Bachman '04 Tantalizes the Eyes with Eataly Design

As Head of Graphic Design for the dynamic Italian marketplace Eataly, alumna Tracey Bachman ‘04 is combining her passion for art, food, and design as she helps launch the Los Angeles location of this popular place to “eat, shop, and learn.”
“My art classes at St. Andrew’s prepared me for this work,” Bachman said. “I took classes from teachers who helped me to express myself and to use different mediums. That was the start.”

After graduating from St. Andrew’s in 2004, Bachman attended Bucknell University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in art history. Her love of art impelled Bachman to seek ways she could apply it in the real world, so she earned a Master’s in Communications Design at New York’s Pratt Institute.

“I fell in love with finding a way to use design to communicate a lot of information at once,” she said.

An internship at Eataly in 2011 led to Bachman being hired part time while she finished her thesis. Her talent was recognized and because she was “in the right place at the right time,” her career at Eataly began.

In 2012 Bachman moved to Chicago to assist with the opening of the city’s first Eataly location. In just three months she hired a branding team and trained and got the graphics team up and running. Bachman has helped launch the largest Eataly store in downtown New York City, the Boston location, and, now, the LA store, where she is leading the team of graphic designers who communicate Eataly’s aesthetic.

"I like learning new things about Italian culture - taking information and making it visual so others can understand it." Bachman said. “We have two seconds to get attention. Our goal is to design a phrase or picture to grab the interest of our customers and teach them even more.”

Each store is dedicated to a certain theme. For example, the downtown New York City store’s theme is bread. Bachman created a 3D rendering of the world and highlighted bread from each country.

The new LA store is dedicated to water, she said.

“I made a very large panel that takes up the span of a wall; it is a full infographic about how water is used in our store, how we are recycling water, how water is used throughout LA, and how we can conserve it better,” Bachman said. “I am really proud of it.”

Bachman said it wasn’t just the arts at St. Andrew’s that prepared her for this work - it was also the rigor of her classes.

“On the academic side, I would say that St. Andrew’s prepared me for the workload I found in the business world and in learning how to write well. That was a huge, huge benefit,” she said.

Her advice to current to students interested in pursuing a career in the arts is inspired by her experience at St. Andrew’s.

“Follow your passion,” she said. “You will find a career that makes you happy, and that makes all the difference."
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St. Andrew’s Episcopal School is a private, coeducational college preparatory day school for students in preschool (Age 2) through grade 12, located in Potomac, Maryland.