biography

TRACY KOPSACHILIS was born and raised in Queens, New York. She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, accepted into the Fashion Design program. Feeling that her drawing skills were stronger than her sewing and draping ones, she switched majors and completed her studies in Illustration (with a specialization in Fashion Illustration), graduating with a BFA in 1996.

Previous employment included working at House of Ivana, Inc., a fashion and cosmetics company owned by Ivana Trump. She designed the packaging for Ivana's second fragrance collection, in addition to overseeing her jewelry and cosmetic collections that were sold on various home shopping networks in the United States and Canada. She also had a brief stint as an editorial assistant to celebrity photographer Joan Jedell, who publishes The Hampton Sheet, a glossy large format magazine catering to the glamorous societies of New York City and the Hamptons.

Afterward, she joined the world of magazine publishing, starting at Money magazine as an editorial production designer, then transferred in-house to Real Simple magazine as an editorial production associate (both under the parent company of Time Inc.), where she further honed her skills in all areas of magazine production. 

She currently works as a graphic designer, specializing in book cover design, often collaborating with the same authors for many of their books. She freelances for both a healthcare marketing and communications company – designing an assortment of marketing materials such as annual reports, pocket guides, newsletters, and brochures, as well as a publishing company that specializes in educational books and materials for nursing assistants and home health aides – overseeing the editorial production of their product line and has even created original medical illustrations for two of their most recent titles.