By
Florence Rosenstein
Every
so often, Fashionlines features one of our staff
members for our readers to meet. This month we spotlight
Florence Rosenstein, our wonderfully talented Interactive
Designer whose light, swift touch at the
computer screen and a bubbly spirit makes
us happy in the darkest days of winter.
Sunnyvale,
California-May 2, 1981, I was
born into a family of Soviet Jewish immigrants
with a lineage of suffering, hardship, tragedy, holocaust
and war stories—heavy
stuff, right? So from, day one, you can guess
how lucky I was made to feel that I wasn’t
hungry or deprived or made fun of because my
last name was Rosenstein. I was raised with
virtues of hard work, loyalty, honesty, and
oh yeah, hard work. My parents worked through
mine and my sister’s childhoods—they
had no choice. They came to America in November
of 1979 with nothing, and in order to give
us opportunity, they had to succeed as well.
So my childhood was a pretty independent one
(at least till my mom and dad came home from
work) Go to school, come home, finish my homework—what’s
next? Something had to fill my time after school
and my countless summer days without a soccer
mom to give me a ride to my friend’s
house. Before
I can remember knowing how to spell "dog," I
was drawing one. I
do not remember myself without some sort of
coloring utensil in my left hand. Scribbling,
drawing, play dough, finger paint, a box of
72 shiny, waxy, heavenly Crayola crayons--these
were the things that filled my time and put
a huge smile on my face.
As
I got older and developed my skills, my family was proud,
yet unencouraging. “Florence, don’t waste
your brains on art school” was a phrase I heard
from my dad at least once a month when I started to shine
in my high school art class. Don’t ask me why,
but my dad’s dream for me was to be a programmer.
I tried it out, did great because I've always been a
math pro, but felt totally dry, like I was studying for somebody
else’s career. I
never understood why I had to be in the land
of opportunity if I wasn’t using it to
follow my passion. So, about a year into my computer
science studies at Santa
Clara University,
I decided to go “waste” my lifetime
4.0 brains on art school. It
was time to make my own choice. All my best friends,
including my sister thought I was crazy, but to
my surprise, my parents were my strongest supporters.
I think, finally, they were just proud of me for
finding my own way, like they did by coming to
this country.
So I packed my bags, moved to the most inspiring city in North America
(San Francisco,
of course) and followed my natural creative calling. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree
in computer arts from the Academy of Art University, while
interning at a Fortune 500 company. I began my career with
a bang. I started
out designing movie theater ads for hundreds of companies,
big and small. I
got a little bored with doing the same type of design all
the time, so I looked elsewhere. By chance, I stumbled on
an ad, “looking for a graphic designer for a world
famous online fashion magazine.” What girl on this
planet wouldn’t pay attention to that? I met Christine Suppes, and we instantly
clicked. I saw
awesome potential in being on the Fashionlines team and got
on board. Here I am—I hope you all like the
site!