Her Story
About Rachel
Rachel May is a graphic design and production professional with 15 years of experience in the field. She has spent over nine years in her current role focused on sports apparel, where a typical day involves opening Illustrator to select and prepare orders, ensuring artwork matches customer notes, and handling revisions. Her background includes earlier roles in customer service within the graphics industry, as breaking into art departments can be competitive. Rachel specializes in screen printing and garment arts, having tested processes such as glow-in-the-dark ink, puff ink, and mixing screen print with twill for events like Posty Fest. She holds an associate's degree from Flint Hills Technical College earned in 2013 and a bachelor's degree in applied science from Pitt State earned in 2015. Rachel has received recognition including Best Communicator of the Month and attributes her success to her faith, while valuing the fruits of the Spirit in both her work and personal life. She advises others to get hands-on experience in production and to practice emotional intelligence.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Rachel
01What do you attribute your success to?
I'm a big Jesus follower, and I'm gonna give him the credit there. That was him. That was all him. He is the ruler of my life. And, I would not be here without him.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Get your hands dirty. Get out of the computer room, go look at production. Go talk to people, communicate with them and see what would benefit them, what would make their job a little bit easier.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Let things roll off your back. Don't take everything as an offense, pause and think. Don't immediately react. Emotional intelligence is key. Not taking customers' words to heart.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
AI is causing more problems than it's worth, as people bring AI images expecting cleanup for logos and marketing, but it requires human artists to make functional art. Need to pay artists more.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, forgiveness, being gentle with one another. Be gracious to yourself and others.
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.