Austėja Galinytė

Graphic Designer

I am Lithuanian-Canadian Graphic Designer and Folk Artist based in Montréal, Québec (soon Birmingham, UK!). I am a multidisciplinary graphic designer, with a strong interest in publication, print and motion design. I strive to be pragmatic, approachable and always joyful. When I’m not designing you can find me outside on a bike ride adventure or weaving a traditional Baltic sash!

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Education

2024

Diploma of College Studies in Graphic Design
Dawson College, Montreal Canada

2019

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Linguistics
McGill University, Montreal Canada

Skills

InDesign · After Effects · Illustrator · Photoshop · Figma · Webflow
English · French · Lithuanian
Folk Art · Traditional Lithuanian Sash Weaving

Experience

2023-2024

Graphic Designer
Cedars Cancer Foundation

Awards

2022-2023 Edition

Finalist
Bourses Marc H. Choko Poster Contest

Explore my projects!

Design is a public subject.

Karim Rashid

Book Design

Karim Rashid is one of the most prolific multidisciplinary designers of our time. This book design and accompanying app aims to embody his spirit and become a vessel for his bold and colourful works. We each interact with upwards of 700 things a day, the majority designed by other humans. Design is not something guarded for the elite, nor is it superficial. It surrounds everyone, it is our everyday. As stated by Karim, “Design is a public subject”.

book cover on patterned lime green background

Approach

His work is joyous and he embraces colour fearlessly, driving to evoke emotions in physical objects and spaces. Karim Rashid uses a set of ‘ikons’ as a visual language throughout many of his designs, and his identity is synonymous with the playfulness of the colour pink. The decisions I took focused on being approachable, to contain and highlight, but not compete with his eclectic work.

Book standing up, plain background
cut out letters hanging by thread on a white background at different depths, height and sizes
open book spread on patterned lime green background
person flipping page of book on lime green patterned background

Solution

I wanted the cover to be joyous and celebrate his work by creating letterforms based on his iconography. The imagery bleeds off the page, as his work transcends physical space, otherwise the layout is accessible and practical, for ease of interaction. The app embraces colour as a tool to evoke emotions with a toggle to explore different lively colour palettes based on his works. Throughout this project, I was reminded of the impact the design of our surroundings has on us, and that as a designer I have the ability to insert joy wherever possible.

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Silver Frost, Silver Dream

Tear for the ultimate frosty treat

Packaging Design

The Montreal Public Markets serves the city all year long, with a mission to bring Montrealers closer to local producers, market gardeners, retailers, and more through a network of public markets. This fictional summer pop-up includes a new line of locally produced sorbets in need of functional and attractive packaging, for tourists and locals alike. This is a product for people to beat the summer heat with a sweet but healthy treat while visiting the market.

Hand holding sorbet popsiclesHand holding two popsicles, open in their packaging on deep yellow background

Approach

You’re at the market to get some fresh healthy local produce, what about in the form of a refreshing treat? The problem is when that sweet treat melts while you’re browsing the market, and it gets all over your hands. This mess free packaging catches the attention of market-goers, reflecting a chill freshness.

Assortment of people walking outside on a hot summers day by Jean Talon Market in Montreal
three popsicles packages in a row, on plain white background
Two people walking outside of Atwater Market in Montreal on sunny day
Person holding open sorbet packaging

Solution

The packaging includes a perforated tab to pull, leaving you with a drip catcher, meaning no mess while you peruse the market. The silver foil catches your attention as it reflects like ice, inviting you to cool down while visiting the market on a hot summer day. The flavours of each Popsicle are evoked in the melding colours, swirling together as they would in sorbet form. This process took me on a journey on the materiality of a project, and the interaction of different textures.

popsicle packaging amongst carrots and ginger on deep yellow background
Group of people having a picnic in a park on a sunny day
Woman holdint tote bag with magenta "&" and MPM logo
Two popsicles amongst blueberries, beets, black currants and mint on a deep red background
Product Photography by Karyl Boily

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Language Image

Félicia Atkinson

Vinyl and Poster Design

Language Image is an album released in 2022 by Félicia Atkinson. Her inspiration for the album lands in the spaces between categories and the relationship between soundscapes and dialogue. The texture of the sound becomes tangible, the space is wide and empty but not lonely; there is intimacy, however mysterious and at times unsettling.

cut out letters hanging by thread on a white background at different depths, height and sizes

Approach

The album contains a lot of fragmented language and spoken poetry. Finding a way to extrapolate this feeling visually by playing with legibility and uncalculated composition could portray the fragmented phrases used throughout the album. The shapes created from the fragmented type could be arranged in a way that suggests a landscape, expanding on language breaking down or transforming into something new, expanding on the album’s exploration on the relationship between dialogue and sound.

poster on a sunny city block featuring imagery for the album Image Language
silouhettes of letters at various perspectives on blue background
banner on a city block featuring imagery for the album Image Language
vinyl, cover and jacket hanging by thread among cut up letters

Solution

By photographing cutout letter-forms hanging by thread, I was able to capture a sense of depth and abstract the letters as their own physical forms in space, playing with the idea of fragmented language as an image. With these visuals, a 7’’ vinyl sleeve and concert poster were created, steering the compositions and interactions with the concept of separation of spaces. I listened to the album on repeat to be fully immersed in the process and interpretation.

Poster design for Image Language, featuring cut out letters and big type at the bottom

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Changements Climatiques

Global Land-Ocean Temperature Index

Poster Design

The prompt for the Marc H Choko Student Poster competition, open to all graphic design students part of the SDGQ was to create a poster to be part of an exhibit at the McCord Stewart Museum, tackling a different social issue each year. Partnered with Équiterre for the 2022/2023 edition, the theme was Climate Change. My poster was chosen as a finalist.

Approach

Climate change is one the most pressing issues of our time. Often charged with emotion, sometimes the scientific data get sidelined. I took an objective approach and visually represented the urgency we are facing by using data from the Combined Land-Surface Air and Sea-Surface Water Temperature Anomalies and assigning colours with the use of MATLAB.

Climate change poster, with bars of colour representing rising temperature, as the bars cover the words "Les Changements Climatiques"

Solution

The poster shows both axes of the data, both the year and temperature. The typography gets overwhelmed with the rising temperature, a projection for what will happen if we don’t act now. Working on this poster was a dynamic yet academic process, with the purpose of creating a compelling poster without compromising too much of the raw data.

black bar with decades from 1880 to 2020 written out, with a secondary bar overlaid on a downward diagonal to including the year 2040
Climate change poster on city block

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Selective Attention

Art of the STM

Publishing Design

Montreal’s public transit corporation, STM, is in essence also a public art gallery. The inception of the metro system involved different architects, and artists to add unique character to each station. Since the late 1970s, Quebec government-funded public buildings or extensions require artwork by a Quebec artist, valued at about 1% of the construction budget. This publication exhibits every single piece of public artwork in the Montreal metro from its inception in 1966 to upcoming installations.

prefontaine station platform
Photo by Isabelle Gadbois

Approach

Despite all the public art throughout the entire public metro system, how often does the daily commuter take the time to notice the artwork of each station they pass? Attention is selective, it's only when something catches our eye, or we consciously make the effort, that we stop and take notice. The layout of this book works in a similar fashion, as we commute through this book, you can only really stop and look at what you pay attention to.

picture of book open, pages facing down with circular shadow
Photo of signs hanging above landing in Prefontain Montreal Metro station
Photo by Isabelle Gadbois
Benches on metro platform station
Photo by Christopher Forsythe
picture of book open, pages facing up with circular shadow
picture of book open, pages facing up with circular shadow

Solution

The layout aims to create a sense of urgency, with limited breathing space and a continuous run of text and photographs, mimicking the passage through the metro. The typographic colour functions similarly, highlighting only key information, the rest is up to you to stop and discover. This project allowed me to explore something more conceptual, and create a strict system to flourish within.

Iconic floor at Lionel Groulx Metro station
Photo by Isabelle Gadbois

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Canada Modern Stamp Collection

Highlights from the Archive

Motion Design

Canada Modern is a tangible and digital archive, dedicated to preserving and celebrating the evolution of Canadian graphic design, with a focus on the influential modernist design movement spanning from 1960 to 1985. This motion project aimed at highlighting a selection of stamps from this era of Canadian design.

Approach

Stamps are an expression of national identity and are an important part of global communication. The featured stamps include the Centenary of British Columbia’s Entry into Confederation (1971), World Communications Year (1983) and the Earth Sciences Stamps (1972). Each one has its own sense of movement and interaction, within and between each stamp.

Hover over each stamp to discover its movement!

Earth Science Stamps
Timbres sur les sciences de la terre
Fritz Gottschalk(1972)

World Communication Year
Année Mondial de la communication
Raymond Bellemare (1983)

Centenary of British Columbia’s Entry into Confederation
Centenaire de l’entrée de la Colombie-Britannique dans la Confederation
Edward R.C. Bethune (1971)

World Communication Year
Annee Mondial de la communication
Raymond Bellemare (1983)

Centenary of British Columbia’s Entry into Confederation
Centenaire de l’entree de la Colombie-Britannique dans la Confederation
Edward R.C. Bethune (1971)

Solution

By dissecting components of the design I was able to extrapolate the movement injected into them by the Canadians who designed them, imaging where each element came from and how it interacts with the rest of its composition. The simple yet lively transitions are effective in bringing life to these already dynamic stamps. This project helped me to be more engaged in an iconic era of design and to analyse it from a different angle.

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