We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenn Cordell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jenn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

Many times since I chose to pursue my freelance work, I have thought to myself, “What am I doing?” It’s a common thing to question your work when you also operate as the head of marketing, sales, accounting, and client relations. Imposter syndrome is indeed a plague to the creative mind. In each of those moments, I pretend I’m sitting at a static desk with a hardwired desktop and the omnipresent knowledge that I’m wildly uncomfortable. I ask myself, why do I consider that “real” work and the projects I’ve committed my heart and soul to “not real.” I chose to live ‘outside of the box,’ so to speak, which comes with benefits and challenges, though every perceived challenge is counterbalanced by the thought of limiting myself to a typical workday or life. Some of my best work is produced under the pressure I create for myself or from the terrifying freedom that exists when I accept that a project is an inward reflection.

Through my professional growth and questioning of my work, I’ve realized that the direction I’ve chosen for my career has also been a living testament to my personal struggles. I grappled with the reality that my work and I are one and the same. One does not exist without the other, as my work is an extension of myself. I simply can not do it any other way, or at least, I wouldn’t like to.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

After starting in nonprofit communications and marketing in college, I began exploring the art of leadership within the organization before eventually moving to a boutique marketing agency where I found the excessive assignment of client accounts to diminish the quality and artistry of my work. Feeling thoroughly satisfied with my stint in ‘organized marketing’, I began my career shift to the creative side of communications in Spring of 2021 with my first freelance project being the co-launch of a lifestyle brand and memoir. As the creative director for this grassroots project, I led the design of the book cover and brand development while also executing the design of an e-commerce website.

Through a strategic content marketing plan that involved brand ambassadors, email marketing, social media campaigns, live videos, and word of mouth, the combined launch of the brand and memoir generated 25% more revenue than initially projected with the in-person cocktail party hosting an unexpected 200 people.

Since then, I have continued to pursue and provide my clients with rich and adaptive creative direction, visual mediums, and content to further their brand story. Though my work has many facets, ranging from custom website design, to book cover illustration, public relations, and marketing consultation, each deliverable is rooted in the study of improving the user-experience. By applying my personal fascination with people and culture to my professional pursuits, I aim to create a unique and visually compelling experience for my client and their consumers whether it’s a website, illustration, or strategy.

My portfolio also includes a wide array of art spanning from digital oil paintings to vector designs and collages. Each piece is a reflection of my interpretation of life as I am living it.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

In everything I do, I hope to help people. Even if it’s just making the contact form easier to access on a website or a page set up to flow more intuitively with the user navigation. I try to think like the person who had the idea rather than the designer who makes it happen. There is something pure about intent and in it’s rarest forms, it’s rooted in helping your neighbor. I’m trying to bring that back in my work.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Seeing my work off screen and out in the world has been a unique pleasure that I did not expect. I recently received copies of a book I designed cover art for and it was a very proud moments to see my art in real life, printed exactly how I envisaged.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jennzcordell.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_zipp/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennzipperer/