Meet Steve Abercrombie

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Steve Abercrombie. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Steve, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I grew up in the Deep South raised by my Grandmother who worked daily within extremely tight budgets to keep us afloat. I was also fortunate to have friends with parents from various professional and creative backgrounds. In all of these people, I saw a common thread, take an active role in your life, and be creative with whatever tools you have.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I have been down a long and sometimes winding creative career. This includes everything from years in print publishing with local Georgia newspapers and magazines, a decade tangent as a performing musician, a return to the magazine industry in an Art Director role, and in most recent years graphic and web design with national music promoters.

I eventually accepted a Creative Assistant role for a trio of music promoters working remotely from my home in Athens, GA. This evolved into a Management role and I was offered a chance to work at the home office in Madison, WI in 2018.

This fun but brief period ended with a layoff in 2020 due to industry shutdowns from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Being persistently restless, I immediately started networking through friends and contacts to build up creative projects that might keep me afloat until another position arose.

I continued to apply for jobs while also juggling freelance projects through 2022. At that point, I had a solid client base and decided to stop the job search and start my creative service.

Stabercrombie Design has exceeded my expectations and provided me with many creative opportunities over the last several years. It is finally a space where I can utilize every talent I ever amassed from print layout to social media ads and web designs. I even added some new items to the tool bag like SEO optimization and Video Editing.

https://stabercrombie.com/

This year, I finally reached a volume that made it necessary to bring aboard some help. Thomas Baker and Dan Roth bring deep skillsets and allow me to offer an even wider range of creative services.

Meet the Team

Stabercrombie Design specializes in.

Web Makeovers: Maybe you made a website yourself and it didn’t turn out quite right, or you spent big bucks on an ad agency but it’s not what you expected. We fix that.

Concert Production Graphics: Working with event promoters to create a variety of social, venue, and print graphics.

Video Localization: We can take live footage and static graphics to create a localized video for social media or broadcast.

Web Mgmt: You have an existing site but need someone to manage content and optimize for Search Engines without huge agency costs. We do that.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Never stop learning. This cliche spoken at college graduations is crucial. New tech, new trends, stuff changes you have to roll with it.

Don’t Give Up. Seriously, don’t give up. Change gears, take a break, get a side hustle to the side hustle, but don’t give up.

Keep it simple. There is always a temptation to go overboard with a project whether it’s a design, a song, a web page, or a flyer, but almost every time it is a game of reduction that leads to success. Reducing the clutter to the essential elements!

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

Progress is not possible without deviation! I have personally been in numerous situations where the door has closed on an industry or opportunity, but it has provided an opportunity for a shift in learning that leads to new doors opening up.

One example I can think of is my shift from magazine and newspaper to digital designing. I was fairly happy making newspapers but aware of the rise of the machines, so around 2014 I took a year-long course to translate my skills to this new medium.

Contact Info:

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