Can you tell me a little bit about your path to becoming a designer and how you got where you are now?

I have been drawing on things ever since I can remember. As a kid there was nothing more exciting then a blank piece of paper and a sharpened pencil. As I got older I had a few people really encourage me to look into graphic design as a career since I loved to draw so much. I started teaching myself design when I was fourteen and did freelance design work on and off for several years. I started pursuing graphic design more seriously about four years ago, initially with freelance work, and then working in-house at a software company for a couple years.

I currently work in-house for Woods Coffee, a coffee chain in the Pacific Northwest. I have always loved clothing design and life-style brands and have recently started launching my own lifestyle brand Slow & Steady Co. This collab with Humbly Made Brand has been an awesome soft launch for the brand and I am really excited to share more soon.

I currently work full-time for Woods Coffee, so a typical work day for me consists of driving to the office in the morning and working till about five or six in the evening. We currently have eighteen individual locations as well as a Roastery and full-time bakery, so my day to day job varies quite a bit depending on the season. A typical day consists of anything from supplying stores with random design needs, such as signage, etc.. To concepting seasonal promotions and designing new merchandise. In the evenings I do freelance work and work on building my lifestyle brand Slow & Steady Co.

Was there ever a big mistake you made early in your career and were able to take something valuable from it?

Did I ever make a mistake at the beginning of my career..?  Haha, where do I start?! I think one of the biggest mistakes I made early on was thinking that I needed to make it as a full-time freelancer right out of the gate. I think freelancing has it’s place and I may go full-time freelance again at some point in the future, but taking a job in-house working along-side other designers and art directors more talented than myself, was invaluable for growing my skill-sets, especially since I didn’t go to school for design. 

If you could give one piece of advice to another designer or entrepreneur starting out, what would you say?

Try everything. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and put in some long hours. Your success has a lot more to do with the amount of sweat you put in the bucket, then it does with any raw talent you may have. Online tutorials and Skillshare classes are a great place to start. Honestly, once you start honing your craft and getting clients, it’s harder and harder to find time to push your skill-set further and try new things. 

Can you remember one of the first things you designed or created that you were proud of?

This is a hard one since I’m such a perfectionist… The work I was proud of early on, I would probably consider to be crap now. I remember being extra proud of a freelance logo project I did several years ago... I was having an extra hard time finding a good solution for the client and really felt like I was just spinning my wheels. After more than a little prayer and sheer determination I kept hacking away at concepts and finally came up with a solution I was really proud of. I think to this day the design only has two likes on dribble, but I am proud of the design to this day and the whole project taught me a valuable lesson that if you set your mind to something, chances are you will find a good solution if you give it enough time and stick with it.