A fine artist, designer, and entrepreneur, Julia Ames is a DC-based artist, illustrator, creative director. During her decades-long career, her work has won an Addy and the AIGA Design for Good award, and has been recognized by many regional and national publications. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic and The Washington Post. Julia is an adjunct professor at both the Corcoran School of Art and UDC. She also teaches at The Loft Collective in Takoma Park, MD. Becoming 1 in 8 is her first solo exhibited collection.

Before found Humankind, a branding and design studio, Ames worked at Design Army, Penguin Publishing and The New York Times. As an agency founder, she works with hundreds of clients over the years, including The Smithsonian, Georgetown University, The Museum of American History, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, National Geographic and Jamie Oliver.

Ames reignited her fine art practice following her breast cancer diagnosis in 2015. At the time, her daughter was 3 and she had just turned 40. Inspired by other cancer survivors, Ames started analyzing medical drawings, thinking about the different ways we view the breast.

Ames was raised in Massachusetts and attended the University of Maryland, graduating Magna cum laude with a BA in Film and Visual Studies. As an undergraduate, she spent a semester at Hunter College in New York City and another at FAMU in Prague. She earned an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in Design/Designer as Entrepreneur, and recently studied Systems Thinking through IDEO U.

Ames lives with her family in Washington DC. When she is not at work, you can find her thinking of new ways to treat her fellow breast cancer survivors with greater dignity or on an adventure in the trees with her tiny but mighty family.