We recently connected with Brie Pointer and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Brie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I am hoping to build a joyful, fun, and vibrant community of people who live a wholesome life full of good health, food, and people. My greatest ambition is to have a legacy that echoes through time and generations. I would love to be remembered for my smile and the joy I bring to others through creativity and community building.

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?

My name is Brie Pointer.

I am a Canadian brand designer, illustrator, and artist working with clients to develop custom strategies and creative work that best represents their business goals and values. I got into this industry because of my love for connection and storytelling through visuals. As a designer, I aspire to work with clients to build out entire brand packages, meaning I work with folks to establish a brand identity that can be built out and applied to print assets like business cards, brochures, packaging, etc. as well as digital products like websites, app design, social media assets, etc. I have just begun exploring creating real-life 3D sculptures and build-outs of logos and creative assets for photography and storefront props (think Anthropologie displays). I like the idea of learning and exploring the brands I build in a more tactile way so I can begin to intimately understand how they work.

Being a multidisciplinary designer sets me apart in my industry as it allows me to dream about how the brand can be built out in all of the various applications and spaces it can exist. It pushes my boundaries and capacities for design to another dimension, both literally and figuratively, and allows me to stay curious in my work.

I am incredibly proud of the work I get to produce with my clients as well as the relationships that I get to form with them while we work together. It truly is a special connection I get to make with each one of my clients while I learn about their business and what sets them apart in their industry, but most of all, I love to learn about them personally and what makes them passionate about who they are and what they do!

As much as I am a creative, I am also a farmer and community builder. I run a small-scale market farm with my partner, Mike Burnett, called Wayward Farm. We grow good food for folks on almost 2 acres of land in Baden, Ontario. In 2021, I started a farmers market in our local neighbourhood in the city to sell our produce and create a fun, welcoming space for folks to come and enjoy warm summer days with their neighbours while getting their weekly groceries. I manage this farmers market every Thursday from the end of June until the end of October every year, but all planning and coordination of vendors occurs from February-June. Running the farm and the farmers market are a huge passion for me as has created such a beautiful space for the community to gather and eat well, to laugh, feel joy, and experience one another in a safe space.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I had been working at a local design and development studio, Him & Her, for almost 2 years when I found out I was pregnant with my second child. I decided to take an early maternity leave to spend a month with my first child before she went to school and some time to myself before expecting my second. At the end of September 2019, my dad received a knee transplant that went wrong. The last month of my pregnancy, I spent with my dad in the hospital, traveling to him every day to make sure he was cared for and supported. October 21, 2019, I welcomed my second daughter and on November 3rd, my dad passed away. I was devastated. I had never experienced this heavy of grief before, while managing my post-partum and life with a new baby. In 2020, the pandemic hit and completely isolated me and my little family from my extended family and their offers of support. We launched a small and humble farm pick-up on our front lawn in the city, allowing folks to pick-up their produce boxes from us during this time. This was such a great support during a very isolating, scary, and sad time for many of the people in our local community. I was set to return to work in July 2020, amidst our farm season, the pandemic, battling intense grief, life with two kiddos at home, and trying to support my mom and brothers in the loss of my dad.

This is when I decided to dive into freelance full-time to maintain flexibility and space for our family to grow, stabilize, and hopefully flourish within our community and the small-scale farming sector. As the pandemic began to feel less scary and things were beginning to open up, I was able to spend more and more time with my mom and in-laws again.

In late June of 2021, deep into our farm season and what felt like the start of a great season, my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney cancer. While I cared for her and tried to manage as much of the marketing around our farm as I could, my partner, Mike managed the growing, selling, and childcare for our farm. My mom passed away in September of 2021.

The ebbs and flows of grief have overcome me in a lot of moments. To try and be creative in this kind of pain is almost impossible. To try to be a good mom, partner, sister, friend, client, and community member; felt unachievable. I sought out counseling, grief groups, therapy, and lots of moments of being with my emotions. My entire life changed in less than 2 years. And what should have been some of the happiest moments of my life; having a baby, launching a farm business, a farmers market, and going freelance full-time; were filled with agony and sadness with pockets of tainted joy.

So where am I now?

While my parents passing away broke me, my children, partner, and co-parent held me. My community showed up for me and allowed me to be however I needed to be without judgement. They allowed me to experience joy in whatever capacity I could and they carried me through various moments of grief and utter despair. In the end, my parents loved me, believed in me, and are incredibly proud of the person I am and am becoming. They would want me to continue in my passion, and to find joy and positivity in the darkness. They would want me to succeed and be happy. And so, I followed that joy. I leaned into it, I laughed, I cried, I was vulnerable.

Losing my parents was the hardest thing I have ever been through, but it was also the catapult that threw me into independent work. It is the steam engine that drives me. It is why I want to continue learning, exploring, and being curious and vulnerable. This heartbreak has taught me that we only have one life and I want it to be great. I want to do everything I can to love and support my community with the capabilities I have. And that all starts with creativity, good food, and pure joy.

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

I love sharing my art with others. I love when my work can bring joy, colour, vibrancy, and pride to my community, but especially to my children. It makes me so happy to share the expansive workload from logos turned packaging, illustrations turned merchandise, mock-ups turned murals, or storefront displays. It is so rewarding to see my digital assets turned into tactile products that can be touched, held, interacted with, or experienced. It’s similar to when a chef (or farmer!) shares their food with people. It is a very incredible feeling to share your passion with another and to watch their face light up or hear the pride in their voices when they share it with someone else.

For my children and young women in the world, it brings me so much pride to do this for them too. I am living, breathing proof that you can literally do whatever you set your mind to and that you are more capable than you can imagine ~ especially if you’re a woman. I think it is rewarding to inspire others to be creative, to live life in joy, and to be a beacon for your community. I am so grateful and blessed that I get to do this for other people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.briepointer.ca/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briepointer/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briepointer/

Image Credits
Sensi Studio packaging photo by Maya Irvine of Sensi Studio