Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah Jacobs. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Sarah, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
For both commissioned and personal graphic design projects, I would say variety! It took me years of professional deadlines to realize that when I’m stuck on a design, or not feeling like great ideas are sketching on paper, I can move to the computer. When I’m out of ideas there, I’ll return some client phone calls or work on billing. Usually my best designs emerge from a brief period of rest – taking a fresh look later in the day or even the next morning.
Variety of projects is also important to me. When developing a company’s brand, I have to think about how a logo will look: small on a business card, and also large on a billboard or vehicle. How another graphic element would print on paper, and also post on social media. Working in different sizes and aspect ratios helps me to creatively explore different layouts and color palettes.
I also keep my creativity alive by working for clients in different industries. Some graphic and/or web designers specialize, for example, in veterinarians or food trucks. I love the challenge of looking at an industry as an outsider. It forces me to continuously listen, take notes, and find creative ways to help set the company apart from their competitors (who are often all doing similar things, and all have the similar website templates.) It is fun to research what their clients are asking on the search engines and to find new ways to offer solutions to their problems, instead of relying on the last project’s successes.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I offer agency-level graphic design and custom website design and development to small businesses who want a ‘big’ look and a strong online presence. What’s most special about it, I think, is that I’m fortunate to have started learning graphic design in the late 90s before the industry was so reliant on technology. I added web development to my skillset in the early 2000’s when the web was simpler and faster. While I’ve kept up with the complexity of design software and the web, I can still see projects, problems, and solutions from the simple lens of the past. Sadly, so much of the time, people are so trained to expect something complex, that when I offer a simple solution, they almost don’t believe me!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Most impactful for me are communication, presentation, and brand values. Communication includes being open to ideas, understanding what the other person is trying to say, listening more than speaking, and speaking only when necessary – clients want you to tell their story, not the other way around. It also includes writing – the ability to write short, easy to understand sentences without grammatical errors for emails, text messages and social media posts.
For each project, big or small, I spend a lot of time preparing a presentation for my work so the client can understand it. I don’t spend 6 hours designing a double sided brochure to sit down with my client and say, “do you like it?” – although a lot of designers do! I walk them through all of the decisions I made along the way, from the fonts to the colors and hierarchy, and how everything works together. I show how I listened to their requests and took their ideas to the next level.
It took a business coach to get me to write down my core/brand values. I’m publishing them here for the first time even though I’ve had them written down for years(!), but they do help me make decisions on a daily basis. How do I want people to see me? How do I let them know what they can expect from me? What makes me different? How will I plan out my next week?
Work for results.
Be interesting.
Adventure always.
Break the rules.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
Definitely all in on our strengths. It takes so many years to perfect a skill. Clients love it when I can say “yes” to all of their requests. I can only do that by knowing my skills inside and out – knowing the ‘rules’ that can be broken. I do love adding to my skillset, but not until a strong base is established. We can all think of a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ in our lives. I would rather be seen as an expert, and charge expert rates.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sw33t.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sw33t/
- Other: https://www.alignable.com/arvada-co/sw33t-graphic-design-service