You Are On Your Own Path.
Vol. 010
You Are On Your Own Path.
From complacent designer to international traveler to business owner to fitness ambassador: I didn’t take a direct route, and you shouldn’t feel pressure to do so either.
I feel like there is sometimes a misconception that there is a “right way” to achieve any one career/position. As a junior graphic designer, I was fairly close-minded to the possibilities, and I thought that the only way to achieve my dream career was to work up the ranks (designer, senior designer, art director) and become the creative director at a graphic design studio in Denver.
One of the most fortunate choices that I have made in my short career has been a shift to open mindedness. Open mindedness to change as well as my goals and “final career destination” has led me to incredible places. There are benefits to both sides of this argument (being fixed in your goals and path and being open to change); however, this article is based on my own experiences.
The concept of Chasing the Fog, pursuing that which is not fully evident/clear, is one of the best choices I have made as a self employed creative, and this choice has enabled me to travel around the world, start teaching, work with brands like NBC, New Belgium, and Sharpie, be on the Real Housewives of Dallas, and land some of my dream-come-true projects.
Instead of taking the aforementioned path from junior graphic designer to creative director, I fell assbackwards into starting my own graphic design studio in Denver. I landed here through making a series of choices and decisions that all had one main commonality: I was never searching for a formulaic route to success. I was open to taking the winding path of experimenting, exploring, and following my instincts and passions.
Chasing the Fog lead to my dream career like this:
Taking the risk of lettering daily for fun led to teaching a hand lettering workshop at SXSW with Goodtype. I wasn’t good at lettering.
Teaching that hand lettering workshop led to uncovering a new revenue stream, and I started teaching hand lettering workshops in Denver. I didn’t feel ready to teach.
Teaching hand lettering workshops in Denver led to a partnership with Bluprint, and teaching a digital hand lettering workshop. I didn’t feel good enough to teach this either.
My digital hand lettering workshop led to an opportunity teaching a painting class to the Real Housewives of Dallas. I had never before taught a painting class or been on tv.
The RHOD opportunity has put me on the radar for other interviews and opportunities with NBC and HBO… I’m scared of these too.
The theme here, folks, is that I never was working towards any one of these things. It has been through the pursuit of an interest in hand lettering and “trying something new”, even in the face of seemingly inevitable failure, that I’ve stumbled and scrambled up my own totem pole as opposed to that of another design studio.
It is through this pursuit of new ideas and interests that my career remains forever-malleable, and has allowed me to most recently become a brand partner and ambassador with lululemon. That’s right, my sedentary career as a graphic designer in Denver has led to being a face (albeit, a small face) for a globally renowned fitness brand. This has only been made possible through pursuing that which I truly desire. Through speaking out into the world that which I desire, despite having no idea how to achieve it: through chasing the fog.
A partnership with Lululemon is literally a dream come true, and it is only through the constant pursuit of that which interests me; doing so in the face of failure, fear and self doubt; continuing to trust and embrace the process; and acknowledging that having diverse interests outside of design will only further and better inform my career path, that this dream has been realized.
A quick side bar: this openness to change and pivot is also what kept me afloat when COVID initially hit.
Unfortunately, your creative career is not formulaic. You can’t just “do that thing” and arrive at success. Everyone’s path is different, abstract, and seemingly non-sequential. Only in looking back do you see that each thing, in some way shape or form, has led to the next.
Today I suggest that you embrace the fear, embrace the failures, and keep those feet movin’ forward. From complacent junior designer to fitness ambassador, my career path has been nothing short of winding. But, it is only through that winding that I continue to find myself in unplanned and unbelievably amazing circumstances.
