The alumna’s creative skills are specialised but not limited to Graphic and Product Design. In 2018, soon after leaving Loughborough, Yia established Yia Designs and has been running the company as its Founder and Creative Director.
Yia is particularly focused on lighting fixtures made from a variety of materials such as metals including copper, brass, steel, and wood. The alumna pursues this amongst other creative projects such as Graphic Design for clothing, tote bags and logos - her latest project involves a new venture in NFTs.
In addition to her design work, Yia is involved in other creative pursuits. She is a professional dancer and works in a variety of genres including Ballet and Contemporary Dance. Her passion for dance has translated into a further project titled ‘Immersed’ where she combined visuals with choreography or freestyle surrounding concepts to create an immersive experience for viewers.
In 2019 her company launched ‘Charity Begins At Home’ which focuses on outreach projects across Trinidad and Tobago through art and dance workshops to nurture young minds. The activities should by extension foster self-development and expression to encourage the hidden creativities of children. To develop her skills as part of this project, Yia completed a course to become a Certified Therapeutic Art Life Coach.
In the same year she participated in the Miss Supranational Trinidad and Tobago pageant and won the national title in the competition. She went on to represent her country in Poland amongst 77 other countries and placed in the Top 21 contestants overall, with other notable placements including winning the Rising Star Award, a top five placement in National Costume and she also designed and produced a Copper Lamp as the National Gift.
Due to the pandemic, Yia shifted her focus to roles where she can use her voice more, whilst maintaining her position at Yia Designs. The alumna started her career in Media and Broadcasting and works as a Weather Anchor at TTT Limited among her various other projects. She uses her position to better establish her brand in the creative industry and has recently installed a Copper Wall Lamp at the Brix Hotel in Trinidad.
You can find more of Yia’s latest projects on her linktr.ee.