We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashley Ulmer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents always instilled in myself and my older brother that we can do anything we set our minds to. Both my mom and dad were very creative and always included us in doing so. My mom was a hair dresser and eventually became an Interior Designer, she also volunteered at our elementary school teaching art classes.

A moment in my childhood that always impacted me is every Fall my mom would take us out of school to go “Paint the mountain.” She would drive us into the Sandia Mountains and we would sit on this hill and bring out watercolors, and paint pictures of the side of the mountain. The browns, golds, reds, and oranges still stand out in my mind. This made me want to pursue a creative career, to bring beautiful things to life.

My dad taught me to build things, and always showed me that anything can be fixed. When I was about 8 or so he gave me this fan we had lying around and let me take the fan apart and put back together again multiple times so I could figure out how the wiring and mechanics worked. This gave me the confidence to be able to build and take apart things, which has helped me while creating, especially while illustrating.

Ashley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Ash Ulmer. I am a freelance Graphic Designer from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have been in the design industry since 2007, and I absolutely love what I do. My focus is on illustration, branding, social media content creation, merch and product layout.

When I was a little girl, all I dreamed about was designing graphics for tee shirts.

I would create dream boards in my bedroom of magazine articles, rhinestones, and pictures of my friends. The style, sounds and feeling of the late 90’s – early 2000’s was everything.

Fast forward to my senior year of high school, when I first met *Photoshop in my yearbook class. And I fell in love.

A few years later my then boyfriend,
(now husband Shawn) encouraged me to start a clothing brand, and together we designed, and printed thousands of shirts for large brands, some of our favorite bands, churches, and organizations throughout the U.S.

Since then, we have grown a lot, have had 3 sons, and I’ve designed thousands of things from our kitchen table.

My favorite things to work on are illustrations, branding, and merch designs.

Random fact about me – I am a lover of all animals, and our family has 3 large dogs, 7 chickens, and 1 Bearded Dragon.

If I could never design again, I would pursue a career involving animals 100%

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My main mission and goal for this business has always been to inspire, and to be used by God to inspire other creatives. This goal has shifted over the years to include our three sons. I want to inspire them to chase their dreams, and that you can do anything you set your mind to. This business has always been a family business, and would not be possible without my husband’s support throughout the years. I am very thankful to have been able to work from home to take care of our boys while working all of these years.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is such a funny thing. To be honest, I am a millennial and grew up using Myspace, Instagram was never my forte – let alone something I knew how to grow on my own. In 2018-2019 my account grew quite a bit with a lot of support from my creative community. Shares from accounts with like-minded values and creative style such as: @prochurchmedia and @crtvchurch.

My biggest piece of advice for Social media is to not take it too seriously. Meaning, don’t take it personally. I’ve learned over the years Social media is an incredible marketing tool, and I still use this daily, and have first hand gained most of my clients via marketing on social. The biggest thing I have had to learn is, to not let it overwhelm my time trying to “go viral.”

I am very grateful for all of the support I’ve received on Instagram and am hopeful for more connections and growth throughout this coming year, but I won’t be letting it be my entire time as I have let it in years past.

Contact Info:

• Website: ashulmer.design
• Instagram: instagram.com/ashulmerdesign
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/ashleyulmerdesign/

Image Credits
@rebekah.apodaca.photography Rebekah Apodaca Photography