South Tahoe High graduate creates BlueZone Sports mural in Reno

RENO, Nev. - South Lake Tahoe native, and South Tahoe High School grad, Rowena Piñero, is being celebrated for her mural on the new BlueZone Sports building in mid-town Reno at the Reno Public Market.

Rowena graduated from South Tahoe High in 2014 and Truckee Meadows Community College in 2022 from their design program, and has been working as a full-time designer with Design on Edge in Reno since graduation.

"We were really proud, as her creative director I can say she's a beacon of talent and we are so grateful for her," said Courtney Meredith, chief creative officer/owner of Design on Edge.

Rowena and the team at Design on Edge partnered with BlueZone Sports to tell a story of the marriage between Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Truckee through a mural piece to be featured on the exterior of their new store. She said they knew it was essential to include the sports that BlueZone is known for - skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, kayaking, and wakeboarding.

"We also knew the piece needed to highlight the landmarks of both Reno and Tahoe," said Rowena.

The final piece features Emerald Bay, Fannette Island, Tahoe National Forest, Mount Tallac, Mount Rose, Donner Summit Bridge, the Reno Arch, the Truckee River, and hot air balloons as a nod to the Great Reno Balloon Race. The highlighted individuals are strategically placed to help the viewer move from left to right throughout the piece to show the diversity of activities for which BlueZone provides products. The end piece ended up being a mural that seamlessly combined the individuality of both Reno and Tahoe to emphasize BlueZone’s love for both areas.

Rowena said her pursuit of a graphic design and illustration career only began three years ago, but the spirit of creativity has always existed in her family.

"My grandfather, Alfonso Estepa kept journals of all his writings, while my grandmother, Cory Estepa, would sew and crochet," said Rowena. "My father, Renato Piñero, used to do charcoal drawings and had a band back in the Philippines and still plays guitar and sings at St. Theresa’s Church on Sundays. My mother, Elvie, loves singing and is literally always singing around the house and my sister, Renelle is a creative writer and poet. So that creativity was definitely celebrated in my home and instilled in me at a young age."

"I remember taking up drawing at a young age because of a specific painting of a vase of flowers in my parent’s bedroom that I wanted to recreate," added the young woman who uses her artistic talent in both cooking and as a self-proclaimed fashionista. "And since then, I’ve always loved illustrating. The community in South Lake also greatly influenced my pursuit of design and illustration. I had friends who encouraged my creativity along the way and would ask me to hand letter lyrics to songs or illustrate art for them (one of those friends was actually Kyle Robertson, the marketing director of BlueZone Sports who commissioned us to illustrate the mural!) The teachers I’ve had at Sierra House, Tahoe Valley, STMS, and STHS were always encouraging and helpful with the art projects, and the resources we had available made it easy to continue creating."

Besides the BlueZone mural, Rowena has worked on dozens of projects and been the lead artist and illustrator for Reno Philharmonics Pops on the River 2023 (https://www.designonedge.com/pops-on-the-river-the-music-of-motown/), Shim's Surplus Speakeasy Rebrand - Won a recent GOLD ADDY Award (
https://www.designonedge.com/portfolio-item/shims-surplus-speakeasy/), Brewer's Cabinet Strangebrew 2023 Festival (https://www.designonedge.com/brewing-something-strange/), Sierra Tap House Rebrand (https://www.designonedge.com/celebrate-the-spirit-of-reno-at-sierra-tap-house/) and Green Dining Nevada (https://www.greendiningnv.com/).

"Design on Edge partners alongside so many great local companies and we get to help them explore their own unique individual stories and elevate, design, and define their voice," said Rowena. "Sometimes that process looks like branding, website development, logo design, or illustrating posters for their events."

"I’m so grateful I get to do what I do with my company," said Rowena. "I’ve learned, grown, and been challenged a lot but I know there is so much more I don’t know and I’m looking forward to what’s next. On the side, I love creating passion projects for myself that let me express my personal values like faith, vulnerability, community, and empathy but those projects also challenge me to grow as an illustrator so one day I’d love to do freelance illustration in my own style or sell my own prints and stickers of my artwork."