Where the River Meets the Sea
Back in 2020, I rebranded the then Riley + Ko to Brackish Creative. The intention was simple: brackish water is where salt water meets freshwater. Branding is where company meets client. It’s funny how the same concept can hold different meanings over the years.
When I started doing design work, I saw all these rigid structures that I believed I needed to conform to in order to be successful. I saw designers and account managers, staying in their lanes, rigid project structures, pricing, professionalism, creative processes, and deliverables.
There’s something big to be said for learning the rules so you can break them. I’ve realized that sometimes the best thing you can do is to say fuck the structures, especially when you realize they’re not serving anyone involved.
Dropping the rigidity and allowing for fluidity (will this whole blog be full of water metaphors?!) in nearly all things is now the framework I choose to operate in. Does it make things more complicated? Does Laura likely get confused on a regular basis? Does it require more mindful communication and collaboration? Big time.
But what I’ve realized is that rigid structures applied to all cases leaves little room for nuance. While you may think you’re working with a business, you’re really working with people. Rigidity doesn’t allow you to meet them where they are. It doesn’t allow the salt and fresh water to meld. And we’re here to create unique environments (water metaphor #2), not prescribe brands based on a mathematical equation.
Working with five students at UofL this semester has been a learning experience for me as much as anyone else. When you’re teaching not only design skills but also how to work with clients, you realize the spaces where you’ve faltered in working with other people. This isn’t to say that everyone’s going to be a good fit. Simply that if you refuse to bend in any direction, no one wins. Simply that if you only have space for your own perspective, you’re going to have a harder time - in everything.
Clients come to us in all stages: brand-spanking new with not so much as a business name or in business for years; pivoting, growing, stretching, expanding. Not only are they in different stages, they’re different companies. Different people with different personalities, goals, dreams, visions, communication styles, values, and needs. This isn’t news to you, I’m sure. But I think so often in “professional settings” we try our hardest to apply the same rules to everyone. And you know how I feel about THE RULES.
Mindfully breaking structure allows things to flow. It allows my client interactions to be overall peaceful and collaborative, rather than strained and forced. It allows us to understand each other, without adding the strain of doing it by the book. Does it work for us? Does it work for them? Those are the only two questions I need to answer to.
This year, I’ve been lucky enough to work with people who have waded into brackish water with me, finding the common ground of how we work together.
When I think about our work from 2023, beyond any frustration or creative hangup or workload fluxes, all I feel is gratitude.
The fact that my job this year included:
Teaching five brilliant students
A dream hotel/restaurant project
Giving visibility to queer people in Kentucky
Building brands for all the entrepreneurs in my family
Turning clients into friends
Seeing a bourbon label I designed printed in real time
Nerding out on type in vintage stores when I need an inspiration break
Helping long-time friends grow their business
Revisiting brands that I helped build 5+ years ago
Designing custom patches and beanies
Getting to make and remake (and remake) the rules
And as the world’s biggest bonus, I get to do it all alongside my sister.
I don’t think I’m alone in being fascinated with connections: between people, events, thoughts, ideas, actions. During the last weeks of December, I’m endlessly focused on the connection between the two years: the one that’s nearly passed and the one that lay ahead. Like there’s an invisible string that connects the two and until you complete the one ahead, you can merely guess where those connections will be made.
I can’t wait to see what next year holds.
