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

Hi Devyn, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

When I first went to design school, my goal was always to do in-house brand design and art direction for a food or beverage brand. I started my career at Have A Good Day Studio, a branding studio in my hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. I was always working with local restaurants, capturing photos or designing brand books to help enhance their social platform and strengthen their brand identity.

Recently, I had the incredible opportunity to work on packaging design for a brand collab between FARE, a restaurant in Chicago, and Graza, a massive olive oil brand that took the world by storm with their innovative squeeze bottle. Graza has been a dream client of mine for years. I have gifted their products to friends for Christmases and birthdays. I have taken inspiration from their own brand design.

FARE reached out to me for the opening of their newest restaurant in Old Town, Chicago, to design a french fry box for their collaboration with Graza. In order to craft an equal brand partnership that showcases both brands on the product, I combined FARE and Graza’s brand illustrations to highlight the real ingredients that are a key pillar of each identity.

This project not only allowed me to continue building my relationship and trust with FARE, but also to be recognized by a client I admire so much.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a brand designer and art director based in Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design, I started out in brand design for local restaurants and small businesses before working my way up in the advertising space at agencies like VML, FCB, and Dentsu. I’ve worked on global clients like T-Mobile, Boeing, and Vitaminwater, drawing attention to their space on social media. During my time on Smirnoff, I solved the problem of a generation that doesn’t drink with ways of repurposing the bottle. I’ve built brands from the ground up, such as Someone’s Sister, and helped grow brands’ identity and design, like FARE and Pinch.

I provide brand design, brand strategy, social media design, graphic design, art direction, photography, and content creation. I help my clients feel like they are not the only person who care about their brand.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

This sounds cliche as people often say it, but when you have a client you really love and work you love even more, work does not feel like work. Designing brands is truly SO fun for me. A close second is really rich, constructive feedback. I thrive off of honesty. Good feedback means we get to a solution together, faster. Honesty on both the client and creative side will send you so much further in client relationship and loyalty than anything else, in my opinion.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients = old clients. Do the Cinderella work to grow your portfolio and you’ll be able to raise your prices in no time. Maintaining good client loyalty means they will give your name to SO many people. So many people who didn’t realize they needed what you gave them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://devynowen.com
• Instagram: psdevyn
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/devynowen

Image Credits

Gabby Galloway – FARE x Graza French Fry photo, FARE window vinyls photo