Go to college without the most important piece: Know Thyself

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I got into NC State as a French Education major. My parents convinced me to switch to Biochemistry before orientation and I spent the next three years trying to figure out how to do something else. My Food Science and Nutrition classes had been fascinating, so I decided to change my major to Nutrition Science and received my Bachelor of Science degree in 2013. It wasn’t until a year later, newly married and without a job, that my husband and I sat down, reevaluated who I was and what I actually loved to do. Since I was seven, I had wanted to be an artist.

Googling “How Do Artists Put Food on the Table?” led me to Graphic Design and I graduated with my Applied Associate of Science in Graphic Design in 2015 from the Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham after an intense 15 months.

I signed up with a staffing agency and got my first big-girl job about two months after graduation. I had been freelancing for small projects while I built my portfolio and skillset at school.

Get Your First Big-Kid Job

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I worked at the North American division of Ajinomoto, a Japan-based global company, for four years. I worked with various business units within the company to create packaging, marketing materials, trade show booth designs, sell sheets, internal announcements, PowerPoint presentations, branding guidelines, t-shirts, cake designs, holiday cards, event decorations, and email blasts.

Ajinomoto makes amino acids, food ingredients, cosmetics, sports nutrition supplements, animal feed, and IV bag contents. I was able to use my science background to create concepts and materials in both Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer applications.

Have a Baby and Reinvent Yourself

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After my first baby was stillborn, there was a lot of self-reflection. Was I really where I was supposed to be? What did I really want to do? Were there better ways to help my community?

My daughter was born 15 months after we lost my son and I quit my job when my maternity leave ran out. I had spent those 15 months building my connections, volunteering more with my local design community, doing small freelance projects for friends in the industry, and taking classes on Skillshare to expand my skillset.

I was starting to hit my stride as a full-time mom and as a freelancer when the pandemic hit. My husband and I decided to move and I stayed in Charlotte with my parents for the summer while we sold our house and waited for the sale of our new home to go through. I joined the board of my design community and kept doing small projects for my industry friends.

As soon as we got to live together as a family again, one of those friends reached out and offered me a more permanent situation with her company. I started with Loop Creative in September of 2020.

Adapt and Thrive

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Loop Creative is a design and marketing agency that mostly focuses on nonprofits. The work is varied and exciting and I’m constantly learning new things while improving the skills I already have.

One of the big things I’ve improved while creating alongside my fellow Loopsters is website design, especially in Squarespace. Trying to figure out ways to deliver on client requests and make sites more interesting than the defaults has made me learn a lot more about HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

My work with various design communities in 2020 led to a caricature gig to increase voter turnout in the November election, leading a few really fun community meetings for AIGA Raleigh, teaching preteens the basics of design, and helping scientists up their PowerPoint game.

I’m so excited about this next chapter of my life. There’s a lot more stability and creativity in my everyday. It is a huge privilege to be able to pour back into my friendships and community the love they have shown me.