We were lucky to catch up with Katie Ormsby recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today. Alright, let’s jump into one of the most exciting parts of starting a new venture – how did you get your first client who was not a friend or family?

One of my first big clients as a freelancer was designing beer cans for Dillinger Brewing Co in Tucson, Arizona. It was 2018 and I had been working as a full-time graphic designer for 5 years. So far I had worked as a web designer for a travel marketing agency and was currently a graphic designer for a local marketing agency. This new brewery, Dillinger Brewing, had recently opened up and they were almost exactly halfway between the office for my job at the time and the apartment my husband and I lived at, which made it a frequent stop for some after work drinks.

After a few months of being regulars there, my husband and I had gotten to know the brewery owners. One day one of the owners was talking about how they wanted to start canning their beers and they needed to figure out the design for the label. I saw my moment and said I was a graphic designer and would love to design for them. At that time they didn’t have extra money to pay for the design work so we did a trade, I designed their first can (for their Gose Rosa beer) and I got a day of free beer.

That first beer can label got me hooked on that niche side of design and I started thinking more about what I really wanted to do for my career. I had always loved the craft beer community but never considered that I could make a living off of designing for that space.

The first can design for Dillinger led to over 15 label designs over several years and some great friendships. Since then I’ve been able to design for a few other breweries and it’s opened up a whole other world of graphic design for me.

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 Katie and I’ve been a graphic designer for over 10 years now. I’m originally from Northern California but after graduating college in 2013 I moved to Tucson, Arizona and that’s been my home ever since. I grew up surrounded by arts thanks to my Mom. She is an artist and made sure that me and my siblings were surrounded by it over the years.

I was always drawn to more creative classes and activities, but wasn’t sure if I would be able to make a living as a creative. Towards the end of high school I had taken a graphic design class as an elective and started to fall in love with it. When looking at colleges I was torn between going into psychology or graphic design and ended up choosing design for my major. Even though I didn’t go with a psychology major, a lot of those principles go into everyday choices I make as a graphic designer. In order for a design to be successful you have to understand your target audience, your client’s message, the platform you’re designing for, etc… and all those factors get combined with how you design is laid out, what fonts are picked, how color theory is used, the list goes on.

In college I had the opportunity to work part-time as a student graphic design assistant. A lot of my designs were for various colleges in the school, mostly designing the header images for their specific web page on the school’s website. I also got to do a lot of design work for the school’s radio station. One of my first big projects for the radio station was a big banner that hung over the street that you took to get into the school. Through the radio station I was also able to design posters for bands and shows that the station and/or the school put on. One of my favorites was the poster I designed for Gabriel Iglesias when he did a show at my school. I still have copies of the poster and he signed one of them.

After college I moved to Tucson and got my first job as a web designer for a travel marketing agency. I worked there for 3 years and learned so much more then college ever taught me. I worked closely with the web development team to design one-page websites for different travel destinations in the U.S. and occasionally got to brush off my coding knowledge from MySpace days to update digital brochures.

Eventually I outgrew that role and wasn’t being challenged enough. I moved on from there to another, much smaller agency and was there for 5 years. At this agency I was challenged every day. Some were good and some were not so good. But because of how small they were at the time (5-12 people over the years I worked there) I had so many more opportunities to learn. I was able to design huge billboards, bus and streetcar wraps. I learned motion animation and magazine layouts. I was able to deep dive into brand messaging and create full brand designs from scratch. I learned a hell of a lot about a lot of things and the most important were what I did and did not want in my career.

I started getting the same itch at this job, that I wasn’t being challenged in what I wanted to do. I ended up getting let go in 2021 and that was a bittersweet moment. But it gave me the kick I needed to really think about what I wanted to do. What was going to challenge me, how would I be able to continue to grow as a graphic designer and as a person. I ended up working remotely as a graphic designer for some agencies but that itch was still there and getting bigger and bigger.

By the middle of 2023 I was starting to come to the conclusion that in order to get what I wanted I would need to make a drastic change. I had been working freelance gigs outside of my full-time jobs since graduating college. I always loved the freedom that came with those jobs but was always too scared to try and make that my full-time job.

I decided in October 2023 that I needed to try and go out on my own. I worked with a business coach who helped me get my shit together to take my side gig projects and turn it into my full-time job. Making the decision to work for myself has been life-changing. I love being able to work for clients that align with me and my values. I’m able to work with teams and clients all over the world and create things that bring me joy.

I’m able to design logos and brands for small businesses that will help them grow. I’m able to design beer cans that stand out on shelves and push my creativity. I’m able to work with companies in the cannabis field and design all kinds of printed and digital pieces. Every day I’m able to design something new and push myself to be a better designer.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me the most rewarding part of being a creative is being able to make a person happy. Whether it’s having a kick-off call with a new client and understanding them and their needs, seeing that client light up with happiness and relief. Or designing new logos for a person who’s starting a new business and now they don’t have to worry about looking bad on their launch day. Being able to make someone smile is the best part of my day.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I was able to turn my side hustle of occasional freelance design projects into a full-time business. When I decided I wanted to make that change I started working with a business coach, that helped me stay on track and be held more accountable to meet certain goals. I made a long list of everything I needed and wanted to do, like changing my website from a portfolio page to be more of a business site, putting together a built out contract for my clients, updating my business card, etc… this was my first big milestone.

I also had to figure out the kinds of clients and/or projects I wanted to work on. I did a lot of cold emails reaching out for work, I went to all the networking events I could fit in my schedule to meet new people and pitch myself as a designer to get new clients, I reached out to past freelance clients and asked for referrals. I found that networking events got me to know more people in my city, but didn’t get me any leads on new projects. Cold emailing and referrals have been my biggest success stories with gaining new clients. Reaching out to companies that were doing work I wanted to do has been the most successful strategy for me. I’ve been able to join some teams as a contract designer and have gotten referrals to gain clients of my own. This was another huge milestone.

For the first several months of my journey to become my own boss, I had a part-time job to help pay bills. Eventually I was able to maintain enough recurring work with my own clients that I could quit my part-time job. That has been one of my biggest milestones so far.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://katieroudesign.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katieroudesign
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553377995133
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-ormsby/
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@katieroudesign

Image Credits

Reuben’s Brews / Top Hat
Dillinger Brewing Co.
Mission Brewing
Black Renaissance