Member Spotlight: Andrea Hurley
Web Designer, Strategist & Creative Director, Elytra Design
BBPW Member since September, 2018
Andrea owns and operates Elytra Design, a web design, branding and strategy business. She founded Elytra Design in 2002, when dot com crash wiped out so many web firms across the country. Because she was at her peak of love and learning for this new technology, the only way to survive was to start her own business. As she says on her website: “At a time when companies are downsizing or closing shop, one might think it’s not the wisest time to open one. But as we all know, adversity can also breed creativity and tenacity—especially if we leap despite challenging conditions.” She describes this profession like being in perpetual graduate school. “You never stop learning – and this never stops changing you!”
Andrea works with a diversity of clients of all sizes and sectors, from small nonprofits and businesses to universities and creatives. She puts highest value on a mutual working relationship based on trust, reliability and integrity. She wants her clients to come out the other end feeling that they have received more than their money’s worth.
Andrea‘s first love and career was in biology. After graduating from U. Mass Boston, and later receiving a Masters from U. Mass Amherst, she was a research biologist for 10 years. Her research focused on vision, circadian rhythms, and neurobiology. She focused this research through the world of insects, which opened her eyes to the hidden gems of nature.
She decided to take a break from professional life after her daughter was born, and fast forward 10 years, as she was ready to re-enter professional life, the web was beginning to sweep into our culture. She jumped on board, but wanted to bring her love of science with her. Hence the name, Elytra Design. The Elytra are the outer wings of a beetle, and when you look very closely you will see, they are “masterfully sculpted, explosive with iridescence and resplendent with subtle magnificence!”
Andrea was born and raised in Boston in a large family of 9. She later lived for 9 years in California, has traveled across the US and also in Asia and Europe. She is now happily settled in the beautiful Berkshires where she lives with her husband and dog. Their daughter now lives in Stockholm, so there is more traveling to Europe as well.
One more thing about Andrea. She adored her mother (photo above), who lived to be 100 years old. For 6 years Andrea wrote a blog about this unsung hero and about the flowering of their relationship during her mother’s tender and surprisingly beautiful elderly years.
You can read her essays at http://www.whenthetableturns.com.
Andrea joined BBPW in September, 2018, and has enjoyed her membership, the meetings, and connecting with so many great and interesting Berkshire women. She had the honor of re-designing the website in 2018, and has now joined the board as co-chair of the communications committee. In her experience over these past 2 years, the Berkshire BPW is growing in powerful ways. She feels this is a great time to be a member and hopes to meet more and more Berkshire women through this organization.
To learn more about Andrea or Elytra Design, visit https://www.elytradesign.com.
