Cristina Gabriele

Cristina Gabriele is a communications designer, somatic practitioner, and educator with over 15 years of experience in the design industry. She is the founder of Messwork, a somatic design practice facilitating personal transformation and practice-building in the alternative health sphere. Through trauma-informed methodologies and intuitive making, Messwork supports creatives in integrating embodied wisdom into personal and professional realms. Cristina also runs Cg Studio, a multidisciplinary design studio specializing in brand strategy, identity systems, and art direction, working at the intersection of communications, arts, design, and culture.

Cristina teaches both Graduate and Undergraduate Communications Design, serves as Thesis Affinity Lead for Thesis I and II for Graduate Communications Design, and co-organizes the Other Islands Book Fair alongside Chairperson Gaia Hwang. In the Spring of 2024, she co-launched the Faculty Personal Transformation Pilot Program through Pratt’s Center for Teaching and Learning, extending Messwork’s principles, method, and practice to faculty development.

Cristina’s work integrates psychosomatics and design, focusing on rehabilitative and intuitive visual communication and the transformative potential of embodied practice in creative processes. She has collaborated with Oscar de la Renta, Harper’s Bazaar, L’Officiel Germany, CR Fashion Book, Frog Design, and Invista. She was also a founding member and designer of the Manufacture New York Pilot Program, a made-in-NYC manufacturing initiative launched under Mayor Bill de Blasio to support local garment production and innovation.

Beyond her design and somatic work, Cristina founded the contemporary jewelry label Heart & Noble and ACME, a women’s initiative focused on navigating collective spaces and institutions—both reflecting the ongoing themes of transformation and systems design present in her work.

MFA, Communications Design, Pratt Institute
BA, Psychology and Business, Northeastern University