We recently connected with Betty Ko and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Betty thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.
As a child of immigrant parents, I grew up watching both my parents work incredibly hard to build a life for us – they faced a lot of personal and financial hardships (though to their credit I never really felt it as a kid) . Throughout the years I saw them try their hand at different jobs & businesses with varying degrees of success. At one point during my elementary school years they had a custom watch making business. I remember sitting at a desk with my dad, sticking on the custom watch face we had printed on a massive, professional-grade laser printer sitting in our living room – then using a pair of little tweezers to attach the watch hands. I mean don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t a daily occurrence, I did not have a full time job at 9 years old as a watchmaker, I just helped out here and there.
But I think they did a great job instilling this insane, at times borderline unhealthy work ethic in me. And when I first told them I wanted to go to art school, they had their reservations like any good Asian parents would, but ultimately agreed to it. I distinctly remember my dad saying, “It doesn’t matter what career path you decide to go down, as long as you work hard and try to be the best at it.” He said it in Chinese and I’m sure there were some caveats to that but that was the general sentiment. And my mom is the most resilient woman I know, and a really good (like escape-room level good) problem-solver who always took the time to explain to me what she was doing and why; I think this has heavily influenced my perspective of designing as problem-solving.
Betty, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As a burnt-out former full-time agency art director of 12+ years, I decided to start UME DESIGN STUDIO in 2022 as a way to make myself fall back in love with design. I wanted to create exciting, meaningful design by connecting with other people on an individual level – whether that’s helping couples celebrate their biggest milestones by bringing their vision to life via unique, personal event stationery & signage or helping other entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and goals through intentional, strategic branding.
I approach stationery & signage similar to how I would approach a branding project, with the same level of thoughtfulness involved, and I like to be experimental. I love making things that are unconventional, that stand out and really make a statement. I think of things from an experiential POV – how should people feel when they see or touch this printed piece? How does this sign or these menus work with or enhance the other design components in the environment? The reactions I strive for are “I’ve never seen that before,” “that’s clever,” and “that’s so spot on.”
I believe that the goal of effective brand design should be to find meaningful ways to connect with people, but you can’t really do that without first establishing your brand identity (your values, mission, positioning, messaging, etc…). I think people often think brand design is just creating a nice logo & selecting a trendy color palette, but the visuals always come secondary in the design process. I work with my clients to develop a strong, clear brand identity first and once we begin creating the actual brand ecosystem, every design decision I make ties back to the different aspects of the brand identity. There’s also a research component where I do a deep dive into your business, your industry, competitors or aspirational brands, etc… All my design decisions are rooted in information & strategy.
Between event & brand projects I do take on agency projects here and there to keep my other skills up to date, and because I do sometimes miss working with a team of other creatives. It creates a nice balance.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Spending the bulk of my career as an agency designer/art director really taught me to be a versatile designer, which can be extremely valuable in that setting. I’ve done everything from small restaurant brand design, UI/UX, retail displays, consumer product designs for Netflix shows, illustrations for Google videos etc… all in varying aesthetic styles. But when it comes to my business, what I’ve found is there’s more value in specializing.
That doesn’t mean that everything I design looks exactly the same, but I think over time I’ve figured out what I’m really good at, what I enjoy, and what makes me unique as a designer in the event/brand space. Since I’ve sort of figured that out and really started leaning into it, I’ve actually gotten a lot more business. I think for me it’s about steering away from obvious trends and doing things that make me excited and slightly nervous (as I’ve said before, I like experimenting and the nature of experimentation is not always knowing what the results will be).
Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?
I have a small online shop available on my website – currently there is a little collection of graphic & typography-based prints and (hopefully soon) I’ll be adding a typeface which I’m in the process of designing. Eventually I plan on adding more home & lifestyle/stationery products as well as digital products for brands – honestly I have so many ideas but not nearly enough time to do it all.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.u-me.design
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ume___design/
