Posted: 5/13/2025
Artist receives SNR award, offers design services across university
By Ronica Stromberg
Abbey Snyder, graphic designer, received a 2025 Staff Recognition Award at the School of Natural Resources Spring Banquet on April 12, 2025. The award typically recognizes two staff members per year for their positive contributions, and this year, Snyder and Jeremy Hiller, a research manager, each received it.
Snyder has worked about 10 years for the university, designing websites and publications and creating illustrations by hand and computer. Much of her work has been for the Nebraska One Health program and the Center for Resilience in Agricultural Working Landscapes, but more recently, she gained her own service center, which she explained as basically freelancing within the university.
"I get to offer my design services to other programs and departments across the university and am open to new opportunities," she said.
Now anybody within the university can reach out to Snyder to discuss the scope of work on a project and receive a cost estimate. She regularly designs websites, flyers, brochures, publications, signs, posters, social media banners and advertisements. More recently, she has been illustrating scientific concepts for journal articles.
"I've been taking on a lot of scientific figure designs, and that has been pretty rewarding to me," she said. "I find it kind of fun to get to take the science and convert it into something that is accessible to everybody to understand."
Examples of her past work include the Nebraska One Health website, the Buy Fresh Buy Local® Nebraska food guide and figures for the Birth Outcomes and Water study Martha Rhoades leads. She said prospective clients can view other examples of her work at her website, https://asnyderarts.com
An alumnus of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with a bachelor of fine arts and an emphasis on graphic design and printmaking, Snyder grew up near Milford on an acreage with horses. The rural and agricultural focus of much of her artwork goes back to her childhood.
"I've been really inspired by drawing horses, and since the age of 2, that has always been my go-to thing to draw," she said.
In the fine arts, she especially enjoys printmaking like etchings and woodcuts. She said a lot of her pen drawings are inspired by wood block prints with the play on black and white.
She recently drew a black-and-white fox for the School of Natural Resources and incorporated symbols of all the school's majors in the fox. She created a series of illustrations featuring Nebraska wildlife as part of the Nebraska One Health program, working under the direction of her supervisor, Liz VanWormer. The series blended art and science to highlight the connections between animals, people and their shared environments. Each piece was developed in collaboration with local scientists and explored themes like habitat, land use change and conservation threats affecting native species in Nebraska.
VanWormer said Snyder’s artwork has come to represent the Nebraska One Health program to the public and helped create strong partnerships with Nebraska Extension programs and the Nebraska Department of Education.
"Abbey's ability to carefully listen and engage with diverse team members and translate key scientific results and concepts into beautiful and approachable graphics and websites strengthens collaborative research, teaching and outreach," VanWormer said.
Stacy Asher, a professor in the School of Art, Art History and Design, initially introduced Snyder to VanWormer in 2015 after Snyder's graduation. VanWormer had been seeking a graphic designer for Nebraska One Health.
Snyder said she has secured much of her past work through word-of-mouth like that but she expects the service center to expand her reach.
"I'm excited to work with more programs across the university and to be a part of exciting research," she said.
The staff award came as a "delightful surprise" to her, she said, and she wasn’t expecting it.
"It truly means a lot to be recognized for my work," she said.