Meet Braid

Braid Creative & Consulting. This is my new business.

This story starts 7 years ago. I had just graduated college and landed a job working at an alternative weekly newspaper. It was pretty much the best job ever - but what I wanted in my heart of hearts was to work with my sister, Tara. Tara was a creative director at a small (and really rad) advertising agency. I knew it was a matter of when, not if, that we would be working side-by-side. And in 2005 she asked me to be her art director.

At first we were kind of freaked out and insecure about the whole sister / nepotism thing. We kept the family matter hush-hush and laughed it off when people would comment on how identical our voices were. Or how freakish it was that we had the exact same mannerisms and would say the same thing at the same time. Over time we would start telling new hires and established clients that we were sisters. And they always LOVED it. They thought it was special. It was. It is. And you guys - we rocked it. Together we were a creative force to be reckoned with.

And then things got hard and tricky. We were feeling different kinds of growing pains at the same time and while I'm admittedly a jump-ship kind of girl, Tara is more of a hold-down-the-fort kind of gal. So after five years of side-by-side designing, directing, producing, branding, writing and deep-sighing, I decided to leave my dream job as a senior art director to dive into full-time freelance. I was leaving advertising but I was also leaving Tara.

A lot of you have been with me since then. Over the past year my passion for writing and sharing my freelance experience has almost eclipsed my passion for being a designer. Helping small businesses get off the ground with a new brand sets me on fire. And telling you all my story on a daily basis keeps me going (thank you - a million times - thank you). But freelancing didn't come without struggle. I often felt isolated and overwhelmed - and everytime I would share these feelings with Jeremy he would say "You miss your sister." 

I did. I missed my sister. But in my heart of hearts I knew it was only a matter of when, not if, that we would be designing, writing, branding, directing, producing, concepting, jet-setting and deep-sighing side-by-side again.

That when is today.