We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heather Novak-Peterson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Heather thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I think the biggest risk I ever took was quitting an amazing job to start my own company. It was 2019 and I felt like I had finally broken through the glass ceiling as an Associate Vice President in one of the top Architecture firms in the country with an amazing boss that thought about design in similar ways, and co-workers that were inspiring and highly collaborative. I really felt like I had finally found a spot at the conference room table as a designer and artist among architects, interior designers and landscape architects. Then 4 months later, we all rushed home to shelter in from the COVID outbreak. I remember thinking it would only be a couple weeks and it would be a fun change of pace. The studio I worked in specialized in large company headquarters and office remodels. We all watched as one project after another went on hold, and after a couple months I was reduced to part time. I had non-competes and owned shares in the company. Then dear friends and clients of mine started offering me projects on the side, which was a problem because my work is highly visible and I rely on posting my work on social media for business development. Its impossible to hide the fact that you are working on 3 story murals, especially when the opportunity might be right next door to my office. So I took the big leap and resigned to start my own company on the very year anniversary that I had excitedly joined them. I had wanted to start my own company for years, but always feared leaving the security of being part of a larger firm, but I craved the idea of being able to act on ideas that marketing and the C Suite hadn’t allowed me to do before.
Heather, 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?
Growing up drawing under my architectural parents’ drafting tables, I cultivated a devoted love for art and architecture and how they can react to each other to create entire environments. As a kid I could stay in my room for hours drawing on every kind of paper and vellum that I would find at my Dad’s office. I showed a lot of promise early on for my drawing abilities, but of course my parents wanted me to be a lawyer.
I did get a degree in Political Science. I was the only Poli Sci major, at that time that had blue hair and carried an art portfolio to class because I took every art class I could around my schedule. I did end up going on to apply for law school, and it was right about that time that I decided to make my first big leap and remove my application from law school to art school to follow my heart. My parents were stunned, and honestly now that I am a parent, I can identify with them a bit more now. 9 years of school later, and a ton of retail jobs, I did something again that I thought I would never do, and that was to start working in marketing at an architecture firm. Slowly I climbed from the front desk all the way to being a designer and Associate Vice President. Throughout my 20 years of experience working with small to large firms, I cultivated the idea of being an artist that does environmental graphic design. One of the hardest jumps I made was getting out of marketing to be on the design side, but now I can look back at how having degrees in poli sci, art history and fine arts, while also being a debater in high school and college, and a ton of retail experience and marketing, which sounds like a crazy hot dish of random experience, really prepared me to represent myself and my work.
Known for my enthusiasm and love for collaborating with people to visually articulate ideas, my unique point of view and endless imagination is contagious. I am an artist that designs at a very large scale with a design perspective that makes ideas become viable, well designed products and center pieces that turn locations into landmarks.
My work can be seen in offices, restaurants, residences, hotels, medical centers and public spaces locally and nationally. Each project is a collaboration of the Owners and the Designers, rolling up their sleeves together to visualize the personality and story needed for that space.
My approach to my work is richly influenced by my passion for creating unique original imagery and my technique applies color and line to everything from murals, furniture, textiles and sculpture to custom wall covering and public art through graphic design, photography, drawing, painting and ink washes.
And yes, my spirit animal is a jackalope.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I have a passion for artful design and visual storytelling. It is at the heart of all my work, and I think it really differentiates me from other designers and artists. I like to think that I am turning addresses into landmarks, and in this new era of people choosing whether they want to go to a location, rather than stay at home, it is vital. I love to use art and design to transcend the obvious and really evoke emotional responses. I am a story teller that sees things differently, and I am constantly inspired by the challenge to create something special.
Having people react emotionally is really seen in most of my work, but I have a particular passion for making medical facilities more calming. I experienced first hand what it was like being on a design team that made the perfectly clean, modern building, that won design awards, and then go back into some of those same spaces later, guiding my father that was dying of cancer, and shocked to see how utterly different the experience was walking into the exact same space, with totally different emotional stress. What was once light and beautiful when I was a designer, suddenly looked like a mortuary, coldly and quietly waiting for death to pass and be easily cleaned away for the next patient. My father fought hard for 3 years, which gave me such a powerful view on emotional experience from the patient side, and I use that view with my heart, to honor him, and to turn our medical spaces into nurturing and inviting spaces that go beyond cold colors and unrelated random art in frames placed on walls for distraction.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
It is getting better, but people constantly struggled with how to classify me, or understand what I did, and to be honest, that was a struggle for design creatives as much as non-creatives at times. A former architecture firm I once worked with sent me half way across the country for a meeting with a co-worker who was an architect, only to find out in the meeting that the clients and co-worker thought I was an architect, and wanted to ask me questions about “load bearing capacity” rather than discuss elements of a branded environment that would enhance their customers’ experience in their stores.
Another thing that comes up a lot is that non-creatives think that if your work is something beautiful, than its more of a joy than a struggle to work, and appears to be more of a hobby, and that someone else is helping to pay your bills. Lots of comments like, “oh that must be so fun…” But these moments have really helped me to push harder to help show that I am having an awesome time doing what I love, and working so very hard to make it happen. This was one of my biggest motivations to share work constantly on Social Media to share what I am up to so people could get a better understanding. I also think over time and success of a variety of projects, people are starting to understand a lot more. But there can still be confusion on whether I am an architect or interior designer, so I perpetually identify myself as a designer and artist to help them understand.
Contact Info:
- Website: hjnovak.com
- Instagram: @hnp_hjnovak and @RogueRabbitStudio
- Linkedin: Heather Novak-Peterson
Image Credits
Brandon Stengel, Corey Gaffer, Heather Novak-Peterson