Bay Area couple enjoying success by design

When it comes to their close relationship and successful design careers, it would be tough to draw it up any better for Lindsay and Andy Mindler ’09 (both new media design), who each attended Churchville-Chili High School, near Rochester, but had never spoken until attending RIT.

“We just so happened to join the same major at the same time,” Lindsay recalled. “We walked into our first drawing class at RIT, where we recognized each other and quickly became friends.”

Drawn to the university for its unique focus on technology, art, and design, both saw new media design as the perfect blend of 3D, motion, and code to fuel their diverse design interests. The couple started dating at RIT in 2007 and married in 2011.

Since moving to the West Coast, both Lindsay and Andy have carved out successful design careers, joining an ever-growing throng of new media and other RIT design alumni living and working in the Bay Area.

After starting out at two agencies and a tech start-up, Lindsay joined the image sharing and social media juggernaut Pinterest, leading virtually every design team over five years before being tabbed for the San Francisco company’s head of design role last September.

“I feel so honored to get to lead some of the most talented and wonderful people I’ve ever had the privilege of working with, including a number of RIT new media design alumni!” she beamed.

Andy also began at digital ad agencies—“leveraging my 3D and motion skills for clients that other designers didn’t have,” he said—before achieving his ultimate goal to break into the game industry when he joined the UI (user interface) team at Visual Concepts in Novato, Calif.

After working on three of the video game developer’s NBA 2K series of games, he moved to an area game start-up before taking two years to be a stay-at-home dad for the couple’s son, Lincoln. He has since returned to Visual Concepts to work on the last two NBA 2K games.

Outside of work, the couple enjoys exploring area playgrounds and going on hikes with their son, now 4. Lindsay also enjoys taking on interior design projects for the couple’s home, among other personal projects. Andy is writing and self-publishing his own children’s book, creating his own games, and even inventing things to 3D print.

The couple also continues to maintain a strong connection to the new media design program in RIT’s College of Art and Design.

“A lot of people from the program live in the Bay Area, so we are fortunate to get to see them pretty regularly and even have play dates so our kids can play together,” Lindsay said.