Denise Urban

While an art major at Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I focused on painting, anatomy, art history, graphic design and fashion drawing, earning a BA in Art in1976. Her first design job was art directing for John Wanamaker's and Gimbel's in Philadelphia, PA, while still a senior in college.

In 1979, I launched a small design business specializing in collateral for retail design and began to work as a freelance artist for many elite Madison and Park Avenue graphic design studios and ad agencies, creating catalogs, brochures, hang tags, logos, and illustrations for packaging. While freelancing in 1980, I became increasingly intrigued by the fine arts, to further my experience and to study with several world renowned painters as a scholarship student at the Art Student's League.

In 1981 coincided with a major step forward in the development of my business. I developed a plan to expand her small home based business UrbanDigits.com� by targeting specific design firms whose I she admired. Then sent out a series of promotional brochures, showcasing my best work. The mailings resulted in an immediate stream of challenging and diverse work, which has continued since.

For over 20 years, UrbanDigits has been dedicated to providing innovative creative solutions for the retail industry. My husband Jeff and I have a diversity of experience, and dedication to exceeding our clients expectations. From small stores to mega malls UrbanDigits has been creating change and orchestrating innovative identities. We continue to work with numerous top retail and commercial ad agencies in NYC and have won numerous awards for superior work.


UrbanDigits has designed promotional catalogs and illustrations for corporate, and retail agencies such as: Macy's, Talbot's, Lord & Taylor, Limited, Laura Ashley, Bullock's, Wathne's, Bass, Anne Taylor, Estee Lauder, The Academy Natural Science, Fortunoff, Spiegel, Dillard's, Jos. A Bank, Chadwick's, J.C.Penney, Rich's and Bloomingdales. UrbanDigits has produced a myriad of work from large daily publications to brochures for high quality web or sheet fed offset via global networks and Internet in print, electronic DVD formats.

I received my MFA from the New York School of Visual Arts in1998. Before graduating, my work was exhibited at the Strong Museum, Rochester, New York. Her MFA Thesis CD-ROM 'Emanations of the Light' was an installed exhibit entitled What's Hot in History. The Strong Museum is a history center for families and children. Strong Museum offers hands- on school lessons that combine the museum's world-renowned collections and award-winning exhibitions to create exciting learning experiences. Emanations of the Light was the genesis of a very personal work arising from her father's private collection of photographs, love letters and memorabilia saved by as an american soldier, amateur staff photographer and aviation engineer for the 6th Floating Air Craft Carrier, in the Pacific during WWII and Post war Japan from 1942 to 1946.

'Emanations of the Light ' won the National Educational Media Network1998 Silver Apple Award Competition recognized as a standard of excellence in educational media and was exhibited in the US and Europe: The Soho School of Visual Arts Gallery, The Visual Arts Museum, The School of Visual Arts, NYC, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy, Centro de Cultra Contemporanea, Barcelona, Spain and The Sala de Exposiciones CAM, Alicante, Spain

In 2001 I decided to dabble again in another medium by designing and sewing handmade pillows, tote bags, sachets, journals, jewelry, greeting cards, paper collages and canvas oil paintings. This work evolved into designing a line of products entitled Sleepy Turtle Pond Greetings. There are now over 1,000 designs to choose from. The subject matter is an eclectic collection of images, many of which celebrate nature and country. In addition, there is an extensive selection of holiday cards and cards that express love and friendship. Because of my commitment to the human spirit, a sizable portion of the profits is donated to charitable causes. I began designing simple illustrated greeting cards. Among the national companies to contact UrbanDigits were American Greetings, Dayspring and Hallmark Cards. Soon the idea of a conceptual commercial success of these individual card designs resulted in the creation of entire coordinated lines of unique products for Licensing. Since signing with my licensing agent I have been blessed and fortunate to design top selling collections of cards, gift-wrap, gift bags, boxes, china, fabric, wallpaper, accessories, and other upscale stationery products for the gift industry.

My work is currently being sold at The Art Shop at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, PA. and One of A Kind Boutique in Princeton, NJ.

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