Meet Nicole LaRue

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

Hi Nicole, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I feel like I’ve always been resilient, but that’s likely not totally true.

I honestly think my resilience was built by always doing the harder things, choosing the harder options, maybe in everything in my life. I was a gymnast when I was very young and a runner once my gymnastics career ended. As a gymnast, you have to try things over and over and over again. You have to get back up, you have to stay tough and you have to be willing to be bad at something for a good long time. Running isn’t too different. It’s up to you to stop and walk or to just push through and finish. Both of these are extreme mental tasks and I think both allowed me to build that resilience “muscle” for all the rest of the things I was bound to take on in my life.

As a creative, resilience is ridiculously necessary. Creativity is so personal and so hard on one’s self-esteem. It’s subjective, but also boundaried and is up to us to find the balance. Throughout my entire career, at the start of every new job or project, I question my relevance and ability with no other choice than to push through all of that in order to find the best solution. Which always looks easier said than done.

Only recently my wife has explained to me my Human Design as a Projector. Apparently I operate, foundationally, by trying things for myself. I’m the one who has to do it and I can’t be told what the inevitable outcome will be without having done it myself. So I’ve had a lot of experience in making choices that don’t quite work out, but they almost always lead me to the next amazing thing in my life. And that has the most value to me. It’s real and tangible.

So I do wonder, maybe some of my resilience was built in… but I think I strengthened it with my hard-working nature and my need to really figure the world out for myself.

Resilience can be such a superpower and is definitely MY superpower, this I know for sure.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m a graphic designer, illustrator and, most recently, a tattoo artist.

I’m at a point in my career where I’m lucky enough to take on some of the most dream-worthy projects. I recently designed and illustrated an entire tarot deck with Microcosm Publishing. I’ve been creating art and art shows as a mixed-media artist. I’m currently working on a graphic novel, release date of 2027, called Food Fight. It’s a memoir of sorts discussing the craziness of disordered eating and is possibly THEE single most important thing I will ever do.

I’m also a tattoo artist! And I feel insanely lucky. I work at a shop called Rekindled that’s a woman-owned, queer-friendly, safe space. It’s a tattoo, barber and massage shop all in one. And I work there with the most incredibly kind humans you could ever meet. I have been able to use my quirky illustrative style to find my own niche and I absolutely adore working with my clients. As an absolute introvert, I wasn’t wholly sure I’d like the people-part of tattooing, but it has become one of the most prized parts of this work for me. I hear human stories, I witness grief and joy and each person’s history. It’s wild and it’s beautiful and has had such a tender impact on my relationship with my work.

And my brand, Kind Goods Studio, feels like everything I want to add to the world. Goodness, kindness and everything human.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Hard work. I find this to be my very best strength. I know that artists and creatives have a bit of a stereotype of being flaky and bad with deadlines. I’ve worked hard to make that the opposite for me. I find great value in over-delivering in everything I do and never ever missing a deadline. And I think it’s what has allowed me to do what I do. Folks can always trust that I will do what I commit to and I think that’s so incredibly important or at least it has been for me.

2. Resilience. Speaking of resilience again, being able to get back up again and again and again is everything. Not allowing things to affect me to the point of paralysis (which would be so easy). Just thinking, if I try hard enough, I will find my way to the other side of everything.

3. Kindness and Allowance. There’s room for everyone, regardless of how the world operates. Knowing this has allowed me to do my best work without the mindset of competition and with so much more kindness than the industry or work world wants us to believe. The kinder you are and the more you allow, the better everything around you is. Sounds trite, but it’s so damn true.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

Honestly, two people I do not know have said the most important things that I come back to over and over again.

The first one is Paula Scher, a badass designer and art director with Pentagram (one of the very best of the best in the design world) once said, “It took me 30 seconds to draw it, but it took me 30 years to learn how to draw it in 30 seconds”. She was describing her process for designing the Citi logo. Which has been crazy important the longer I’ve been in the creative world. Things DO get easier when we know more. But it’s BECAUSE we’ve done all the work that allows it to become that easy.

The second one comes from Brené Brown and I reference it all the time! I believe Brené was having a chat with the creatives of Pixar and describing the creative process. She describes it in days where “Day 1” is the most exciting, it’s when you get the new project and you have ten million ideas in your head. But then you step into “Day 2” where you actually sit down and get started and put those ten million brilliant ideas to the test. Day 2 is the hardest. It’s when things aren’t working out. Where those ideas you had in your head aren’t translating to brilliant designs. It’s when you feel like a fraud or feel like you’re absolutely about to fail. But you have to push through this Day 2. You know, historically, you have always gotten to the other side. “Day 3” is the other side. It’s a finished project and a happy client.

And there have been 62 million “Day 2’s” in my life. In every new project, in every next job I take on, in every single piece of art I make. But I tell myself to push through, to KNOW that there’s the other side, that I’ve always gotten there and I will do it again this time. And next time. And the time after that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kindgoodsstudio.com
• Instagram: @kindgoodsstudio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicole.larue.509/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-larue-aa84251/