Well, talk about major procrastination! This website launch has been on my Things To Do List since 2013 and 5 years later I finally got around to it. I know you’re judging me and wondering why it took me this long and I have no real answer other than, LIFE! This website will not only share my portfolio of work and the services offered, but it will share the dirty laundry of the beginning stages of launching a business, tips and tricks, and because I feel this topic is missing on google searches, I’ll be occasionally discussing how to conquer the terror of wedding planning as a modern Filipino-American Bride-to-Be. But first, let me catch you up on the last 5 years.
By now I’m hoping you looked through my website because then you’d already know that designing is something I was born to do. As soon as I graduated and got my degree in Graphic Design, I pictured myself in a relaxed office setting as an In-House Graphic Designer for some design agency. A very naive idea. I mostly wanted to be surrounded by likeminded individuals and 5 years ago, I got pretty close to that goal. I interned for a Branding Consultant (shout out to Peji Design) , and while I was an intern, I managed to land a job as an In-House Graphic Designer for a small team sports apparel company. Although sports are clearly not my thing, I chose to leave my awesome internship for the stability that this salary position offered. I worked with a pretty cool marketing team, but sadly, the projects were such a snooze fest. Like any other young professional out there, I stayed. After all, it was an easy job, I was paid (not well, but better than nothing), and they allowed me to keep my job and work remotely from D.C. when my husband, Jan got military orders. The arrangement sounds great, right? But after living a life with a goal to be a designer, I ended up questioning if this was really what I wanted to do. Lesson learned: when you pray for something, be more specific! Although I had my "dream" job, it was robotic, and I was taking direction from a misogynistic boss who swore on his life that his 5-minute creations on Microsoft Paint equated to the projects the marketing team and I were constantly pitching to him.
Budget cuts happened, and after 3 long years, I was eventually laid off with a group of others. No tears here! I literally prayed for myself to be laid off. Lol! Now jobless, with an open road ahead of me, I did plenty of soul-searching in order to determine if I wanted to use my degree or start a new venture into another interest of mine. The only thing I knew was that I did not want to design for a male targeted audience. As I struggled with this, my Dad brought to my attention that I had a natural knack for designing for weddings. Because my last job was such a bore, I managed to freelance as a stationery and brand designer at the same time. It was my way to balance my very masculine 9-5 job. Very passionate about designing for females, but not so hot on the idea of owning a business, I disregarded my Dad’s advice. Surprisingly, Jan was on board with the same idea as my Dad.
For the first few months, Jan insisted to operate the business side of things, just so I can focus on design, and fall back in love with it. As I took on my first two clients, pushed myself forward, started to network with people in my industry, and gain my confidence back, I decided it was time to take the wheel and let him have the backseat. So here I am, on the driver's side stirring my journey along. Jan is on standby if I run into a pothole and if I need a flat tire changed.