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GET IN TOUCH

To inquire about licensing photographs or art direction, design, film, or photography services: erika@erikarand.com. To purchase photographic prints, visit the store.

BACKGROUND

Born in Costa Rica, I spent the first year of my life in an orphanage. I played in the turquoise waters and white sand beaches of Manuel Antonio, surrounded by monkeys, iguanas, and countless species of birds. I'm forever grateful for my early time in the rain forest.

After earning degrees in anthropology, fine art, and Spanish from Lawrence University, I moved to New York City with one small suitcase to dance the mambo and ended up studying at Parsons School of Design, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the New York Film Academy. In New York, I worked as an art director for brands including Martha Stewart Living, Tiffany & Co., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That work funded my photography habit and the production of my first 16mm art films.

In 2005, I moved to California to support environmental and social justice projects via design and art direction, and hoped to deepen my photographic and film work. I served as the creative director for Color Of Change, (the largest online civil rights organization in the United States), and for Citizen Engagement Laboratory (now called the Center for Cultural Power) which helped launch 33 organizations focused on environmental and human rights initiatives. I produced and helped shoot a feature documentary on Tibet, arranging partnerships with Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, and filming luminaries including the Dalai Lama. I worked as a film director and art director for short films on climate change whose assembly programs have educated 25+ million students and trained over 4,000 student leaders. Alongside Academy-nominated filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, I served as a film curator for Pangea Day, an international multimedia event which broadcast content to over 60 million screens around the world. The project was honored to have Robin Williams, Cameron Diaz, Paul Simon, Lisa Ling, Forest Whitaker, Bob Geldof, will.i.am, and Christiane Amanpour contribute to our efforts.

After a decade supporting social and environmental initiatives as a freelance creative, I'm super grateful to be creating and selling my photographic artwork, and most recently, AI-assisted "post-photography" artwork created using a combination of my photography, drawing, digital painting, and AI tools. I am currently creatively collaborating with elders from the rarely photographed Hopi tribe, producing fine art photography and a book written by Hopi authors and editors. I love helping other women and marginalized artists find their voices in order to contribute their creativity toward a better world.

My clients include: Andante Records, Apple, Action for the Climate Emergency, Alliance for a New Humanity, Aqualillies, Avenue Q, (Richard Branson's) Carbon War Room, Center for Cultural Power, Central Park Summerstage, Chaksampa Tibetan Opera, Cirque du Soleil, Climate Majority Project, Color of Change, Costa Rican Ministry of Peace, Dreamworks Pictures, Elie Wiesel, Emerge America (Kamala Harris), Evolver.net (co-founder), Grammy-nominated rapper Fat Joe, Free Range Studios, Guayaki, Hairspray (on Broadway), Jack Morton Worldwide, Native American artist/activist John Trudell, Martha Stewart Living, McCann Erickson, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Participant Productions, Pushpin Group, Restoration Hardware, Slava’s SnowShow, Grammy-nominated Cuban band Tiempo Libre, Tiffany & Co., and the Tribeca Film Festival.


TESTIMONIALS

Erika is an experienced team leader at the highest level and also a true team player. While she brings enormous vision and originality to the table, she is also a great listener and able to arrive at solutions that are respectful of the input, needs and desires of everyone involved. In addition, she has a lifelong commitment to social justice and her warm, compassionate heart informs everything she does. Erika brings a keen eye for mass market communications and is able to remain true to the integrity of fine art while creating work that connects with large audiences.

~ Dimitri Ehrlich, Author, journalist, creative director, and multi-platinum selling songwriter

During the process of producing a documentary film to draw attention to human rights abuses in Tibet, Erika Rand inspired her team to go beyond documenting the Tibet movement and actively contributed to its struggle for justice. She designed an action in New York City's Times Square, bringing together various high profile human rights groups to call for the release of political prisoner Dhondup Wangchen. We appreciated her dedication, artistic talents as well as her management skills a lot. She was a pleasure to work with.

~ Wangpo Tethong, Filming for Tibet. Spokesperson, Greenpeace Switzerland. Member of the 15th Tibetan Parliament in Exile

Erika Rand is an exceptional cinematographer. The video she did for our Clothing of The American Mind commercial was shot beautifully and working with her was a pleasure. I also recently hired Erika as a brand consultant and logo designer for Aqualillies. She's incredibly fast. In a short amount of time she was able to provide us with something that was spot on. She is an incredible listener and knows how to help a company achieve its goals through brand design and art direction. Erika is professional, flexible and easy to work with. Erika brought ideas to the table that I would never have thought of on my own and her contribution surpassed my expectations. I would definitely hire her again and encourage anyone to do the same.

~ Mesha Kussman, Cannes Short Film Corner director and award winning choreographer. Director, Founder of Aqualillies

Erika did a marvelous job with art direction, design, writing, development (Kickstarter campaign, etc.) and story direction for a film we worked on together to highlight the injustices in Tibet. She has a great background and knowledge of the documentary film industry.

~ Russell Long, Executive Producer, Someplace With A Mountain and A Sheltered Sea. Director and Producer, Room to Breathe

Erika's talent is unparalleled. Her skills in graphic design, brand development and management, film production and direction, and art direction, paired with her unfailing commitment to excellence and integrity, make her an unsurpassed choice for helping our company to optimally communicate with the public. She has an uncanny ability of being able to distill very complex topics into easy-to-grock graphics that are accessible to a wide-ranging audience. There is no one in the design industry I recommend more highly and more frequently than Erika Rand.

~ Lopa Brunjes, Founder and CEO, Rasa Koffee. Former Vice President, Biochar Engineering Corporation.

Erika's eye and pursuit of visual perfection is unparalleled. She relentlessly works fine tuning the small details in order to achieve visual harmony. Whenever I work with Erika whether collaborating on film, photography, or graphic design, I'm always confident she will nail it.

~ Ian Inaba, Sundance award winning filmmaker. Founder, Executive Director, Citizen Engagement Lab

Erika Rand embodies that rare combination of raw talent, compassionate listening, and supreme dedication to her craft. Best of all, she is driven by a deep sense of mission and purpose, which makes collaborating with her both easy and meaningful. Anyone who has the opportunity to work with her should jump at the chance!

~ Eli Kasargod-Staub, Director, Climate Majority Project. Former Deputy Research Director, SEIU

Erika was a creative force at Citizen Engagement Lab, and a fantastic co-conspirator in all things media. She was incredibly dedicated to the causes that we worked on, and never hesitated when we had a new extremely urgent project for her. Her attention to detail and deep understanding of design, photography and film principles made her an ideal creative director, and I can only hope to work with her again!

~ Erica Fox, Government Affairs, Apple. Former Digital Media Producer, Citizen Engagement Lab

Erika's work is always powerful and never predictable. She's a true artist with a deep, honest commitment to important worldly issues. Her art direction and eye for unique and leading edge design is visionary, and has consistently left me awestruck. On top of that, she's one of the most fun and genuine human beings I've ever met! I feel very fortunate to have worked with her and hope to do so again.

~ Rob Ganger, Owner, Pollinator Media Group. Producer, Trudell

We recently had the pleasure to work with Erika Rand on a Website Design and Development project. What a treat! Erika just does everything right the first time...from providing an easy to follow IA and Wireframe to detailing every last function that will be in the finished product. Her exceptional attention to detail is outstanding - Bar None - which makes programming a breeze. We now use her design style as an example of "How to do things right". She is very easy to work with and offers great ideas to improve overall concepts. We look forward to working with Erika in the future. Thank you Erika!

~ Ian Yaklich, Vice President and Co-Owner, Off the Wall Media

Erika Rand is without question the most talented Art Director I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Supreme skills both as designer & director with a graceful composure toward playing on the team. Her films I look forward to seeing as I imagine the stories & imagery will be superb. Thankful to know you Erika & am happy to be on your dream team.

~ Cohen, Owner, Gypsypop records, Musician