Senior Art Director
Joan brings a strong formal education in graphic design and fine arts as well as more than 15 years of experience as a designer to her work with Watergraphics’ clients. A true Renaissance woman, she utilizes the skills of copywriter, storyteller, jewelry maker, print production expert, illustrator, and consummate graphic designer in the development, expression, and positioning of client brands.
She has worked with major as well as fledgling brands, developing logos and branded materials from a blank slate to trade show booths and logo wear apparel for the sales staff. Joan considers herself ultimately a “symbologist,” a specialist in the interpretation and expression of symbols. Her last name, Stroika, means building or construction, and she is most definitely the architect of brands as symbols and symbols as brands.
Joan views brands as not too distinct from ancient cave paintings. Both derive from the basic human need to tell a compelling story and to express the essence of our humanity. Day-to-day she is knee deep in the nitty-gritty, whether prepping files for print-ready applications or iterating through variations of three-dimensional package design. But, she loves to talk with clients, moving beyond her own intuition about a project to receive client input and get “under the hood” of the foundational concepts behind their brand and their aspirations for it.
When not ruminating on a brand project or head down “getting it done,” Joan can be found creating original bead work jewelry, reading the magnificent novels of the great women of the Regency and Victorian periods or crafting her own recipe for limoncello. Her partner in debate of the Bronte sisters vs. Jane Austen is her sassy orange tabby cat, Marmalade. Marmalade has a soft spot for Mary Shelley and Frankenstein which at times gives Joan pause.
Motto: Kindness doesn’t cost anything, so be generous with it
Fashion Statement: Elegant Earth Goddess
Favorite Designer: David Bromstad, interior design
Little Known Fact: Spent my 20th birthday in a bathrobe and PJs, kidnapped by my dorm buddies for a breakfast run to the local diner.