We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Briana Roberts. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Briana below.

Hi Briana, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

While I’ve only been in the design industry a few years, I hope that within it I can shake things up a bit by having my own successful creative agency that provides solutions, inspiration, and more job opportunities for women, people of color, and those within my community who want to get into design. At the same time, I hope my designs leave people feeling inspired, understood, and connected.

I can definitely go on and on about what I hope my legacy will be but I think Maya Angelo sums it up best when she said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Overall, that is what I hope my legacy will be. To be remembered for how I made my family, friends, colleagues, clients, and everyone I have or may not have come across feel because that feeling can be passed on even after my fruitful life.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Sure thing. I’m Briana Roberts and I am a graphic designer. Growing up in South Jersey, creativity has been a massive part of my life. I spent a lot of time drawing, painting, writing stories, crafting paper toys, traveling, and learning anything new I could get my hands on. I was also heavily into sports and started playing basketball at 8 and eventually started running track not long after. It wasn’t until high school that I took a commercial arts class and learned that I could create movie posters, album covers, sports graphics and so much more as a career. That wasn’t a known thing in my hometown. So I took it upon myself to make sure my gifted track and field abilities would land me a scholarship to a college where I could learn more about design.

Fast forward to now, I’m a full-time graphic designer at an agency where I create design solutions to help people, products, and brands tell their stories.​​​​​​​ Whether it’s through designing brand identities, logos, illustrations, marketing materials, social media graphics, websites, and more. When I’m not designing, I’m still creating. I still love to sketch, paint, and draw as I did when I was younger.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson I had to unlearn and I’m still unlearning is understanding that you can’t do it alone. With running track there is a team aspect but it mostly comes down to individual performances at the end of the day. I’m so used to having to rely on myself to get things done, that I sometimes lose track of understanding that there will be times/things when I can’t do everything. So I’m learning that you have to be able to put your pride aside, understand your weaknesses and ask for help when you need it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I know it may seem like I’m rambling a whole bunch about sports-related stories but as I get older and try to navigate life, I’m realizing that sports and art/design go hand in hand. When I was younger I had a cross-country coach, Coach Mussa, who trained us pretty tough. Well, one practice it was cold and rainy and he had us do this running workout. My legs are hurting, my socks and shoes are soaked ( I hate running in wet socks btw ), my body and mind just aren’t in it, and on top of that, I’m getting hounded. Then during one rep, I happened to stop because at this point I’m tired. Of course, stopping in the middle of a workout is a no-go unless it’s for an injury or other serious matters, so I’m getting yelled at some more. All I hear is Coach Mussa yelling, “If you want to quit the workout and quit on yourself, you mind as well just leave the practice and quit the team.” So I said fine I’ll leave and quit.

It was the first time I quit anything so I’m feeling good and amped up that I stood my ground. Days go by I’m laying there feeling terrible and thinking I let myself and my teammates down. The next practice I showed up as if nothing happened. I practiced hard and with so much more determination, passion and focus. Since that day I told myself I wouldn’t give up and quit on myself like that ever again. No matter how bad things may seem to be. I take that lesson with me into the design industry too. No matter how many job rejections, client rejections, and idea rejections come my way, I’m not going to give up and quit. I’m going to keep going.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://brianaroberts.co
• Instagram: @bardesigns.ai
• Other: Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/bardesigns_

Image Credits
Confidently Fit Product Image: Malcolm Manning T. Kandles Product Image: Takina Kindle UMBC Athletic Planner Image courtesy of UMBC Swim & Dive Team