HOW I BECAME A SUCCESSFUL DESIGNER
SENIOR TEXTILE DESIGNER + PORTRAIT ILLUSTRATOR
from the beginning...
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People always ask me how I knew I wanted to be a designer. Well, dear.. take a look at the photo above.
I've loved art ever since I was a little girl. Here I am as a 4 or 5 year old on Christmas morning circa 1980-something coloring in my coloring book like a maniac while my sister patiently waits on me to play with her.
Do I look like I care? Hah, I'm B-U-S-Y, girl. Go play with the dog.
Just kidding, of course!! (Sort of.) :D
Not long after this my entire world shattered. The day after my 6th birthday my Dad passed away.
Later in life, I learned that he was terribly depressed and took his own life.
Coming to grips with that as a teenager was extremely difficult. My mom was my rock and my best friends were there for me one thousand percent through lots of tears and confusion.
I dove head first - deep into an everlasting practice of life-sustaining spirituality and, of course, my art.
Here we are, the Poole girls trio, going strong and loving each other no matter what.
When I went to college, my heart was dead set on studying abroad and traveling to Italy. I'd taken art history in high school and in college, received a 5 on the AP exam. I am no genius so I think it was just the fact that I loved art so, so, so much and I was kind of obsessed with it.
Learning about different artists that had been masters that had been successful intrigued me like no other. Seeing how these artists really shaped the art scene of today was just fascinating to me.
Looking back, I think I knew in my gut it was something that studying abroad in Cortona, Italy was something I desperately needed. It was such an inspiring country. I was meeting new people, I was connecting with other artists and I had laser focus on creating art a hundred percent of the time, which was huge for my growth as a designer.
Freshman year of college, I immediately knew I would major in Studio Art. A lot of kids struggle with choosing a major, but not me. Creativity was in my bones. It inspired me and kept me strong.
I graduated with a B.F.A. in Studio Art with a concentration in oil painting. Skeptical of the student loans that graduate school required, I switched directions from Fine Art to Graphic Design.
My first job was in South Carolina with a cool T-shirt company called Geneologie. If you ever need custom T-shirts designed by amazing artists & illustrators you should check them out. I met some of my best friends and will always be grateful for my very first big girl job!
During the four years that I worked at the T-shirt company, I opened an etsy shop. I needed an outlet that involved more drawing and painting, and my original designs.
I ended up interviewing a lot of other artists and designers at my T-shirt job and I just needed to be creating something myself. So in my etsy shop, I sold everything from wedding invitations to tea towels, to greeting cards.
Then one day a customer asked if I could design a character illustration and I said yes, why not? So I posted the final design as an example in my shop and to this day I still sell tons of custom avatars for clients. It's been a really big part of my business online.
I hit a ceiling at my T-shirt design job and decided that I really needed to move on. I really enjoyed drawing print and pattern designs and I had a little bit of that in my T-shirt design job. That was something I really latched onto.
So I started applying for jobs as a textile designer. I received an offer in Atlanta and it really felt like a huge fork in the road. It was a hard decision to move away from South Carolina, my home.
But the longer I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn't that scary, because if things didn't work out, I could always move back home.
The experience of studying abroad and going away from home, even if it was just for a semester, really helped give me confidence in this decision. So I moved away from my current boyfriend and my friends and family and everything I knew to chase my dreams as a textile designer.
In 2012, I applied with Surya on LinkedIn and landed my first role as a Print & Pattern designer (my 2nd big-girl job) in the home decor industry designing rugs, pillows, and other soft goods.
I learned so much about rug constructions, different types of yarn, textile history, and the entire home decor industry.
I went to High Point, Las Vegas, New York, and Germany for trade shows and just I was a total sponge soaking up all the knowledge I could.
So here are some photos of me hard at work styling the photoshoots for some of the products I had designed.
A lot of people tend to get confused about my job and they think that I am an interior designer and that's not the case at all. The functionality of Interior designers is choosing products to design a room, whereas I'm designing the PRODUCTS and soft goods that go into the room.
I focused on designing hundreds of rugs and pillows and was promoted to Senior Designer for the Artistic Weavers brand. I worked with an awesome team and together we were very proud of our achievements. If you're in the market for rugs and/or pillows you can always search the Surya or Artistic Weavers brand on your favorite home decor sites such as Wayfair.
So I'm super excited that four of my rug designs are now selling at Anthropologie. That's any designer's dream! The Ralia rug on the left is a trendy, updated Persian design that is super cute and fresh colors. The Stella Rug on the right is for someone with more of a glam style. It's in black and white and the pattern is made up of oversized Dalmatian dots.
The Rivera rug on the left is an abstract modern in neutral grays and golds. The Felicity rug on there right is a printed watercolor design in fun lavender, pinks and blush reds.
My patio rug designs will be selling in Target stores next season. So I'm super excited to see those in stores! That'll be another kind of wow moment as a textile designer.
