Santa Clara native Kryslin Franks is a designing woman with a creative eye. She puts her degree in Graphic Art and Design from the Art Institute of California – Silicon Valley to work for UPS at the Almaden Expressway store in San Jose, where she is a graphic designer and print manager.
As print manager, she enjoys meeting people and helping them design their print projects.
“I like the people I get to meet,” said Franks. “The schools and nonprofits are some of my favorite projects to work on.”
Franks mentioned Santa Clara nonprofit clients such as the Soroptimist International Club, the American Cancer Society Relay for Life, Mission City Community Fund and the Woman’s Club. Sometimes Franks gets to attend the events that she designs and prints programs and brochures for.
“I get ideas [for their projects] by talking to the people and finding out what they’re looking for,” she said at a Woman’s Club event.
“You can be creative in anything you do, so do what you love,” said Franks. “Life is too short to work at something you don’t like.”
“The only reason I’m still in California is because I love what I do and who I work for. It’s expensive out here.” she said.
Franks and her husband, Thomas Macias, were married in Santa Clara in 2018, at the Old Adobe, 3260 The Alameda. It’s the historic meeting place of the Woman’s Club.
“It was a perfect service, outdoors in the arbor. We had an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ theme, using blue, ivory and pale pink colors,” said Franks. “It was like a Mad Tea Party.”
Most of her family is in Ohio. Her husband’s family is outside the local area, too.
“It’s hard having kids when you don’t have a lot of immediate family around,” said Franks, whose daughter, Izzy, is a one-year-old. “Luckily, I have some really amazing neighbors. We all look out for each other.”
Won’t You Be My Neighbor is a column where we casually interview people we meet in Santa Clara. The column hopes to highlight what makes Santa Clara special — the people who live, work and play here.