Hello! I’m Shelby, the mission-driven creative director & designer your powerful work deserves.
When it comes to branding and the projects that matter, you want creative partnership you can trust – their expertise, skill, experience, values, and passion.
It was art that saved me when I experienced disruption and disorientation in life, and it was entrepreneurship that gave this experience meaning and purpose. When I got a CD-ROM of Photoshop Elements at age 13, the world of design opened up to me.
While in high school, I took my first design course at the Art Institute of Houston, and returned to Missouri to teach my own art teacher the fundamentals of professional design programs. I earned my BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Central Missouri in 2011, and trained in digital photography, printmaking, and art education.
As a college student, I slapped a mason jar on my first business card. The symbol tied my art back to my family lineage of farmers, honored women’s work, and served as a container for the art career aspirations held since my MS Paint days spent fighting the good fight against WordArt. Before I truly harnessed the power of branding or the processes developed to help my clients today, I valued visual storytelling and impact.
I have since forged a path from graphic designer to creative director still deeply passionate about wholehearted work with the expertise, skill, experience, values, and passion to back it up.
I launched my career on the foundation of impact.
I served as a full-time designer at a non-profit as an AmeriCorps volunteer for one year. Then I partnered with global and grassroots organizations focused on missions such as Palestinian and refugee rights, housing and food security, cross-cultural education, art as activism, global healthcare, and more. I added unprecedented creative dimension and clarity to branding and marketing initiatives as creative lead for the organizations I served.
My broad experience was built designing extensively for these humanitarian and social justice organizations. Today I help mission-driven organizations and entrepreneurs build powerful brands that rise to the audacity of their bold missions.
What it’s like to work with me
I’ve perfected the balance of facilitating transformational projects as an agile freelancer, while delivering as consistently and reliably as an agency. While others contractors sell hours and deliverables, I’ve been on a mission to build a business that centers good missions, experiences, and partnerships.
I am as intentional about our outcomes as I am my process. My clients experience how investing in damn good design and branding can be transformational. They also experience the power of human-centered creative collaboration – the kind that makes each interaction feel like a warm cup of coffee with a friend – which helps us stay grounded in our people-centered work in an increasingly inhumane world.
As the world changes rapidly, I am more devoted than ever to partnering as the mission-driven creative director and strategic designer your powerful vision deserves so you can focus on your work and grow your impact.
“I've worked with Shelby at several different organizations and cannot recommend her highly enough. She is thoughtful, detail oriented, creative, and goes above and beyond to get things done. Truly a rare find, and I feel lucky to know her and call her a colleague.”
–Chris Field, founder of Mercy Project and GiveBetter
“Shelby is a Creative Director with extensive experience designing for mission-driven organizations who brings structure, clarity, and creative leadership to the process.”
–Ryan Glenn, Director of Brand & Creative Services at Operation Homefront
Strategic creative is one way we design the more liberated world together.
Values
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Integrity means standing against injustice and doing the right thing, even when it’s uncomfortable or comes at a personal or professional cost.
I believe in transparent, conscious business practices, that impact is not always the same as intention, and that being held accountable matters as much as performance.
Integrity is the North Star of everything I do.
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I believe in centering people and their experiences, especially those most impacted by injustice.
Humanity means to always be actively learning and unlearning, naming power dynamics, honoring cultural context, designing for dignity, and resisting extraction and exploitation in my external work or business practices.
Humanity means prioritizing human creation when possible, because I believe the brands with soul are the ones who will continue to create positive change in the world.
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Wholeheartedness is a full body and full spirit response to living our purpose.
Art saved me in times of disorientation and disruption, so I take our roles as storytellers seriously. I value and honor the emotional investment in mission-driven work and entrepreneurship, and believe this connection is a special part of the work we get to do together.
Wholeheartedness believes and behaves as if mission-driven brands and creative direction can be vessels to reshape the world.
A portion of profits + pro-bono capacity goes toward support for Palestinian families from Gaza.
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A portion of profits + pro-bono capacity goes toward support for Palestinian families from Gaza. 〰️
Sound like a good fit?
Check out my services.
Need something else? Just reach out!