Lorena is a Mexican American graphic designer with a background in publishing and a sweet tooth for type and lettering, together with more than twenty years of experience as an educator. She grew up in Mexico City, where she earned her degree and gained experience in illustration, advertisement, packaging, film production and even a little journalism, before going to grad school in Basel, Switzerland. The contrast between her Mexican, eclectic background, and the analytical approach to design of the Swiss became, quite literally, the “north and south” of her professional practice. Soon after, dividing her time between teaching and studio work became her “east and west.”

In 2014, Lorena founded Salted Caramel Books, a small publishing house with the mission of fostering a love for languages and learning. This modest enterprise became a perfect hub for experiments and collaboration, thanks to the freedom for creating content that is independent from the constraints of the market. Lorena wants to empower students of design to own their projects with confidence and optimism, finding paths to make them part of the public conversation, and realize their craft is a form of wealth.

Her work has been recognized by the Quorum Awards (Mexico), the AIGA BoNE (Best of New England), the Society of Typographic Arts, and the Independent Publisher Awards. Her publications have been featured in the traveling exhibitions “DesignHer: Works by Contemporary Women Graphic Designers,” and “Without Rivers and alleys: 20 years of book design in Mexico.”

Some of her clients and partners have been: The House of Mexico in Paris, The National University of Mexico, The Octavio Paz Foundation, The University of Guadalajara Press, and Rochester University Press, among other institutions.

She has published “Sideway Glances, Vernacular Mexican Lettering,” “Modular Type Elements—A Workbook,” and the ludic “Candy, a Frog and a Comet.” You can check some of her most recent work at saltedcaramelbooks.com and her “vintage” portfolios at lorenahoward.com