Kelli Potratz didn’t grow up reading “My First Coding Book.” In fact, when her mom asked her for help adding something to a website for work, Kelli couldn’t do it. “I took it as a personal insult that I couldn’t,” she said. Naturally enough, she began teaching herself to code.
Likewise, she hadn’t taken any design classes until she became a student at Central Community College-Hastings, but once she started, she never looked back. Now Kelli designs and builds websites and creates email and social media graphics for a wide variety of IdeaBank clients.
A Grand Island native, Kelli earned an Associate of Applied Science in media arts from CCC-Hastings and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in visual communication and design from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She also minored in ceramics or 3D art, as it’s called.
While providing freelance graphic design and web services, she also wanted to offer photography to her customers. So she taught herself by finding photographers she admired on Tumblr and emulating their style. In her spare time, you’ll find her hanging out with her cats, Pickles and Seven; playing Dungeons and Dragons or Pokémon Go; or researching aviation accidents. Whether a project’s for work or play, expect Kelli to enter into it with enthusiasm.
