Born and raised in Akron, OH, it's always been about art, music and fashion for me. After graduating from Kent State University with a Graphic Design degree in hand, I headed west relocating to Los Angeles, embarking in the world of freelance design and eventually working full time for John Taylor of Duran Duran. I've worn many hats over the years: personal assistant, web designer, web mistress, photographer, merchandiser, photo retoucher, videographer, music editor... sounding board! I've been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to explore many of those skills working with John as I helped him create, run and maintain his own website, known as Trust The Process (TTP). It was a grassroots, creative outlet for his music, thoughts, ideas and a great way to maintain a connection with his fan base. It was also a no rules, creative playground and experiment lab for me. I learned a lot and grew a lot. I worked with John on designing all of his CD packaging as well as creating other merchandise (t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, posters... a magazine.) It was like art school for the both of us.

In addition to working with John, I was brought on to create the logo identity for clothing company Juicy Couture and worked very closely with Juicy's co-founders, Gela Taylor and Pamela Skaist-Levy. I also worked on women's graphic logos and designs for the company for eight years. Eventually Juicy launched a men's line, Dirty English, and John and I played a big part in the design direction of it all. Hundreds (thousands maybe?!) of logos and designs were created by us over five years. Partners in couture crime. It was a lot of fun, and yet another creative outlet I'm grateful for where I learned so much, surrounded by some amazing people.

In the midst of all of this, I've also had the pleasure to have an ongoing working relationship with Duran Duran since 2003 designing logos, t-shirts, tour programmes, calendars, DVD packaging, stage clothes, CD packaging and a vinyl album.

A t-shirt junkie at heart, in the summer of 2009 I launched my own t-shirt line, Punk Masters, as a personal creative outlet and an opportunity to further explore my love of screen printing (yep, every shirt is hand screen printed by yours truly.) While working for Juicy Men's, I fell in love with the imagery and aesthetics from the great classic masters and royalty of centuries past, but then the real fun began with taking that imagery, punking it up, rocking it out, and bringing it all in to the modern world. Opposite worlds living harmoniously (and humorously) together. In this world you will also find me sharing some favorite sayings and quotations (some inspirational, but never cheesy!), combined with imagery that takes it to another level. This is Punk Masters, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to invite you along for the ride.

-Patty Palazzo

For even more, John Taylor interviews me here.