Below the Fold

I sat down with Kathleen Shannon again to hold a discussion around knowing when to walk away vs. when to push through. With our respective projects and experience, we both reveal our current challenges and subsequent decisions.

Traversing between two seemingly distinct worlds, Raquel Rodriguez became a designer and letterer after spending several years as a librarian. This week she shares with us how design and librarianship coalesce, how she’s just figuring out freelance as she goes, and her passion for building up, connecting, and shedding light on her community via podcasting.

Catt Small, game enthusiast and designer, works at SoundCloud in her home town of New York, New York. When she’s not at her day job, Catt throws her energy and passion into events and projects that promote diversity, empathy, and empowerment within the design community. Her fascination with games of all sorts allows her to explore life in a unique way and encourage others to do the same.

Isa Seminega is a London based brand strategist and a passion project adventurer. One of her most recent projects is helping her children start their own business. Though they are young, they continue to surprise her daily with their creative thinking and entrepreneurial spirits. When she's not designing for clients or coaching her children, she's dreaming of moving her family to Rwanda.

Canadian native Lauren Bacon co-owned a web design firm for many years but eventually followed her curiosity into the realm of business coaching. She's an incredibly insightful individual who is earnest and eager to help others. In this episode, we explore the wild west of the web circa 1996, her biggest hurdles as an entrepreneur, and the battle we all face: the comparison loop.

At the young age of 12, Diana Lopez from Los Angeles, California, had the good fortune to be immersed in and exposed the web. With ambition and tenacity, she taught herself everything from PHP to Magento and eventually incorporated more design into her work. She’s a spunky personality who takes the world head on. Together we discuss her early discovery of the web, her battle against Bipolar Disorder, and her wise insight on diversity in the design / tech industry.

With a diverse background, an incredible knack for drawing parallels and linking together concepts, Veronica Corzo-Duchardt utilizes her unique perspective to create awe-inspiring work. She is a passionate Cuban-American who believes in exploring the past in order to understand the present. Her insights provoke both introspection and observation while providing an incredibly positive expression of artistry and craft.

Though she was born, raised, and is currently residing Portugal, Margarida Girão has traveled to many countries around the world as a freelance designer. She is a talented and vivacious creative type who takes a unique approach to illustration and life. In our interview, Margarida shares her take on change, her insatiable drive, and her overtly positive personality.

With her father's career sacrifices and emigration from Mexico, Kerra Huerta was afforded opportunities her father never dreamed possible. She's an interior designer and an accidental business owner. In our interview, we discuss how "overnight success" is a combination of a lot of hard work and a little luck and how you must carefully protect and relentlessly pursue your dream.

In place of an interview, this week's episode features a lively discussion with Kathleen Shannon of Braid Creative. As an in-house designer or independent freelancer, connecting and communicating with your audience isn't always cut and dry. Spawned from a slight disagreement on Twitter, Kathleen and I debate the 5 Ws—who, what, when, where, and why—and eventually come to a mutual agreement on what's important.

With spunk and panache, Giannina Silverman juggles her design business and writing pursuits as the sole bread winner (for now). One day her characters are killing zombies. Another day she's rocking a branding campaign. As a first generation Italian American, she packs a spunky zest for life and a serious drive for making things happen.

As a well traveled Kiwi, Jade Tang takes an intentional and humanitarian approach to running her business. She runs Curative with her equally passionate business partner. In this week's episode, Jade shares her insight on business partnerships, hiring employees, and positioning yourself as a leader. Warning: this episode may cause you to buy a plane ticket to New Zealand just to give Jade a hug.

Whether you're building a business, refining a brand, or bettering yourself, making big changes and being in-transition can feel like you're never all put together. This week's mini-episode is all about being content in that space.

Working with clients can be tricky, especially when you're just starting out. In this mini-episode, I share a couple projects from my past that did not go so well. You'll learn my take on spotting red flags, sticking to your scope, and earning client trust.

I've got an important message to share this week.

Just a few short years ago, Katelin Anderson was buried in a mound of student loans from design school. Desiring more freedom to travel, work on big creative side projects, and invest more intentionally in other areas of her life, she hunkered down and paid them off. In this episode, Katelin and I transparently discuss numbers, the challenges of branding your own business, adventurous road trips, and productivity.

In the realm of academia, there is little room for rap songs about typography. Using charisma and charm, Natalie Davis manages to squeeze it into her classroom. She's an Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Texas State University and a curious explorer of pattern and texture. Natalie and I discuss the importance of process, the influence of her Lebanese background, and how she approaches making money with her craft.

Kelsey Dzintars, a designer and a painter, grew up in South Dakota with big dreams of city life. However, the pull of the mountains of Montana was just too great. She's now the lead designer at Outlaw Partners, an agency based in Big Sky. Behind her sweet persona is an alter-ego—Betty Rage, a roller derby gal! In this episode, I explore how Kelsey's physical pursuits have affirmed other areas of her life, from giving her a new confidence, to providing a link to her community.

By day, Megan Cook is a designer in the sales coaching world. By night, she morphs into a professor, passionate about an unusual crowd. Her teaching transforms lives through design and empowers a forgotten population. We explore the various challenges she faces in this unusual setting, how being a smart-ass makes her well equipped, and her insistence on teaching design fundamentals.

A Seattle native, Deborah Brown visited Israel during high school and didn't really leave until after college. Her journey—from art school in Hebrew, to starting a design career in the United States, has been one that's frequently seen change. We discuss her rediscovery as a creative, overcoming personal roadblocks, and getting over yourself.