Christy Hill
christy.hill@chillfactor.tv

Putting the CHILLFACTOR in .TV
Written by Ann Defreeze

In her early twenties Christy moved to Eastern Germany, Dessau, to take part in an experimental studio at the Bauhaus with other international architects and designers. That experience, working with people on crazy innovative self-directed projects, was a definitive catalyst for the über creative Christy Hill. "I'm naturally curious," says Christy, "I look at every project as an opportunity to learn something new." She laughs, and adds "that's what I love the most about design: continuous learning; I'm on a personal quest for knowledge."

Six years later, in 1999, Christy received her Bachelors Degree in Communications Design from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, BC. "Completing my degree prepared me for multi-tasking with late nights, multiple projects and timelines." In her final year at Emily Carr, when she was designing her graduation project, she fell in love with Macromedia Flash because, as she quickly discovered, she could easily create entertaining interactive environments and bring her wild imagination to life. That's when the addiction began!

After graduation, Christy flew off to New York, landed a job at Immersant as a front end Graphic Designer, and worked closely with two information architects and a team of programmers. They taught her the usability ropes and she pushed the limits of Flash while designing large corporate sites, marketing presentations, interactive demos, titling design and GUI for software.

Then, in a bold entrepreneurial move, Christy decided to leave Immersant and move back to BC to start CHILLFACTOR Communications, a creative new media company. Christy sees an opportunity in the merging of broadband internet and digital TV and she wants to be on the frontlines when it happens. "Flash is a powerful program…Looking forward, I feel I could easily bring my flash expertise, Illustration style and fiction together to produce animation and titling sequences for TV." She provides examples like the intros to 'I dream of Jeannie', 'The Pink Panther' and 'The Nanny' when describing how she sees her style fitting in to the industry.

"No matter what I do, I always keep coming back to what I love most, Illustration, Flash and storytelling," says Christy. Upon visiting her web site it is clear this is true. Her passion and skills show impressively across many different mediums: logos, splash screens, interface design, interactive demos, presentations, titling sequences, animation; each lavishly distinctive in her style. You might have seen her latest Flash illustration pieces in the Georgia Straight, motherjones.com, the Loop, The Westgate Flower shop, STK, or most recently, BC Business magazine.

Currently CHILL shares her office space with her boyfriend, who is also a product designer. Together, they support each other and combine talents as they start their businesses. Christy is designing and developing their company sites: www.uniqueindustrialdesign.com and www.chillfactor.tv and Chris is writing back end documents and setting up project tracking systems. Together, they plan to develop consumer products featuring CHILL's distinctive Illustrations. So far, Christy's first product ventures have been greeting cards, magnets and a prototype set of 'seventies coasters. More impressively, however, she's also written and illustrated a children's book and is now seeking a publisher to take it on!

Flash Goddess Christy Hill (CHILL) currently lives and works in Vancouver, BC Canada.