Her Story
About Melissa
I've been working in transmedia design for about two years now. My business is myself and my husband - he has a bachelor's in illustration and I have a bachelor's degree in interior design, which I got in 2013. The work we do is essentially telling the independent creative story through design and guiding the next generation. We work with independent business owners to guide them through any portion of their design needs, whether that's interior, graphic, product design, or packaging design. We also work with nonprofits. We've partnered with Sun, a nonprofit that works with Portland Public Schools, doing an enrichment program after school where we help kids learn STEM skills like 3D printing and design using a pared-down version of CAD for 3D modeling. I work with younger kids, like 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, guiding them through that process. Right now we're trying to set up a program for the upcoming summer as an enrichment program for students who would be interested.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Melissa
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to consistency and maintaining my resiliency with everything. There are a lot of nos that will be heard, so you have to keep going at it, you have to keep bumping back. You can't let those setbacks stop you - you just have to maintain that resilience and keep pushing forward no matter what obstacles come your way.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I've ever received, not just for career but overall, is to try it - to not let fear guide you. Fear can limit everything that you do, so you can't let it hold you back from taking opportunities and moving forward with what you want to accomplish.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say just keep going at it, because being resilient with everything is going to be huge. As females, there are a lot of hurdles to overcome sometimes, and you need to keep the confidence up to be able to keep moving forward. Don't let criticisms or any outside voices dampen that confidence for you. You have to maintain that inner strength and belief in yourself despite the challenges you'll face.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I feel the biggest challenges are that markets kind of fluctuate, so sometimes there are some dips, and that can be a bit of an issue. But if you are observant with everything going on, you can definitely pivot. We've always had the idea of moving forward with helping children and trying to guide them into the field, to include them in all these different possibilities that they might not even be aware of. That flexibility in the way you move forward is a huge help, so being able to review and see what another avenue would work is a great strength to have.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important values to me are being transparent with information, with the process, and what's going to be happening and everything. Especially in work, that helps build trust and confidence from your client with you if you're transparent with the steps that you're going to be taking and everything. I also value working as collaboratively as possible - including everybody in everything and not kind of bulldozing the way through. It's about bringing people along in the process rather than just pushing through on your own.
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