Writing a blog post about ending my full-time status here at Seedhouse is not an easy task. There’s SO much that it’s difficult to put into a nice succinct post. My nearly four years is a constant accumulation of experience, thoughts, victories, and frustrations. If I have to distill it down to one word, it would be growth, both personally and as a designer. And also, importantly, Seedhouse’s growth too.
There are, of course, all the changes that you can see when you walk in the door: new carpet, fresh computers, another desk, this awesome rooster painting:
and this incredible lime painting by David Oleski.
There is the list of accomplishments that we are all proud of: building and maintaining long-term relationships with clients, welcoming a number of awesome new clients and getting to work in a variety of different spaces, seeing the work that we made with our very own minds and eyes and hands all over stores. (Honestly, I do a round at the grocery store to visit our brands, see it on shelves, and, of course, straighten up.)
Then there is the less than glamorous, but just as necessary, stuff that I’m incredibly proud of. The back-end proofing and file organization system we’ve established is an orderly thing of beauty and it brings me great joy. The paper scrap piles of custom illustrations on our desks and in our file cabinets are a reminder of the care and effort we put into every stage of every project and I love doing them. And lastly, and most importantly, being a part of this team for the past four years. We’re small (there’s only 6 of us) so each one of us plays a huge role in the daily runnings of this studio, the intense thinking that goes into everything we do, and the design work that results from it.
At the end of March, I am moving into a travel trailer with my husband, our dog Lucy and an indeterminate number of cats. We are going to explore, spend intentional time with our dear friends and family, and learn how to do a billion new things. I’ll be working as a part-time remote Seedhouser (the first of my kind!), bringing a new set of experiences to the table.
Personal experience has a profound impact on how we view, develop, and cultivate meaningful design; our personal and professional selves are not separate entities, especially in a creative field. I’m grateful to be part of a team that recognizes this and champions personal development and exploration.
This mentality is always present at Seedhouse and we’ve been lucky to have many adventures outside of the studio and out from behind the computer. A happy stomach fuels creativity (or so we tell ourselves), which has resulted in a lot of great food over the past 3.75 years. [Roll montage music]
We’ve gone beyond the comforts of our Ravenswood office, exploring the neighborhoods of our fair city and others (do yourself a favor: Laughing Taco in Milwaukee).
And we drank too many of those weird frappuccinos from Starbucks.
