Reflecting on 2019
Well it’s been some what of a slow year for me in design. Don’t get me wrong, I had extremely busy times but this was much slower than past years. I had a lot of different opportunities this year like:
Worked with another designer to help with her workload. This is always fun because I love seeing other peoples processes and being exposed to different types of clients.
Had the time to actually revamped my website which is huge for me. I was able to dig deeper into Squarespace and learn more about the platform along the way.
Worked on some crowd sourcing campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
Learned more about Google Ad words. My biggest take away on this is don’t set your Ads for all times of day, you’ll get some interesting requests. Get more specific!
Ended the year running social media for my other job.
And as usual, I’m still not sold on my own personal brand. Is any designer ever happy with their own brand?
In reality, last year I grew more as Recreational Director and a gymnastics coach than as a graphic designer. I’ve learned some amazing things from other coaches and from SHIFT Movement Science. My lesson plans grew, students became stronger quicker. I had to change course on how to train my staff to challenge and continue to grow with their students. I was constantly researching, writing and filming lesson plans, and finding drills to keep everyone engaged and teaching safely. I edited a lot of training videos, Thank you Adobe Spark and Rush! I spent more time and energy doing all that then what I truly wanted to do.... graphic design.
In 2019, my design took a huge step back and almost stalled. Any other designers feel that way some years? It was good and bad in some ways. I’m known and respected for my position in the gymnastics community. I’ve become a consistent coach for the team which I never had as a team gymnast. I had a different coach every other month and it makes me feel good that I’m a consistent role model for them. I coached throughout college, full-time jobs, and plan to keep it going while I freelance. But need to take a step back in order to fully dive into freelancing the way I want to.
I left the corporate world a few years ago to specifically be a freelance graphic designer. Whether it’s hand lettering, logos, websites for SquareSpace, illustration, branding, an invitation, etc. I wish to dive back into my own little design playground that I had created years ago. Last year I’ve rediscovered my love for anything type. It been calling to me for years but I plan to foster my rediscovery for my passion of type this year.
With this new year, I’m planning to rent a desk in a co-working space, network more and creating time to meet clients face-to-face which means I’m aiming to step back from coaching to do this. It will be a slow process but I’m going into 2020 with a plan to crush the year.
