Today we’d like to introduce you to Phoebe Smith.
Hi Phoebe, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I moved to DC with a big pregnant belly in 2001 (leaving a design job I absolutely loved in Andover, Mass). Figuring no one would hire me moments before needing maternity leave, I took on a freelance design project. And then another, and another. As my workload expanded (and as I hung on by my fingernails trying to manage motherhood), I hired a designer to help me. Then, to handle the complexities of payroll and invoicing and taxes, I hired a bookkeeper. Both of them are still with me today, and I couldn’t survive a day without either one.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I came out of my MFA program at Boston University knowing some good things about graphic design, but I didn’t know anything about running a business. Which seemed fine—I hadn’t planned on running a business. It just sort of crept up on me. Going from solo operator to employer was a head-spinning transition. And even before that, just knowing how to keep track of things like who you did work for, how to bill them, if they paid, was all daunting. I created and recreated a lot of systems. Not all of them fabulous or effective. Lots of trial and error. And of course there was always the standard feast-and-famine cycle of a small business. Lots of late nights and weekends of work, paired with the angst-filled down times. But we’re still here, 20+ years later.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My childhood was filled with words and colors, and I won praise from my parents for any creative act. I may have been born with scissors in hand—I spent endless hours cutting intricate forms from colored paper and magazine pages to create all sorts of results. Stumbling into a graphic design class my senior year of college (I was an English Literature major and a studio art minor), I had a bit of a revelation. Graphic design was a way to pair my intensely visual brain with my love of verbal clarity. Design was communication. The art of making complicated things simple and digestible, and thereby beautiful. And there was paper involved. I was hooked.
My writing skills have been a value to my graphic design career—both in refining meaning in my design work (words and visuals are tied together and benefit from being developed concurrently), and in explaining concepts to clients. Yes, I spend an embarrassing percentage of my work time composing emails.
My color obsession (defining my clothings choices, my home decor, and my travel destinations, to name a few) makes my work vibrant.
My quest for clarity and playfulness drives my work, keeping the results functional and fun.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I am terrified of risk. I only run a business because I slid into it. I doubt I would have ever actively pursued such a thing. But we do embrace an annual design risk. We design and print custom wrapping paper every year, and send it to clients, vendors, and associates. It’s a fun design project, and we love the implicit message that presentation is important. Wrap a gift beautifully and it feels more valuable—add professional design work to your business communications and those feel more valuable, too. But our designs are bold (we do not design with snowflakes or reindeer). Our paper is non-traditional, to put it mildly. Sometimes it’s even political. For some recipients it’s sort of baffling, I’m sure. But we believe enough people enjoy it to make it worthwhile.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Huntsmithdesign.com
