This story has been asked for several times, so here I am, putting it into words. This is to encourage university designers, self-taught designers, people who are at the beginning of their journey, or for multi-faceted creatives that have a longing to get into design.

Before you read, I am not self-made, I have been a sponge of design for 15 years. Even though my design studio began in 2020, I’ve been in a relationship with design for a long time.

My biggest advice and advantage in my story is time to explore and play. Design is a felt process that takes years of experimentation.

Watch or read below

Finished watching? You can jump down to Year One

A walk down memory lane

I was fortunate enough to have access to graphic design classes in high school. This is not the case in most schools or high schools across the US. I grew up in Portland, Oregon, where there is a strong investment in creativity and arts culture. I took my first graphic design class when I was 14/15 years old and I kept asking the school to make more levels of the subject. Level 3 was the highest, which wasn’t enough for me. I negotiated with the school board to give me a blank “arts credit” if I attended the Level 3 class again but created my own projects in collaboration with my teacher. I was very fortunate that the school and my teacher were supportive of this. In my senior year, I took Graphic Design at my local Community College, PCC, which gives free education to high school students.

I’m grateful and privileged for this early exposure and conviction to pursue design. I got to use this time to move through a lot of bad design, trial and error, crafting tacky posters, playing with the 3D tool and exploring the vastest of adobe suite tools. It was a playground.

When the question was asked “what do you want to study at University?” I couldn’t think beyond “well, I guess, graphic design?”. I didn’t know what a design career path would look like and neither did my parents. My mom was kind of supportive. My dad imagined I would draw for a living. (Yes, on the good days! 😂)

My parents, being the proactive sort when it came to careers, schooling, ambition, advocating for ourselves and personal responsibility — sent me out to find graphic designers in the real world. I nervously interviewed them, asked to see their work, what their day to day looked like, their career path, and what they liked and disliked. These were my first informational interviews.

I am based in Portland, so I met several Nike designers in my neighborhood and at my church who did a lot of technical design. Although I was not interested in the technical aspect of re-creating a photorealistic, interactive shoe models — it expanded my perspective on the design field. I began building a curiosity for the far-reaching elements of graphic design and was obsessed with going to my local bookstore and consuming as many graphic design books as I could. My early interests were hand drawn funky typography, collage art and dada influenced editorial layouts.

At the beginning of my senior year, I communicated with my parents that graphic design was an expansive field, that I wanted to pursue it, and I showed them all that I had learned. They raised me pretty headstrong, so, even though they didn’t “get it” they could sense that I was passionate and I was going to pursue it.

Enter the university years

My first year of university (Boise State University) was all about going back to the basics of graphic design — which included a lot of black sharpie and xeroxing. It was like we were all pretending computers didn’t exist.

Learning about grids, layout, visual weight, line weight, how to craft pristine prototypes, the movement of the eye and so on. These first classes were kind of boring, I wanted the computer! I wanted to freely experiment like I had in high school, but unsurprisingly the university approach was built to teach you the classics, the rules, color theory, mixing colors, studying the type sins and doing everything analog. Which was kind of a drag for an energized 18 year old, but in hindsight I appreciate this practice.

The blessing in going to BSU was having an incredible Art History teacher that opened my eyes to seeing history through the lens of art, the meaning it has had throughout cultures; how shape, style and color carries meaning and transmutes through art practitioners. We are forever recycling style. I decided to minor in Art History.

My second year of university, I studied abroad in Italy and I didn’t have any graphic design classes. Rather I was consumed by Art History, Italian History and Fine Art. During this time, I did a lot of mixed media work, playing with 3-dimensional line with wire sculpture, attempting to draw humans/statues (ugh, never been good or interested in this). I played with my micron pens and used coffee and red wine as watercolors (like a good Italian art student). Even though I didn’t do graphic design, my art was graphic.

I transferred back to Portland State University were I instantly felt very behind. While I had been drawing with sharpies and coffee grounds, the PSU students were already designing in Adobe. I hadn’t really touched these computer programs for 2 years. But I really wanted to finish my degree in 4 years, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

The next two and a half years were a blur. I took 2-3 design “labs” every term, studied Art History along with all the other US university prerequisite courses. I also worked full time and was taking side jobs whenever I could (I had to pay off my study abroad loans and expensive living costs in Portland). I truly had no time for a social life. My socialization came through my job as a barista, which I strategically pick because it was Italian and surrounded by Creative Agencies.

This university route is not a recommendation for a well balanced university experience. I hustled.

My style at this point was very craft, home made, hand lettered, analog/art influenced. I fell in love with typography, making infographic posters, heavily illustrated packaging and hand bound books with an eclectic feel.

My last year and a half I got two design internships at the university which started giving me invaluable real world experience. Meanwhile, I was always scrolling through Craigslist to find design gigs or saying “sure!” to any random design projects that stumbled in my path. I was a task horse.

Post-Grad — hesitantly entering “the real world”

When I graduated, I had built up enough freelance gigs that I decided to travel (super tight budget, I think I was making maybe $1200 a month).

I felt disconnected to the PSU design school (I didn’t have time to make connections, when I was rushing off to work after every class) and I was super intimidated by the next phase of design school — Creative Agencies.

So I tried to put off the inevitable “masters program” that is working at a big creative agency house like Wyden + Kennedy.

When I got back from traveling, I poked around at creative agencies but I realized I didn’t have the strong connections like my peers did. Many of them didn’t have jobs during university which open up their opportunities to network. I felt like I was cold pitching my peers like, “heyyy, remember me, I was in your design class, I saw you got a position at [insert creative agency], I’m really curious to hear about it, wanna get a beer?” Ugh, this phase was awkward.

I was pretty turned off by creative agencies but saw it as a necessary next step; again, it was my “masters degree”. I learned I didn’t want to work for a large agency. The peers that I did meet would tell me how they collaborated on a team of 5–10 designers to make one billboard for 6 months. I thought this was unbearable. 😂

So I pursued small agencies until I got a part time gig. I excelled here. 6 months later I got another position at a very cool boutique agency and spent the summer listening to underground hip-hop in the office and feeling like I made it. After that temp position I landed a full time job at a content agency. There were 6 people and I was the only designer. I had to juggle 6-8 clients, ranging from sandwich shops, corporate tech, huge alcohol conglomerate, massive chains, non-profits, modern furniture to law firms. It was ALL over the place.

My manager was nurturing and supportive, I biked to work and we always had craft beer in the fridge — it was fantastic!

She was always pushing me further and asking me what my next developmental phase was. I truly felt content. With such huge variety in businesses, scales, budgets and being the only designer on a small team, I was learning so much. I was able to watch and absorb what everyone else’s role was which gave me an excellent perspective about the agency machine.

After 1.5 years, I had my footing in this world and began advocating for types of clients/projects that I wanted. Basically small goods boutiques, wellness, brick and mortar restaurants, etc. But those wouldn’t feed an agency budget. Just as I was beginning to feel restless, the agency decided to close down.

So I started 2019 without a job. I didn’t rush back into work. I wanted to give my self a few months to work through that restlessness, the sourness I was just beginning to feel. What did I want to do?

TIP:

Networking shouldn’t include a personal agenda. Build relationships without expectation.

If you’re hoping to find clients immediately through networking, you may be disappointed. The fruits of relationship building in and network arrive years down the road when those relationships are maintained and trust is built so this is a long term approach.

I took the year slow. I had a few freelance projects (clients that needed projects tied up from the closed agency) and began searching for my next step. Damn, I knew my manager was trying to push me to think about this but I felt stunted.

By the end of that year I felt this sensation to create a more concrete freelance presence. I thought I should share what kind of projects I wanted to do. I felt turned off by the projects that I had worked on so far.

I had the self-confidence in my own creative skill, but who could benefit from it? What businesses was I supporting through my creativity? For me, this coincided with my peak awareness of conscious consumerism and corporate responsibility. I finally had enough security in my life to apply this thinking to my job. Did I care about the businesses I had worked for? What good were they doing? It all felt bad to mediocre.

The beginning of State of Sage

In December 2019 I had this crazy idea, what if my “concrete freelance presence“ was actually distanced language for starting my own business.

This idea was wild. I thought there was no way I was ready, mature enough, knowledgeable enough to begin my own business. I was comparing myself to the standard of the creative agency.

I began to study and follow more boutique agencies to see how they did it. I reached out to several Portland small design studios just to hang out and hear directly from them how they got started. So in January 2020, I named my studio, purchased my URL and courageously stepped in to the idea of being a business owner.

My first clients came from my yoga studio and from networking in a co-working space.

One of my best tips if you don’t have a network to lean on — seek out co-working spaces. This will allow you to make friends, discuss business obstacles, and potentially find partners or clients.

The first year of my business, I invested a lot of time into setting up my systems and structures that I had intuitively built and adopted from the creative agency experience. I had few clients and didn’t put too much pressure on making money. Most projects were directly from my network and everyone had tiny budgets during the pandemic.

At this point we were living very simply off of my husband’s salary until he lost his job in the pandemic. In the middle of the year I began feeling the pressure to begin making money in my business.

Fortunately, enough people knew that I offered design services, and there was a flood of need for people to show up virtually. So for the first few months of the pandemic, I helped a few friends set up simple websites, build brand identities and show up on social media.

I spent a lot of time doing personal projects and showing up consistently on Instagram. During this year I played with my voice and tried to find what my style was. This is all evidence if you scroll way down on Instagram.

Tip

Go join spaces in the real world! Go to the pottery class, yoga class, your favorite restaurant, a massage therapist, farmers market and talk to people! Don’t wait for folks to find you. Be in community. Be engaged, without expectation.

Year One

Projects from Year One:

These projects ranged between $300–$8000

• Yoga brand & website — my beloved teacher (very low budget)

• Yoga/non-profit brand & website — another beloved teacher (very low budget)

• Herbalist brand and packaging — friend (very low budget)

• Enneagram Leadership Coach — co-working space friend (medium budget)

• Lifestyle Business — in-person event from 2019 and staying connected over IG (very low budget)

• Vegan Restaurant brand, packaging, website, collateral — IG search! Wow. A rare blessing from the IG gods (high budget)

• Therapist brand & website — a friend from the yoga studio (med-high budget)

Marketing in year one:

• Showing up on IG posts regularly

• Completed an IG stories challenge for one month to get over my fear of the camera, I made a lot more deeper connections this way!

• Built 1 free resource to build my email list

• 2 blog posts

• Networked where I could, virtual gatherings started to pop up during the pandemic

• Used IG to connect with businesses I hoped to attract and followed who they followed. I needed to understand their industries

During my first year or two I took an exorbitant amount of design courses. Looking back, I can see that I went overboard in my course load, and this was coming from a sense of insecurity about not being enough. I had a false sense that course knowledge would somehow allow me to feel qualified or deserving to run a studio.

I caution designers in quickly deciding to sign up for a course. Give it space, the course will almost always launch again, check in with yourself and ask why this course is necessary for your business. So, with that caveat, here are the…

courses from Year One:

• Fauxfolio with Creative Lady Collective — I recommend this for new designers!

• IG Story 1-Month Challenge led by Oh Sierra

• Instagram Impact by Natalie Brite

• Designed to Thrive Collective led by Studio Antheia

• Standout Squarespace led by Squarestylist

• Packaging Design Master led by Elby Creative

• The Green Graphic Design Course led by Little Fox

• CSS Primer for Squarespace by Meg Summerfield

• Elevated Email Challenge led by Lydia Kerr

My excessive course taking stemmed from insecurity

Year Two

Projects from Year Two:

These projects ranged between $1700–$14000

• Apothecary brand & packaging — from IG (low budget)

• Holistic Wellness Coach strategy, brand & website — from IG (high budget)

• Beauty Brand print & layout — referral from creative agency connection (low budget)

• Spiritual Guide course platform — referral from another designer (medium budget)

• Women’s Magazine print & layout — from Instagram (low budget)

• Coach website — from Natalie Brite course network above ⬆️ (low budget)

• Massage therapist 2-day brand — Pinterest (very low budget)

• Real Estate strategy, brand, website, collateral — referral from another client (high budget)

Marketing in Year Two:

• Showing up on IG posts regularly

• Completed another IG stories challenge for one month

• Began posting on Pinterest regularly

• Built 4 free resources to grow my email list

• 2 blogs posts

• Began using Flodesk to create automated nurture sequences when new folks downloaded my resources (this includes 3–6 follow up emails providing more value)

• Launched my rebrand in the fall (big alignment and magnetism with this launch!)

• Launched The Brand Foundation Course on Teachable

• Launched the Website Foundation & Copy Guide for Healers

• Shared my Website Copy Guide and Process for Designers

• Networked at virtual gatherings with aligned businesses

Courses from Year Two:

• Search & Grow Dubsado Templates

• Insight & Impact Market Research led by Pascale Cote

• Brand Clarity Academy led by Quill & Co.

• Pinterest for Designers led by Emmy de León

Coaching was the best investment of the year!

In year two I invested in a 6-month coaching container with Pascale Cote from Dear Creative Mind. This was the best investment that I made that year. Far better then investing in my continued education. I already knew enough, so what I did need was to implement and set a healthier mindset. Coaching helped me narrow my interests, connect deeper with my community and launch my new aligned brand. I highly recommend working with a coach.

Year Three

Projects from Year three:

These projects ranged between $2000–$22000

• Therapist brand & website — Google search $$$

• Real Estate strategy, brand, website, collateral — referral from another client $$$$$

• Women’s Magazine print & layout — from Instagram $

• Outdoor App brand & landing page — family $

• Yoga Studio brand — referral from network $

• Spiritual Guide strategy & brand — referral from another designer $$$

• Leadership Mentor strategy, brand & website — referral from network connection $$$$$

• Yoga & Community strategy & 2-day brand — from Instagram $$

• Wellness Coach 2-day brand & website — from Pinterest $$

• Yoga Studio strategy, brand, website, collateral — from my network $$$$$

• Community Space 2-day brand & website — Pinterest $$

• Acupuncture & Herbalist 2-day brand — referral from creative agency $

• Real Estate 2-day brand — referral from client $

Biggest takeaway:

Keep track of your inquiry metrics and adjust your marketing year-to-year.

More people found me through Pinterest. I didn’t get many leads directly from Instagram but it’s a rich space for connection. Last, there was an increase in referrals from seeds planted years before.

Marketing in Year Three:

• IG somewhat regularly (I took several big gaps)

• Experimented with IG Close Friends Community (20 video lessons)

• Posted on Pinterest regularly

• Built 2 free resources to grow my email list

• 4 blogs posts

• Built out Flodesk automated nurture sequences

• Very little email marketing beyond the nurture sequences, but grew my list to about 900

• Launched the Interbeing Website Template on Teachable

• 1 podcast interview and 1 IG Live collaboration

• Scheduled far more connection calls to meet other creatives and network more intimately

Courses from Year Three:

• The Green Marketing Academy led by Michelle Miller

I invested in light coaching support and regularly attended Monthly Creative Gatherings. I also hired a Studio Assistant (about 5–7 hours a week to help me run my Pinterest, Admin, Dubsado, Emails and Flodesk) and at the very end of the year, I hired a Studio Designer (about 8–12 hours per week).

And that brings me to this year, 2023.
Year 4 for State of Sage.

I hope my story and transparency is helpful for your journey as a creative. Perhaps you relate to some parts or all this feels completely different from your path.

I think my business was propelled by a combination of 1) being highly driven, 2) having nothing to do during the pandemic and 3) having an unstable household income during the pandemic which motivated me to work hard and get my business to a point of viability.

I also have high-focus, high-energy and a clear vision. However, I feel this is beginning to shift, as I need more down time, more rest, more play, more time for myself. I have a lot of ideas for how I can achieve a more open schedule this year, but it’s hard to hold a vision for play and rest.

I’m sure, above all, this is relatable for you. Our creative minds can operate at full speed, we are full of ideas and actually scheduling in time for rest when you are starting something new or trying to establish yourself is hard. Saying “yes” to a project that you don’t have time for. Just working “a little bit” on the weekend. I completely get it.

A note of encouragement and realism

Now, to end my design story and answer the questions you’ve asked over the last 2 years.

I encourage you to play and rest. Keep experimenting in the expansive field of design and set your boundaries for you own mental health. Decide what you want to do and say “yes” and “no” to projects — what you say “yes” to will begin to snowball into future referrals. Cancel a project if you get too many red flags, it’s just not worth it. Put late fees on your invoices, no exceptions. Get a solid contract and practice your boundaries when it comes to deadlines and scope creep. You are a professional, treat yourself like one.

Most importantly, believe in yourself. You have a gift. Don’t compare yourself to other creatives. Just focus on who you want to serve. What are their needs? Join their world and be “the designer they know”. They don’t see all the other designers that you are comparing yourself to; they just see you and are being magnetized to you. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best. Everyday as a creative, we get better at our craft, wiser in how to guide and apply and more potent. So celebrate yourself, where ever you are in your journey.

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