Maria 'Taty' Hindes

Hi, I’m Maria –also known as Taty Hindes.

I’m a qualified designer based in beautiful Sunrise Beach, Queensland, where I work from my light-filled studio.

I’m a professional user of InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and WordPress.

Throughout my career, I’ve worked with creative teams from around the world and had the chance to design for brands like Disney, Hallmark, Discovery Channel, Subway, Unilever and Nestlé while based in America.

I’m also a Fulbright Harvard-LASPAU Scholar, which reflects my strong academic background and my approach to design — thoughtful, purposeful, and well-crafted.

My qualifications include:

A Master of Fine Arts degree from the Massachusetts College of Arts and Design in Boston, USA
A Bachelor of Graphic Design from the University Dr José Matías Delgado in El Salvador.
A Cert IV in Business –Social Media Mastery (I was proud to be named Student of the Year)

For over 16 years I taught and lectured graphic design, typography and digital media at universities in America and Australia.

I’m the co-owner of Soul Space Design and also work at The Social Deck in Noosa.

Working as a Graphic Designer here brings me real joy — I get to work alongside talented communicators and other creatives doing work that makes a difference. Even after 35+ years in the profession, I’m still learning something new every day.

The Social Deck is a B Corp–certified business that specialises in strategic communications, community engagement, digital strategy, social marketing and evaluation. We work with government, not-for-profits, businesses and social enterprises to help them create meaningful change.

At home, I share life with my husband Paul Hindes, who has a Master of Business and a Bachelor in Property Economics and Development, with a focus on building design. We live happily in Noosa and between us have five adult children living across Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales.

If you’d like to chat about your project — no pressure, no pitch — I’d love to hear from you.

Professional Life

1983 - 1989

Bachelor of Graphic Design

My design training started right after I finished high school, attending the School of Applied Arts at the Universidad “Dr José Matías Delgado”. Six intense but fun years of drawing, painting, pottery, metal crafting right through to learning design fundamentals, colour theory, illustration, typography and graphic design.

I also worked as a teacher assistant in Colour Theory and Design Fundamental classes for over 3 years.

1983 - 1989

1985 - 1986

Layout Artist – La Prensa Gráfica

My journey as a professional designer began as a layout artist in the design and marketing department of “La Prensa Gráfica” – one of the newspapers of El Salvador, with nationwide readership. taty rivera hindes in 1986 working on a desk

1985 - 1986

1986 - 1989

Head Designer – Hilasal

Moving from print design to textile media was an amazing experience. Working for Hilasal, I was in charge of creating illustrations for the Latin American market line of textile products such as beach and tea towels. I also became one of the youngest creatives to work for Disney Latin America under license.

Disney - Minnie rock towel design

1986 - 1989

1990 - 1992

Fulbright Scholarship

In 1989, I left my job at Hilasal and my country El Salvador to pursue my master’s degree in design, thanks to a Fulbright Scholarship awarded by Harvard University – Laspau.

I obtained a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Fine Arts and Design in Boston, USA.

“The Fulbright Program aims to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby to increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship.” – Senator J. William Fulbright

1990 - 1992

1992 - 2003

Going digital

In 1992, I was the first designer with a master’s degree in digital design in Latin America. Using this unique position, I helped set up digital art departments in both the private and government sectors in El Salvador, including training people in the use of desktop computers and design software.

I also continued teaching graphic design and typography to university students as well as creating and updating design curriculums to include digital media.

I also had full-time jobs working as Art Director for multinational print companies that were moving from traditional media to digital.

first digital arts department university dr jose matias delgado

digital art department for El Salvador Gov

1992 - 2003

1997 - 2003

M&R Design

I started my own digital design practice where I continued working under license for Disney as well as consulting for the private and governmental sectors in all things design and digital.

During this time, I also participated as a keynote speaker at Apple Mac events and continued my association with universities as a thesis advisor and reviewing digital design curriculums.

Taty Rivera Hindes working in San Salvador 1997

1997 - 2003

2003 - 2005

Australia

In 2003 I moved to Avalon in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia.

My first job in Australia was teaching graphic design at the University of New South Wales.

This same year, my husband Paul and I created Soul Space.

2003 - 2005

2005 - Present

Sunshine Coast

In 2005 we moved to Sunrise Beach where we’ve been running our design practice ever since.

As well as running Soul Space, I’ve worked as a contractor:

Website Art Director for a local Sunshine Coast digital marketing company
Marketing, Social Media and Communications for CIDSEL, University of the Sunshine Coast
Guest speaker at Queensland Government events.