MEET THE DESIGNER BEHIND IT ALL
I've been doing this since before I could legally drive to a client meeting.
Just kidding. I was 16, I had a baby, and I was designing on GIMP because I couldn't afford Photoshop. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
What I believe
Clarity over complexity. Strategy over trends. If it doesn't work in real life, I don't design it
HOW IT STARTED
A working mom, brand designer, and professional cold-coffee drinker who's been doing this since she was 16.
When I was 16, I started an online business from home. I was a brand new mom, I needed to make money, and I figured I'd try selling things online.
But something happened that I didn't expect — I liked building the brand more than running the business. The logo, the colors, the layout, the way everything came together. I'd stay up late tweaking things that nobody else would even notice. I couldn't stop.
So I kept going.
I taught myself GIMP first because it was free. Then Photoshop when I could finally afford it. Then Illustrator. Then web design. Then code. Not in a class, not for a degree — just because I genuinely couldn't stop learning.
That was 21 years ago."
Life happened. I kept designing on the side through every season — through my kids growing up, through career changes, through years of working in healthcare. Design was always the thing I came back to. The thing I did at night after the kids went to bed. The thing people kept asking me to help them with.
I recently went PRN at my healthcare job so I could finally give this the time it deserves. Her Mark Co isn't a side project anymore. It's the thing I've been building toward for two decades.
This is me going all in.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
21 YEARS SELF-TAUGHT
I didn't go to design school. I don't have a degree in graphic design.
What I have is 21 years of opening up software and figuring it out until it looked right.
I learned by doing. By messing up. By redesigning the same logo twelve times at 1am because something felt off and I couldn't let it go.
That's why I'm good at what I do. I don't design things that look nice in a mockup but fall apart in real life.
I design things that actually work — because I've spent two decades learning what works and what doesn't the hard way.
A four-year degree teaches you theory. Twenty-one years of building real things teaches you instinct.
Cold Coffee Enthusiast
MIDNIGHT ONLINE SHOPPER
Gladstone, Michigan
SELF-TAUGHT SINCE 16
Oat Milk Lattes
OWNER & DESIGNER
HEALTHCARE WORKER TURNED CREATIVE
Working Mom
STARTED ON GIMP
21 Years of Design
