Andrew Barrington Stronge was born November 16th, 1981 in the small town of Sunderland in the northern part of England. At the age of seven, Andrew’s mother, father, and younger brother made the trek over the ocean to the state of Virginia where they continue to reside.
Andrew’s career took off February 8th, 1990 with the success of his 2 page award-winning illustrated novel, Aliens in California. This second-grade success inspired Andrew to enhance his artistic skills. His school days were cursed due to this success, as he was destined to spend them daydreaming and doodling on the margins of his notebook paper.
The doodles eventually developed into full-fledged characters, most of them copied from Andrew’s favorite TV shows. Eventually the characters started changing as his imagination started to take hold, and strange cross breeds of Ninja Turtles, Transformers, and Smurfs began to appear.
Once Andrew started attending Thomas Dale High School he decided for sure art was his direction in life. Few options were available for him through those four years, but he was able to expand his abilities. He started learning new styles and mediums of art, such as painting murals and doing sketches of his classmates.
After high school Andrew attempted attending college multiple times, but nothing really felt right. His devotion to his art (and lack of devotion to his studies) had narrowed his post- high school options. Eventually he was accepted into a local business school (ECPI) and earned a degree in web design while working at Legend Brewing Company to pay the bills.
After graduating, Andrew moved to Charlottesville, VA to be with his soul-mate, Adrienne. Determined not to let his business-school degree suck him into corporate America, he did freelance work for someUVA departments while perfecting his art in his free time. When freelancing failed to pay the bills, Andrew taught himself new software and threw together a portfolio in order to secure a job as a graphic designer at a local screen-printing shop called Fat Rabbit Designs. After being hired as the only designer without an art degree, Andrew worked hard to prove himself in the industry. After leaving Fat Rabbit for a brief stint with the C-VILLE Weekly from 2007 – early 2009, designing ads and laying out the classified section of the paper, Andrew decided that he really wanted to make his career in screen printing. When the opportunity arose to become the lead designer at Crazy Horse Studio, a screen printing shop, Andrew jumped at the opportunity to resume his old career.
Around the time that Andrew started with the C-VILLE, he decided to formally launch his moonlighting company, Stronge Designs. Through this company, Andrew does custom illustration, web design, and graphic design, and he also exhibits his paintings, prints, t-shirts, books, and other forms of art at area events.