Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Danae Klingspor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Danae, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I have always been creative ever since I was a little kid. The outlet for my creativity was dependent upon whatever phase captured my attention at the time: fashion, drawing, crafts, watercolors, acrylic painting, you name it. While I consider myself as a born creative, I think part of the reason I didn’t have a set medium is that I struggled so much to get what I saw in my head out into the world but didn’t understand the medium enough in order to accomplish my vision in the way I had hoped. This constant battle often left me feel defeated instead of encouraged or uplifted. I felt like I was born to be a creative and had big dreams and goals but couldn’t get past the mental blocks I had in my head.

Covid was a hard time for us all, but in many ways, it was a blessing for me, my art, and my family. With the lessening pressures of the outside world and encouragement to stay inside, I found this to be a good opportunity to create more. After all, what else was I going to do? The biggest wrecking ball to my creative block is understanding that creating, doing art, and designing doesn’t have an arrival point. It’s a practice. In my head, I compare it to doing yoga, working out, or spiritual disciplines. It is something you show up for, do your best, learn from, and try again the next day. There is no failing or passing-it’s a practice similar to yoga or spiritual practices. You just try again and get better each time.

With this new frame of mind, my creativity was unleashed. I didn’t care about failing anymore. Sure, not every piece would be a ravishing success in terms of composition, content, quality, or execution, but that wasn’t the point anymore. The point was to show up for it similar to training for a half marathon – you go a little further each time.

Danae, 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?

I was born in Odessa, Texas but grew up in Austin. I attended the University of Texas at Austin and studied Interior Design from the School of Architecture because I wanted to fulfill the creative part of my personality. After graduation, I got married, had a baby, and then covid hit. That was a blessing for me because I wasn’t able to practice Interior Design in the same capacity. This led to my creativity boom as I like to call it. I allowed myself to try new mediums and explore new ideas and pursue a masters in Graphic Design.

Now, I run my own business that combines Interior Design, Graphic Design, and Art into one umbrella. My goal is to help my clients find solutions to their design problems with the hope that it begins to feel a little more like home after I’m done. That is why I don’t stick to one discipline. The work I do is medium dependent for my client’s needs and aspirations. Sometimes they just need a beautiful piece of artwork to change their life. Sometimes they need a branding refresh for their company. If you have a creative problem, I have a creative solution.

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

When I was 17, I elected to be homeless. I lived out of my car and couch crashed for about 2 and a half years. This created a very strong resilient personality trait in me that I still carry with me to this day. I think it was a blessing to have experienced that sort of hardship at such a young age simply because I had the strength to pull myself out of that situation. This also created deep empathy I have for others who have hardships of their own-no matter what it looks like.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

My view on management has largely been influenced by previous bosses. I had one amazing boss straight out of undergrad who rocked my world. I had been tossed around in various jobs and felt unappreciated prior to starting with her company. She was so incredibly patient and understanding. I started asking a lot of questions to understand how she ran her business. One of the things she taught me that I pretty much live by to this day is the idea of ownership and waiting. What I mean by that is when you have a lot of things on your plate, go through and see if anyone is dependent upon you completing that task. Do that task first so if anything comes up, the responsibility won’t be on you for why something is behind schedule.

I think that advice alone helped me navigate going to grad school, being a stay-at-home mom, and launch my own business simultaneously-to varying degrees of success I might add. I will always be grateful to that boss, and I still work with her and think of her fondly.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @danaekstudio

Image Credits
Action Shot taken by Jeremiah Flynn, @jeremiahflynnphotography