“Don’t wait for someone to give you a manual. Be the person who solves the problem.”
Quick Facts
Education: College of Charleston and Trident Technical College
Years of Experience: 13+ Years
About
Nina J. Ita is a Senior Graphic Designer at A+E Printing in Charleston as well as a freelancer based in the Low Country of South Carolina, specializing in print design with over thirteen years of professional experience. By her own admission, she was never the kid who was constantly sketching in a notebook. Design found her through direct purpose and a willingness to raise her hand when no one else would. That combination became the foundation for a career built on solving problems. She describes her discovery as “the thrill of creating something from nothing was addictive.”
Her first real taste of design came in at the College of Charleston, where she and a group of friends founded the Asian American Student Union. With only MS Paint and Word at their disposal, they created poster campaigns and event programs for fashion shows featuring local Asian businesses and student work. With a formal background in Business and Marketing, Nina’s path into design is a classic case of the right place, at the right time, and a willingness to say yes. After college, she landed an internship that grew into an entry-level marketing role with a local restaurant group.
Despite having a comfortable but routine corporate job where “the most fun I had all day was making my Excel spreadsheets look pretty. That’s when I knew I had to commit.” she took a leap of faith. She began taking night classes at Trident Technical College, saved every penny, quit her job, and completed a degree in Graphic Design. Two months after graduating, she landed a position at her present company, the printing press she had been a client of during her restaurant days.
As the sole graphic designer at A+E Printing, Nina’s days are defined by variety and velocity. She might open the morning with a menu update for a long-standing restaurant client, shift to a corporate business card order, then pivot entirely to a brand-new client with a detailed, multi-part design project and a tight deadline. She has developed what she calls “rapid context switching”, which is the ability to move fluidly between different brand voices and industries without losing the creative thread.
Most recently, she led a full brand refresh just in time for A+E’s 30th anniversary in 2026. She balances her own client relationships with her day-to-day internal marketing and design responsibilities, a skill which has kept her versatile and sharp. For emerging creatives, her advice is direct: lose the fear of doing it wrong. You just need the drive to solve problems and the courage to say, “I can help with that.”