Precious Bugarin
Creative Director at Precious Bugarin Design LLC
Precious Bugarin is a creative director, designer, and educator.
I use design as a language for equity to connect nonprofits to supporters, students to design aspirations, entrepreneurs to bigger audiences and diverse voices through creative events.
Precious Bugarin was born in San Francisco and raised in California’s Central Valley. Precious’s father was a teacher who emphasized community work. He focused on creating safe, educational spaces that ultimately taught Precious and her sisters how to do the same for their communities. Precious’s childhood room was full of catalogs and magazine layouts, things she associated with advertising. She had always loved making but lacked a creative outlet at her traditional high school. Luckily, her mother was a seamstress and artist, so Precious’s exposure to the arts often came from the home. She realized that she, like her mother, was a creative person when she began painting on denim, making logos, making jewelry, and getting paid for it.
She attended the University of San Francisco, joining a diverse, dual-admission program. Precious had a professor named Paul Tsang during her senior year, who became her mentor, creative director, and friend. For the first time, she saw design from different perspectives, not just as a creation of a perfect artifact but a tool with the ability to help others. Paul’s unique working style and dedication to humanity, non-profits, and cultural work inspired Precious. They made her realize that she could have more freedom in how she worked. After college, Precious worked for Paul as an apprentice, where she learned the in’s and out’s of working in a design studio.
Precious is a creative director, helper, and facilitator. She likes to act as a bridge to connect people through ideas and policies, work with emerging businesses, and figure out ways to communicate products to an audience strategically. She also enjoys teaching, allowing her to share opportunities with students and help guide them. In addition to running a design studio and teaching, Precious is co-advisor to COMMA—a BIPOC student group within Portland State University’s graphic design department. COMMA creates community and opportunity for students through meetings, mentorships, events, and special projects.
Precious is committed to creating opportunities for others and hopes design will be viewed less as a commercial tool and more as a strategy for creating futures where people can thrive.
Photo by Celeste Noche
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