Design with personal touch
As a digital media designer, I am interested in how design moves—across a spread, a screen, and over time. My work in publication design and motion graphics centers on rhythm and layout. I think about pacing in animation the same way I think about how a page turns in a book: each frame builds quietly on the one before it.
What motivates me is the challenge of creating something that feels genuinely new. My work is not tied to one fixed subject but rather connected by a desire to make images and compositions that feel subtly unexpected, even impossible. I use contrast, scale, typography, and movement to push familiar ideas into unfamiliar territory, treating space as active rather than static: something that builds rhythm, sharpening focus, and guides how a viewer moves through a piece.
My practice has grown from a focus on visual appeal into something more grounded in intention. Although I work digitally, I care deeply about tangible outcomes—design that can be held and experienced physically, work that invites people to slow down and stay.
In my free time, you’ll find me enjoying a book, watching a movie, journaling, taking photos, discovering new music, or going for a run.
Natalie Ortman is a digital media artist and graphic designer whose work explores language, abstraction, and visual storytelling. Working across digital illustration, motion graphics, and publication design, she translates complex ideas and emotions into immersive visual experiences.
Her work has been featured in Marist University's Spring Exhibition, including a ceramic piece and a digital illustration selected for display. She also recently completed her senior thesis magazine, a comprehensive, self-published project that stands as her most ambitious and time-intensive work to date.
Natalie began her professional experience at North Road Communications, Marist University's student-run, nationally affiliated integrated marketing communications firm, joining as an account representative on the publicity team. She currently serves as account executive for The Poughkeepsie Public Schools Foundation, where she collaborates directly with the client to produce press releases, video content, and social media designs. Through this work, she has developed a strong command of both visual design and client communication. Natalie continues to experiment with typography, layout, and motion, creating work that is visually compelling and precise in communicating abstract concepts.