Meet Debra Valencia | Surface Pattern Designer, College Instructor & Speaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Debra Valencia and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Debra, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
After graduating from the University of Arts in Philadelphia, Debra moved to Los Angeles. She worked for a famous designer, Deborah Sussman in Santa Monica, who was a former Charles & Ray Eames Office designer. Starting as a junior designer, Debra quickly rose to creative director working on big projects such 1984 Olympics, DisneyWorld, EuroDisney, SoCal Gas Company and City of Santa Monica. After 12 years with Sussman, it was time to go out on her own. She started as a freelance graphic designer and soon built my full service graphic design agency with 5 designers and a marketing/copywriter. They created branding and marketing programs for over 200 clients over the next few years. In 2009, she decided to pivot into surface design — an exciting area of pattern design for fabric, paper products, fashion and home décor. Since then, she has been licensing her artwork for royalties across every product category.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Like her artful creations, Debra Valencia, the artist, has timeless style. Born in Washington, D.C. of Euro-Asian ancestry, Filipino father and Irish mother, Debra’s artistic talent has been passed down from generations. Her paternal grandmother, Socorro Valencia, was a fine artist as well as a skillful seamstress and gourmet cook. From the early age of five, she remembers dreaming of becoming an artist. With fantasies of far away exotic places, she would draw pictures of herself in a hula skirt dancing on a tropical island or as a mermaid swimming in the ocean. A star artist throughout grade school, Debra continued her artistic path in art college. Earning a BFA from University of the Arts in Philadelphia, she pursued graphic design as her major, with interests in fine art, printmaking, fashion, interior, furniture design and architecture.

Debra lives in Los Angeles, California. She has one son who is an illustrator, fine artist and custom frame maker. Adamant about preserving her multi-cultural heritage, Debra maintains family trees and photo archives for both paternal and maternal families. She created a cookbook of her Filipino grandmother’s original recipes to pass on to the next generation. Debra is a frequent host who loves to cook and entertain. She finds solace in her yoga classes, walks along the beach, hikes through the Santa Monica mountains. For excitement, she is a regular in the live music scene around LA, swing dancing to music from the 1920s to 1950s.

Multi-Cultural Inspirations

“My collections are a reflection of my passion for traveling the world and scouring the marketplaces for interesting finds as well as a love for everything vintage. I mix and match elements in interesting color and pattern combinations to make something new.”

​Inspired by world cultures and pop genres with a passion for multi-cultural traditions and travel, Valencia’s vibrant contemporary designs reflect her cultural inspiration. Debra has traveled to over 40 countries, from the fashionable style of Italy to the streets of India and the colorful beat of Morocco, Thailand, Japan, Mexico and Costa Rica, Debra Valencia weaves her artful designs into an artist’s palette. By creatively blending ethnic color into today’s contemporary tastes, colorful patterns with contemporary style emerge. She also finds stimulation from fashion genres as well as historical architecture, tiles, textiles and handicrafts from around the world.

Designs to Spice Up Your World Debra Valencia, a visionary artist, designer and entrepreneur with a passion for world travel, artisan traditions and popular genres, has branded a modern style uniquely her own. The Debra Valencia™ brand take a fresh approach to creatively blending florals, paisleys, geometric and decorative motifs in a distinctive sense of style. Her signature look is artistic, lively, vibrant, colorful, vivid and imaginative. She is inspired by craftsman of cultures from all over the world, including textile arts and architectural ornamentation, as well as pop art, fashion and everything vintage. Like a talented chef whose fusion of unexpected ingredients turns an ordinary dish into an extravaganza, Debra mixes and matches elements to create signature designs that bring color, style and beauty to everyday life. Debra has licensed her art with over 100 manufacturers in gift, stationery, textiles, home décor, fashion accessories, bath/body, and cosmetics. She is passionate about building her successful brand by expanding it further into the lifestyle market.

Designs to Spice Up your World
Debra Valencia surface designs are a creative blend of geometric and organic patterns mixed and matched in interesting color combinations, all with a distinctive sense of style. At its core, it stands for timeless style that transcends culture, language or age. The brand reflects a fresh and imaginative approach to the creation of contemporary classic patterns that are chic and sassy, yet fun and lively. Mixing stripes with florals or colorful motifs on plaid, each collection distinctively captures the essence and personality of the brand. ​Debra mixes and matches elements to create rich designs spiced with style and color.

Visit Debra’s two websites, debravalencia.com and leopardfashionista.com to see products bearing her designs for purchase.

Professional Recognition
Debra’s expertise includes creating distinctive branding, packaging and product design for globally recognized companies in a variety of industries. Gift, Home, and Stationery: Esprit Bed & Bath, Karen Klein Candles & Spa; Toy: Hasbro, Playskool, Milton Bradley, Swingset Press, Herrington Teddy Bears, and CowParade; Entertainment and Hospitality: Disney, Hard Rock Cafés & Hotels International, The Cheesecake Factory, MGM Grand Hotels, Hilton Hotels, Luxe Hotels Worldwide, Costume Designers Guild and Leonardo DiCaprio; Publishing: Book design for artists including Mark Ryden and Liz McGrath, museums, galleries and a variety of travel, business, children and trade book publishers.

Debra founded greeting card company, Vida Valencia, in 2006. The company features a line of pop-up cards specifically designed to hold gift cards. The Vida Valencia catalog with over 130 items is currently licensed to Jillson & Roberts. Products received accolades in the press for ingenuity and design innovation including Greetings Etc. January issue feature story and cover as the Top Trends of 2007 as well as Best of Show at National Stationery Show in the same year.

Debra’s design work has been featured in publications including Time, Interiors, HOW, Print, ID, Communication Arts, Identity, Abitare, Process Architecture, Greetings Etc., Gift & Decorative Accessories, Giftware News, and the definitive book, Women in Design 1900–2000. She has received numerous awards from the AIGA, STA and other professional design organizations.

Debra is a published author with her first title Sewing Pretty Bags: Boutique Designs to Stitch & Love, launched in 2015 for Fox Chapel Publishing. Since then she has authored a dozen craft titles with more on the horizon. For more information, visit the publishing page on her website.

Dedication to the Arts
A believer in giving back to the arts and thankful for being blessed with her creative talents, Debra donates her time and art services to many organizations. She served on the Board of Directors for five years for Collage Dance Theatre, a site-specific dance company that brings performing arts to the streets of Los Angeles and other cities nationwide. She designed many of their posters, invitations, website and fundraising promotions from the beginning of her career to present day.

Debra supported SEE-LA, Sustainable Economic Enterprises of LA, an organization that supports local farming by bringing fresh produce to seven Farmer’s Markets around Los Angeles and teaches healthful nutrition and cooking to elementary school children. She designed the logo, signage, menus, marketing materials and interior for The Farmer’s Kitchen, a permanent facility adjacent to the Hollywood Farmers’ Market, promoting local farming and nutritional education.

An avid architectural fan, Debra has designed numerous architectural tour guides for the Los Angeles Conservancy, the largest membership-based local historic preservation organization in the country, dedicated to the recognition, preservation, and revitalization of the architectural and cultural heritage of greater Los Angeles.

Arts Educator
She has served as a part-time faculty member at Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles for over 20 years. Courses she has taught in the past include Basic Design Fundamentals, Typography, Production Technologies and Professional Practice for Graphic Designers. In Spring 2013, Debra launched a new 10-week Licensing Your Art for Royalties course at Otis College of Art + Design in Los Angeles as part of the Extension program and has been repeating the same course every semester due to popular demand. She also teaches Introduction to Surface Design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

Debra has selected, supervised, trained and mentored over 75 student interns from Otis College of Art & Design, California State University/Long Beach, Rhode Island School of Design, University of the Arts/Philadelphia, Santa Monica College, University of California/Los Angeles, Art Center College of Design and California Institute of the Arts. The students gained real world work experience and were better prepared to enter professional positions.

Well respected as a design educator, Debra has been invited to portfolio reviews for AIGA/LA, Otis Intern Program and National Portfolio Day. Debra has lectured at major institutions and conferences including Cal Poly Tech in San Luis Obispo, Harvard University, Fresh Dialogue program sponsored by the AIGA New York, Western Regional Conference of the Society of Environmental Graphic Designers (SEGD) and Art Director’s Clubs of both Los Angeles and Washington, DC. She has served as a judge in numerous national design competitions for the same organizations.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Day 1: Drive north on PCH in my convertible through Malibu then up Latigo Canyon to show my former home from 2010 to 2014 with a stunning view of the ocean. Stop for lunch at the Malibu Country Market. Drive back home to relax with bellinis and take a dip in my pool. Filipino dinner at home featuring my grandma’s homemade Adobo recipe.

Day 2: Find a good art exhibit to see at LACMA, The Broad or MOCA. Lunch at Grand Central Market (Debra designed all the neon signs in the 90s!) Shopping at Santee Alley. Back to home the out for sushi dinner.

Day 3: Bike riding at the beach along the bike path. Taco stand lunch. Afternoon vintage shopping in City of Orange at the Orange Circle. Take the bus to Hollywood Bowl for a summer concert including a gourmet picnic basket.

Day 4: Head to Hollywood for sightseeing to see the Hollywood sign, Sunset Blvd, Chinese Theater, etc. Drive up to Griffith Observatory to take in the view. A little shopping on Melrose and stop in Amoeba Records. Dine at my favorite restaurant, Musso & Frank’s: steak, martinis and crème brulee.

Day 5: A five mile morning walk at the beach. Live music and swing dancing at one of the my regular venues. Meet all my dancer friends and have a couple of cocktails.

Day 6: My guest’s choice: Getty Museum, Academy Museum, Huntington Library or spend a day in Santa Monica and Venice Beach. Evening may include a comedy club or another live music venue.

Day 7: Homemade breakfast featuring my famous avocado toast. Pack up and drop off at LAX. Ciao baby!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Deborah Sussman: My first employer in the graphic design profession and greatest mentor—for teaching me how to see the beautiful details in the world and incorporating cultural inspirations into my work.

Website: www.debravalencia.com

Instagram: @debravalencia

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debravalencia/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debravalenciadesign

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@debravalencia/about

Other: https://www.leopardfashionista.com @leopard.fashionista