Nikki Villagomez: Good Design is Inspired Design

For Nikki Villagomez, good design is inspired design.

And the best way to find inspiration is by meeting fellow designers.

To that end, she started the South Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Her goal is to create a network of designers across the state and to promote graphic design in the business community.

Villagomez, 27, whose maiden name was Rasheed, grew up in Greenville. She left South Carolina when Louisiana State University offered her a tennis scholarship. There, Villagomez fell for two things — graphic design and a guy on the men’s tennis team.

After graduating in 2000, the two tennis players married and moved to New York City. Villagomez landed a job as a graphic designer for Women’s Wear Daily, and her husband, Eduardo Villagomez, earned a master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University.

But after 3½ years in the big city, the couple had had enough.

“We wanted to live closer to family, have land, a car and space,” she said.

After settling in Columbia, Villagomez started a graphic design business. She converted a closet in her house into a minioffice, where she works on her Macintosh computer. Brightly colored examples of her work and other inspired designs are tacked all over the walls.

Working alone, however, deprived Villagomez of fellowship with other de

more: thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/10067142.htm (256)

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