Designer Profile: Oana Alupoaie

Today we'd like to take you behind the scenes of Viridian Bay and introduce you to our in-house designer!

It's really no surprise that Oana Alupoaie has landed at Viridian Bay as a designer. She's loved art and has been creating it with her hands ever since she was a little girl. Early on, she had a knack for drawing, which led to painting, and later brought her to UCSD to study Fine Arts. She explored artisinal crafts including glass blowing, neon sign making, silk screening and jewelry casting. Oana found that she loved making cast jewelry, and started a jewelry business after college. From casting jewelry, it was an easy and natural transition for her to design cast metal home décor for Viridian Bay once she moved to San Francisco.

On the Viridian Bay team, Oana is known for adding unexpected details to a product for the consumer to discover. Her eye for intricacies and details has earned her the name "Picky Pants" on the team, and it's one of the many things we love about her! If she absolutely had to choose, her favorite Viridian Bay Collections would be the Pacifica and Whimsical Collections (it was too hard to pick just one!). She loves the Whimsical Collection for its fun fantasy and animal characters reminiscent of a menagerie tea party. And the Pacifica Collection was inspired by memories of her family visiting the California coast, where they would see a large variety of sea life in the tidepools. A couple of her favorite pieces from these two collections include the swirling feather hurricanes in verdi finish (which will soon be gracing her patio) and the tidepool mirror.

Oana's favorite thing about being a designer is when inspiration strikes—seeing the ideas she has dreamt up come to life gives her energy and it's where her passion lies.

When Oana isn't designing Viridian Bay's latest pieces, you can usually find her enjoying great food and good company in San Francisco or eating oysters, drinking mead, and enjoying the beautiful scenery in Marin.