Using her authoritative expertise in color theory and the science behind graphic design, Pegie Stark, BFA’75, MA’79, PhD’84, has designed and redesigned a wide range of news publications, books, magazines, corporate publications, and websites.
Stark is the creative director and president of Stark Design, a studio she founded that specializes in publications design.
Her design portfolio includes newspapers such as the Observer Media Group throughout Florida, the Postmedia Group throughout Canada, the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Staten Island Advance, and the Yale Daily News (as a contractor for Garcia-Media), and organizations such as the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Sedona Arts Center in Sedona, Arizona.
Previously, Stark was creative director and designer at the Tampa Bay Times’ BAY Magazine, where she began her career as designer and art editor at the St. Petersburg Times, as well as the graphics director at the Detroit Free Press and graphics editor at the Detroit News.
Stark also spent many years at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she was the director of graphics and design and a faculty member.
While at Poynter, Stark wrote and designed the book “Color, Contrast and Dimension in News Design.” Stark later worked with Anne Van Wagener to expand the book into an online, interactive version, which earned an International Interactive Design Award from Communication Arts magazine. Stark also co-directed eye-track studies at Poynter with Mario Garcia and Sara Quinn, and co-authored the results of the studies in "Eyes on the News" with Garcia, and "Eye-tracking the News" with Quinn and Garcia.
Stark has taught graphic design and photography courses as an associate professor at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, Syracuse University’s SI Newhouse School of Public Communications, and the University of South Florida. She was also an adjunct teacher of informational graphics at Ringling College of Art and Design and taught the staff of the Yale Daily News with Garcia-Media.
She has also presented lectures and consultations, and held workshops on topics such as newsroom collaboration, color theory, and design fundamentals at conferences; in newsrooms such as the Toronto Star, the Independent in London, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Sowetan in South Africa; and to Al-Ahram journalists in Cairo, Egypt.
Stark’s photography and paintings are her visions of landscapes where she has lived — from Florida to Canada to Arizona, where the details of the environment have inspired her. Juxtaposing unrelated elements, and exploring color variations are the focus of her recent photographic studies. Her artwork has been shown in Canada, Florida, and Indiana.
She recently completed her docent training at the Dalí Museum, and her Meditation Teaching and Yoga Teaching certificates.