ABOUT ME
Clara Ganz
...is a brand and visual designer based in Portland, Oregon.
Her work focuses on translating strategy into cohesive visual identities and design systems across digital, print, and physical touchpoints. Through her studio, CG Creativv, she partners with agencies, in-house teams, and founders across media, finance, fashion, wellness, professional services, and neurotech.
With a background in psychology, Clara brings a perspective-driven approach to her work – quickly immersing herself in new industries, understanding audiences, and adapting visual language to meet distinct brand contexts. She values collaborative processes and builds brand systems that extend beyond logos into thoughtful, long-term visual identities.
A pdf of her current resume can be downloaded here.
Vision Wall
What began as a loose vision board evolved into a full-scale installation, an entire wall collaged by hand from magazine cutouts. While the impact lives in the wall as a whole, magic emerges in the details: unexpected juxtapositions and considered compositions narrate moments of tension and harmony. The wall reflects a visual philosophy transcendent of the project itself—zooming out to define an atmosphere and feeling, then zooming in to refine balance and structure to shape the story.
Denim Diaries 001
THE BACK POCKET PURSE
This project explores denim as both material and medium. Thrifted jeans are deconstructed and reworked into a yarn-like textile, then crocheted into sculptural handbags—each iteration refining form, texture, and function. The work reflects an ongoing obsession with transforming landfill-bound denim into elevated, sustainable design that feels chic, intentional, and fully realized rather than overtly upcycled, exploring new possibilities for familiar materials through process and experimentation.
Linguini Bikini
Lack of the right material can make a vision even more compelling to see through to proof of concept. In pursuit of crocheting a swimsuit, performance fabric was transformed into a stretchy yarn—taking on the forms of lasagna, linguini, and spaghetti—before becoming a bikini. The work reflects a problem-solving approach rooted in curiosity and play, embracing experimentation, unexpected solutions, and the joy of letting the process unfold.
12 Days of Petmas
In an age of automation and instant gratification, 12 Days of Petmas celebrates time spent making in place of money spent buying. A Christmas Eve pajama tradition presented an opportunity to craft something personal – balancing customization with cohesion. Sweatshirts were designed and screen-printed for each family member, each featuring a halftone portrait of their pet paired with a playful holiday graphic and tailored quotation.
The Garden Party
Inspired by a lifelong love of gardening, this project honored a 60th birthday through a series of handmade details woven into a celebratory dinner. Hand-dyed napkins tied into garden vegetables shaped the table and marked each setting; an upcycled denim jacket paneled with embroidered mesh moved through the space, worn as part of the celebration; and a floral-covered Barbie cake anchored the evening as a shared centerpiece. Drawing from the lushness of spring and summer gardens, the evening came to life through thoughtful touches—where beauty and abundance emerged from care, patience, and time spent tending, both in the garden and at the table.
Matching Sets,
Sweats & Sweets
Created in collaboration with Any Lifetime, this project played with the visual language of matching sets—translating sweats into sweets. For the brand’s fall pop-up in New York, I decorated custom sugar cookies designed to mirror the Sally and Teddy sweat sets, echoing their silhouettes, colors, and Made With Love in NYC patches, alongside love-letter postage details. Hung from miniature metal hangers and gifted with purchase, the cookies became tiny edible counterparts to the garments—blurring fashion and food, and extending the idea of a matching set beyond clothing and into experience.
Denim Diaries 002
DENIM PAPER
This project explores denim beyond textile and garment, reimagining it as a paper-making material. Landfill-bound jeans are sorted, stripped, pulped, and transformed into sheets of handmade paper—each one bearing the texture, color variation, and history of the original fabric. The work emphasizes experimentation and the quiet transformation that occurs when familiar materials are allowed to become something new.
Shoddy Not Shoddy
Created for the Shoddy Not Shoddy Design Competition, this project placed second for its reimagination of shoddy—shredded textile fragments—through patience and repetition. Hundreds of small fabric scraps were carefully sorted and stitched end to end to create an improvised yarn, which was then crocheted into a classic bucket hat silhouette. Allowing texture and irregularity to guide the surface and form, the piece carries the imprint of its making—uneven yet unified, raw yet refined.
Denim Diaries 003
THE BACK POCKET JOURNAL
What began as lived-in jeans becomes a hand-bound journal, made using handmade denim paper and finished with an original back pocket sewn into the cover. The pocket holds a pen, but it also holds the story. A before-and-after stitched into the final piece. A reminder of what the material used to be, and what it’s become. A transformation reflective of journaling itself – how the person writing on page 1 is not quite the same by the time they reach the end. The essence remains, but changed through experience and growth.
Denim Diaries 004
JEANSGIVING
A playful short film that stages the denim-to-paper process as a Thanksgiving meal. Each “dish” is named with a nod to a denim brand, grounding the technical deconstruction in something accessible, recognizable, and humorous – jeantinis for every occasion.
GET IN TOUCH
503.807.1271