Inspired By… Ampersand Design Studio

I am so excited to share another interview from the “Inspired By…” series with you all this beautiful Monday morning! I met the fabulous Carrie Kiefer & Morgan Georgie, creators of Ampersand Design Studio, at Alt Summit in Salt Lake City earlier this year. They gave a roundtable talk on working with your friends, and I found it to be one of the most interesting conversations at Alt. I always love meeting fellow bloggers I admire, but it’s even better when they are fellow Kansas Citians. Morgan and Carrie graciously offered to answer some questions for the “Inspired By…” series, and I feel pretty lucky to have them here. Enjoy!

1. You two have been working together forever. Can you give me a little bit of background on how you met? When did you decide to start a business together?
Yes, we go way back! We met studying graphic design together at the University of Kansas and were roommates during our semester abroad in England. After graduation, we were both hired by Hallmark Cards where we worked together, chatting over cubicle walls, for close to ten years. For the last few years at Hallmark, we also worked together at night and on weekends doing corporate identity jobs and custom wedding and party invitations. We learned a lot about the world of small business while doing design on the side, and while it was a ton of work in addition to our 9–5 jobs and we didn’t really see a big return on our time, we still knew we both really wanted to have our own company together one day. It had been a dream of ours for many years when we finally made the leap and started Ampersand. When our sons were born, we decided it was the perfect time to really go for it!

2. I have read that you both worked at several high profile places in your years before opening Ampersand Design Studio. Can you give any advice on how to get a job in design? Any tricks or tips that helped you in your early years? Anything you wish you’d known before you got started?
Well, in terms of full-time jobs, we’ve each only had one (besides Ampersand) since college graduation. We were both hired at Hallmark right out of school and worked there for about a decade before moving on to do our own thing. We both landed in the gift wrap department and instantly fell in love with pattern! This is where we learned the technical aspects of how to design in a repeat and were also exposed to amazing trend information. Not to mention that we were surrounded by experts! So, really we aren’t experts in the world of job-hunting in a conventional sense. However, we have had some good luck in forming collaborations between Ampersand and companies we admire. We feel like many of the same rules apply to landing clients as landing a design job and our advice is really to do your research. For example, learn everything you can about any company for whom you’d like to work. Social media has made this process so much more accessible. Consider starting a blog and interacting on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Then, cater your work to the company you’re approaching and make it easy for them to picture you as a part of their team. Give yourself a project that lends itself to that particular company’s aesthetic and send it their way. Most importantly, don’t give up. If you have your sights set on a particular company or job, just know that it often takes several tries to get in front of them.

3. Working with friends has got to be a blast, but I’m sure it also has it’s challenges. Are there any specific challenges you all have had to deal with, and how did you overcome them? What is your favorite part of working together?
Yes, it really is a blast and we say all the time that we wouldn’t be attempting to run a business like this if we didn’t have each other. When we met, we just connected off the bat as friends, but also aesthetically. We have some different interests, but there is a strong commonality between what the two of us are drawn to and how we design. That being said, we feel like we create work that’s exponentially stronger as a team which is also a product of our unique points of view. It works well because we’re each always willing to go beyond the call of duty for each other. We each trust that the other person is pulling her weight and more. The thing we struggle with is that we have similar skill sets. Neither of us was a business major so we kind of have to just divide up those kinds of responsibilities that aren’t second-nature to us. In the early days, we would both really design each project together with lots of hours together at one computer. It wasn’t probably the most effective use of our time, but we really learned to work together and we also learned a lot of tricks from each other. Now, we split things up much more, but it’s great to have a sounding board always at our disposal for critiques and advice. We feel so lucky all the way around to get to share all the highs and lows of owning a business. It makes the rough patches so much more bearable and the highs are multiplied because we’re sharing the excitement. We joke that we aren’t allowed to have big breakdowns at the same time. So far, we’ve been able to stick to that promise.

4. You both attended the University of Kansas (me too, Rock Chalk!) and now live in Kansas City. What is it about this area that has kept you here all of these years? How do you feel the KC design community has evolved in the past 10 years? Would you recommend the city to others in the design industry looking to relocate? Why or why not?
We are both KC locals, born and raised, and yes, both proudly attended KU and loved it! We are both so proud of Kansas City and all that it has to offer. We feel like it’s truly this hidden gem that people don’t realize is so rich in the arts world. It’s been easy for us each to stay here because our families are both here, as well as our husbands’ families, now that we’re both married. Plus, we have developed so many friendships and business partnerships here over the years, and feel that all of these connections really make a place a home. We also love the quality of life here in KC. The galleries, both big and small are world-class, the performing arts scene is amazing with groups like Quixotic and now, the Kauffman Center for The Performing Arts to name just a couple. Then, there are the most amazing restaurants sprinkled all over the city. We were spoiled in our time at Hallmark to work with tons of talented artists who also did various kinds of art on the side and that exposed us to little pockets of the arts world all over the city… cool DJs, small crafts groups, and so on. It just seems like the creative community is expanding exponentially. We would whole-heartedly recommend Kansas City to other designers! There is so much to do and the bonus is that the people here are so friendly and open.

5. You have gone from single, to married, to now both mothers during your design career. How have things changed since you started your families? Was there anything unexpected? How did you adjust your lives and schedules after you had children?
We have definitely been through it all together as friends and in our design careers. Back in our single days, we were working full-time at our day jobs and for awhile, really had pretty carefree times outside of work. We always felt like we wanted to try to do our own thing though, and started freelancing at nights and in our spare time and things quickly began to feel most normal when we did creative work as much as possible. Both of our husbands have always known us when we were doing our business in some form or another on the side so they kind of knew what they were getting themselves into from the beginning, and we are very lucky that they are endlessly supportive and understanding. When we had our sons, six months apart, instead of feeling like it was a time to take a step back from working, we decided it was really the only time we’d have the flexibility to do our business full-force on our own terms. We wanted to make our own schedules so we could spend the maximum time with our kids and also get our company started. We work together in the office two days a week full-time, then at home during our sons’ naps and at night. It is a crazy schedule, but we feel like it’s worth it to be able to spend so much time with our kids. We are really fortunate that we are going through the same challenges of motherhood and business at the same time. We both know that sometimes kids get sick and that babies often don’t nap and we pick up the slack for each other and commiserate when things are nuts. We also know that sometimes you have to drop it all and head to the zoo on a nice day!

6. Do you have a favorite project or product you two have done together? Anything upcoming that you can share with us?
This is a difficult one because we love each and every project uniquely! If we had to get pinned down to name one, we would probably say that our first fabric collection would be our favorite. For so many years we had dreamed of starting a company and specifically, licensing our artwork. One of our biggest goals was to land a fabric contract and after our very first year attending the licensing trade show, Surtex, in NYC, we signed a fabric contract with Windham Fabrics!! We worked really closely on this collection of designs, trading files back and forth, so it was truly a collaborative effort. We were practically giddy the entire time!

We do have a few super exciting projects on the horizon, unfortunately the thing with licensing our designs for products is we have to design pretty far in advance and we can’t share the project until it’s released! AHH! It’s so hard because we hate keeping secrets but we have to keep our lips sealed (sorry).

A local, graphic design job that we are thrilled to share is that we just completed designing the “Plaza Lights” banners for The Country Club Plaza! We know this doesn’t mean a lot to the non-Kansas City natives, but for those of us that live here, the “Plaza Lights” ceremony is one of the most treasured holiday traditions in this city and we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it!