Molly Baker has single handedly illustrated a 112 page children’s books, collaborated with Disney for graphic design of the latest Star Wars movie and designed comic books for titles such as Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ant-Man. Despite Baker’s prosperous career as a graphic designer, she ended high school and began college undecided about a career path.

“I didn’t have a clear path or a solid idea of what I wanted to do for a career in high school. I knew I was interested in the arts but I wasn’t dedicated to anything. I did a bit of work in drawing cartoons for the Newsstreak but besides that, I didn’t do anything with graphic design,” Baker said.

Baker graduated from HHS in 2002. She decided to attend Virginia Commonwealth University where she entered as a Sculpture Major. However, Sculpture lost its appeal to Baker who switched majors.

“Coming into VCU, I was excited and interested in Sculpture but I lost interest and felt like I was wasting money. A few of my friends switched majors and that kind of helped as the final push to switch to Communication Arts and Design,” Baker said.

This change in studies allowed Baker to reclaim her interest in Graphic Design. Baker graduated from VCU in 2006, packed her bags and headed to Chronicle Publishing Company in San Francisco, California.

“I worked hard at Chronicle and eventually was handed the role of lead illustrator for ‘The Secret World of Whales.’ I spent so much time on that book and it was the first time I was able to apply all my knowledge and skills into a project. The illustrations blended in specific anatomy while keeping it at a child’s level which was a fun challenge,” Baker said.

After producing her first book and other projects at Chronicle, Baker once again packed her bags and moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she began work with one of the biggest media companies in the world.

“I started out working for Disney Publishing [Worldwide] and for Marvel. The main workload was design for Star Wars and other movies they were releasing. I would look at what the movie designers had done for their concept art, get a feel for the plotline and just roll with it. When I had that feel, I’d start sketching for their comics and books,” Baker said.

Baker rolled with it using a sketching tablet and Adobe products. She uses the same methodology today of sketching, uploading and illustrating.

The extensive reach of Baker’s work at Disney caused gratification for her.

“It’s really satisfying to see the finished product when you’re working on something that’s going to be so widely publicized. The Disney graphics I worked on have been featured in the recent Star Wars collections… Being apart of a project that big was satisfying,” Baker said.

After projects with Disney and Marvel had concluded, Baker decided to break from the company and begin freelancing. Baker freelanced as a retail packager and art director for Martha Stewart and other big names and brands.

“Freelancing allowed me to have a lot more freedom with my workload. I’m still able to work on bigger projects with companies I had already worked with but I also have time to work on website design with my husband and other projects I couldn’t have worked,” Baker said.

When creating designs for companies, Baker approaches concept art on websites such as Dribble and Behance. Baker uses design ideas from these and implements them into her own work. Finding inspiration for her work has not always been as easy as a URL.

“When I was in high school, I was using a Nokia block phone and the computers we had were limited,” Baker said. “Your generation has computers with practically unlimited power that can fit in your hand. I started doing cartooning back when I had to use pencil and paper. Every single day, there is new information in the digital world that we can access and create something new.”