I’ll start by saying that job titles are just wanky corporate Mad Libs to make one sound impressive or important on LinkedIn. With that being said, “visual designer” was the closest title I felt accurately represented the wide range of work I do: product, brand, graphic, web, motion, design systems, strategy, a little interpretive dance when necessary.

I’ve been told that being a generalist can be a red flag (classic “jack of all trades” slander), but in my experience, it’s been the opposite. I’ve had the opportunity to design across so many areas because teams (surprisingly) trust me to zoom out, connect the dots, and slot in wherever they need me. I have absolute respect to designers who have a distinct focus, but for me, I need to mix things up to keep motivated.

While we are on the topic of mixing things up: my career as a designer hasn’t always been linear or constant. In the past 12 years, I’ve taken a coupla years off here and there to teach English in Kyrgyzstan, do earthquake relief in Nepal, co-start a food truck in the Netherlands, and more.

Yes we did, The Commons (Collingwood Location 4evs)! That was such a cool spot.

I’ve coworked heaps throughout my career due to my nature of constantly moving—so far, I’ve lived in a total of 7 countries, and my longest “travel-while-working” stint was 2 years. I feel extremely privileged to be in this position and have obviously abused the flexibility of this career.

Coworking has been so impactful for my specific lifestyle because it supports that level of flexibility while also providing a community. Not going to lie—most of the time I join them for the social aspect because you get to meet others in a similar situation as you. Kody can probably confirm that I’d “clock in” at 11am, work a few hours, then pester people to hang out with lil ol me (it’s called networking, look it up).

As both a mentor and a mentee, I find huge value in accessible mentorship.

Not to turn this interview into a mentorship session but… my favourite advice I like to give is: find someone doing what you want to be doing, then ask them how they got there. Boom—instant roadmap. And since you also get to learn from your mentor’s learnings, you can (hopefully) get there with fewer potholes!

It’s also awesome seeing the next generation of designers—most of the times, I feel like I learn more from my mentees than they learn from me.

Travel has been my bootcamp in adaptability. When you’re constantly starting over in new places, you get really good at reading the room. It’s also made me a better collaborator and cultural sponge, which helps me design for people who aren’t just like me.

I’ve designed apps for Dutch banks (hello, loooong words), right-to-left Arabic interfaces (does the X icon belong on the top left?), and sites that needed a lot of red (not in the context of error messaging) because symbolism! in Chinese culture.

Creative constraints like that force you to rethink your assumptions—and that’s a humbling experience.

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