March's Featured Alumna: Loyda Guadamuz '13

Written by Regina Ender

For Loyda Guadamuz, her church life and design life have always been connected. When she was a senior in high school, her pastor asked her to design a flyer for an upcoming church event, and she happily accepted the task. She got right to work, loving every minute of getting creative for a cause she was passionate about, and knew that she wanted to continue doing this for the rest of her life. In her spare time, she continued to hone her design skills in her everyday life, from creating the design for her social media profiles to perfecting the letterhead on the personalized stationery she used for notes to her best friends. Now, she works as the art director for Fellowship Monrovia and her dream of using art as expression and communication has come true.

In college, Guadamuz combined her passion for art with her faith, majoring in graphic design and minoring in Theology. As a student, she worked as a section editor for APU’s yearbook team and served as the university’s graphic design intern and student communications and design coordinator. Soon after graduating in 2013, she landed her first professional design job as the arts and communications coordinator at Green Bay Community Church in Wisconsin. She then moved back to California and started working as a graphic designer for the nonprofit theater company Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles for several years before starting her job at Fellowship.

In her work, Guadamuz combines her love of design with her passion to tell people’s stories by sharing the Gospel through her art. In her time at APU, Professors Rebecca Roe and Bill Catling taught her the value of finding her own personal design brand instead of trying to fit into a certain mold. She has taken that lesson into her career, using her own style and natural creativity to share Fellowship’s message while committing to a cohesive and unique brand.

While Guadamuz is able to serve others through her career, she also makes time to do additional volunteer work. While she was a student at APU, she traveled to the Himalayas and served at a local church, which made her fall in love with churches on both a local and global scale. Among her many service opportunities now, she engages in youth mentoring, outreach ministry, and racial reconciliation initiatives that align with Fellowship’s multiethnic and intergenerational mission.

Words of Wisdom: “From a design standpoint: Never underestimate the power of good typography. From a college standpoint: Love Jesus and have the best time!”

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