Lisa S. Roberts

"The distinguishing features of my work are the medium of cut paper collage and the graphic colors. Color, in fact, is the most important aspect of my work. I select the first few colors, and then keep adding to them until I get that ’jolt’, the physiological reaction when having just the right palette.”
––Lisa S. Roberts

Originally trained as an architect, Philadelphia collage artist Lisa Roberts has followed an interesting artistic path over three decades as graphic and product designer in the gift and home furnishing industry. Lisa’s unique designs were applied to dinnerware, textiles, paper tableware, clocks, watches, wrapping paper, greeting cards, and more. She also created meticulous cut paper collages of architecture and interiors that were reproduced onto notecards and branded products for museum stores and hotels. Private clients commissioned her to create portraits of their homes.

Intermittently, Lisa took breaks from designing and wrote four books about contemporary product design: Antiques of the Future, DesignPOP, Mr. Waffles Loves Design, and What is Good Design: A simple question without a simple answer. She was also featured in a TV docu-series titled, “My Design Life.”
In 2020, during the pandemic, Lisa’s work changed direction again. She let go of the constraints of product and architecture and evolved into abstract art. With her love of color and working in cut paper, she found respite in abstraction. She loved the ‘high’ she got when putting just the right colors together and then letting them tell her where to go. 

When not sitting at her work table with papers, surgical scissors, and double-stick tape, Lisa sits on the boards of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Collab, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust.