about Maria
Maria grew up in Brooklyn. She attended Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, the top magnet art high school in New York City. Graduating a year early, Maria then moved to Chicago, where she attended and received her BFA from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. While at the historic museum school she studied design, drawing, printmaking, and photography.
Maria has lived and worked in New York, Chicago, and Silicon Valley. Early in her career she worked in news and magazine, before falling in love with book design. She has worked on books for celebrities like Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deepak Chopra, and Adam Carolla, and also on bestsellers like Awkward Family Photos and Serafina and the Black Cloak. As well as critically acclaimed books like the YA novel Conviction.
Her work has been recognized by AIGA 50 Books/50Covers, the Type Directors Club, and the New York Book Show.
Besides design Maria collects and blogs about outstanding covers on Book Design Heroines, draws and paints. She also loves great fiction and typography. You can normally find her wandering Brooklyn with her husband Art Director Tam Nguyen, and their dog, Bodhi.
Contact
email: maria.elias.art@gmail.com