Kelli Upshur
Art Director
Product UX/UI Designer
Pixel Magician
“An empath who loves art, design, and pretty things — and knows exactly what to do with all three.”
Character Metaphor
If the Girl Next Door Skipped the Reality Show, Taught Herself to Code, and Built a Design Empire Instead
About
Kelli Upshur didn't wait for anyone to teach her design — she taught herself HTML and CSS at 13 by reading source code on Geocities pages, and she's been building things from scratch ever since. A Pittsburgh-born, Pitt-educated artist with a BA in Studio Art and a Digital Media certificate, Kelli brings a rare blend of fine art instincts and technical fluency to everything she touches — from motion graphics and brand identity to UX/UI and hand lettering. She got her start designing merch for a musician battling leukemia in high school, shipping t-shirts to fans worldwide; that same spirit of purposeful, heart-led creativity has followed her through 12+ years of work for clients like E!/NBC Universal, VaynerMedia, Mattel, L'Oreal, the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, Talkspace, and Dreamworks. A self-described empath who draws deep inspiration from the 1960s and 70s — spotted thrifting for vintage typography and color palettes when she's not designing — Kelli is the kind of creative who brings warmth, obsessive craft, and a beautifully eclectic visual vocabulary to every brief she touches.
Favorite Tools
A vintage color palette, a blank artboard, and enough coffee to see it through to the kerning.