About Us

Andrea Charest

Karina Metcalf

Third Left Studios is a collaboration of two artists: Andrea Charest and Karina Metcalf. After four years as co-workers for a Chicago-based healthcare education company, we decided to branch out on our own.

Storytelling for Healthcare
As medical illustrators, we use our thirst for knowledge to dive deeply into medical content and extract the essential messages. Our knowledge of healthcare, along with a healthy dose of empathy, allows us to understand the point-of-view of the patient and tailor our communications to meet their needs. With more than 40 years of combined experience, our skills have been perfectly honed for health education storytelling. Most importantly, we love what we do.

Effortless collaboration
As independent contractors, we are able to mange projects from start to finish. Working remotely as a team gives us the flexibility to arrange schedules and complete projects quickly and efficiently for our clients.

Unique Skill Set
We have each worked as artists, designers, and animators in a variety of health-related fields for over two decades. We excel at clear, precise communication within our work, as well as with our clients. Andrea holds a MS in Biomedical Visualization from the University of Illinois and Karina holds a BFA in Medical Illustration from Rochester Institute of Technology. Both of us have been professional members of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) since 2000 and attend the annual conference regularly.

What does Third Left mean?
Coming up with a company name is difficult. After much brainstorming the decision was made to combine the idea of geography: Andrea lives on the third coast (Chicago) and Karina lives on the left/west coast (Los Angeles). We wanted to acknowledge our separate locations but also bring them together as a symbol of our collaborative process.