-on artistic skill with tangible, commercial utilization.

After her experience at PACT, Arnold moved back to Santa Cruz in hopes of getting closer to a truly creative path. She spent the next year working as a graphic designer & illustrator for New Leaf Community Markets, which gave her a new perspective on design from a natural grocery standpoint. Here she was given a range of creative freedoms and was able to dive in to illustration, creative strategy, campaign planning, and retail environment design.

Since May of 2015, Arnold has officially branched out on her own as a freelance designer & illustrator. She works with clients such as The Renewal Workshop, Habit Nutrition, The Brothers Comatose, Laxmi Beauty, Sylvan Music and more. She is growing her own art business as well. Her art & printmaking has become a much more significant part of her creative life now, and she continues to produce new works and exhibit around the bay area.

​What Arnold values most in her artistic career is originality, craftsmanship, and creative freedom. Art & design are vessels for her to continue to pursue these values and help keep the traditions of the arts alive. Through her art, she hopes to educate viewers on her process, materials and the history behind the art form.