Pandemic Life // 10 Questions on Dating a Creative

So. How’s everyone doing? This quarantine life is sure something, isn’t it? They said COVID-19 would majorly disrupt life. I didn’t think it would be like this. When I was stuck in quarantined, I thought I would interview my boyfriend about what it’s like dating a creative. I think I’m an entertaining ball of fun to be with, but let’s see what my partner (and current office mate) has to say.

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Work at Play // Inviting Play Into Your Craft

Last year I experienced burnout. I was doing work I didn’t enjoy and was taking whatever came my way. At Design Camp, I resolved to enjoy my work again. Over the holiday, my friend and colleague, Ben Easter, gave me some sound advice: play. I can’t do anything if I haven’t thought it to death, so of course, I spend an absurd amount of time thinking about what it would look like to play with my work. I decided I needed to withhold judgment and reconnect with that sense of curiosity that I had when I was a kid.

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Onward // 2019 in Review + Goals for 2020

Here we are: the end of a month, a year, a decade. I’ve been running my company for three and a half years. It was a hard year, but I have learned a lot. I guess that typically comes with hard experiences. There were days that shook my confidence and days that showed me just how capable I am of doing this. There were a lot of things that weren’t great about 2019, but I am in a great place because I have a fresh start ahead, and know what I need to do differently.

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The Value of Personal Projects

You know those nights when you go to bed and you almost dread going to work, and then you get to work the next day and you don’t want to do anything? You sit in your workspace exhausted. You’re annoyed that you’re even there and you’re unhappy with everything you’re doing. On every front, you feel beat down and stuck. For weeks on end, going through the motions has been the name of the game.

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Cairn vol. 18 // Feeling Like a Fake

I’ve been a business owner for 3 years. I’ve been a designer on a professional level for 5. I’ve been a photographer for 11 years and doing it professionally for 7. I started my life as a creative in 2006, thirteen years ago. And you know what? I still sometimes feel like I’m not enough. I still feel like a fake and a fraud. This month, all of these feelings came to a head and I was forced to confront them. One of these moments came in the form of a creative breakdown where I realized that I hated what I was shooting, erased the card and went and cried my eyes out in the bathroom till I felt sick.

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Cairn // vol. 13: new skills. new goals.

Getting back to work after a vacation sucks. Who’s with me? I took a trip to Phoenix to help clear my head after a very tumultuous two months after my dad died. At first, I didn’t think I needed it but after I about a month, I started feeling the need to get away. By the time we reached T-7 days, I was about to lose it. Getting on that plane was so freeing, and now coming back, I feel much more able to handle work and life, and everything else.

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The Distinguishing Trait That Separates the Amateurs from the Pros

Creative professionals are great people to mingle with. They are really laid back, funny, and they often take a genuine interest in other people. However, I have had a few encounters that haven’t been nearly as pleasant. For so long, I struggled to identify what about these interactions was so uncomfortable. All I knew was that there was something that came off as amateur masquerading as professional. Something just felt insincere about these interactions.

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