Long before I became a writer, I worked as a graphic designer. My clients consisted mainly of individuals and small businesses. After setting aside design for a few years (to write, and care for small, helpless children), I found I missed it. A lot. Design satisfies a very different part of my brain than writing. Novel writing, especially, is big, boundless, a feat to be accomplished over years and years. Or maybe not at all.

Design, on the other hand, is concrete. In a matter of minutes, I go from nothing to something, and I can perfect that creation within hours, or at least over days. When I’m done, I hand over my creation to my client, for whom it serves a specific need. The client is happy. So I’m happy. I’ve done something useful for someone else, and I get paid. And at no point along the way does the rest of the world need to weigh in.

This last part – lack of judgment from the outside world – is something I’ve come to appreciate more and more, after having spent time in the writing world. Putting a book into the world is thrilling, and deeply fulfilling, but it comes with a side most non-writers don’t see: the pressure to sell, the yearning for recognition, unsightly emotions like self-doubt and jealousy. Writing, for me, will always be about the craft, not the business, (though one needs to be skilled at both these days). Design work isn’t fulfilling in the same way, but I’ve come to appreciate its straightforward, transactional nature. I had a lot of fun redesigning my own author site, and my hope is that I’ll be able to do more design work for authors. So if you know an author who’s in need of design work, please pass on my name! Books and design, two of my favorite things!