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Not every designer starts creating with a sketchpad!
For Emily B., the call to create began with a love of the theater and dreams of being an actress! But, over time, that passion for storytelling and creating moved to a different kind of stage — from sets and scripts to layouts and typography!
And now, as a Designity Creative Director, Emily is bringing that same theatrical flair and strategic thinking to every project she touches!
So, how did Emily go from running box offices to leading creative teams and campaigns at Designity?
Now’s your chance to find out!
Today’s blog is a 1:1 interview with Ithaca, NY-based Creative Director, Emily B., so you can see her amazing work, hear her story, and see all the ways creativity can evolve over time!
Pull up a chair because it’s time to meet Emily!
How did you get into design? What’s your origin story?
I came at it strangely because, initially, I went to college for theater.
When I was young, you couldn't tell me nothing, and I definitely was sure I was going to move to New York to be an actor. So, I went to NYU and studied acting.
But I think what made that experience really useful to me, ultimately, even though I didn't want to be an actor in the end, was that program I was in was a holistic theater experience. We did set design, light design, directing, dramaturgy, playwriting, everything. And so the early costume/ light design classes were sort of my first look at design. I was always fine at art, but I'm not what you would say “an incredible artist.” I never blew anyone away. But understanding layout and light and shadows, and things like that was always interesting to me.
After I graduated, I was just sort of working a bunch of odd jobs, and I ended up being a personal assistant to this eccentric, wealthy man who had me do a lot of different things. And one of the things he had me do was make protest signs — this was around the beginning of the Iraq War.
So, he got Photoshop — back when they were CDs — and had me learn it so I could make signs for him to hold up at protests. That was the first time I really started working with computer graphics and understanding that that was something I could do.
Then, I had all these theater friends and comedian friends and musicians, and they were always doing things, and so I would make their flyers and posters with my little bootleg Photoshop and then get free tickets to whatever they were doing.
So, that was sort of my strange little way into the world.
What made you decide to pursue something other than acting?
I did a few acting projects here and there right after graduation, but by my senior year, I knew I didn't want to act.
It sort of broke me down, because I think what I loved about theater was creating art in a community, and that's not really what acting is most of the time. It’s auditioning and you're the brand and you’re selling yourself and you're talking about body and types, and I just didn't like being on display like that.
So, it was a weird little pivot I had to make. I was not sure what I wanted to do for a while.
How did you transition from that to design?
All my contacts were in theater, so I was working at a lot of box offices, because there are so many non-profit theaters.
And so, I would, in the evenings, work at various box offices for non-profit theaters, selling and handing out tickets.
How did you jump from design and marketing to working at box offices?
It took a little while because the box office thing started taking over, and I got hired at bigger and bigger theaters, and then I ended up managing a box office and then ultimately running a small ticketing agency.
I was not loving that, but it was a job, you know? You just wake up and do your job.
I was still creating things for my friends, though, and then our ticketing agency did a redesign of the website, and we had a developer who claimed to be a designer but was not really a designer. I had done some continuing ed classes in design; I was interested in it but saw it as a hobby. And so, I started working sort of as the designer for that web design project, and when it was over, I was so sad.
Then, I was like “Wait. People do this for a living! Like, you don’t have to keep doing your other job for money and designing for free!”
So, I found Pratt Institute; and they had this associates and occupational studies degree that was really for career changers — people who have four-year degrees who have all this work experience and they want a skill in a creative area. It was sort of like a two-year crash course in design, and it was amazing.
I got my first real design job from that that was way better than any job I'd ever had.
What was that job?
I interned for a bit while I was at Pratt, working for a book publishing company Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
I got to design some book jackets, but I was mostly doing the spine and the back and the flaps — I would get the cover delivered to me and then have to create the rest. That was always sort of an interesting puzzle to figure out.
There was some serious typography involved, and they were so specific about the typography and the print process, so that was a really amazing first design gig.
Once I graduated, I was hired at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a big international dance company.
The person who hired me there was a theater person at heart too and saw my theater background and even though I was early in my design career, they liked my work and gave me a shot.
Ailey has the core dance company, and then they have a junior company of younger dancers. Then, there is the Ailey School, which is for young professionals who are very serious about dance, and the Ailey Extension, which is dance classes for anyone who wants to just come in and take dance lessons. Then they have an outreach group that goes into schools and underserved communities. It was all these different departments within this giant organization, and it was all one brand, but then there were little things that would be slightly different, and rules for different things. Such an incredible learning experience!
How did your career eventually lead you to Designity?
I went in a lot of directions as a designer.
I like people and I like connecting with people, and when I connect with someone, working with them tends to lead to other things when they move on.
Sometimes that gives me opportunities. I feel like I've had a lot of those in my life. And because of that I've been able to work in a lot of different industries.
My last role, I was there for about 10 years, I got a really deep dive in healthcare and building products marketing which was super, super specific. But that is sort of helpful to have deep knowledge of just industries sometimes. When I was feeling like I was ready to leave, one of my colleagues there had worked with Designity previously and she was like, “You know, I feel like you might be a really good fit for this place.”
What is your favorite kind of project to take on?
I think it's actually really targeted marketing programs.
I don't think I would have said that a couple years ago, but the truth is, I think it has sort of the same thing that I liked about acting.
I love a buyer persona. I love to think about people and where they're coming from and what they're interested in and how we can tweak the message to be relevant to them. I find that really fascinating.
It’s especially fun when there's maybe a couple really specific targets, but one product, and so you see how it changes from audience to audience.
I think it's fun to dig into those details and see how the work changes depending on who your audience is — I'm interested in that.
What do you find are your most challenging kinds of projects?
The projects where it's just production.
Sometimes, that's fine because everyone just puts on their headphones and knocks it out. But those require having to be nitpicky and look at tiny little details all day, and it’s not always my favorite.
What is your favorite thing about working at Designity?
I love the variety. As someone who spent 10 years, really, specifically in two verticals, it is very cool that my day involves solar energy then learning management software, then outsourcing, and so many different areas and extremely different brands. I feel like every day I'm learning different things and that's interesting to me.
I also think the community is so great — the other CDs have been so helpful. No one's in the same location, and it's really just through Slack and the occasional little huddles or meetings that we get to sort of meet each other, but they've been so supportive and helpful.
Then, I love having access to all these different kinds of Creatives. I feel like in a regular agency situation you have the team that you have — maybe you get the budget to outsource something special once in a while — but really, you're working with who you have.
But here, it's like, I can grab a 3D rendering person and then a motion graphics person, and then we're finding a voiceover artist. really just whatever you need.
I love when my clients are like, "Do you guys do this?" And I'm like, "Yeah, we definitely do.”
Because even if we don't have it, we have access to someone who does, and that's really cool. I’ve never experienced anything like that before.
How do you keep yourself up to date with design trends?
It’s hard.
Honestly, the Designity community helps.
I love the Slack; there’s been multiple times when different Creatives have just put things in the Creatives’ chat or there's the channel for AI where I just see something and I'm like that actually could be helpful.
So, it's just another thing that's so awesome about Designity is that there's this group of people that are all really interested in and forward-thinking in the industry, that I just feel like I have access to the kinds of minds that I wouldn't normally see if I were just one part of a small creative department or something and everyone else was focused on other aspects of the business.
This is like a giant community of people who care about the same things that I care about.
Is there any insight you can give about current design trends and tools?
AI is a big thing that we're all sort of exploring, which I love personally.
I don't love ChatGPT; I have a lot of issues with that because it feels like when you’re using it, it's not necessarily you engaging in your own thoughts and research. But as far as visuals, AI is doing the things that used to be annoying for me — meticulous hours and hours of creating an extended background or removing something from a background. We can just get that done and move on; I see AI as a tool in a designer’s toolkit.
For design trends, I love reading, and I love book jackets. I like going into big bookstores, where they have all the new stuff out, and I feel like you can see typographic trends if you just look at the book covers and what those designers are doing.
It's usually pretty spot on to whatever is going to be the new hip thing.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I like to sing and make music.
I take voice lessons and I'm friends with a lot of musicians. My husband's a musician, and five years ago, we started our own mini private music festival along with several of our friends.
We used to all camp together at Grassroots — a big music festival that happens up here — and we realized we were spending much more time at our campsite playing our own music than out seeing the bands. So we created our own little music festival just for us.
(We have our festival on a different weekend than Grassroots, so we can still attend that too!)
Do you perform at your festival?
Yes. My husband and I do a lot of folky country-type stuff and Americana together, and our festival goes all over the place music-wise.
We hire local bands, but we also sometimes make up bands out of our different friends who play too. We'll rehearse maybe the night before, we’re not a tight operation. It'll usually be a themed band, like one year we did John Prine songs.
It’s really fun to get together and just make music with friends. It's one of my favorite things to do.
<div class="c-blog_comp-cta cc-component-2"><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-left"><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-left-wrap"><img src="https://global-uploads.webflow.com/61cdf3c5e0b8155f19e0105b/63695243d096983691046ac3_Potential-Creative.png" loading="lazy" alt="" class="c-blog_comp-cta-left-img"></div></div><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-right cc-dark"><div class="c-blog_comp-content"><div class="c-text-wrapper cc-mb-32"><div class="c-title-4 cc-bold"><strong>Like to work as a freelancer with consistent income?</strong></div></div><div class="c-text-wrapper"><div class="c-text-2">Designity's collaborative model is designed to give you all of the perks of being a freelancer without the income instability.<br></div></div></div><div class="c-blog_comp-wrapper"><a href="http://designity.com/creatives" target="_blank" class="c-button w-button"><strong>Join Our Creative Community</strong></a></div></div></div>
Do you have any words of inspiration for other aspiring graphic designers?
I find it’s always good to read books, watch movies, or do things that take you outside of your life for little bits of time.
And even better if it takes you into the world of somebody that's very much not like you—that can be very beneficial, making your worldview a little wider, and it can make your work that much stronger.
Something else that I always tell myself, because I like to be done with projects, is to just try one more version.
I know some people have the other problem, where they're never done, but sometimes, I'm just like, “I can't look at this anymore,” and then I go take a walk around the block and then come back and just try one more.
Because usually there's something in there that you still haven't found.
